I had my consultation with Metabolic Research Center today.  As soon as I arrived at the center I felt welcomed and everyone was extremely friendly, including the clients that had just gotten out of their morning class and were passing through the lobby and out the door.  My consultation was with Carly, who is also the assistant manager, and she showed me the success photos of clients from their center.  She then showed me where they do their weigh-ins and the room where they have their classes.  The calendar of their classes had a listing for everyday, except Sunday, and included Yoga, walking club, 12 step, emotional eating, tips for eating out, managing stress, meditation, and sugar addiction to name most of the classes listed.  We then went back to Carly’s office to discuss the specifics of the program and ask about my reasons for coming to the center and my weight loss goals.  She stated that goal of the program is to decrease one’s body fat while maintaining their lean muscle mass.  They provide menus that will increase a person’s metabolism and ensure that their body is consistently working to burn calories.  The High Nutrient Supplements are also designed to increase metabolism and supply food to muscle cells.  I told her my goal was to loss about 30 pounds.  I had no specific reason for picking that goal other than the fact that I knew I weighed about 185-188 and felt a 30 pound weight loss would put me at a healthy weight for my height.  I got a body analysis using the Tanita machine which is a scale but all so a body fat analyzer.  It showed that I weighed 186.5 and had 43.7% body fat, which made my BMI 30.1.  Carly explained that they base their weight loss goals on bringing a person’s body fat down to 23% for someone my age, which would make my target goal weigh about 137!  That seemed crazy to me.  I don’t think I have ever weighed that, not that I remember at least.  I can’t even imagine what I would look like 50 pounds lighter.  Carly said that it would take me until October 30, 2009 to reach that goal weight, which is a 17 week program and the cost was $298 for the 17 weeks of weight loss, 6 weeks of stabilization and then a year of maintenance.  It is very hard for me to wrap my head around that.  My original goal of 30 pounds would be reached by September 11th.   She stated that the lower range weight loss is 3 pounds per week on average so they fully expect me to meet these goals by the target dates noted.  It’s hard to look at those numbers and dates and not be amazed.  Given the way I currently eat, with take out food, fast food, and restaurant eating making up 80% of my diet, I know that by cutting that out I will lose weight no matter what.  What draws me to the program and makes me feel that it is worth the money is that they will hold me accountable, work with me on areas that I am having trouble with and will help me keep the weight off once it is lost.  So I signed up for the program.  I was started on a preconditioning program for the next 4 days to 1 week.   I don’t actually start my 17 weeks until I am done with preconditioning, but it is designed to get my body used to a decrease in caffeine and sugar and an increase in water.  I was given a meal selector chart with has 4 Columns.  There is one column for protein, 1 for starch, 1 for vegetables, and one for fruits.  I am to pick an item from each column for each meal and for snacks I can use ½ portion of an item from the protein and a ½ portion of an item from the vegetable column.  Pretty easy to follow.  I already took a daily multivitamin, B vitamin, calcium and fish oil so I am to continue with those.  She also mentioned some of the supplements they sell at the center and although she recommended some of the supplements, no pressure was used to try and get me to purchase them.  I did decide to buy a 2 month supply of the MRC6 just to see what it was like.  I am to take two of those before each meal.  And that’s it.  I will meet with Carly again on Thursday and discuss how I am doing on the preconditioning program and if I feel ready I will start on my first menu plan.  If I feel I need a few more days I will wait until Monday 7/6/09 to start on the menu plan.  I’ve had 2 meals so far today following the meal selector and feel full, although the water definitely helps with that, and I’m excited about continuing with this.  More to come later.