Hey all! The clinic in question actually has an ad on this site
What was I thinking? Well, I'd been to WW and got down from 212 lbs to 158 lbs, but "took a break" and gained right up to 244 lbs. I went back to WW and got down to 221 lbs but it took FOREVER. I was desperate. I wanted to lose the weight once and for all and FAST. I'd been on WW before and thought that 1/2 to 1 1/2 lbs per week (which is historically my pattern) was too slow. I fooled myself to think that I could lose the weight and THEN focus on healthy eating. An MD ran this program, so I thought it had credibility. I followed a pattern that I had followed for pretty much my whole life prior, from the Stillman Diet at age 12 (!) to the Grapefruit Diet to, well, pretty much every plan out there. I was looking for the quick fix that would work forever.
As for the walk, it actually WASN'T part of the diet plan at first. The diet plan was a very low calorie diet that had some carbs but mostly proteins and water. We had long, LONG lists of OK foods and forbidden foods. We had to write down what we ate and have it checked every day at the clinic. We had to bring in pee samples EVERY DAY and have them checked for ketosis levels. And if you weren't in ketosis at a moderate to high level, food groups would be eliminated.
My typical day was:
6 egg whites, 2 tbsps diced tomatos , mushrooms, onions
1 apple, 1 slice bread, 1 tsp fat free cream cheese
salad with mushrooms onions and 2 sprays fat-free dressing
3 oz chicken breast, 1 cup green beans or broccoli or caulliflour
That's it. That's all. At the end, I wasn't allowed the fruit anymore because I wasn't losing weight fast enough. They also eliminated the bread and the cream cheese. And tomatoes. And the green beans. And the fat-free dressing.
At that point, I stopped losing weight. And there were NO more food groups to eliminate. I discussed this with the MD in charge, and she said to up the exercise. I decided to walk to and from the clinic, 3.5 miles each way. It just about killed me. Because I was upping the exercise, she allowed me one apple a day. I was so HAPPY!! I'd eat this apple on my walk home because I was feeling really, really faint after just a mile. So, at this point, my typical day was:
6 egg whites, mushrooms, onions
green salad with mushrooms, onions, no dressing
1 apple
3 oz tuna packed in water, 1 cup boiled broccoli
At that point I thought THIS IS CRAZY!! How many calories am I REALLY eating? When I did the actual calorie count, it came to a whopping 452 calories per day averaged over 14 days. I brought this point up to the nurse and said that the program claims 900 calories a day, so where were my missing 448 calories? And she said that the needle of vitamin B12 gave me the rest of the calories!!! Which was ridiculous. After THAT I was summoned to a conference between the MD in charge, the nurse and myself, and was told that my attitude sucked and that my compliance was poor!!! I held it together until the meeting was over, but I cried the entire way home (between bites of my apple!
) because DARN IT, I WAS compliant! I HAD DONE EVERYTHING that was asked! I was in ketosis EVERY SINGLE VISIT -- I never had a non-positive urine test for ketone bodies! I was paying $50 a visit without results!!! And clearly it was ALL MY FAULT. It was CRAZY!!! And crazy-MAKING. And my A$$ hurt from all the needles.
So, at that point, I left the diet, at 171 lbs. The clinic has a no-refund policy for pre-paid plans. I didn't even have the energy to fight for the $500 left on my program. I lost that too. And without the skills to manage food, I regained 30 of the 50 lbs I lost to 201 lbs, back up to just slightly lower than where I was when I started, in a matter of WEEKS.
So I got desperate again! I didn't want to regain it ALL!! I had to do SOMETHING FAST, RIGHT NOW!! I paniced. I then went to Medifast!!! I lost the same 30 lbs quite quickly, but again, couldn't sustain the diet. I didn't exercise AT ALL on that program, and didn't plateau. But I made darn sure that I was completely sedentary. I got down to 171 lbs, went on vacation, and kept with the vacation all the way back UP , but this time, again to my pre-Medifast weight plus 1 pound. PANIC!!! I had to reassess WHAT THE HECK I WAS DOING. Do I EVER learn???
And this cycling between severe dieting and essentially binging clearly wasn't productive, nor healthy, nor effective in the long run. I decided that I had to address my LIFESTYLE, and not just the numbers on the scale. These quick plans taught me NOTHING about how to manage food for the rest of my life, and I sure wasn't in any great shakes cardiovascularly.
Well, I looked at all the plans, and on January 2nd of this year, I chose to return to WW at 202 lbs, which had worked for me in the past, and decided to focus on the lifestyle COMPLETELY. The diet and exercise are PART of the lifestyle. But the scale numbers aren't the be-all and end-all of this program. I equate SUCCESS with being OP and exercising. I'm now back down to 173.5 lbs, and this has taken me 6 months. And I'm at my traditional PANIC weight!!! But this time, I intend to stay the course. To do something I've never done before, which is be PATIENT and to focus on the lifestyle, not the numbers.
And just as a side note, about 10 years ago I lost alot on WW. I went from 221 lbs to 158 lbs. I lost an average of 6 lbs a month. I stayed in my plan, and I exercised like crazy. My typical day at the end (before I thought that I "deserved to take a break"
) was 25 WW points. My exercise plan was this:
days 1-5: walk to and from work 3 miles each way (total 10 km walk) PLUS a daily run rotating between 5 km (easy day), 5 km (fartlek), 8 km (distance), 5 km (easy day), 5 km (fast) PLUS 1 hour aquafit class at the local Y in the evening.
day 6: long distance run (12-15km)
day 7: rest.
And with ALL that exercise and on 25 WW points, I averaged a
1.5 lb loss a week. And I was younger than when I was on Medifast.
On Medifast, some 8 years LATER and OLDER, on 900 calories a day, no exercise, I averaged a
3 lb per week loss.
Go figure...
Kira
ps. I have my ticker at 244 lbs because, darn it, I "earned" every single one of those pounds when I started this journey at my all-time high!!! Even though I have been on a number of plans, this HAS been a very long and frustrating path!!!
? I'm glad that little *experiment* only lasted 6 weeks. And if that is what propelled you to do it "right" this time - well then I guess it was there for a reason. 
