What worked for me
So I wanted to highlight what worked for me. I never see it mentioned on here so I hope people can benefit from my experience.
It is a diet program called HMR. Health Managment Resources. They are invited into medical institutions to run their diet programs. Right from the start I was so impressed with them. They offered a free orientation where they let you taste the diet food so you could see if you liked it or not. During the orientation it became clear that what guided their choices was science and experience. They had been in the diet business for 30 years and kept records and thus knew what worked and what didn't. I used to ask them why they weren't better known and it seemed like they didn't want to be. Like they were fine being small.
It was sort of expensive. They had two plans. Decision free and healthy solutions. Decision free was a very low calorie diet where you only ate their food and were medically monitored -- it was for those who had over 40 lbs to lose. The healthy solutions was not medically monitored and was not very low calorie and you can eat their food and non-plan food like veggies. They also have an at home program where you just order the food online.
I chose the decision free. It was sort of expensive but imho worth it. The food that you purchased replaced what you would get normally so it wasn't that bad. My health insurance did pay for the medical tests -- although not the medical fees. You were required to attend a two hour class each week. At that class you had medical visits (BP/ blood tests/ etc) and then had a class with a real professional learning how to eat well and make lasting changes. Each class everyone had to record their statistics and weight and every single person who ever does the program reports this stuff -- and it is used to do HMR's over all stats. Every class was seriously amazing. Not just puffery... but stats that showed what worked.
You got a nutrient pill and the food had tons of nutrients in it. Although there are only 5 types of food you can make that food into different things -- soup you can make into crackers.
And I lost weight fast. First week I lost 9 lbs. Then 3lbs for about 7 weeks. I never had such good results. I didn't find it hard at all. It was actually easier not to have to think about what I needed to eat. And since most of the food is high volume / low calorie, I was full. Also since it was mostly water, I was very hydrated. It took me 7 months to lose 60 lbs. I actually quit the program after 6 months and just kept going on my own. All the food doesn't go bad (mostly powered shakes) so it is it is an investment.
6 months off the diet, I haven't gained any back although full disclosure, I still use their food in part. Maybe a shake for breakfast.
I was very concerned when I started that it seemed very radical but, turns out, radical is what I need. It is not for everyone. A few people at work tried it but, didn't like it.
A lot of people think it is like what Oprah did, optifast. But, they have learned a lot since then. And the program is smart. The classes teach you how to eat in the real world (high volume low calorie) and they have a phase two where they ensure that you don't gain it back. Although I didn't stay for that.
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