Posted on 11/04/2003 9:00:21 AM PST by wheelgunguru
Embarrassment, Health Issues Prompted Dieting
Many people have struggled to drop a few pounds, but what happens when you need to lose several hundred pounds?
Several years ago, Steve and Melissa Horstman of Boone County, Ky., decided that they didn't want to live with their weight problems anymore, and they used the emotional pain over being overweight to reach their goals.
Melissa and Steve met on the Internet several years ago and soon learned of their common bond: obesity.
"When you weigh 150 pounds over, you don't go out and socialize," Melissa said.
The couple met, dated and married, but humiliation struck again on their honeymoon when the airline pilot told Steve he would have to buy two seats next time because he was too big for one.
"It wasn't until after we got married that I saw on a daily basis how his weight was on his health," Melissa said. "I was afraid I'd just found him and we were just married, I was going to lose him."
Steve's weight topped out at 571 pounds. He recalls "just standing there in the winter and you're breaking a sweat just standing there because your back hurts and your knees hurt."
Despite the physical pain, Steve said the emotional toll on his health was greater.
"(It hurts) when you walk into a store and a 3-year-old looks up at their parent and says, 'Look at that fat man, Mommy,'" he said.
"It broke my heart every day," Melissa said. "I could see the people behind him. The looks, the whispers, the pointing."
Fad diets failed. Surgery was too expensive. So Melissa began looking into low-carb solutions like the Atkins diet.
Once the couple decided to try to the diet, major life changes were in order. First on the list: Eliminating the junk food that is tough to avoid for most people and irresistible to a 571-pound man.
"I could go to a certain drive-through and get eight sandwiches and four large fries, 10 to 12 cans of soft drinks a day, not the sugar-free kind," Steve said.
Steve weighed himself daily on a large scale in a local drugstore. The scale provided a printout, and Steve saved every one of them.
"At June 19, 1999, I was at 472 pounds," he said as he flipped through the printouts. "I'd lost about 100 pounds at that point."
Melissa dropped her weight, too, but for Steve, the diet was nothing short of a miracle. He was swimming in his size 6x shirts, and his 72-inch waist pants started falling off his waist.
Steve kept the belt he wore at his highest weight and punched new holes in it as he dropped the pounds.
These days, the couple is happy to simply blend in when they go to the mall.
From the time the couple changed their lifestyle, Steve has lost more than 320 pounds, and Melissa is down more than 100 pounds. They're proud of each other, and their confidence is at an all-time high.
"I always kid with her, 'How did that guy get that hot girl?'" Steve said.
"To go from people pointing and making faces and whispering to being hateful, to being mistaken for Howie Long ... He's extremely hot!" Melissa said of her husband.
Steve said he can't imagine going back to the overweight version of himself, and he's working to lose even more. His current weight is about 250 pounds, and he told Cooney it feels like "walking on air" when compared to his old weight.
"It's a terrifying thought," he said. "Just looking in the mirror and seeing the old me is motivation enough."
Redemption for Melissa comes in many forms, including a recent high school reunion.
"Nobody recognized me," she said with a smile.
Before:
After: 
Huck, you do know that muscle weighs more than fat, right? I'm just wondering if the working out (building muscle mass) is why there's no change when you weigh yourself.
Yep. note the study of genetically modified pigs.
I eat very little of the high carbohydrate foods like rice, pasta, bread, and no sweets. ...
Same here. I never developed a sweet-tooth and have no desire for candy or soda. I was up to 200 pounds (I'm 6'0) in 1999.
Got it back down to 175 by switching to brown rice & whole-grain pasta (easy) and giving up potatoes (hard). It wasn't the full-Monty Atkins, but close enuf.
I've been holding at 180 lbs for the last two years ~2100 total Kcal & under 100 grams of carbs per day. I don't bother counting fats or protein anymore, I just count the carbs.
My body lets me know how much to eat.
and saw nothing definitive on why Atkins was dangerous ...
Most of those are based on the induction menu, and ignore the vitamin & calcium supplements that Atkins says to take.
They also tend to ignore that this induction lasts only 2-3 weeks and the dieter will slowly add carbs back into the menu based on how the individual tolerates them.
IMO the biggest danger of Atkins is to the reputations of the "researchers" that spout-off the "low-fat/6-11 portions of grains" BS.
I do know that the low fat diets didn't work for me - I was hungry all of the time. I lost weight, but couldn't maintain it because of the constant hunger.
Yep. That's the point of Atkins. You can cut out fat and reduce caloric intake by 9Kcal/g of fat vs. 4Kcal of carb or proteins. But you're still hungry because of the glucose/insulin swings.
Fats satisfy your hunger, but without the carb->glucose/insulin spikes.
I posted in the same sense. Nothing more or less.
It was absolutely non-adversarial. Then some moron jumps on my case saying he doesn't need anybody making his choices for him. Right! Like the choice to get fat in the first place.
And it seems they put a burr under your saddle too.
You posted that Atkins was dangerous due to renal failures and the cholesterol issues. I posted back concerning how the studies were flawed and follow-up studies didn't support the conclusions.
You then wrote some anecdotal thing concerning your wife and nameless doctors. I counter with the millions of Atkins dieters (also anecdotally) that swear by it.
It's all about consumption vs. expenditure. It's that simple.
No-one has said any different. Many over-weight but otherwise healthy people find it easier to reduce calorie consumption by eating more fat calories and fewer carbohydrate calories.
Yes, that's possible. I suppose you have no buttons to be pushed.
The catalyst by the poster was his unjustified attack. He's defensive about being fat. Don't attack me. He should blame himself. It's nothing but laziness.
The guy in the article eats ~ 10,000 calories a day and whines about being fat. Give me a break.
Another poster on the thread said not to factor exercise into the equation, because fat people will never lose weight. What the.............??!!
Don't ask them to exercise? What is it those people want? For somebody to do the work for them? Just don't eat! It isn't that complicated.
Sorry, there, Mr. Pedantic. I tried to make a play on ritual/habitual dieters. Jane's Addiction? Never mind. Little too pop culture for ya.
Maybe if I put quotes on it you wouldn't have wished death on me? "Riteous" as in "ritual" as in people that are nuts about their way to live right or the highway. Now you wish me death to pump your stocks? Man, you got serious probs.
But you're like so many other morons that flame on this forum: you'll not be confused by the facts.
But you are right about one thing: you make your own choices, viz., the choice you made to get fat in the first place.
And you can lose the weight, if you practice a little self-discipline. But you'll never lose the limp-flags-on-a-calm-day skin.
Fat loser. (See if you can figure out the play on that one, Einstein.)
BTW, don't contact me again.
Good form, Sir!
Way to show us a moron flame post!
I hear your wife/mom calling you. Hurry! She has more gossip to live by overheard at the clinic.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.