A Texas woman credits a low-carb, high-fat, ketogenic-style Atkins diet for helping her maintain her 30-pound weight loss for 14 years.
For most dieters, maintaining weight loss is often harder than losing it in the first place, and many regain all the weight within 2 to 5 years.
However, a woman who goes by the moniker Sugar Free Sheila has effortlessly maintained her 30-pound weight loss since 2001 using the low-carb Atkins diet — without counting calories, overexercising or starving herself.
The 5-foot-2 Sheila slimmed down from 141 pounds to 109 pounds in 5 months by following the diet principles outlined in the bestseller, New Atkins for a New You, by Dr. Eric Westman.
Like many struggling with weight, Sheila had tried every diet (including low-fat and low-calorie) before finding success with the Atkins diet, which is a low-carb, high-fat, moderate-protein diet.
Sheila dropped 10 dress sizes (from a size 12 to a tiny size 2) while consuming more calories than she had on her previous starvation diets.
“I’d discovered through the years that the pasta I loved so much bloated me,” Sheila wrote on her website, Sugar Free Sheila. “It occurred to me to start eliminating it, along with bread with dinner, crackers, and to eat mostly vegetables with the same amount of meat I had always consumed. By the very next morning, I immediately felt better and more energetic.”
Five months after going on Atkins, Sheila had lost 30 pounds without hunger or deprivation. What’s more, she has maintained that weight loss for 14 years without feeling hungry or depriving herself of delicious foods.
Sheila is now a sought-after diet coach who helps other people lose weight with a low-carb, high-fat (LCHF) diet. Sheila is not affiliated with the Atkins diet company, so her hearty endorsement comes straight from the heart.
Sheila has also written two low-carb cookbooks, available on her website. “I am showing you that losing weight successfully, safely, and keeping it off permanently can be done without over-exercising or the nuisance and deprivation of calorie and fat-restriction,” she said.
Celebrities like Kendra Wilkinson (who lost 55 pounds), Sharon Osbourne (30 pounds) and Kim Kardashian (56 pounds) have also experienced dramatic weight loss with the Atkins diet.
Linda O’Byrne, Atkins chief nutritionist, said low carb diets suppress appetite better than low-fat diets, so you don’t feel hungry all the time like you do on high-carb diets. “Low-carb diets keep blood sugar levels stable and prevent food cravings,” said O’Byrne.
Obesity expert Dr. Eric Westman agrees. Dr. Westman has helped thousands of people lose hundreds of thousands of pounds by following the low carb, high-fat ketogenic, Atkins and Paleo diets.
Eating fat doesn’t make you fat, said Westman. To the contrary, eating fat makes you thin and healthy.
“I tell my patients not to fear the fat,” said Dr. Westman, co-author of Keto Clarity. “Eat lots of fat. Fat makes you feel full. There’s no problem with fat.”
Related: War on saturated fat is over: Ketogenic, Atkins and Paleo diets are vindicated