Marie Lidén has quite an amazing story of weight loss success eating a low-carb, high-fat (LCHF) diet as you can see from the before and after pictures above. This 42-year old mother of two has been eating this way for a couple of years and has lost a total of 72 pounds with an ultimate goal of losing 118 pounds which she believes she will reach because of her commitment to “continue to eat this way.” Surprisingly, all of Marie’s weight loss so far has been WITHOUT the use of any exercise–or, as she puts it, “I’m just eating the way I am supposed to.” Best of all, this has “not been hard” for her as long as she remains focused on making sure her diet is low-carb and high-fat. It’s the LCHF lifestyle!
In September 2009, Marie was fed up with her weight and said “enough is enough.” She was ashamed of her morbidly obese self and knew she had to do something about it. Her frustration with the reality of what she had become manifested itself in feelings of self-loathing and disgust.
I hated my body and what I had become. I had to put a stop to this once and for all. I wanted to live, be able to play with my kids, and have a long healthy life.
And that life Marie had lived was one where she was overweight for most of the time. Like so many of us who struggled to get our weight under control as a lifelong battle, she too had gotten “bigger and bigger” as the years progressed. Marie admits she used food as her drug of choice to comfort herself or just because she wanted to feel good. She described this as a “disorder” that had gotten “out of control.” And the damage to her weight might have been even worse but for her active lifestyle that led her to take daily walks.
A major turning point happened in November 2006 when Marie was in an accident where she broke her left foot that required surgery to repair. The foot never fully repaired itself and now she is handicapped as a result. Although she is able to walk, she sometimes loses her balance and falls because of this injury. That means she can’t go out and dance, go walking, or engaging in any kind of physical activity.
My injured foot put another nail in the coffin of my health. I got even fatter since I was stuck inside all the time and not able to take my usual walks.
The weight began taking such a toll on Marie’s body that by 2009 she was “sick of looking at myself in the mirror.”
I didn’t like that fat person I was looking at in the mirror. I hated seeing myself get that big, but in hindsight I also loved it because it was the beginning of my decision to start LCHF. This decision allowed me to be the healthy and fit woman that I am today. And it’s a decision that began when I was standing in front of that mirror.
And when Marie made her decision to change her old eating habits, she went for it with reckless abandon. The first thing she did was clear out all of her refrigerator and pantry of all the high-carb junk foods that had plagued her. However, she struggled with what she should do. Marie had already tried Weight Watchers, taken diet pills on the advice of a dietitian, and even resorted to prescription weight loss medications–but none of them worked.
At the end of each diet, I ended up weighing even more on the scales after each unsuccessful attempt. Those things just didn’t work for me and I simply ate more and more to cover up the pain of thinking there was something wrong with me. I always felt bad about myself with each successive diet failure.
Interestingly, Marie was already aware of LCHF and even tried it once previously. But she went through the emotional pain of a bad relationship and stopped eating that way. However, Marie remembered that she found some success doing it when she tried it before. So she decided to “try it again” with “full focus this time.”
Marie read a book about how the LCHF lifestyle helped a Swedish man named Sten Sture Skaldeman lose over 140 pounds and she was excited to read about the kind of luxurious and delicious foods she could enjoy that have always been off limits on most other diets.
I started buying lots of butter, eggs, bacon, cream, and full-fat cheeses. Other foods I especially loved adding to my grocery cart included broccoli, cauliflower, coconut oil, strawberries, and full-fat yogurt. Of course, I also consumed all sorts of meats and fresh herbs. This was a good starting point for how I should be eating on my LCHF lifestyle.
She remembers her first LCHF meat was a breakfast consisting of eggs and bacon with a cup of coffee mixed with real full-fat cream. And the rest, they say, is history. To this day, Marie is STILL eating lots of high-fat foods that are as low in carbohydrates as she can find. What’s curious about her diet are all the foods that she used to eat but are no longer there.
No sugar, no pasta, rice, flour, bread, potatoes or veggies growing underground.
This LCHF way of eating has never left Marie hungry and she knows she “finally found the right thing” that works for her.
I found my preferred lifestyle change and I don’t have any regrets about doing this!
Not unlike many of us who have started a healthy low-carb lifestyle change in the United States, Marie says she has been mocked and scolded by others who say she is “stupid” for following such a diet that includes so much fat and not enough carbs. But she just smiles and looks back on just “how far I have come in my journey.”
All my life I have been told not to eat fatty foods and always choose ‘light’ foods instead–but those only made me bigger. I did what everyone told me was the right thing to do but never saw any lasting results. Today I know better and I’m healthier because of LCHF.
In addition to her weight loss, Marie has noticed quite a few subtle yet noticeable changes in her health as well. She says her symptoms of gastric distress and irritable bowel have subsided and that getting a headache is “a rare phenomenon” now. She’s more alert, has healthier skin, snores less, enjoys normal blood pressure, is energetic and has a newfound confidence in herself that was never there before when she was bigger.
Marie looks back now on all the years she wasted time, energy and money trying to do the right thing regarding her weight and health only to be left frustrated, fatter and financially drained from years of bad advice. The success she has found with LCHF and the mountain of evidence that is growing about this way of eating makes her wonder why so many medical and health professionals can remain blinded by their belief in conventional wisdom regarding nutrition.
How can doctors, nurses and nutritionists stand in front of patients and actually look you in the eye and say that you will become slim if you eat the low-fat, high-carb diet they recommend? What’s most ironic is they even admit that not everyone is successful doing this which is why so much money is wasted on finding something that will work instead. Yes I am bitter in retrospect when I now see my body fat melt off effortlessly by following the exact opposite diet that has always been recommended to me.
Whereas Marie used to chunk the egg yolk and eat the egg whites, she now knows that “it’s the yolk that has all the nutrition in it.” And the highly-touted fruit is “not as good as they say” because all the sugar in it can “make your blood sugar go bananas!” It’s a daily learning process that she has been educating herself ever since she began LCHF. Coming off of blood pressure medication in just three months showed her there was something powerful about the new way she was eating that convinced her this as what was the new “right way” for her to live her life.
LCHF works for me and I’m convinced I was doing more harm than good by listening to the doctors and all the other experts. My weight loss success of 72 pounds and counting along with my vast improvements in my heart are proof enough for me that what I’m doing now is what is best for me.
Marie says she fully intends to stay on LCFH for “as long as I feel as good as I do now” and “hopefully for the rest of my life.”
And I will keep helping others find what works for them any way that I can. Although I have no nutritional education or background, I’ve learned so much about what LCHF and what it has done for me personally. If I can be an inspiration to others who are beginning their own journey, then I consider that a success.
Check out Marie Lidén’s Znack blog in English to learn more about this amazing LCHF success story in Sweden! If YOU live in Sweden and have a story of success on LCHF, then I’d love to hear from you and share your story with the English-speaking world. E-mail your story and send any relevant pictures to livinlowcarbman@charter.net. I know sharing your story will help move and inspire others to embrace the low-carb, high-fat lifestyle change for themselves!
Eat Like A Swede-LCHF (Low-Carb, High-Fat) 
Amazing!!! Congratulations of all my heart! :-)))