I am beginning week 3 on Monday, so far so good, I am continuing to lose, when does that slow up. I lost 6 pounds between week 1 and now of stabilization. My center seems to think that is normal?

I remember when I started stabilization that they told me it was common to lose more. I never did though. Cudos to you!!

I never did stabilization properly after a few weeks. It was terribly confusing (I think they didn't explain it well enough to me) and then I ended up going away for quite a while.

This time around, I'm going to make sure that I do it correctly.

After reading through this thread, I'm curious if stabilization has changed since I went thru the program? Someone mentioned a 1200 calorie diet? I recall mine was just adding back in several food options and quantities each week. What seemed confusing to me was that one week something seemed to be in, and the next it was out again. They never fully explained about when and how many of the supplements to delete. One week I went in and they said "you should be off all the supplements now". No? The last person told me to keep drinking them. I don't think they were always together on everything.

I need to drag out my old instruction sheets. I think I'm missing the last week (10th) for some reason. I don't recall if another food was added or if the options just expanded.

Well, each week a new food is added, but none are taken away. And, at the top of the food sheet, it tells you how many HNS to drink. Right now, on week 3, I'm at a maximum of 2 a day, and they are to be used as snacks only, not with meals.

The 1200 calorie thing is for maintenance. Once you are finished with your 6-7 week stabilization period, they run your metabolic numbers to determine whether you get a 1200 or 1500 calorie maintenance diet.

Yes, you are still on a very low cal diet, I think you work up to 1200 calories. But, I haven't lost anything on stabilization. I've bounced between 153 and 155. I haven't been perfect though, either.

Ok, that makes sense. I don't remember the # of drinks being at the top of the sheet though. I need to go dig them out. I need to get back to goal weight first :-)

The center I was going to was going thru lots of changes toward the end of my program, new employees in and out all the time, and it got annoying after a while. I was also gone a lot with trips, family illness & such. I never went back after the first five or six week of stabilization.

Ok, that is a relief...I know it sounds weird, but I am ready to actual stabilize my weight...I lost another 2.5 pounds this week also.

Your before and afters are amazing!

Thanks so much. I'm about 18 lbs. heavier now--too far past my 10 lb. comfort zone to feel comfortable. I'll lose the 8 lbs. pretty easily in just a couple of weeks. The last 10 is a struggle. I hit a plateau the first time I lost that much that lasted over a month ;-( I hope it won't be so difficult this time.

You are doing great! Good luck on maintenance.

You look great! I know you can get back to where you want to be.

pbolton1 - all I am say is WOW!! What a transformation!

Im kind of jumping the gun here, but
I've been worried about keeping the weight off and am reading through some postings. Encouragement?? Do you feel like it will get easier??

MRC will give you the tools to keep the weight off, you'll have a menu to follow just like when you're in the weight loss phase. Whether or not you follow it - well, that's up to you. If you go back to eating the way you did, you'll go back to weighing what you did. The key is to keep an eye on the scale & if you gain 3-5 lbs, it's time to scale back & get it under control. Much easier to lose 3-5 lbs than 10-15! Just keep up the good habits you've developed while losing and you should be fine.

Thanks Thelish. I am definitely a new person inside & out.

Meemo, you are so right. I really need to teach myself to stay in that 5 lb. range.