#fasting #drfungtoronto #obseitycode | MY PLACE

The Hard Truth About Weight Maintenance After Keto

Approx. 9 years ago, I finally found the key to my weight loss., in a nutshell, Keto & Fasting; and in the simplest form, intermediate fasting & carbohydrate reduction.

One of my most hidden pictures.

My heart sinks even now when I see this picture, this one very bad angle. Good news is…I had just learned about keto. YIKES who was this morbidly obese old lady!! OMG That was me 😦

The weight gain started for me just after I lost my mom to lung cancer in 2007. Just prior, I had successfully lost 70 lb through the Herbal Magic program. I then managed to maintain that weight loss for 3 years. As long as I took their “who knows what” pills to maintain my weight loss, the pounds stayed away. As soon as I stopped taking the supplements, the weight came back and a lot more of it.

I still can’t believe that I was capable of getting out of that body! I know that statement seethes of self contempt, and you are right! I felt like I was cursed. It seemed like a cruel joke the universe was playing on me. Each pound pushed me away from the person I once recognized. I was slowly getting swallowed into something and someone I barely knew or could stand to look at.

#extremeweightlos#keto #fasting #ketoexxtremeweightloss

I seldom took pictures of myself when I was heavy. This was at my work place in 2015-2016, just before my keto journey. I had been referred to a doctor who wrote a book about weight loss called “The Obesity Code.” I also received a referral to Dr. Jason Fung’s clinic in Toronto. Someone added it to the workplace share-drive. I was horrified! I deleted and saved it for myself as a motivation to get healthy.But I didn’t stay there. I have to really focus on that and maintenance is not easy. Maintenance is the hard part.

In approx. 3 years, I successfully lost 178lbs. Yes even while struggling through peri-menopause and post menopause.

I maintained a 170 of 178 loss for several years. I inadvertently gained a few of those “initial” lost pounds back. I felt I looked too gaunt at my lowest. The extreme weight loss created more wrinkles and loose skin than I hoped for. But I would rather be in normal size clothing with some loose skin rather than 330lbs!

My fittest year 2021

Yet I needed to stop losing weight at that point. I learned more about fasting and autophagy. I began fasting primarily for reasons other than weight loss. My skin needed time to regroup and catch up. My face especially became much older looking, which was so frustrating. after doing so much to look and feel healthy. However, now, years later, my skin has thankfully caught up

2020

2025

Weight loss and weight maintenance are not something that you can just stop doing. You have to continue to work on it forever for the rest of your life. It’s not a diet. It’s a lifestyle change.

Truth is weight maintenance is all of our goals isn’t it? A lifestyle and a toolbox that is ever changing combined with and an attitude of gratitude & a decision to never never ever give up !! .

Dr. Fung & Megan Ramos helped me to find the key that saved my life!!

Today I see so many people lining up for drugs like Ozempic for hope to reach their quick weight loss dreams. The former Keto craze seems to be falling to the side as people are pumping these substances into their bodies haphazardly, hoping to lose weight magically. Certainly, they absolutely do. But I’ve learned a key lesson from losing weight naturally. Adhering to strict protocols with my diet is a fact as weight loss had taught me that nothing long-lasting is ever that easy.

Certainly, people absolutely do lose weight… I’m not sure what these outcomes are for maintaining weight loss, and the sad thing is I’ve also been hearing so many horrible things about side effects and heart issues and depression and who knows what else will come out of those shots that people are taking . I too understand the desperation of wanting to get out of the body that causes health issues and shame from the entire world, but is that really the solution?.

I’ve learned many key lessons from losing weight naturally. Adhering to strict protocols with my diet taught me that nothing long-lasting is ever that easy. Sometimes it feels like it was just literally yesterday. Sometimes it feels like it’s a dream. Other times I still feel trapped in that nightmare. I fear waking up 300lbs + again. I was so stuck in that body, dying, incredibly unhealthy, struggling and so very sad.

2023………..POST MENOPAUSE ENTERS…. duh duh duhhhhhh….

What are we gonna do now !!

2023 was a stressful year. I had gained 20 lbs and became post menopausal. My trusted weight-loss tried & trusted tools… no longer worked the same! I hit a plateau.

I started mad crazy Alternate Day Fasting in Jan 2025. I was able to peel back 12lbs of my weight gain. I did this by fasting 3 days one week and 4 days the next for 3 months.. Now Im hoping OMAD will do the rest as I move into One Meal A Day from June 2025, lets see what will happens now.

Maintaining weight loss is not an option, its a task and goal to continuously work on, Im worth it!!

Keto Challenge- August- Sept

Image result for Dr fung Extended Weight

Through my recent journeys and numerous Keto re-starts of my “lazy keto lifestyle”, it had become insanely obvious that I was stuck and stalled for a ridiculous amount of time. I thought I tried many variations of my fairly new keto lifestyle and I could not figure out why my scale was not staying down. Each week I watched in frustration as the same weekly 3-4 lbs of weight fell off only to find its way back again over and over. It seemed my tried and true method was no longer giving me results and I was about to lose my marbles.

Image result for marbles cartoons

I knew the many times over the past year since I plateaued I had not been faithful to myself or to my keto or low carb diet & lifestyle. I began to not pay as much attention to what went in my mouth and stopped tracking my macros allowing my new habits to slip to a mere afterthought.

I also began having regular weekly cheat (High Carb) meals which I looked forward too as I knew in my mind that within a couple days of low carb eating I would be back on track. Each week, as I clearly predicted, the scale balanced as long as I followed a couple strict low carb days before my weekend hit; and then I would do the same thing all over again. I lied to myself that I was trying really hard (especially through May-July when I hunkered down with an occasional one meal a day and several 18:6 fasts. Looking back I can now see “the tried really hard part” was not necessarily true. What I could see is that my weight had more or less stabilized and did not want to budge , seemingly comfortable with my lifestyle. My body had adjusted to a new set weight which was in no way ideal for me as I had not reached my goal weight. I knew something had changed from when I started a low carb lifestyle when 3lbs would literally fall off my body every week. I tried so hard to get back on the band wagon of loss however defeat faced me each day when I stepped on the cruel reality of my bathroom scale. The frustration I faced after strictly following three weeks of strict keto and Intermediate fasting (daily 18:6 & the few 24hr fasts) was truly getting me into a rut and the fear that I could not , would not lose anymore weight, which truly haunted me. I really didn’t know what was happening as I staggered around hungry, confused and bewildered!!!

I knew I had to do something different from the Keto & Intermediate fasting diet I had been doing but to me this lifestyle had been the only lifestyle that resulted in weight loss and maintenance, so my bigger fear was that there was NOTHING else! All along I kept telling myself “I got this, it will happen”, yet it didn’t, nothing happened except despair! I watched week after week the scale going up – down, up – down. Was there really anything else I could do, had the keto magic disappeared? How was this possible?

So I thought let me go back to the beginning before I learned the bad habits I developed since I began keto and started back with the basics. I ran over to the local book store Chapters and invested in myself and bought Dr Fung’s initial book “The Obesity Code”. Had it not been for an article promoting Dr. Fungs book more than 2 years ago I may never has heard or known about the low carb lifestyle which eventually led me down the road to my weight loss. for the past 2.5 years I had been following many low carb , keto websites and blogs however never read the book. I’ve sworn myself to at least starting to read the book for if not for Dr. Fung, these amazing, significant changes to my life would never had occurred.

I still remember that first day when I learned that there is another way to eat. The news came in the form of a newspaper article I read stated ” Toronto Doctor finds cure for Obesity”. Being skeptical and having tried “everything else” I though I would read on and learn more. That article led me to many other links about this lifestyle/diet and then to the excitement that I could in fact be referred to the Doctor who wrote the article, Dr. Fung , for weight loss, wow!

I found and began to follow the guidelines of low carb diet and excitedly pursued a referral to Dr. Fung’s clinic in Toronto, eventually meeting Dr. Fungs Dietary Clinician, Megan Ramos. I was so ready to get started yet the to Dr. Fung took approx. 6-8mths or so and I had decided to begin the low carb diet with what information I could find online as I did not want to wait to begin my journey. Eventually I met with Megan at Dr. Fungs clinic and Megan gave me the bones of what the clinic could do for me and an outline of the low carb/keto / Fasting lifestyle which she advised would definitely benefit me. Part of the plan was weekly support group sorta meetings which I opted out of as I wanted to continue trying on my own as my work hours made the clinic group meetings difficult for me to attend. Armed with additional information, support and bounties of enthusiasm I began my journey.

After deciding to buy Dr. Fungs book I had a perfectly timed pop up on Facebook about a Fan Group for Dr. Fung. When I joined this group I then learned the group is actually a group to support those who follow the a fasting lifestyle and that’s when I realized where my path needed to go. Until this point I had practiced extended fasting once for 96hrs which did not end pleasantly, however I was willing to give it a try.

Having practiced lazy keto and intermediate fasting many times I didn’t realize at the start that this group would have such a powerful effect on my journey. One of the first posts I read was about a 42 hour fasting challenge whereas you fasted from 7pm Sunday till – 1pm Tuesday’s. I really wanted to end my August with something special as I knew I had been doing ok however I also felt not much has changed so I decided my last week of August would be 3 x 42 hr fasts. Once again I jumped in with both feet and decided to kick it up a notch and started my first ever 42hr fast which terrified me, the hunger, yikes!!

So feeling scared, excited and hopeful I weighed in on August 31st after my one week of 3 x 42 hr fasts and a fair effort of staying in keto all month and taaa daaaaa…I had drop of 8.4lbs since the beginning of the month, or I should say since the beginning of this year!!!

WOOT WOOT WOW! My first weight loss in 10mths!! I finally broke my plateau, I was so happy!

This month, Sept, I decided I’d do it again, except this time I committed myself to the full month of September, 3 x 42hr fasts week after week, no weigh ins and also to increase my exercise by adding in strength training and 4-5 flights of stairs at work every Mon, Wed & Friday.

With this being my last week of the month I cant wait to see where my scale finds me on Friday this week.

I began taking pictures since week 1 and I can definitely see changes, so I am very excited to see where I am in numbers. Id love to see an 8lbs loss again, but 5lbs will made me very happy! Cross your toes for me!

Written by : Corrina Leblond

Images by : https://www.cartnstock.com; https://www.amazon.ca/Complete-Guide-Fasting-Intermittent-Alternate-Day/dp/1628600012