I have been having left knee problems for about 8 mths now. Well I went to see an orthopaedic dr today who said I needed to lose weight. His suggestion was an 800 calorie diet for a year or until I lost the weight.....over 100 lbs. I asked him wouldn't my body go into shock from such few calories & not loose & just be at a stand still. His answer was no. Does this sound ractional to anyone, b/c it didn't to me? He said I would lose lots the first few weeks b/c of water..........DUH I knew that. Then he said I would loose about 1-2 lbs a week. I was waiting to get my knee seen about before I began dieting & exercising, due to my left shin area is VERY swollen from an accident..........he says its fluid & inflammation. OK, I would like opinions on this VERY low calorie diet please. Has anyone tried it???

His eating suggestion..............BREAKFAST~~~bowl of low cal cereal & skim milk........LUNCH~~~1 lean cuisine meal (200 or a lil over in calories).........SUPPER~~~~Another lean cuisine meal (200 or a lil over in calories)...........And IF I had to have a snack~~~carrot or celery sticks.
He didn't say anything about what to drink..........I guess only water!


How fast would a person burn out on this???? Geesh! He said my body would basically go into ketosis & produce ketones & ketonic breath. Note, this is not an Adkins diet or high carb. When I did WW a few years ago I was loosing 1-2 lbs a week..........so why is this better for me???? Anyways, INPUT please! Thanks!

hmph! I guess if you are going to lose the same amount of weight I would do WW. And it seems like that would be better for your bones also and your health to get the nutrition you need. Maybe you should get a second opinion. I don't know if I would want this dr. doing anything to me. But I could be wrong. And you are right. How long can you do that without getting very burned out and discouraged. You need to be able to find something you can stick to and make permanant changes with or you will regain the weight anyway???? IMHO

Good luck. I hope you find some answers.

You should have been referred to a nutritionist/dietician. Basically it sounds like you've been told to starve yourself and I can't imagine being able to stick to his plan. yeah, like Lean Cuisiene is so nutritionally complete.

An orthopaedist is a SURGEON (basically). Weight loss should be monitored by a physician who is more specialized in this area. if your insurance covers it, get a referral for a RD (registered dietician) who will map out a plan you can live with and has more options...

Just a guess.....the orthopod was a MAN, am I right? Good Luck!!

Do not listen to that doctor! Run as fast as you can. Any nutritionist/registered dietician or doctor that has the slightest bit of nutritional/weight loss knowledge will say for a woman never fall below 1200 and for a man never below 1500.

W/W is in general as follows:

18 points = 1050 calories
20 points = 1150 calories
22 points = 1250 calories
24 points = 1350 calories
26 points = 1450 calories
28 points = 1550 calories
30 points = 1650 calories
32 points = 1750 calories
34 points = 1850 calories
35 points = 1900 calories (Weekly Points Allowance)
36 points = 2050 calories

Remember this is not always true but a good guide and DOES NOT include the 200-250 calories a day W/W built into the program for free veggies. Remember fat increase the poitns while fiber decreases the points.

Here is also more info on why you shouldn't be that now based on Basal Metabolic Rate:

How may calories do you burn in a day?

It's important to know your metabolic rate so you can balance enger in (the food you eat) with the energy out (how active you are). Because of different activity levels, each person's metabolic rate is different. Follow these steps to calculate the the amount of caloires you burn in a day. Remmeber, if you eat more than the calculated amount of calories, those extra calories eventually get stored as fat.

1. Convert your weight from pounds to kilograms by dividing by 2.2 (2.2 pounds = 1 kilogram). So, a 130-pound woman would weight 59 kilograms.

2. Women: Multiply the results of Step 1 by .9 (59 x .9 = 53). Men: Skip this stpe and go directly to Step 3.

3. Multiply the results of STep 2 (or Step 1 if you are a man) by 24. This gives you the minimal number of calories you need to survive, or your RMR (resting metabolic rate) (53 x 24 - 1272 calories).

4. To calculate the extra calories you need in order to perform your normal activites, you must calcualte a certain percentage of the RMR. Then add it to the RMR for that day's calorie needs. For example, a relatively sedentary day--say, a lazy Sunday spent watching TV or laying around--would require only a 20 percent increase in caloire expenditure (1272 x .20 = 254 extra calories). So, 254 added to 1272 equales 1526 calories.

Activity levels vary depending on how vigorous an activity it is and how long you're active. Here is a general rule of thumb based on nutritionists recommendations for energy.

Sedentary (sitting, standing, watching TV) = 20-30 percent
Light activity (housecleaning, golfing, garage work) = 50-60 percent
Moderate activity (skiing, bicycling, dancing) = 60-70 percent
Heavy activity (football,s occer, basketball, jogging) = 90-100 percent.

Additionally, low calorie diets (under 1200 for women and 1400 for men) are not the way to go because you don't get enough folic acid, magnesium and zinc along with putting your body in a perpetual state of starvation.

Yes it was a man...........middle age, slender, & thought he was handsome. I was there about my left leg & almost the entire convo was .............you have to be tough & do this (800 cal diet) & you may experience headaches at first & be cranky but after a few weeks you will get over all that. I read a lil on 800 cal diets since I got home. They say if a dr recommends this diet you should be monitored........well I am supposed to call him in 2 weeks & go back in 6 is that monitoring????

I have been the same weight for a few years & never had knee problems. Sometimes I would be up on my legs for 12 hrs working at an orthopaedic office (I'm a nurse). I'm not saying its good for my knees, the weight, but I know it didn't cause the accident & swelling.

I don't plan to call or go back to this dr! He put me on Feldene instead of Celebrex (which I take for my back & neck). Both are anti-infammatory meds. So recheck just so he can see if the Feldene is bothering me or working??? I don't think so.

Kelly, I had thought it was a 1200 calorie diet not to go under. When I told him that I was planning on dieting & exercising after the knee was looked at & was going to try & stay under 1500 cals..........he said I would never lose weight that way, that it had to be 800 cals a day.

Geesh all the salt in Lean Cuisines are bad for you. What are moron!

I prefer Bextra over Celebrex (seems to work better). I am an adm. in Surg. Ed. and believe me, medicine and dietary counseling is not their strong points... I will refrain from calling the docs. "morons", I prefer to say "genetically challenged". Spewing advice that might look good on paper, but will never pan out..

start with exercises that will allow you to not put put too much strain on the injury,like a recumbent bike, ellip. machine. I'm sure you know to RICE it and hope you contact a better doc.

Wonder if he had webbed toes, cause he sounds like a quack to me!

I would go to another doc all together and make certain I reported this man to everyone who would listen to me. Following this kind of advice could be very dangerous and he needs to be called to task. I wouldn't trust him with any part of your health, bones included. Please see another doc. Good for you that have the forethought to question this guy!

I agree with the others. It is inappropriate for an orthopedist to be giving you nutritional counseling. An 800 calorie diet is called a medically supervised fast and is done under a doctor's (qualified in that area) care. It requires frequent blood work to monitor electolytes, etc. and potassium and other vitamin supplements. I tried one of these at an insurance paid clinic a few years ago but I had a hard time staying on the liquid diet and gave up. It does cause rapid weight loss though (hence the required medical monitoring). Your knee will indeed be better off if you lost the weight. If you were successful with weight watchers in the past, you might want to go back on it and figure out what kind of exercise you can do that will not further damage your knee.

Emerald, thank you, you made me laugh & I needed that.

THis dr went on to tell me that my weight was making my back bad, not my car accident in 1994. Oh, he also said that smoking makes the discs in your back bad.

I have herniated discs in my neck & back from that car accident. So exercising is tough for me. I told him I had the Leslie Sansone Walk Away the Pounds tapes (recently purchased) & he said I don't see how walking inside can get your heart rate up where it should be...100-120. I basically let him talk while I thought you "moron"..........sry I did think it! lol

So I have the Leslie Sansone tapes, exercise bike & a nordic track skier.
Before my accident, I was on the Weight Watchers Selection Plan & it worked wonders for me. I lost 52 lbs in 4 months..........eating the way I should thru the selection plan & exercising. I went back when they had the original points system but it seems complicated for me. Selection plan you knew you could have so many of this & that. So I'm trying to figure the new points system out & thinking about giving it a try.

Thank you everyone for your advice & listening to me vent!

In reality the new points and the original points system are exactly the same thing but instead of a range of points you get just a bare minimum each day and the FlexPoints aka WeeklyPointsAllowance are all the banked points you could bank during the week...the only real major difference is the fact they are 2 points higher for a minimum than the original ranges were.

As for know you could have this or that of something that was just W/W way of reducing the calories and eating healthy. Now the way they do that is with the points (based on a formula of: POINTS = (calories/50)+(fatgrams/12)-(fibergrams<capped at 4>/5) ) and they give you PointsPies to help you eat healthy.


Points Pies

Balanced (under 250 pounds)

Complex Carbs/Grain Based Foods – 8-9 points a day
Protein-rich Foods – 6-7 points a day
Fruits and Veggies – 0-3 points a day
Fats, added sugars – 2-3 points a day
Milk and Milk Products – 4-6 points a day

20-28 points a day

Higher Protein (under 250 pounds)

Complex Carbs/Grain Based Foods – 5-6 points a day
Protein-rich Foods – 9-11 points a day
Fruits and Veggies – 0-1 points a day
Fats, added sugars – 2-4 points a day
Milk and Milk Products – 4-6 points a day

20-28 points a day

Higher Carb (under 250 pounds)

Complex Carbs/Grain Based Foods – 9-10 points a day
Protein-rich Foods – 5-7 points a day
Fruits and Veggies – 1-3 points a day
Fats, added sugars – 1-2 points a day
Milk and Milk Products – 4-6 points a day

20-28 points a day

-----

Balanced (over 250 pounds)

Complex Carbs/Grain Based Foods – 11 points a day
Protein-rich Foods – 10 points a day
Fruits and Veggies – 3-4 points a day
Fats, added sugars – 2-3 points a day
Milk and Milk Products – 4-6 points a day

30-34 points a day

Higher Protein (over 250 pounds)

Complex Carbs/Grain Based Foods – 8 points a day
Protein-rich Foods – 12 points a day
Fruits and Veggies – 2-3 points a day
Fats, added sugars – 4-5 points a day
Milk and Milk Products – 4-6 points a day

30-34 points a day

Higher Carb (over 250 pounds)

Complex Carbs/Grain Based Foods – 13 points a day
Protein-rich Foods – 8 points a day
Fruits and Veggies – 2-4 points a day
Fats, added sugars – 3 points a day
Milk and Milk Products – 4-6 points a day

30-34 points a day

They also have a plan (Core) which is a no counting thing but you eat until satisified (which doesn't mean stuffed but just enough to satisfy you) and the foods are from whole foods (not processed or junk or simple carbs) with a 35 WPA for foods not on the list such as breads and processed foods or desserts.

Kelly,

Thank you for the help, I think if I try I can do the points. I don't like to bank. When I was on the selection plan I tried never to eat the optional selection you could have every day.

I like that it tells me what points of each thing I need a day. Thays what I liked about the Selection plan. I don't like complicated. Which points system....Balanced, Higher Protein, Higher Carb do you feel is better or that you have done better on?

You & I joined 3FC the same time or there abouts.

So I guess I need to map out where I'm going & begin with the points. Has anyone converted the Old Pumpkin muffin recipe into points?

Thanks for all the help!

Wanda, Personally I feel better eating the balanced but (and I'll look for the quiz) there is a quiz you can do to see which fits you better... All off them are good just what satisifies you more.

Hi Wanda,

I just had to reply to your post mainly to address your back problems. I have degenerative disk disease, basically I have a weak structure and my disks rupture easily. I've had 4 surgeries (laminectomies/disectomies). I have permanent damage to the sciatic nerve in my right leg which means I also lost strength and feeling in the right leg. You know what I do for exercise? Walk Away the Pounds! I also walk on my treadmill, and do crunches and pelvic tilts to strengthen the tummy and back muscles. My doctor is a big advocate of the WW plan to lose weight. He practically cheered when I reported my first 4 pounds gone! Slow and steady is usually recommended by most doctors, or at least in my own experience.

About the only sensible thing your doctor said was about the smoking and damage to your disks.
Here's a quote from BestDoctors.com

"Smoking affects not only the bone restoration taking place daily in your body, but also causes damage to the small blood vessels that supply the elastic tissue and supporting material of the many joints in the back. Basically, this results in premature aging of these structures." Michael J. Ebersold, M.D

I can only echo was most of the other ladies said in reply to you... FIND ANOTHER DOCTOR!

Good luck to you... hang in there.