My ideal weight after 40 years of obesity

My grandparents on both sides and my parents and I as well, have, for as long as I can remember, been obese. I'm 60, 5'10", and was weighing 320 pounds, the most I ever weighed in my entire life. I felt depressed, miserable, with my self-esteem the lowest. I couldn't find any clothes that fit me or even shoes(I live in a third-world country).

In October 2019, my obese son came for a visit and had notably lost some weight to my surprise. I asked him and he mentioned and explained the keto lifestyle to me and he had seen Dr. Berg's videos on YouTube. He was kind enough to share the links, so I decided to give it a try because for the first time, it sounded like a tolerable diet because one could eat a lot and not restrict but sugars and carbohydrates. I'm right when I say, I wasn't too confident because I've learned in life that if something is too good to be true, it's because it isn't, so I decided to do a lot of reading and video watching before starting.

I started doing keto on the 17 of October 2019, and I really hung to it as best as I could. As time progressed, I kept reading and watching and learning more and more about keto and correcting the things I was doing wrong because I was misinformed. To my surprise, little by little, I was astonished to see how quickly I was going down and down. One thing I was told to do is not weighing myself until after several months, which I did, but I knew I was losing weight because clothes started not to fit. Luckily, I had clothes put away from many years ago and started going through them and anxiously awaiting for the next size down. I even took odds at predicting I'd fit to a size 40 jeans by Christmas that same year after starting off with a size 48. To my disappointment, the size 40 tuxedo, which I had never got to use because it was a gift and never fit, still didn't fit, and I really felt so bad. I was able to fit on it until March the following year. It was then I realized it was going to be easy, but not that easy. I hadn't yet cheated not even once, but it was obvious weight was coming down slower than when I started.

I had previously suffered acute gout attacks for 20 years but had been able to contain them by having a lemon juice and baking soda concoction every morning for ten years but in May 2020 I got another super gout flare on both feet that took almost a week to go away after having colchicine and allopurinol. I started reading about it, and finally found out keto and IF raise uric acid levels. I had started 16-8 IF only a week before that incident so I decided to leave the IF and stuck with the allopurinol. Eventually, I got other two gout flares later on although not so bad because I took colchicine right on time before it got worse. Anyway, I left IF for just a week, but I was so scared of putting the weight and sizes back on, I started OMAD in its stead. I had weighed myself by coincidence in April when I walked into a store that had a scale. I couldn't believe it and even though the scale was off when it showed I was 240 after being 320 just six months before when I started keto. I did cheat, eventually, but not too many times and not too much wrong food, but little by little I was losing more and more weight and going down to the point that after a year's time, I got myself a scale and weighed myself. I weighed 160 pounds. That was the 17 of October 2020. I didn't want to keep losing more weight because I didn't want to look scrawny since I was doing, what I like to call, sedentary keto because I had done absolutely no exercise whatsoever because I've had a lumbar issue for about eight years and now I had lost a lot of muscle along with body fat. I mean, nothing, not even walking to the corner store. I decided it was time to call it quits with losing more weight and just try o maintain that range 158-162. Now, that calls for a different strategy which I'm still trying to figure out although, I haven't lost nor gained more than that range even if now, occasionally, I have a piece of pie or even a hamburger once in a while. I was prediabetic and super hypertensive. Glucose went down from 140 to 80 and blood pressure from 240/180 to 120/80 I started walking little by little, though because, for many years the lower back pain is somewhat tolerable now, and I'm able to do short distance walking and occasional slow jogging.

Sorry, I took so long in telling my story with keto, IF, and how Dr. Berg's videos helped a lot with my weight loss. Videos I search every time I can and watch over and over in order not to miss any minor detail. A typical meal for me in my OMAD consists of a bowl of green salad garnished with avocado, radish, or beet leaves, turmeric with black pepper, lemon juice, salt, and extra virgin olive oil. Also, a bowl of steamed green-leaf veggies(some tropical veggies included). Later on, I have two fried or scrambled eggs and to finish off, half a pound of fatty beef, fish, poultry, or pork cooked in different ways. I hope my humble story can serve a good cause and motivate any of you who are still doubtful about keto, and Dr. Berg's videos.