Succeeding and Then Giving Back

After a lifetime of weight struggles in spite of doing everything correctly, Asmaa stumbled upon The Food Revolution video on Facebook. Thinking that she had nothing to lose, she decided to give low carb a go.

A year later, she's not only 16 kg (35 lbs) lighter, she is also giving back by spreading the word to the Arabic community:

Dear Andreas,

I wanted to share our success story with you, and your readers. I have been doing LCHF for the last year, and through that I lost a total of 35 pounds (16 kg), and for the first time in many years I have a normal BMI.

For all of my life I had been very health conscious person. I always made sure to eat (what I thought to be) the right food, and exercise whenever I could. I did believe in moderation, and avoided sugar as much as I could. I watched my caloric intake (never counted), and made sure to pick low-fat foods. Replaced my beloved cheese for breakfast with "healthy" cereals, and used margarine when recipes called for butter. To my surprise, I failed to lose weight. In fact, I gained some weight. I enrolled in a gym and increased my physical activity, yet my weight did not budge.

I got to a point when I believed that being overweight is in my genes (my mother, brother, grandmother, etc.), and came to accept the idea that type 2 diabetes is possible in my future (my father had type 2 diabetes at the age of 33, and most of his family had it). So I decided to do my best in choosing a healthy lifestyle, and hope for the best. I knew that eventually I would lose hope for losing any weight (just like my mother despite her best efforts).

Then: someone posted your food revolution video on their Facebook page. I watched while getting ready to work, and it somewhat resonated with me. I knew that I was eating less and moving more, yet I did not succeed in losing any weight. So I thought, what harm will come from trying this change in my diet? I will try it for couple weeks, then go back to my previous low-fat diet if I did not find any difference.

I decided to do this on my own, and did not even approach my husband (overweight too, father with diabetes who died at 69 in a heart attack) to do it with me. Two days after I started, he decided on his own to give it a try. I was lucky enough to be part of a wonderful group of women who guided me through all the initial steps, and showed me the science that supports this way of eating.

After two weeks of us enjoying this dietary change, my parents came to visit. My mother jumped right in, and joined us with the first meal she had in our house. Soon my brother and his family, my sister in law, and the circle kept growing.
After two weeks of us enjoying this dietary change, my parents came to visit. My mother jumped right in, and joined us with the first meal she had in our house. Soon my brother and his family, my sister in law, and the circle kept growing.
We are originally from Iraq, and had been living in Canada for 10 years. Our extended family started asking about the secret of our weight loss. I started a small Viber group to family members, and we started sharing information and recipes. More and more people joined, and then their friends wanted to do it too. The problem: Not many resources for Arabic speaking audience. That led me to my next part of the journey.

I started making Arabic videos (on YouTube) explaining the science behind the current obesity epidemic (as I learned it from you and many of the very informative videos on your website). Then explained LCHF in simple terms, and how to adopt it. Also explained intermittent fasting. These videos were shared between people, and I started getting many questions about how to implement this lifestyle. People wanted to know recipes and alternatives. That is when I started a small Facebook group so people can share their ideas and success stories. The group has over 28 thousand members now (Arabic speaking from all over the world). Many of them are type 2 diabetics who got rid of their medications, and seeing normal blood-sugar readings for the first time in many years. One of them is my father who had been on insulin for over 15 years, and now has all normal blood sugars only on Metformin.

We started a cumulative weight-loss post for the members, and between all the people who agreed to share their success, we lost over 1300 kg (2866 lbs).

Now, a friend of mine built a website for me, to organize all the information and the posts that I put in the Facebook group, making it much easier for the people to find where to start. The website is still a work in progress, because between my work as a Paediatrician and my real life, and the busy Facebook group, I have only little time to add and build on it.

As much as I am glad that people are using these resources that I compiled to lose weight, my ultimate goal is educate as many people as possible about the toxic effects of sugar, refined carbohydrates, and processed food. Many doctors are members in the group, and I am hoping they will use the information they are learning to help their patients.

Thanks for all the amazing work that you are doing to help us fight the old nutritional advice. We are still not widely accepted; but one day our success stories will make us the mainstream.

Asmaa