Physician Supervised Starvation Diet

I have done a medical fast, where you eat no food, but you consume 5 "nutrition packs" a day each of which contains 100 calories.    They took blood work weekly to verify I was healthy.     I was exercising every other day doing an hour on the treadmill and an hour of strength training.    I did that for seven months, and as a result, I lost 42 lbs.   (Yes, ONLY 42lbs.   That's less than 2 lbs a week which is supposedly what you can lose on Weigh****chers.)  

Despite the fact that I *was* still losing weight, my insurance company kicked me out of the program because my rate of loss was too slow.   They thought I was cheating.   Within 30 days of returning to normal (eating about 1800 calories a day), I had already regained 30 lbs.    I went on to regain another 70lbs over the next 8 years, reaching my high weight of 277lbs.     

I lost my gall bladder as a result and ended up regaining 250% of the weight I lost!!

That was a driving factor in my decision to have the DS because I had already done severe restriction by itself, and it backfired.    Neither the lap band nor the RNY offered enough additional firepower to interest me.   I knew I needed something completely different.

--BT

 I assume you mean starvation with a meal replacement like protein drinks, right?  I did Optifast several years ago.  I lost 100 pounds, kept it off for about 2 years and gained all and more back.  And, my metabolism has never been the same.  My body remembers being starved, and won't let go of anything very easily. I was on liquid protein drinks for 3 solid months and no food at all, and then gradually, food was reintroduced back in.  Yes, I was successful, but like every other diet, it all came back...  Just another stupid idea and money maker!

Nope. NO meal replacement.... Starvation, as in "nothing by mouth except for water and 1 vitamin per day". Seriously.

 Wouldn't that damage the liver and the heart?  How does someone survive this?  I mean, look at all the anorexics who die from cardiac arrest because of what starvation does to the heart muscle...

Those are skinny anorexics. I asked the same question.

The heart muscle is damaged, because the body tries to break it down for fuel. In obese people, we have plenty of fuel - stored as fat. Obese bodies go into ketosis and burn the ketones, not muscle.

 Actually, there are many non- skinny anorexics who have died.  I am a former social worker and used to have adolescents on my caseload that were in a hospital in -patient program.  I can remember the teens who died from cardiac arrest, and they were not skinny...  Also, when I was on the Optifast program, we had EKGs weekly.  They told us that we could still have our cardiac muscle damaged even though we were obese.  We had to sign a release that said we understood that.   In fact, we were told that it is easier for the body to break down muscle than utilize the protein drinks we were taking in.   I have to say, this idea seems insane!

Hmm.  Is this a STUDY?  Surely it isn't a medically accepted treatment program??

1.  No food = temporary same thing as DS (food doesn't touch the receptors in the distal duodenum/jejunum) that cures type 2 diabetes -- but what happens when food is reintroduced?  Even if the weight loss temporarily puts the diabetes in remission what about after weight regain?

2.  Which brings up, what happens to their weight when food is reintroduced?  What happened to ALL of us when food was reintroduced after a starvation-type diet?  How awful to go through this TORTURE only to regain the weight in less time than it took to lose it!!

This is utterly ridiculous.  I'd like to see the statistics on this -- of course, the Head Torturer (I mean Principle Investigator, assuming this IS a study) would blame in on patient non-compliance.

Diana, this was exactly my first thought. I have asked Dan to register so he can chime in on the discussions that took place and the patients.

This is NOT a study. An Internal Review Board would not likely approve a study such as this, so the endocrinologist is prescribing this starvation and exercise as the treatment for obesity and diabetes. Apparently, there are several physicians doing this. The endocrine department at UT Memphis is well known for their diabetes research and have several well-known faculty members in this area.

I am still astounded that they have patients who are going along with it.

I asked about weight when food is reintroduced and supposedly there is not a marked increase in weight. The loss slows or stops, but if the patients keep to 1 hour of cardio excercise per day and under 1800 calories, things seem to be fine. That being said, give me actual data and statistics!

I, personally, find this to be bogus, but this is what he is being taught at a teaching hospital as a resident. At least he is able to question them and try to educate them on the DS.

Again, I've asked him to register so he can chime in, but I've shown him this link and he agrees with everything I have stated thus far.

Bethany

These doctors are pig******g ******** who need to comply with EXACTLY what they are asking their patients to do.

By doing this these patients have completely screwed up their metabolism for YEARS to come. Once they reintroduce food their bodies will hold onto every single calorie it gets because it is in starvation mode. This is a crazy weight loss plan imo and has no chance of any good long term stats. Oprah lost tons of weight years ago on a liquid only diet. Did a whole show about how good it was and how well it worked....she even admitted to going OUT TO EAT to celebrate her success and the weight quickly went right back on and then some.