I needed to lose weight because I was eating very badly.


First, thank you for the most helpful website I have found on the Internet.

In a nutshell, I needed to lose weight because, to put it bluntly, I was eating very badly. Daily trips to MickyD’s. I hurt my feet in Tae Kwon Do and was letting them heal (I should have warmed up). I started to eat at the fast food joints more them I should. I was enjoying too many candy treats, the old favorites pretzels, and chips. So I went from a lean 200 to 270 pounds in about 2 years. It kind of slips up on ya!

Well, I finally started to notice the weight especially when I made my way back to Tae Kwon Do. It was awful I was big, roly-poly, slow, and had no endurance. I was not sleeping as well as I did before the weight and I noticed I was breathing harder.

I took action because I did not want to stroke out anytime soon since I am a scout leader. The boys would come up and say wow Mr. Smith you are fat. (Kids are brutal but honest.)

I asked around and I heard about a doctor who just did this sort of thing supposedly he is a weight loss doctor. I took the plunge and went to the class and saw the doctor. Basically, I was told I was insulin resistant. I had to cut the carbs out and I would lose weight fast.

He asked me if I would like to have drugs to help with the hunger. I said yes, but I did say I wanted something safe. I have never been into taking drugs for anything. He gave me Phentermine 30 milligrams, Phendimetrazine 35 milligrams, and 3 colorful amino acids. Plus I am taking a multivitamin. I feel like a pill junkie.

I started to get a bad feeling about this guy when he started to push his products, but I was in a hurry to get back down to my weight. Well, I followed his diet plan and I had pain in my stomach right before I had to go the bathroom. Then it was like water and it came 3 or 4 times a day. Right at the end of the first week, I was feeling very bad. I felt weak and it was hard to think like I hit the wall.

I got some carbs into my system right them and I started to recover. I got a piece of fruit, ate it, and felt 100% better. I came home after my shift and found your website I was mad. I copied the information and went to one of the helpers who the doctor used to push the diet and confronted him about this. He asked was I eating the 75 grams of carbs the doctors said to eat? I told him I was never told to eat 75 grams of carbs and was encouraged to eat very little carbs, even though 75 grams of carbs are too little anyway.

I went to 150 grams of carbs ( Mind you I gave up fast food, sugared sodas, chips, candy etc). I felt better. My total calorie intake was 1200 to 1400 which concerned me as being a little low.

I went for the checkup and lost 15 pounds, the doctor encouraged me to go back on the low carb diet again so I did. Well, it started again with the stomach so I decided to get off this diet roller coaster and just eat well.

I have slowly gained 5 pounds, but I think that was replacing the lost fluids in the muscle. One of the things that bothered me from the start was the amount of meat, cheese, and fat that he was saying to eat. I am not much of a meat eater. I like bread, grains, and veggies. It was so hard for me to eat that amount of meat and not to mention the $50 every 2 weeks in medicine for the amino acids and the other pills.

I am making an appointment with a dietitian to have her help me plan my meals and help me take control over my eating the safe way. I am going to get off these pills and just eat right!

Well, I am sorry about the long letter, but you opened my eyes to this. One more thing just in passing, the heart is a muscle and when the body is starving for glucose it gets it from the lean muscles…Yikes almost makes me want a big tall glass of orange juice.

Thanks for telling me your story. Unfortunately, I have heard it many times before with slightly different details, but a similar story about a silver bullet diet/supplement that guarantees good health or painless weight loss. I am very glad you found a dietitian to provide you with a weight loss diet that incorporates your health goals. Stick with her/him through your weight loss program and remember to exercise.

Haven’t a clue what a heuristic(?) doctor is or did you mean bariatric??? Bariatric doctors work with obese patients. While Phentermine was taken off the market in 1997, it was only prescribed by a medical doctor and short-term (few weeks) for persons with a BMI greater than 30 who has other risk factors like diabetes, high blood pressure or cholesterol/triglycerides. One side effect of phentermine is primary pulmonary hypertension (high blood pressure in the lungs). Phentermine is not recommended to be used in combination with any other drugs according to the manufacturer. Don’t know what Dhendimotrazine is.  Did you mean Phendimetrazine? Please check the spelling. Amino acid supplements don’t do anything food sources of protein can’t and supplements can add stress to your kidneys which are trying to remove ketones produced by burning body fat without sufficient carbohydrates.

Sounds like something you were taking or eating caused diarrhea. Not a good way to lose weight as it depletes your body of fluids and potassium.

Who told you to eat 75 grams of carbs? The doctor you saw? Minimum need for carbs is 130 grams to prevent ketosis. You are correct in that when you stop a dehydrating diet and start eating normally, you will rehydrate yourself and gain weight back. But then you hadn’t lost bodyfat; you probably lost water weight.

If you would like a Calorie Goal calculated for you, try my Healthy Body Calculator® where you can select to lose 1 to 2-pounds per week. Then on your results page, click on the button “do you need a healthy eating plan” and your data will be transferred to HELP. HELP Healthy Eating For Life Plan® will create a personalized healthy eating plan based on your preferences for the type of milk, meat, beans, and snacks. Your eating plan is linked to a small food database from which you can create daily menus.

Eating a lot of meat and cheese can mean you are eating a lot of fat depending on the meats and cheese you choose to eat. A high protein diet is nauseating due to the high levels of ketones in your blood. Your body doesn’t like to run on ketones which your kidneys try to filter out.

For $100 a month, you could have joined a health club for good exercise and weightlifting.

Regarding your sleep, you may have sleep apnea (quit breathing while sleeping) for which I would highly recommend seeing your regular doctor, not this weight loss doctor.

Some questions to ask yourself next time a diet or supplement sounds too good to be true.

  1. What are the credentials of the person offering advice, are these credentials in the same area this person is practicing? Are these credentials from an accredited college or university? A Registered Dietitian(RD) has the education, expertise, and passed a national registration test to practice nutrition as well as continuing education requirements to maintain their registration.
  2. Is this person selling supplements or pills that must be used or in combination with their diet? Unless the supplement is backed by nutrition research substantiating the need for a specific nutrient, most people don’t need a daily vitamin or mineral supplement unless their food intake is less than 1600 calories per day.
  3. Does this person push their supplements because they say our soils are depleted of nutrients or processing removes most nutrients? Food is the best source of nutrients needed by the human body while the maximum most vitamin or mineral supplements are absorbed is 15%. Food labels show the nutrient content (protein, carbs, fats, vitamins, minerals) for both raw and processed foods that are sold in grocery stores. National chain restaurants are required to post calorie content on their menu items also.
  4. Are whole groups of foods like starches omitted or magic foods that must be eaten daily? Healthy diets, including weight loss diets, contain foods from all food groups – meat, dairy, grains, fruits, vegetables, and healthy fats. Omitting whole groups of foods decreases your intake of vitamins and minerals found in omitted foods.
  5. Does this person have special tests they can perform on you to determine your nutritional status? Tests to determine nutritional status are best performed by a Registered Dietitian or medical doctor. These tests can include a physical exam, blood and urine tests that are analyzed in medical laboratories. Hair, eye, and muscle strength tests are bogus and cannot determine nutritional status.
  6. Does this person use testimonials (It worked for me so you should try it) rather than nutrition research to substantiate their diet or supplement claims? Nutrition practice is based on research that has passed the rigors of multiple studies and review by peers as sound.
  7. Do they promise quick, dramatic results rather than long-term success? Most nutritional remedies take time, especially weight loss. You didn’t gain excess weight overnight.
  8. Do they claim they use “natural” products rather than synthetic ones? Ask yourself what is natural about a pill unless you have seen a pill tree, bush, or plant.
  9. Do these people downplay or not explain negative aspects of their diet or supplements? There are positive and negative aspects of every food and supplement. Make sure you know what you are taking and how it can harm you by using a supplement or omitting a food before you pay money.
  10. Are these people telling you to take megadoses (many times the Recommended Dietary Allowance for a nutrient) of their supplements because the RDA’s are set too low or do they recommend you take supplements for which there is no RDA? The RDA’s are based on human clinical studies of the need for each nutrient. If an RDA doesn’t exist for a nutrient there has not yet been a substantiated need by the human body as determined by nutrition research. Dietary supplements are regulated by the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) and supplements can not make a health claim on the label.

Lastly, remember that we are PRACTICING nutrition, as we don’t have it perfect yet. But as we learn new information as new nutrition research is published, we pass this information along to consumers to improve their health and quality of life.

Thanks for your kind comments.