The Diet Secret That Helped Me Lose 45 Pounds and Regrow My Hair
Looking up from her office desk, Florida CPA Lora Douglas glanced at the clock. She’d just had lunch and was already calculating when she could eat again on her new calorie-restricted diet. With her cravings multiplying in her mind, she thought to herself, Why does my whole life revolve around my next feeding time?!
Over the years, Lora, an emotional eater reveals, “On diets, I didn’t feel great and I couldn’t stick with them. I was constantly hungry. I think they call it ‘hangry.’”
The struggle seemed like part of life. After all, Lora had witnessed her mother, who had been a type 1 diabetic, painstakingly maintain her weight her whole life on a difficult low-fat program.
When Lora tested out a ketogenic diet, the idea of indulging in fat took some getting used to. “I had been brainwashed into believing that fats were bad for me.” But Lora did her research.
She read New York Times bestselling author and nutritional consultant Naomi Whittel’s book Glow15 ($15.79, Amazon) and watched her documentary, The Real Skinny on Fat. She admits, “Those two resources made me feel more comfortable with increasing my fat intake and learning which fats were the right ones to eat.” The math also made sense to her: With only three macronutrients — carbs, fats, and protein — you need to increase the amount of fat you eat if you subtract most carbs.
By adding butter, avocado oil, and olive oil to her meals, Lora lost 10 pounds in a month and learned the delicious truth for herself. “All along I’d been missing the fat that makes weight loss sustainable!”
Still, Lora hit plateaus, in part due to her sluggish thyroid. But everything got easier (and tastier) when she heard about a “creamy” version of MCT oil (short for medium chain triglycerides). With MCT, a fat extracted from coconut that reduces the production of hormones that lead to overeating,
Lora hit the food-joy jackpot. The product blended into her coffee like heavy whipping cream and didn’t leave an “oil slick” on her drinks or cause digestive upset. “It was a game changer,” Lora says. “It was really tasty!”
At breakfast, Lora savored a cup of coffee with creamy MCT oil and felt comfortably full until lunchtime. After adding the oil to her diet, she was surprised to discover that she didn’t crave carbs. With this tasty option, Lora melted away 45 pounds and 19 total body inches in a year; her husband shed 25 pounds.
She raves, “I don’t feel like I’m missing out on anything!” Now, Lora is “hangry” no more. And that’s not all she’s rid from her life. “My waist is seven inches smaller. I’ve given away all my large size clothes!”
What’s more, her hair is thicker, her skin looks better, and she’s noticed fewer fine lines and wrinkles. “On other diets, I didn’t look that great after the weight loss,” says Lora. “But with the keto diet and MCT, I have lost weight consistently, I feel great and people tell me I look amazing!”
Still thrilled that she is maintaining her weight without suffering, Lora thinks of her mom and says, “I think she would have been much happier had she been able to eat more healthy fats. I wish I’d known about this years ago!”
This article originally appeared in our print magazine.
