Hello! I have started a Very Low Calorie Diet program with a nutritionist and Physician. I take two shots a week and 37.5 g Phentermine. I lost 7 pounds the first the week. The second week I lost five pounds, and was so excited!!! The second week I also started walking 1 mile (in 13 minutes) a day..Monday - Friday. I lost inches as well. So now I am only taking 1/2 the Phentermine pill because I have NO appetite. I struggle to get in the 600-800 calories. Some days I'm actually below 500. I am afraid to enter into starvation mode, because, hten I'm guessing you stall and there is no weight lose....I think I could be there...I have not lost any weight in two weeks! Today I weigh 188. I know I should be happy with 19 lbs' in less than six weeks. But why am I not losing? Do I absolutely need to be sure to get in all the calories ? Today I stepped up the walking I did 1.5 miles in 23 minutes. Any advice ? Are there any other folks out there on a similar program?

Since you are on a VLCD, you really need to talk with your nutritionist and physician.

What are in the "shots"?

The "shots" are LOW dose HcG.

vlcdieter, you really do need to consult with your doctor and nutritionist. Few of us on 3FC are qualified to tell you what you need to know about this highly specific program.

Speaking just for myself, I would find such a program very frightening. The way I'm going is slower, but not so scary. You can see my progress below--it's slower than what you've been doing--I average 5 pounds per month. But I'm also not taking drugs and not eating below 1200 cals. average.

Anyway, talk to your doctor about this--as soon as you can.

Good luck,
Jay

I agree completely with Jay! -

it would scare me to be taking shots, phen & dipping below 800 calories per day.

Not just from a health point of view... but also in the fact that once the shots/drugs stopped I'd just gain the weight back as fast (or faster) than I lost it... and probably even MORE.

Please talk to your doc! And let us know what he/she says! (we're good for support & some lenient advice... but MAJOR advice is best left to the professionals...)

I know a few people who have done this diet (including myself) and let me tell you a couple of things.

First off, like everyone said if you have questions consult your nutrtionist and physician.

Second, YES you need to eat all of your required calories otherwise the program does not work as it's supposed to. I know it's tempting because you think if you eat less and burn more than you will lose weight. This can't also turn into an eating disorder and of course we all try to prevent that. Please eat what your doctor tells you to eat.

Also...the problem with this diet is people see it as a "remedy" therefore changing to their "old habits" once "finished" losing weight. I did this. I had lost over 90 lbs and gained all of it back plus some in a very short amount of time. Even after you enter weightloss you have to slowly work your way up to the right ammount of calories and still exercise like you were so that you don't gain back. And although you say you're not hungry, once you lose weight and think you can "finally eat what you want"....you will get hungry. You will soon grow tired of your diet and will get hungry. This is why you need to talk to you doctor and find solutions for every if, and, or but. The more you exercise, the more calories your body needs otherwise you will begin to burn muscle and bone and you some people could become "flabby". That is why a lot of us on here encourage the slower approach because it the long run it's a life change, not just a remedy.

I wish you luck and hope to see you on the boards with your progress. You will find great support here.

Thanks, for the advice. I intend to get of this by August. At that point my intention is to slowly progress to a different diet/excercise program. I know that it is about a healthier lifestyle. I chose this particular program because, for me, I needed, something to jolt me into lossing the weight. I did a lot of research. I am going to see if I can get an appointment with my family Doctor, this physician I am seeing with the program, obviously wants me to stick with it. Her concern seems to be more with that I have been constipated and how much am I excersice I'm logging. The nutritionist just says I've got to be sure to eat more protien than Carbs 1st thing in the morning, and watch it when I'm eating both bread and pasta.

So is the doctor giving you the hormone shots a REAL doctor who does other things/sees other patients as well, or is it a doctor that is only working with the weight loss center?

My mom recently went to a place like this, and I talked her out of it after showing her a lot of the stuff on the internet about it.

Because you asked about the calories, here is my advice.

I would talk to your regular family doctor. A doctor working for a diet center is of course, going to promote their practices. You need to see your regular family doctor about the calories that you are consuming, the hormone shots, the diet pills, etc.

You are basically doing an extreme low cal diet, taking the "upper" pill, even though you have basically gone down to only half a dose, and the hormone shots are not approved by the FDA. The shots are promoted heavily by the scam artist Keven Trudeau as well...and I have even read that they can be made from extracts of pregnant mare urine.

Please speak with your regular physician, and show him/her your eating journal, your exercise, the prescription pills, and the hormone you are taking injections of. Let them take an "unbiased" stance with you, because they are not profiting from the diet center like the doctor giving them to you.

I think everyone's advise is great. My question is why are they injecting you with a pregnancy hormone? Hcg?
Unless you have some sort of hormone deficiency or premenopausal/menopause you shouldn't be taking hormone injections.
APHILMany hormonal medications are made from mare urine. Premarin being one of them. Pre-pregnant Ma-mare rin-urine. My mom took it after her hysterectomy.

browneyedgirl - HcG can be used to stimulate weight loss. If I remember correctly, it is not very common though.

I've heard of that, as well as, a treatment for hypothyroidism but I would think that most doctors wouldn't prescribe it unless they had a reason to.

I'm shocked because vlcdieter is not morbidly obese, which is usually what VLC diets are for. A 1200 calorie diet would get you where you need to be without having the potential of hurting your body or going into starvation mode. You could safely lose 2 lbs a week with a 1200 cal diet, and it would be so much better for you. I'm not a know-it-all by any means, I'm just concerned.

I had a choice to do a 500 calorie medically supervised diet and I chose the 1200 calorie one instead because with as much as I work out (3 hours a day) my body would feel drained.

I'm very surprised that you were put on a very low calorie diet at your weight, because that usually happens with people who are severely obese, doesn't it? And you're definitely not severely obese! Besides that, I would agree that you should make sure you see your regular doctor as well as whatever doctor or specialist is promoting the program.

The shots are normally prescribed for other uses, but there have been studies that show that for the obese it does stimulate weight loss. The mindset that I was in, when I started, was that I NEEDED a big PUSH! Like I said I intend to move on to another plan in August. I have read a lot of information here today as well. I plan to modify this plan for the next two weeks to see what results I get. I have an appointment with my regular family Doctor June 5th. We'll see what happens. In the meantime, thanks! I did not expect this much genuine concern and compassion.