Quite a few people on the forum have taken steps to lose weight following their diagnosis of AF. My husband has had a weight problem most of our married life (BMI of 36) and we have lost count of the various diets he has tried. He read an article in The Times supplement a few months ago on prevention of type two diabetes which suggested a low-carb diet which he decided to follow. I have had to get my head round this as I have always believed counting calories was the way to go.
I am prepared to eat my words. He is following a very strict low carb diet, trying to limit himself to 50g a day, and the weight is falling off at over a kilo a week. Absolute key is he is NEVER hungry, and sits down to sizeable meals of food that is now regarded as healthy (meat, dairy fats etc) and even has his daily large glass of red wine. These are foods that I haven't had in years or only had in moderation.
I spoke to my neighbour and discovered she and her partner are also on a low-carb diet, and she suggested the following website which she has found very helpful.
The site certainly made me rethink some of my firmly entrenched views! Just putting it out there in case it helps someone like my husband who struggles.
PS He isn't paying a subscription, there is enough information on there to get you going on your own.
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irene75359
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That’s how I eat most of the time (but I have 100-150g of carbs, mainly fruit & veg - avoiding refined carbs). A good book to check out is “A Fat Lot of Good” by Dr Peter Brukner, a leading Australian Sports Doctor (who was head doctor at the Liverpool Football Club for a few years). On this site you can read the foreword and introduction.
Way to go - low carbs, good fats and protein, lots of veggies. Last night I cooked roasted veg which admittedly had beetroots and carrots in (high carbs) with Cajun seasoned chicken thighs - delicious.
Calorie counting was proved not to work simply because not all calories are equal.
My husband has lost 20lbs since Christmas and his AF burden has reduced from 100% to 3% - the Amiodarone had something to do with it but our EP thinks weight reduction - if you are carrying extra weight - will help enormously.
I have had to really steel myself to eat some of the food I am eating now (which my husband prepares and cooks). But I am watching him, happier and healthier than he has been in a long time, and so motivated. What amazes me is that I get regular emails from a heart charity in the UK whose newsletters are still advocating low-fat, sweeteners, low dairy etc. Only thing (can't call it a problem) is that on a personal level my BMI is 18, I lost 6 kilo over the course of 2018 due to events at the time and it has never gone back on.
I have just had sea bass, spinach in butter and a healthy portion of potatoes just for me!
I like Dr Brukner’s advice “eat like your grandparents”. Real food.
I've been doing keto/low-carb for 18 months-2 years now and it really suits me. I went down quickly from 38" waste to 32", then having got to a mid-BMI my weight loss halted. I've been 11st 11lbs now for most of the time. Feels great, and my brain became noticeably clearer; that happened early on.
I follow dietdoctor (I don't subscribe) and also Dr Berg's version of keto, which is keto but with unlimited green and above ground veg/salad you can eat, to try and ensure you get all the minerals/nutrients you need.
Only thing it hasn't done is improve my golf swing which is disappointing.
That's what I've read and because of my experience am convinced is right. I'm very convinced that it might also help to reduce, avoid, delay brain problems like dementia. Fingers crossed. Anyway, I'm working on the assumption it does and I'm certainly not going to wait for it to become scientific fact as I'll be long gone by the time that is discovered!
Ha! My husband doesn't play golf but he has started walking fast for at the very least a couple of miles a day. His waist was 44" and he has bought, in anticipation, 40" shorts which are a wee bit neat. He is also aware that he may reach a plateau but will cross that bridge (not for quite a while yet, I feel) when he comes to it. Thank you for the link.
My partner lost about 20 kgs on a low carb diet. Basically she followed a book by the CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Org) in Australia but it is available on ebay in the UK for under 20 pounds . It is called the 'Total Wellbeing Diet' and developed from research into diabetes. It's really good for hearts as well.
I have given copies to friends and family members as I was so impressed with the outcome.
That's excellent and well done to your husband and well done on posting it on here for others to view. My hubby and I have lost just over 8 stone between us, he in 6 months and for me in a year, we joined Slimming World together and it works, no hunger just good healthy food so to anyone who has a weight problem it is possible to lose it, to gain better overall health and wellbeing and help take the strain off our hearts. Good luck. ps my diabetic son is doing the one mentioned above with his wife.
Well done, I must pull my socks up & get on with it. Several months in with SW & just over a stone gone, but a few more need to go. I will get there, but rather more slowly than you.
My husband's mother was diabetic and I think as the older he became, the more concerned he became that he was going the same way. Eight stone - that's brilliant!
Another thought re the expense of new clothing. Both me and another guy I know on the diet have lost size until we got down to how we were when we were about 30 years old. In my case, I was 32" waste back then (40 years ago) and I'm 32" now and stopped at that, so think it's my "natural" size. So motto is (maybe!) don't buy a new wardrobe of new clothes till you get there or it could get very expensive 😟
That is exactly what me husband said this morning, although he is buying very cheap shorts to tide him over. He normally wears them until the end of October but if he carries on at this rate he will be too cold to wear them anyway; the one and only time he lost a lot of weight he became like me, cold all the time.
Among other good things you have vastly reduced your sugar intake in that many of the foods to avoid are sugar rich.
My bible for the last 10 years has been the book by the ridiculed (at the time) English Scientist John Yudkin who in 1972 wrote the book "Pure, White and Deadly" naming sugar as very detrimental to health and responsible for increases in type 2 diabetes, weight gain and heart disease.. Even at that time people's increasing weight was a problem. In the U.S.A. the book was treated as heresy mainly because of the views of Professor Ancel Keys and Professor Fred Stare and they claimed that the main culprit causing weight gain was fat----hence we had 40 years of cutting fat out of food and as we all know weights continued to increase. Basically 2 things make food taste nice (I'm sure there is a better word) and those are fat and sugar so when fat was taken out food it tasted more bland so sugar was added. The statement that 74% of supermarket items contain added sugar is correct and the danger word there is "added". Yes, eating fruit contains sugar (fructose), but it also contains vitamins and minerals which sugar doesn't and the fiber in the fruit slows down it's absorption.
Many years after Yudkin an American Paediatric Endocrinologist named Robert Lustig was given a copy of his book and declared him a prophet. Lustig's lecture "Sugar, the bitter truth" is well worth looking up along with "The sugar conspiracy"and also "The sugar film"
For many years I was a Coco Cola addict, but now if I feel tempted I remind myself that a 2 liter bottle contains about 30 heaped teaspoons of sugar.
I read about John Yudkin who was totally discredited and there was a campaign, at the time, to encourage low-fat foods. He died without ever did get the credit due to him.
My daughter and her family had a three month sabbatical in the States last year. They loved it, but had a culture shock with some of the food. She sent me photographs of some cereals and biscuits in the supermarkets emblazoned 'With REAL added sugar!'
I have lost 70 pounds on this diet over the past 18 months... i am now a 'normal' weight and feel great, but i continue to eat this way as i know i cannot go back to what i used to eat or i'll put all the weight back on
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