Medifast diet

"Ignoramus8847" wrote in message
...
On 9/16/2003 10:24 PM, Jennifer Austin wrote:

The diet only works if you are willing to change the
habits and lifestyle that made or kept you obese. I only know a few
people
who were long term successful with HMR. The people I know who gained
all of
their weight back had 2 things in common - they didn't attend
maintenance
classes long enough or at all, and didn't keep up the 2000 cal/wk. of
exercise.

Why did they stop? Didn't they value what they accomplished?

To me, regaining my weight is my biggest nightmare.

i

I try not to get into too many reasons why people stop because it usually
turns into someone feeding me a bunch of excuses that I really don't
sympathize with. Some have been quite honest about the fact that they
thought losing the weight was going to be all they had to do in spite of the
classes and the constant education about the need for permanent lifestyle
change.

Jennifer

"Ignoramus2551" wrote in message
...
In article , Jennifer Austin wrote:
I try not to get into too many reasons why people stop because it
usually
turns into someone feeding me a bunch of excuses that I really don't
sympathize with. Some have been quite honest about the fact that they
thought losing the weight was going to be all they had to do in spite of
the
classes and the constant education about the need for permanent
lifestyle
change.

I see. I wonder what kind of excuses. Couldn't they think through
their situation rationally? None of these excuses would stand the
light of day and they committed an obvious mistake. Why would that be?
Were they stupid? Were they not trying to do some introspection?

I am not trying to be smug here, I am very afraid that one day somehow
I will again lapse into self denial and regain my fat, with disastrous
consequences for my entire life.

i
223/178/180

Denial pretty much explains it all as far as I'm concerned. No need to
really change your lifestyle because dropping the weight will fix
everything. Not everyone is introspective when it comes to dieting, hence
the high failure rate of most plans. Plenty of people try HMR thinking it's
an easy way to lose a lot of weight and once it's done there's no need to
keep up any actual effort or work. Cut back on exercise, go back to old
eating habits, don't go to maintenance class, the weight creeps back - blow
off the first 5 pounds, when it gets to 50 blame the diet.

On Fri, 19 Sep 2003 22:43:18 -0500, "Jennifer Austin"
wrote:


"Ignoramus2551" wrote in message
...
In article , Jennifer Austin wrote:
I try not to get into too many reasons why people stop because it
usually
turns into someone feeding me a bunch of excuses that I really don't
sympathize with. Some have been quite honest about the fact that they
thought losing the weight was going to be all they had to do in spite of
the
classes and the constant education about the need for permanent
lifestyle
change.

I see. I wonder what kind of excuses. Couldn't they think through
their situation rationally? None of these excuses would stand the
light of day and they committed an obvious mistake. Why would that be?
Were they stupid? Were they not trying to do some introspection?

I am not trying to be smug here, I am very afraid that one day somehow
I will again lapse into self denial and regain my fat, with disastrous
consequences for my entire life.

i
223/178/180

Denial pretty much explains it all as far as I'm concerned. No need to
really change your lifestyle because dropping the weight will fix
everything. Not everyone is introspective when it comes to dieting, hence
the high failure rate of most plans. Plenty of people try HMR thinking it's
an easy way to lose a lot of weight and once it's done there's no need to
keep up any actual effort or work. Cut back on exercise, go back to old
eating habits, don't go to maintenance class, the weight creeps back - blow
off the first 5 pounds, when it gets to 50 blame the diet.

I don't think it's nearly as straightforward as this. Lifestyle means
a lot more than just diet and exercise or indeed anything related to
healthy living. I can think of more than one person I've known IRL
who lost all their excess weight and promptly regained it because they
were'nt prepared for the fact that being slim isn't enough to solve
problems they have in other areas of their life. IMO it's essential
to realise there could well be other things besides what you eat to
deal with when you reach goal - anti climax being one of them. I try
and think about this now and prepare for it mentally.

janice
233/161/133

On Tue, 16 Sep 2003 02:30:02 GMT, "DB" wrote:
Does anyone know anything about Medifast diet (Medifastdiet.com)?

Medifast is one of the three most successful commercial diets
available, behind Health Management Resources and Optifast. I used
HMR, which unlike Medifast, does not rely on ketosis. I had great
success. While I didn't do Medifast, I'll be happy to answer any
specific questions you may have about such programs, in general.


--
¤bicker¤
"It is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than
to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring."
- Carl Sagan

People are, of course, welcome to place whatever irrelevant
limitations on their ability to enjoy something that they wish.

On Wed, 17 Sep 2003 08:48:42 -0400, jmk
wrote:
When I was driving home yesterday I heard and interesting program on
Talk of the Nation (http://www.npr.org/programs/totn/index.html) about
weight loss drugs. The guests seemed to agree with Jennifer's statement
about Medifast -- they work when combined with counselling/maintenance
classes and they don't work so well long-term if people don't make
changes in their lives.

Indeed. That's true of any approach, really. If you just "go on the
diet" for a while, and then go back to how you were eating before, it
shouldn't be surprising that you'll regain the weight.

Programs like Medifast, Optifast and Health Management Resources (HMR)
typically require participation in on-going support counseling aimed
in that direction (though, of course, they can't force participants to
learn what is taught -- it is a two-way street, as always wish such
things).


--
¤bicker¤
"It is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than
to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring."
- Carl Sagan

People are, of course, welcome to place whatever irrelevant
limitations on their ability to enjoy something that they wish.

On Tue, 16 Sep 2003 21:24:20 -0500, "Jennifer Austin"
wrote:
I'm on HMR (Health Management Resources). I believe they are similar but I
do not know what Medifast's plan entails so I cannot say beyond the fact
that they both use meal replacements.

The most significant difference between the two, from what I
understand, is that Medifast relies, at least in part, on ketosis.

I only know a few people who were long term successful with HMR.

raises hand

grin

The reality is that HMR has the best success-rates of any commercial
weight-loss program, according to Consumer Reports. (Unfortunately,
they haven't done a study recently, so the data's getting a bit old --
however, it seems to me from what I've seen of the program over the
past few years that their success rates could only be increasing.
However, as you pointed out, the principal responsibility is still on
the patient, not the program.)


--
¤bicker¤
"It is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than
to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring."
- Carl Sagan

People are, of course, welcome to place whatever irrelevant
limitations on their ability to enjoy something that they wish.

On Fri, 19 Sep 2003 20:00:44 -0500, "Jennifer Austin"
wrote:
"Ignoramus8847" wrote in message
...
Why did they stop? Didn't they value what they accomplished?
To me, regaining my weight is my biggest nightmare.
I try not to get into too many reasons why people stop because it usually
turns into someone feeding me a bunch of excuses that I really don't
sympathize with.

Gosh. Been there. Know EXACTLY what you mean.

I've noted that these are often the same folks who, at the
orientation, complained loudly about the taste of the shakes. I
wonder if there is a connection.


--
¤bicker¤
"It is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than
to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring."
- Carl Sagan

People are, of course, welcome to place whatever irrelevant
limitations on their ability to enjoy something that they wish.

On 20 Sep 2003 03:20:54 GMT, Ignoramus2551
wrote:
In article , Jennifer Austin wrote:
I try not to get into too many reasons why people stop because it usually
turns into someone feeding me a bunch of excuses that I really don't
sympathize with. Some have been quite honest about the fact that they
thought losing the weight was going to be all they had to do in spite of the
classes and the constant education about the need for permanent lifestyle
change.
I see. I wonder what kind of excuses. Couldn't they think through
their situation rationally?

That's asking a lot, sometimes, with such an emotion-laden subject as
eating. People eat for a variety of reasons beyond sustenance.

None of these excuses would stand the
light of day and they committed an obvious mistake.

The same could be said about any excuse for anything unhealthy.

Why would that be? Were they stupid? Were they not trying to do some introspection?
I am not trying to be smug here . . .

I don't think that question is as outrageous as it may seem to some.
In this specific case, we know these folks spent an awful lot of money
on this program. However, despite that, see above, how
emotion-laden the subject is.


--
¤bicker¤
"It is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than
to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring."
- Carl Sagan

People are, of course, welcome to place whatever irrelevant
limitations on their ability to enjoy something that they wish.

On Thu, 18 Sep 2003 02:25:39 GMT, Steve Knight
wrote:
When I was driving home yesterday I heard and interesting program on
Talk of the Nation (http://www.npr.org/programs/totn/index.html) about
weight loss drugs. The guests seemed to agree with Jennifer's statement
about Medifast -- they work when combined with counselling/maintenance
classes and they don't work so well long-term if people don't make
changes in their lives.
I think it also requires a lot of exercise to keep from loosing muscle.

Some, yes. "A lot." Not-so-sure.


--
¤bicker¤
"It is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than
to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring."
- Carl Sagan

People are, of course, welcome to place whatever irrelevant
limitations on their ability to enjoy something that they wish.

On Tue, 16 Sep 2003 02:30:02 GMT, "DB" wrote:
Does anyone know anything about Medifast diet (Medifastdiet.com)?
Any hint/info/personal-experience will be much appreciated!

Hmmm... I put "my story" up on my web site so I don't have to post it
all the time, but maybe every-so-often it is okay to repost it:

A little about me and my journey. I'm 39 and happily married. I've
been obese most of my life (not just "my adult life") except for a
three year period in the late 1980s and early 1990s. After many
attempts to get my weight under control, I was able to lose 75 pounds
on Weight Watchers, and keep it off for three years (which, I'm told,
weight-loss experts consider "practically forever"). I kept to the
program very closely ("diet exchanges" back then), drank lots of
water, did a five mile walk three times per week, and basically
starved myself, to a great extent, down to 175. I kept the weight off
through diligence, watching everything I ate, and maintaining my
walking regimen.

About ten years ago, I took a job as an international management
consultant, which put me in a different city, just about every day or
two, 200+ days per year. It was nice to see the world, but the
disruption to my control over my intake and expenditure of calories
was immediately noticeable (by all except me, of course). Over the
course of a year, I gained the weight back, and over five years of
this job, I managed to top-out at over 265.

I, of course, made many attempts to get back to a healthy weight. I
tried Weight Watchers again, but for some reason it didn’t work this
time. My suspicion is that I had decimated my muscle mass the first
time, and so my old approach wasn't suited to overcoming both that and
addressing the weight problem as well. The less I ate, the less my
body burned. I had become more efficient. :\

I tried Atkins. I was relatively successful, losing 35 pounds.
However, I'm in that 10% minority that reacts negatively to Atkins,
and my cholesterol shot through the roof. My doctor took me off
Atkins.

Other efforts were ineffective, or only temporarily effective. I was
on Meridia for a while, and lost about 15 pounds, but gained it right
back after I stopped taking the drug.

In 1999, my wife and I started practicing yoga. Yoga is one of those
wonderful activities that can work well regardless of your current
physical condition. I gained a lot of flexibility, and a little bit of
strength. As I got better, I started noticing a small pain in my leg.
It eventually grew to a shooting pain. It wasn't debilitating, but it
was annoying.

Doctors were puzzled. It didn't fit any condition they could think of.
I had x-rays and did physical therapy, in addition to continuing my
yoga, for many months. Eventually, the orthopedist "gave up" and sent
me for an MRI, figuring that there really couldn't be anything there
that would be illuminating, but it was a necessary step before
recommending exploratory surgery. I was on the treadmill in physical
therapy when the orthopedist received the MRI back; he sent the PT
right in to get me OFF the treadmill, telling me, "You're done here."

What they found was Degenerative Disc Disease, with multiple
manifestations throughout my back. One disc had ruptured and was
applying extreme pressure to my sciatic nerve. The doctors were amazed
that I was still able to walk. Remember, I was not only able to walk,
but I was practicing yoga several times per week, at a moderately
advanced level. Indeed, it was the yoga that was keeping me from being
in as much pain as they would have expected to see given the problem I
actually had, which is why they had such a hard time diagnosing it.

I was referred to a neurosurgeon who showed me the extent of the
problem. He pointed out the ruptured disc and said, "That's what we're
going to fix now." Then he pointed to another black splotch, "That's a
couple of years down the line." Then another, "That's a couple of
years after that." And so on. I asked him what could I do to avoid
these future back problems? He said, "Absolutely nothing. You have
DDD; you will have these problems."

The only thing I could do was delay the inevitable, through a
combination of strengthening my back muscles (which, of course, the
yoga was already helping with) and losing weight. He guessed that if I
lost 30 pounds, it would push that next problem out from two years
down the line to maybe five or ten years down the line.

After my surgery, I did physical therapy for a while and then went
back to yoga, slowly. However, that next back surgery was still
looming for me. Finally, after a trip to Egypt (see my web site for a
cool travelogue of that trip) that reinforced how much LIFE I was
missing out on because I couldn't do so many things due to my weight,
I was ready to try to lose weight again.

This time I was dead serious; the stakes were too high. I did a lot of
research. I investigated drugs, surgery, and every regimen I could get
my hands on data for. In the end, my decision would be governed
primarily by one metric; the ultimate success rate metric for
weight-loss: percentage of weight-lost maintained over a two-year
period. The program was a medically-supervised very-low calorie diet,
through a clinic of Newton-Wellesly Hospital, here in Massachusetts,
operated by Health Management Resources. Their "success rate" has been
pegged by external researchers at about 22% (compared to 5% for Weight
Watchers, for example).

I spent about 13 weeks on a primarily liquid diet of protein shakes,
working up from 5000 calories per week to about 8000. I built up my
exercise from about 1200 calories per week to about 2000 calories per
week during that time. I lost about 45 pounds, and had a completely
different outlook on life. I was feeling stronger and better than I
ever had on other diets, which did not take into consideration the
amount of protein necessary to safeguard muscle mass. Rather than
running out of steam, I was just getting started.

I had been supplementing the liquid shakes with pre-packaged low-cal
entrees at times ("never get hungry" was the rule), and my second 13
weeks build on those to a greater extent, as well as adding in fruits
and vegetables over time.

After about seven months I had lost all the weight I had gained over
the previous ten years, and was back to 175, the top of the "healthy
range" for my height. I transitioned into maintenance, and kept up my
calorie balancing and exercise regimen, averaging about 3000 calories
of physical activity per week, spread among walking, biking, hiking,
yoga, Viniyasa (power yoga), and later kayaking. I feel that the focus
on getting enough protein, and making sure I was doing enough
weight-bearing exercise, was key in helping me continue to lose
weight, until I reached what I consider an ideal weight for me, which
I reached about a year ago. I've fluttered around that mark since
then, but haven't gone more than +2 or -2 from there, now being sure
to balance my expenditure with adequate intake each week.

So, that's my story, what I hope can be considered a success story, in
time. Having gotten to a healthy weight once before, and maintained
that healthy weight for what many consider the long-term, I feel
confident that I'm much better positioned this time. I lost remarkably
little muscle mass this time. (Indeed, I had to lose some, since my
muscle mass when I started was higher than my current total weight!)
I'm building up muscle, which will help me burn-off any excess caloric
intake that happens to slip by my vigilant food journaling, not to
mention safeguard my back from the disease that threatens it. I
haven't checked with my neurosurgeon since I lost the weight, but I
suspect that my next back problem is far more than ten years away at
this point.

My weight management program relies heavily on use of meal
replacements (such as protein shakes and low-calorie pre-portioned
entrées), fruits and vegetables, exercise, and support. Weekly
meetings help reinforce what we've learned and what we live, and each
week we undertake exercises -- specific challenges -- around one of
the keystones of the lifestyle we now embrace. For example, one week,
the assignment was to have two "high PA" days -- days with greater
than average exercise expenditure.

The weekly meetings were very helpful. I also draw on the support of
my wife, who undertook the same challenge I did two years ago, and
lost 65 pounds herself. While the meetings are helpful, they're not
free, and they’re not all that convenient -- sometimes I think that
the time I spend commuting to and from the clinic could be better
spent exercising! So, a couple of months ago, we start supporting
ourselves to a greater extent. I'm active in a few online weight-loss
support forums. I feel that these forums are excellent ways of both
getting the support you need to lose weight, but also to maintain the
healthy lifestyle that you've adopted.


--
¤bicker¤
"It is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than
to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring."
- Carl Sagan

People are, of course, welcome to place whatever irrelevant
limitations on their ability to enjoy something that they wish.