Hi Everybody!

I moved to China after I graduated from UW last year. I used to visit China every summer while I was growing up, and each time I would return to WI a couple sizes smaller without much effort. I was hoping for the same natural weight loss to occur, but my weight hasn't changed in the last two years. I've tried working out for hours and cutting back calories, but I quit after a couple months of seeing almost no results. Last week, someone I know introduced me to pressure point massage. She lost about 22 pounds in less than 2 months so I decided to give it a try. It's actually not just massage, you have to follow their diet instructions as well. You can't eat anything for three days in a row (the days that you go in for a massage) except they give you some powder mix to drink in place of meals. Then you pretty much eat normal for a week to maintain the weight. The cycle repeats four times. I'm on maintenance right now (my second cycle starts on Wednesday), but I wanted to speed up weight loss so I've only been eating fruits and veggies. I have about 5 small meals per day. No rice, no meat, very reduced amounts of oil in cooking, and no sweets. So far I've lost almost 9 pounds in 7 days, putting me at 126 pounds (I'm 5'4). I've always drank tons of water even when I wasn't on a diet, so could this be just water weight? If I continue to lose, would it still be water weight? I don't feel thinner, but people around me keep saying I look thinner (maybe they're just comforting me though). I'm having cravings for sweets, and the only seemingly safe sugar substitute here is called "Xylitolum". Has anyone heard of it before? The problem with living in China is that nothing is labeled or measured, so I can't count calories. What should I do?

I have a few concerns from reading about this diet...when you don't eat for 3 days, your body goes into ketosis, which is basically your body being so hungry that it just starts to eat itself...doing this over and over again in cycles can be really detrimental to your metabolism...as in...if you don't do this for the rest of your life, it's not gonna give you any lasting effects...I'm not an advocate of fasting, but I also don't believe it to be a bad thing...but in my personal opinion it should be for detoxing purposes (ie to START a diet, and get all the bad stuff out of your system) and not in a cycle of sorts. There are probably some things I don't know about this diet, but it sounds like the reason you may not be losing much is because of the cycle thing...your body doesn't know what to do with itself from all of the up and down...after fasting 3 days and then eating again, your body will freak out, and take ALL of the nutrients from what you do eat, because it's used to being starved. I am no expert at all, I think you should consult your Dr. about this diet though. And I'm not really sure what the massage is supposed to do or how it relates to the diet...could you explain a little more? I am curious to know what they say it is supposed to do. It just doesn't sound like a safe way to keep weight off...you might lose quick, but if you want to stay thin then you'll have to do this forever, or eventually find another diet : /

EmpressShana,

I think it sounds exciting, 9 pounds in a week is unbelievable! I just went vegetarian and besides the sweet cravings I'm doing well. I eat my largest meal of the day for lunch and have a salad at dinner time. I don't work out as much as I should, but I do an Advanced Tae Bo 8-minute workout each day. Revs me up quite a bit. I would stick to your plan for at least the next two cycles and see how you feel....persistance is everything. Think about this.....the food is not going anywhere, it'll be there today, tomorrow, a year from now. You only get one life....make it worth living! Hope this helps! ~~~ Macey

Empress Shana, it really is a good idea to see a doctor on this. I'm no expert, but by starving yourself for three days and then only eating veggies and fruit, you are getting little to no protein. Your body needs protein to survive. If it doesn't get it from your diet, it takes it from your muscles. You may lose the weight you think you need to lose, but you are probably losing it from your muscles. When you gain it back (and a diet like this leads to your gaining it back unless you keep this cycle up for life...and that would do terrible things to your health), you'll gain back fat, not muscle. So you'll actually be in a worse place than you were when you started.

Keep the same mantra you heard here--eat less, move more. If you can't count calories, use the information online (like www.fitday.com) to help you count portion size--either weight or volume. You can reduce what you eat and do more exercise and lose this weight safely and without the side effects you'll see with this plan.

We have a sweetener here called xylitol. Not sure if it's related to yours.

This diet sounds sketchy to me. A healthy rate of weight loss is .5 to 2 lbs/week, and up to 6 in your first week because of water weight. I think the general opinion around here is that it is better to make healthy changes that you can sustain for life than to lose really fast -- usually if you lose really fast you gain it right back. I doubt that once you finish with this cycle you will stay at that weight for life.

Don't forget that your body needs the nutrients in grains and fats just as much as it needs those in vegetables and fruits -- we just need to make sure not to eat too much. Also, I don't know how much weight you want to lose, but the "healthy" body weight range (based on BMI) for someone 5'4" is 108 - 145 lbs, just for reference.

Good luck!

That's exactly what I thought....I read this a couple days ago and didn't know how to respond. It just doesn't sound right.

Good luck and please be careful

Shana - I just wanted to say Hi! to another WI girl!
I was just wondering what made you decide to move to China?