I have to say that you are wrong on the first week weight lose. The wife and I went on a program called HMR for weight lose and weight management in October of 2006. After the first week she lost 16 pounds and I lost 13. your bigest lose is in the first week because of all the water you lose. We did not have the long hard workouts for 8 hours plus a day that they have on the biggest loser. After 3 months I lost 70 pounds. To this day we have both kept the weight off me at 100 pounds and her at over 160 pounds. So the numbers for the first week can be very REAL.
for most dieters who don't go on "extreme programs" like thos e- weight loss of that amount are rare. Morbidly obese people do tend to lose large amounts of weight in the first week - and you;re right - it is mostly water - which in the health community we don;t call "real" only because we refer to fat loss as the real weight loss - it's just semantics - indeed on liquid diets, hospital based very low calorie diets - a severly obese person can see large weight loss the first week.
The HMR Program is not an "extreme program" in any way. It is supervised by a medical staff, where you see the doctor weekly, urine samples weekly, blood test every other week, and of cours a complete work-up before even starting the program. HMR is not so much a DIET but it is a change of life and a way to manage your weight. The wife had tried all the other programs and non of them worked except for a few months but with not much loss. This HMR program does work if you really want to lose and if you stick to it. The best thing about it is there are no side effects unless you consider no longer taking pills for health issues. Now I will agree with the moridly pbese person, we had one who the first week droped almost 40 pounds. This was rare since most of those on this program range from 60 to 200 pounds overweight.
I am going to assume that there was sudden calorie restriction, portion control or som eother "major modification" that caused you to drop the weight - and again, the more you need to lose, the more you will lose with a sudden change of any kind in the first week or even 2 - so again, without knowing what foods or calorie levels or exercise recommendations were made in this program - a sudden change will cause the body to react but the body does quickly accomodate and "calm down" a bit, usually to a weight lods of 1-3 pounds weekly on most healthy programs (unless you are adding in radical exercising).
Congrats for taking and keeping the weight off!!
If you go to HMR on line you can find out more about this program. They start us out with at least 500 cals per day. NO excersise at all to start. After about 2 months you are burning 2000cal a week. I agree that 1-3 is normal but if under Doctor care and not under the KNIFE this plan is the greatest.
so just to be clear - 500 calories a day is what we call a "very extremem low calorie diet" which should only be recommended to morbidly obese people who need to lose weight because the seriousness of their weight load is extrmem in terms of heart disease, diabetes or other serious health risks. This kind of a diet plan does not appeal to most people - it's just too extremem and the medical supervision commitment is paramount. i have had huge numbers of people come thru my practice AFTER trying these (there are a number of them) and they get in to trouble with weight maintenance. So again, if it successfully keeps your weight off for 5 years - we then call it a successful plan - if you look at the National Diet Registry - you will not find too many patients with this diet as their "success story." My mom personally did this 3 times and still put the weight back on each time. So again, if it works for you - long term - great - but its track record is not significantly different than most weight loss programs.
Yes - I have checked it out - and all across america there are "very low calorie/medically supervised programs" that are nothing more than a "serious diet with very serious parameters" - statistically 66 and 2/3% of Americans are overweight or obese and 33% of kids and teens are as well. if this were the "miracle diet" you clearly believe that it is - then there should have been a major statistical change in the american profile - since diets like these are available at almost every university type medical center. Being overweight orr obese is a serious and challenging medical issue - there is no "one size fits all" diet out there so as usual my attitude is - the diet that is best for you is the one that takes off the right amount of weight without endangering your health during the process AND keeps it off for a minimum of 5 years - since the 5 year point is what most health experts will use as a measure of success.
if this program achieves that for you - then great - you will likely offset health issues associated with being obese and add years to your life. For most - these diets tend to be too extreme and if they do the much higher calorie version - they do not see the fast weight loss you describe. Even a 1200-1300 calorie diet which for most people is still quite low - will not yield for most people a wieght loss as quickly as you describe.
so i'm not insulting the diet - i'm merely suggesting it is not for everyone and does not statistically achieve long term successful weight loss for most, which is ultimately the goal - with most of its participants.
Good luck to you though.
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Excellent article. I'm a 45 year old woman, but I remember when my own body image issues began - when I got my first "SEVENTEEN" magazine at age 13. I was 5'4", 110 pounds, fit and athletic. I had curves and muscles. The girls on the cover, the magazine told me, were 5'9 or 10" tall and weighed 102. They looked like long legged colts, with no hips, no breasts, and more importantly, they looked nothing like me. From that moment on, I felt something was wrong with me. Truth be told, sometimes I still do.
As the concerned stepparent of a beautiful but pop-culture obsessed 15 year old girl, I see her going through a different kind of reaction to this media brainwashing. She DOES look like these colt-like girls, and she's naturally skinny without a big appetite. But I heard her the other day talking to another friend about how "fat" Jessica Simpson is. She takes advantage of her low appetite to skip meals, and sometimes fakes how much she's eaten. She is obsessed with staying a size 00 and idolizes Paris Hilton, Nicole Richie and the girls on the Hills and 90210.
Her doctor says she's slightly underweight but otherwise healthy, and feels there is nothing to worry about, even though she only recently got her first period. Her father and mother are worried, but don't know what to do, and what can we all do? What are a bunch of "lame" adults in comparison with the cultural pressures reflected back at her every day? Trying to urge her to eat more only has the opposite effect.
(The irony is, of course, that boys her age generally prefer the curvier girls.)
The fashion industry is partly to blame - designing for clothes and not for people. But honestly, I can understand why very overweight people would just give up altogether. When they compare themselves to the images they see all around them, they must feel hopeless.
You are coping with what most mother of teen girls (and even teen boys) cope with and it is so trying in this day and age to raise a teen with a "healthy weight and healthy self image' who does not become tempted by the extreme celebrity bodies out there. it is incredibly challenging and one small key is constant healthy dialogue and of course parents themselves walking the walk, so to speak.
We try to keep a dialogue going and although I used to constantly bemoan my own body flaws, I stopped cold when The Girl came into my life. Something in me warned me that I didn't want to contribute to giving her the issues I had at her age. Her dad and I have to watch our weight from time to time but we eat healthy and frequently - no meal skipping, no starvation or extremes going on in this household. We are much bigger on outdoor exercise than dieting. But we aren't really role models to her anymore, as much as her peers and her celebrity idols are. People Magazine is her Bible.
I know the situation is incredibly daunting but there are "healthy role models" out there - Hayden Panitierri from heroes, the women on Mad Men, even jessica simpson is not 'rail thin" and so I'd try to find those women and dialogue about how they seem to radiate and take care of themselves and yes, you need to as the mom, to not bemoan your own flaws or unhappinesses with your body and just keep modeling good health habits - trust me - as a mom of two - they do hear and see what you are doing too - even if they don't ever bring it up.
good luck