Twins Use Keto, Walking, Surgical procedure To Lose Practically 400 Kilos

When Tonia Brown’s weight reached 380 kilos, she was pissed off.

“I was getting tired of it. I wanted to lose some weight,” the 51-year-old from Shelby, North Carolina, tells TODAY.com. “I wanted to start taking better care of myself because I was getting older and starting to feel it.”

About eight years in the past, Brown began consuming a ketogenic weight loss plan and strolling round the home. When her twin sister Tonie Ervin observed Brown dropping pounds, Ervin examined her personal habits.

“I realized that I was going to become the fatter twin,” Ervin, 51, of Shelby, North Carolina, tells TODAY.com. “(I) started doing keto and exercising because she made me.”

In whole, the 2 have shed practically 400 kilos with keto, train and bariatric surgical procedure.

“It really, really helps to have Sister with me doing it because I don’t know if I could have done this myself,” Brown says.

A Focus on Diet and Moving Their Bodies

After Brown started exercising extra and consuming a unique weight loss plan, she began shedding some weight. That’s when Ervin, who weighed about 400 kilos, approached her sister.

“After about 50 pounds or so, she pulled me aside at one of our events for church and said, ‘Hey, I don’t know what you’re doing, but I really don’t want to be the fatter twin. So please tell me what you’re doing,’” Brown remembers.

Walking and consuming a keto weight loss plan — which is low in carbs, excessive in fats, with reasonable quantities of protein — helped the twins lose about 100 kilos every. But then their progress stalled.

“We hit a wall,” Brown says. “You get older, that’s what happens. And after about two years or so of hitting a wall and not losing any weight, we plateaued really badly.”

Still not proud of their weight, the twins mentioned bariatric surgical procedure.

“Once we started discussing it with the doctor, we jumped right into it,” Brown says. “What happened was I went to Sister and said, ‘I’m having bariatric surgery.’ (And she said) ‘Oh, we’re having bariatric surgery.’”

The two — who “are probably together more than anybody really has any right to be,” Brown says — met with the bariatric surgeon for a seek the advice of on the identical time. But he set boundaries.

“When he realized we were twins, he came in and said immediately when he saw us together … ‘No, I can’t see them together. They have to split up,’” Brown says. “We don’t blame him. It’s a lot of information to mix up.”

Ervin underwent surgical procedure first in late November of 2023, and Brown had her surgical procedure a few week later. The two skilled very completely different recoveries.

“Mine was pretty breezy,” Ervin says. “I wanted to immediately go home, and I was a little fussy about (staying the night). But aside from that, I didn’t have much of a problem.”

Brown started vomiting after surgical procedure.

“I developed a blood plug at the bottom of my — they call it your pouch. That is your new stomach,” she says.

The physician gave her two choices. Brown may drink sufficient water to “pop” the blood plug, or they’d should go in with an endoscope and break up the plug.

“I did not want to go under anesthesia again,” Brown explains. “I started hammering water, and about two hours later, it stopped coming back up.”

Even with the complication, Brown doesn’t wish to dissuade folks from having the surgical procedure in the event that they suppose it’s the proper selection for them.

“It’s something you need to be aware of,” she says. “But don’t let that flavor your experience … Honestly, I would do that again even if I knew that was on the docket.”

After their surgical procedures, the twins began dropping pounds once more in a short time.

“You’re dropping 10 pounds this week and another 10 pounds that week and five pounds this week,” Brown says. “We came out of clothes so fast.”

Their diets have additionally modified since surgical procedure. They now focus extra on consuming protein and add fruit and veggies to their meals.

“When you do keto, it’s a lot more fat-focused,” Ervin says. “When you do the bariatric, you don’t want to focus on that fat.”

Eating an excessive amount of fats after surgical procedure may cause the meals to maneuver shortly by way of the GI tract and may be “very unpleasant when it happens,” she provides. As they’ve tweaked their diets, their train continued.

“We both walk,” Brown says. “At 50 it’s hard, but you get it done.”

Brown weighs about 166 kilos now, and Ervin weighs about 223 kilos. While they each want to shed a bit of extra weight, they’re proud of their progress. “I am surprised to be this low,” Brown says.

Below, the 2 share recommendations on what works for them.

‘Change Your Ways’

“I call it ‘Just change your ways of eating,’” Brown says. “Get up off the couch. Get up even if it’s 20 minutes a day.”

She says making small adjustments provides as much as an actual transformation of 1’s habits.

“You’re like, ‘Oh, it’s just one day, it’s not going to make a difference,” Brown says. “But one day is another day and another day and a week and then it’s a year and then it’s 10 years later.”

Focus on Non-Scale Victories

Brown and Ervin just lately went to a live performance out of city. While on their journey, they sat in excessive bar chairs, a non-scale victory.

“We always avoided high bar chairs because my feet swell and I can’t get up and down,” Brown says. “We sat on a high bar chair for that concert for six hours and could not believe (it).”

On the journey, in addition they wore bathing fits, one thing they prevented after they weighed extra. And they rented a compact automotive.

“I was worried about getting a compact car because I was afraid to fit behind the wheel,” Ervin says.

But they have been each capable of match comfortably.

Find Support

While some folks don’t have a twin to assist them navigate weight reduction, the 2 agree that having one other individual makes it simpler to achieve objectives.

“When you have someone that’s going to hold you accountable … it works,” Ervin says. “You find yourself out there doing it because someone else is doing it and they’re expecting you to do it with them.”