After nearly 2 years straight of acid reflux... it is finally GONE

[aphex]

I've had fairly bad heartburn for ~ 2 years now. I can pretty much expect it everyday, unless i take some ranitidine the night before. If i don't take any medicine, i am usually burping up acid the next day, literally, into my mouth.

Now, i'm not incredibly fat or anything, i'm just overweight. Last tuesday, when i started the South Beach Diet, i weighed the most i ever have in my life, 216lbs. Such a change from college 3 years ago when i weighed 185. (I am 5' 11" for those curious).

Anyway, so its been a little over a week on the diet (low carb, not no carb like Atkins), almost at phase 2, and not only have i dropped 10lbs already, but i have 100x more energy than i used to AND my favorite part (and the part that will keep me on this), my heartburn is NON-EXISTANT.

I even had some jalapenos and hot sauce on my food the other night, which in the past, was a GUARANTEED trip to acid hell, didnt take a single thing and never felt a bit of the reflux.

I know i have a long way to go as this was only water weight, but I am determined....

Wish me luck!

 

[maximus maximus]

I have the very same problem... I am about 200 pounds and 5'10" in height.
I need to try a low carb diet and see how effective it is.

 

[Lola]

That is so wonderful! Best wishes to you!

 

[j00fek]

good to hear it

 

[mitaiwan82]

good to hear and best of luck to you :thumbsup:

 

[eakers]

awesome.

how are you finding the diet? do you have to cook a lot? what is a normal day of food like?

 

[aphex]

Thanks everybody!

how are you finding the diet? do you have to cook a lot? what is a normal day of food like?

I actually find it pretty darn easy, especially compared to my previous tries using atkins. Since you still keep a small amount of carbs in the diet, you dont feel like your starving yourself of something (like i did on atkins).

This is what i've been eating so far;

Breakfast: Eggs or Egg Beaters, Can of V8, Canadian Bacon, maybe a lowfat string cheese

Morning Snack: More cheese usually, sometimes some olives

Lunch: Salad of some sort (usually either Grilled Chicken Salad, Tuna Salad, Cobb Salad, Greek Salad) I use oil and vinegar instead of the regular dressing and a bit of pepper for some spice... No croutons... I seriously like it...

Afternoon Snack: Peanuts/Almonds/Walnuts/Etc (max of 20), maybe some vegatables or more cheese

Dinner: Lots of variety, some nights grilled chicken, steak, burgers with Heinz low carb ketchup (which tastes almost EXACTLY the same), sometimes a south beach frozen dinner (which is good as well), steamed brocolli/asparagus/snap peas/etc.

Dessert: Either a sugar-free chocolate ice pop (i ate these all the time before the diet, so i already loved em), or some jello w/ Cool Whip, or a fruit ice pop. Maybe some more nuts.

 

[interchange]

The South Beach diet is a 3-phase diet. It is not a carb-coutning or even a restricted calorie diet.

Phase 1 restricts you to only good carbs and good fats. It lasts for 2 weeks and corrects your blood chemistry so that you no longer have the cravings and ups and downs from carbs that cause you to overeat.

Phase 2 is for long term slow weight loss and introduces limited quantities of the bad foods back into your diet (e.g. sugar, whole weat bread, whole grain pasta, etc.).

Phase 3 is less restricted and is maintenance once you lose the weight.

The diet is NOT a low carb diet. It is a good carb diet. You need carbs! On phase 1, especially. Make sure you get enough vegetables during the day, and beans will be your savior. No carbs = ketosis = bad. A glass of lowfat milk is also very good, having some good carbs and ensuring you get your calcium.

Good luck with the diet. I also recommend getting some flax seed/flax oil into the diet to get the right balance of Omega-3/Omega-6/Omega-9 for heart health.

Make sure you get enough water, and eat those snacks (even if you're not hungry) to keep that blood sugar from crashing. I'd say you need some beans in there and more fiber will help you even more with your acid reflux problem.

 

[tfinch2]

How can you survive without carbs?

GIVE ME BREAD OR GIVE ME DEATH!

 

[CellarDoor]

Glad you're feeling much better! :thumbsup:

 

[JohnCU]

are you sure you had acid reflux? my dr put me on medicine for an irritated duodenum and eventually i just kept taking it when i didn't need because if i didn't, i had symptoms of acid reflux.

turns out i had LOW stomach acid which has the same symptoms. the low acid causes some of the undigested food to go back into the esophagus from what i've read. i got off the zantac and feel great. at the beginning i did feel some burning but eventually the acid got back to normal.

 

[aphex]

Originally posted by: JohnCU
are you sure you had acid reflux? my dr put me on medicine for an irritated duodenum and eventually i just kept taking it when i didn't need because if i didn't, i had symptoms of acid reflux.

turns out i had LOW stomach acid which has the same symptoms. the low acid causes some of the undigested food to go back into the esophagus from what i've read. i got off the zantac and feel great. at the beginning i did feel some burning but eventually the acid got back to normal.

yea, i was told i had it by my doc. He had me on the purple pill for awhile (which worked the best), but nothing could beat the price of Sams Club Ranitidine.. I was like 200-400 pills for $10.

 

[aphex]

Originally posted by: tfinch2
How can you survive without carbs?

GIVE ME BREAD OR GIVE ME DEATH!

Well, atkins was killing me without ANY carbs... This, i still eat some carbs here and there. The v8 has 7 carbs, some of the other things as well...

 

[newbiepcuser]

Have you tried sweet potatoes/yams, wild brown rice etc for carbs?

 

[AMCRambler]

I may have to give this diet a try. I also get acid reflux although since joining the gym and losing about 5 poundsit has abated some. I wasn't really overweight, but I was developing a bit of a gut that I decided to do something about it. I am 6' 2" with a fairly medium build and when I joined I weighed 195lbs. I'm down to 190 now, and I have more energy and in general feel better. I used to be popping 2 or 3 Rolaids after I ate anything remotely acidy or sweet. It's gotten better, but I still get it after eating spicy foods or anything with tomatos or tomato sauce. Maybe after I lose the rest of my gut, it'll go away. One thing that definitely contributes is soda. I still drink too much of it. I bet if I cut out soda completely I'd be cured.

 

[lokiju]

Man I get some crazy heart burn, maybe I'll look into the diet more.

 

[mrchan]

You know which part of the diet is working? The part that makes you eat less.

Carbs schmarbs. It's all about calories.

It may be helping with your heartburn tho. Either way, congrats.

 

[interchange]

Originally posted by: mrchan
You know which part of the diet is working? The part that makes you eat less.

Carbs schmarbs. It's all about calories.

It may be helping with your heartburn tho. Either way, congrats.

In the end, losing weight (non water weight) is about using up more than you take in.

A proper diet has a whole bunch of other health benifits, though.

 

[tami]

CONGRATULATIONS

guess what? when i get home, i will be greeted by an 18-200 VR.

 

[eakers]

Originally posted by: aphex
Thanks everybody!

how are you finding the diet? do you have to cook a lot? what is a normal day of food like?

I actually find it pretty darn easy, especially compared to my previous tries using atkins. Since you still keep a small amount of carbs in the diet, you dont feel like your starving yourself of something (like i did on atkins).

This is what i've been eating so far;

Breakfast: Eggs or Egg Beaters, Can of V8, Canadian Bacon, maybe a lowfat string cheese

Morning Snack: More cheese usually, sometimes some olives

Lunch: Salad of some sort (usually either Grilled Chicken Salad, Tuna Salad, Cobb Salad, Greek Salad) I use oil and vinegar instead of the regular dressing and a bit of pepper for some spice... No croutons... I seriously like it...

Afternoon Snack: Peanuts/Almonds/Walnuts/Etc (max of 20), maybe some vegatables or more cheese

Dinner: Lots of variety, some nights grilled chicken, steak, burgers with Heinz low carb ketchup (which tastes almost EXACTLY the same), sometimes a south beach frozen dinner (which is good as well), steamed brocolli/asparagus/snap peas/etc.

Dessert: Either a sugar-free chocolate ice pop (i ate these all the time before the diet, so i already loved em), or some jello w/ Cool Whip, or a fruit ice pop. Maybe some more nuts.

wow, that sounds super healthy and like something you can stick with

 

[Kanalua]

Man...I've got to do something about my weight too. I hate the acid reflux...it's one of the worst things about being overweight.

 

[secretanchitman]

glad to hear the heartburn is gone! congrats!!

 

[Legend]

Yeah, what you eat determines your health for the most part. Your diet could use work IMO. A lot of fruits and vegetables would help. I don't think it conflicts with the diet guidelines because while they are carbs they have soluble fiber, which slows down energy release closer to something like fats and protein.

There's also literally mountains of scientific studies showing how damn effective healthy food is at preventing just about every health problem. http://www.whfoods.com/foodstoc.php. But people don't want listen. They want their fatty yum yums and think an all knowing magical doctor can give a pill that will fix anything.

 

[aphex]

Originally posted by: Legend
Yeah, what you eat determines your health for the most part. Your diet could use work IMO. A lot of fruits and vegetables would help. I don't think it conflicts with the diet guidelines because while they are carbs they have soluble fiber, which slows down energy release closer to something like fats and protein.

There's also literally mountains of scientific studies showing how damn effective healthy food is at preventing just about every health problem. http://www.whfoods.com/foodstoc.php. But people don't want listen. They want their fatty yum yums and think an all knowing magical doctor can give a pill that will fix anything.

You can't eat fruits on the 1st phase, they have too much sugar. And i do eat vegtables, just didnt list them all.

 

[JEDI]

Originally posted by: aphex
I've had fairly bad heartburn for ~ 2 years now. I can pretty much expect it everyday, unless i take some ranitidine the night before. If i don't take any medicine, i am usually burping up acid the next day, literally, into my mouth.

Now, i'm not incredibly fat or anything, i'm just overweight. Last tuesday, when i started the South Beach Diet, i weighed the most i ever have in my life, 216lbs. Such a change from college 3 years ago when i weighed 185. (I am 5' 11" for those curious).

Anyway, so its been a little over a week on the diet (low carb, not no carb like Atkins), almost at phase 2, and not only have i dropped 10lbs already, but i have 100x more energy than i used to AND my favorite part (and the part that will keep me on this), my heartburn is NON-EXISTANT.

I even had some jalapenos and hot sauce on my food the other night, which in the past, was a GUARANTEED trip to acid hell, didnt take a single thing and never felt a bit of the reflux.

I know i have a long way to go as this was only water weight, but I am determined....

Wish me luck!

holy.. i've had acid reflux for 5+ yrs. tried all the meds on the market, no help.

i'm not overweight (150 lbs). What's this south beach diet u speak of?

or do u think losing the weight was the reason why your reflux is gone?