Matthew G. Garcia Shares Amazing Results - Dr. Berg's Healthy Keto

Hello Dr. Berg. Thank you for asking us to share our keto success stories. I have always been a larger guy, and been struggling with weight my whole life. As a wild-land firefighter, my job is inherently athletic, however some of the foods provided to us on the fire line are very heavy with carbs and are based simply on caloric intake. I have been able to keep up with the athletic requirements despite my weight but have always had to work twice as hard to perform at the level I wanted. I became the heaviest I had ever become at 250 lbs.. I decided that was enough, and I was going to take control of my health. I started a running program, and began researching running techniques and stories and books written by ultra runners. From there I discovered different ways of eating and using running and other workouts to achieve my goals. I started getting results, and this peaked my interest in nutrition and exercise even further. I then discovered the power of ketosis and the use of intermittent fasting. At the time I didn't realize that what I was doing was intermittent fasting. I had just been simply reading up on how to increase my muscles ability to store energy for running. I had learned that if I fast in the morning and do my runs while in a fasted state, I will be training my muscles to increase their capacity to store more energy to use on longer runs in the future. While doing this I started rapidly losing body fat. I went from a 38" waist to a 32" waist very fast. Some the other things I did during this period was increase my intake of fermented foods such as sauerkraut and kim chi. I started a probiotic program increased my intake of fiber heavy veggies such as broccoli. And started using prebiotic fiber supplements. I then started increasing my intake of veggies, and healthy fats. I started using avocados, MCT oils, oils from fish, and using olive oil and vinegar only as a dressing for my salads. I also started using apple cider vinegar in my diet as a detoxification tool. I then started using green tea and ginger as an antioxidant and anti-inflammatory. I had abandoned all sugar. Replaced my soda pop binging with drinking Kombucha which satisfied my craving for something fizzy and totally weaned me off of soft drinks all together. With the diet monitoring and daily running I managed to drop from 250 lbs to about 195 lbs. I kept the weight off for about three years, through an entire change of lifestyle. This was a huge achievement for me and one of my best successes. However success can come with some adversity. This past year had its obstacles, my job got super demanding and I had an extremely large workload put on me with tight deadlines. I had not been able to keep to my running schedule and diet. I suffered from some mild depression and started using sugar. My intake of sugar started small and gradually increased to a full on sugar addiction. As it was happening I knew what I was doing to my body. But the addiction was real. I but back about 30 lbs of the weight I had lost and kept off for about three years. This made me realize that I have to get control of this new sugar addiction. And take back the healthy lifestyle and regimen I had discovered and created for myself. Luckily I have done just that! I had given sugar the boot! And am back to my regular healthy lifestyle. I am back on track to getting my weight down to where it needs to be. I have gotten back on daily run schedule and I am back to feeling better and sleeping better. It is amazing what negative effects can have on mental health, and how easily it can be cured through proper diet and exercise. I consider myself lucky that I armed myself with the knowledge I obtained through my research. This second journey of weight loss will be taken with a road-map that I had laid out from my previous journey, and at least now I know the way!