Episode 272 Karen Coleman -Ostrov Five years living an Intermittent Fasting Lifestyle and Never Looking back.

Karen is 65 years old and has tried justabout every diet you can think of – The Scarsdale Diet, Atkins and keto diets, Weight Watchers, Noom, the Cabbage Soup, Healthy Inspirations, grapefruit diet, Whole30, Slim-Fast, South Beach, Green Smoothie Diet, Nutrisystem, hCG – if you’ve heard of it, Karen probably tried it!  

Some of these diets brought Karen temporarysuccess, and others caused her to gain weight or slow her metabolism.  None of them were sustainable, and the weightalways crept back. One day in the summer of 2020, Karen was perusing Facebook and saw a photo of her sister-in-law, Dedra Campbell.  Karen thought Dedra had posted a “Throwback Thursday” photo, as her sister-in-law looked young, slim, and glowing.  Karen was shocked to learn the photo was recent, so she immediately called her sister-in-law to find out what she did to lose weight and seemingly age backwards.  Dedra told her the secret was IntermittentFasting brought up negative thoughts and feelings in Karen.  In Karen’s mind, fasting = deprivation and hunger.  However, with her sister-in-law’s encouragement, she listened to the basics of the program and bought the book she recommended, “Fast.Feast.Repeat.” by Gin Stephens.  Karen read the book and said she would try it for one day to see how it went.  On August 13, 2020, Karen did a clean 18/6 fast, found it to be effortless, and the rest, as they say, is history. 

Karen was invited to Graeme’s group, The Fasting Highway, by Dedra after another IF guru closed her Facebook group and moved to another platform.  Karen had been fasting for not quite a year when she joined The Fasting Highway.  Karen had only lost 10 pounds by this time, but was encouraged and inspired by Graeme, his book, and fellow group members to stay the course and trust the process. Karen realised that her weight loss journey was her own, and she could not compare herself to others. Karen is 5’5” and her highest weight ever was 208 pounds.  She could not bend over to tie her shoes at that weight and was always out of breath.  She also suffered from sleep apnea.  Karen’s IF starting weight was 175.4 pounds, and she set her goal weight at 160 pounds (because she didn’t think that at herage, being post-menopausal, having T2D, and being insulin resistant, she could get below that weight).  However,on July 3, 2023, Karen weighed 149 pounds, a weight she hadn’t seen in almost 20 years.  Best thing – there wasno struggle to get there!  Yes, it did take almost 3 years to lose the weight, but the point is – she lost it withintermittent fasting when nothing else worked! 

It’s now been almost 5 years since Karen started intermittent fasting, and her current weight is 142 pounds.  She sometimes gets as low as 138 pounds, bouncing between that number and 142 pounds.  Karen went from a size 12 (US) to wearing sizes 4 and 6.  Intermittent fasting gave Karen theconfidence that she would never have to lose weight again – and for the first time in years, she doesn’t have 5 different clothing sizes in her closet.  She donated all her “big” clothes to charity, knowing she’d never need them again. 

Another personal win is that Karen decidedto embrace her greys and, as a result, cut all the hair colour out.  She would never have had theconfidence to do this at her higher weights!

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The views expressed in this podcast are those of the host and guest only and should not be taken as medical advice.