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How I Lost 75 Pounds — and Cured My Heartburn

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Driving home from her doctor’s office, Dot Thompson couldn’t stop thinking about the alarming news he had just delivered after running several tests: “You’re prediabetic, and in two to three years, you’ll be taking insulin,” he predicted. Dot’s mind immediately turned to her father, who had passed away at
79 years old from complications from type 2 diabetes. If I don’t do something about my weight, I’ll be on track for congestive heart failure, just like my father, she worried as she drove.

Overweight since she was 19 years old, Dot had tried nearly every type of diet out there, but nothing worked. She had been taking medication for high blood pressure since she was in her 30s, and she was plagued by insomnia, acid reflux, and back and knee pain. “I couldn’t even walk to my mailbox without being in pain,” she shares.

Everything changed, however, when Dot read the book Why We Get Fat: And What to Do About It ($8.42, Amazon), by science writer Gary Taubes, and learned about the ketogenic diet. “What I read really clicked with me. I finally realized that the key to weight loss and health wasn’t about sticking to a list of ‘approved’ foods, which I could never sustain,” explains Dot. “I needed to understand how my body reacted when I ate certain foods, like those high in carbohydrates.”

Following the book’s advice, Dot cut out carbs and started filling up green leafy vegetables, fatty cuts of meat including brisket, steak and lamb as well as dark-meat chicken with the skin on and eggs cooked with butter. She also swapped out sugary sodas for water and began snacking on “fat bombs” to shift fat burning into high gear.

These decadent low-carb snacks deliver a concentrated dose of healthy fats, including coconut oil, coconut butter, coconut cream, nut butter, cream cheese or grass-fed butter. Dot’s favorite fat bombs were strawberry cheesecake bites and peanut butter cups made with 100 percent dark chocolate, coconut oil, butter, and peanut butter.

“After I ate a fat bomb, I had an immediate burst of energy, and I could go hours without eating!” she cheers. “Enjoying them as a treat between meals also made me feel that I wasn’t deprived.”
It didn’t take long for Dot’s body. to respond to these changes: She lost give pounds a week, plus her acid reflux disappeared after seven days, and she was able to stop taking the over-the-counter antacids she had relied on for relief.

“My sleep improved too,” she shares. “I used to only get two to four hours of sleep a night, but now I get about seven a night.” Fast-forward one year: Dot was 75 pounds lighter, plus she had
reversed her prediabetes and high blood pressure, and with the support of her doctor, she was able to stop taking medications for blood pressure. “My doctor said he had never seen someone make a turnaround that fast!”

Now that her weight isn’t holding her back, Dot couldn’t be
happier or more active. She even discovered a newfound love of fitness. “I’ve already completed several 5K races and a mud race,” says Dot. “Now I’m training for a 10K, and after that, my goal is to complete a marathon!

Today, instead of shopping in plus-size stores, Dot can buy new clothes anywhere. “My friends urged me to try on clothes that were flattering on my new figure,” recalls Dot of one shopping trip. “When I put on a pair of jeans for the first time, I looked in the mirror and cried tears of joy. I feel like I could do anything!”

How Keto Cures Heartburn

Researchers at Vanderbilt University in Nashville found that. when study subjects switched to a diet high in healthy fats and low in sugar and simple carbohydrates, they experienced dramatic improvement in their heartburn symptoms. In fact, after 10 weeks, 100 percent of women in the study had no burning, nausea, or other discomfort. The investigators theorize that sugar and simple carbs stimulate gut hormones that release stomach acid, which travels up into the throat, triggering heartburn.

What’s more, explains Jacob Teitelbaum, M.D., developer of the free “Cures A–Z” app, “Excess sugar causes the oneway valve keeping food and acid in your stomach to leak, allowing acid to squirt up into your food pipe.” So keto helps cure heartburn in two ways!

This article originally appeared in our print magazine, Keto Over 50.

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