There's a real point to this story, but I need to set up the background first.

Back when I was in high school - Feb of '81 to be exact - I weighed 239 pounds. My dream was to attend the USAF Academy and there was NO WAY that could happen unless I got my weight down. So someone (don't remember who, but I think it was a teacher) recommended the Scarsdale Diet. I bought the book, read it and followed it as well as I good given our family's financial situation. By the time school got out that year, I was at 180 pounds. Without exercising at ALL, although I was pretty physically active with CAP and AFJROTC. But no sports or jogging or working out.

Shortly after that, I did get involved in karate and, over the next couple of years, developed a metabolism that pretty much let me forget about watching what I ate. I also started jogging shortly before I graduated and in three months went from not being able to jog a half mile nonstop to doing three miles every other night and got my mile time (at 6000' elevation) down below six minutes.

I was doing great and was really happy with myself and my life.

As it turns out, my eyesight kept me out of the Academy because, although noinated three years in a row, I couldn't compete with the pilot-qualled guys that were in extreme demand at that time. But I did get a 4-year ROTC scholarship at the Colorado School of Mines.

Next year went pretty well, but in my second year a host of circumstances, most beyond my control, let to my losing my scholarship. I was a bit depressed as you might imagine and over the course of the next six months my weight ballooned to >250. At this point I got called to active duty involuntarily and reported for Basic Training at 245 which was 43 pounds over the weight limit. I could still run a mile in under seven minutes, but that didn't count for much. I got to spend the next four months in sunny San Antonio until I reached the weight limit.

For the next year I did pretty well. Was running every other night and kept my weight right in the 200 pound range. But after getting a knee and back injury in late '86 that stopped my running for a while - and I piled on nearly 50 pounds (in spurts over the next six months). Which, of course, the Air Force did not appreciate.

Now we are getting closer to the point.

I remembered clearly how I had lost so well on the Scarsdale Diet even when I wasn't exercising and I recalled that I was primarily eating tons of fruit - especially pineapple and cantelope and oranges. So that's what I started doing - and I would lose a little and then gain it back. I couldn't figure out what was going on.

I got really serious about getting the protein and fat out of my diet - and it didn't help.

What could the problem possibly be?

As far as the Air Force was concerned, it became a moot point because my tour was up shortly after that and I returned home and back to college. That summer I tried again to lose weight using the same thing that had been so successful when I was on the Scarsdale diet - primarily fruit. And I gained weight.

That was in 1987. Over the next nearly 15 years I kept trying to repeat my accomplishments on the Scarsdale Diet to no avail. Each attempt left me physically and emotionally drained and ten to twenty pounds heavier until I finally topped out at 384 pounds around Christmas time.

I came to the conclusion that the problem was motivation. Previously I did so well because I was motivated by a dream that had been dear to me since 3rd grade. Obviously now no motivation existed that was strong enough - not health, not pleasure, not my achievement goals, not trying to find a companion.

I tried yet again starting on New Year's Day with the same pattern building until I saw the 24 Hours special that had clinical evidence backing the Atkins Diet - which I had always written off as a fad/kook diet.

So I bought the book, started the diet and found this forum. The rest, as they say, is history.

Some of you I'm sure are already screaming at me and know where this is headed. All those years that I was trying to follow the Scarsdale Diet - from memory - I was doing it completely wrong. I have only recently - like two days ago - found out that it is a low carb ketogenic diet like Atkins and PP. It is even referenced to by the Eades in the introduction to PP

Had I bothered to go back and READ the book - which I still have (somewhere, I was looking for it this weekend) - I probably could have gotten my weight back under control a decade and a half ago.

Instead, I sentenced myself to spending fifteen years morbidly obese and out of shape and unable to do nearly everything that I used to be able to do. Nearly all of the 20's and 30's. The years that should have been my most active and joy filled. And why? Because I thought I knew all about the diet I had done so well on in my teens. Obviously, what I was remembering was only some of the things that stuck out in my mind - not the whole thing.

What a waste.

Do NOT make the same mistake - learn from mine. Refer back to your LC books frequently. Especially after any amount of time at all has passed.

Bill,

What can I say. Your story is a salutory lesson to us all. Your point is forcefully put.

However, there are many who have never read any of the books in the first place. My target audience is the casual reader of this site who hopes to pick up the basics by reading the posts and the posts alone.

Contibutors on this site, in particular the moderators, are so knowledgeable, kind and considerate that they are at times I feel taken advantage of.

Their good nature will not let a post go unanswered, no matter how trivial, to answer something that clicking the search button, reading any of the good books recommended wouldgive the answer on the first few pages.

Now I know I must have asked a few dumb questions in my time which as you suggest, Bill, if only I had re-read would have saved me a lot of heartache but at least I did have the basics.

So, If it does not hijack your post to much I would like to congratulate the moderators and mentors at the real heart of this site on their encyclopedic knowledge, patience and wonderful caring values.

Lets all raise a glass of water to them and give them three hearty cheers.

Bill,

What a poignant and educational life story. I think many of us will read our books more often now. I'm sure you are working just as hard towards all your current hopes and dreams as you did to get into the Academy. Whatever those dreams may be, I hope they all come true.

Betsy

Rusty: It doesn't hijack my point at all. In fact, the real point was not to read a book, but to not rely on your own memory or understanding. Frequently verify your thinking whether it be through reading or through checking with others that are a good and trusted source of information. A very good point to tack on. My thanks go out to them as well.

There is one important difference between support forums and reading a book, coverage.

In a forum, you have to look for the information, or ask for it, and you will need to know what to ask for. And many critical issues may escape you, and you may not how to ask for it, or even realize that you need to know.

In a book, the authors tend to cover everything they think you need to know, making (or should) no asumption about what you alredy know. As responsible doctors, they usually warn for certain conditions and from their experience in the practice, offer additional guidance, only a professional can think of.

There's an advantage to each. Read the book for an overall coverage, then mix with the crowds here to get additional ideas, discuss some aspects in further details, and compare your experience with others.

One thing that is a unique in discussion groups is feedback. We may all understand different things from a book, and discussing some points may correct or enhance what your understood from the book.

So I'd say reading a book on low-carbing first is necessary to cover the bases. Joining and participating in a discussion group is very valuable.

Wa'il

Very well put, Wa'il.

I think of the book as the professor and the forum as the lab assistants.