Dr. Supervised Long Term Liquid Diet (12 weeks)

imabigvegan

Hi everyone,

After a considerable wait I have been given a start date to begin a 1 year weight loss program through the hospital's weight management clinic. I am starting on April 12th. After a 1 week introduction and reduction of solid foods I will embarking on a 12 week medically supervised liquid diet. I am aware of the expected side effects.

I am curious if anyone has done something similar and what types of recommendations or suggestions they might have for the weeks leading up to or during for the that matter. Is there anything you wish you would have prepared for differently a month out? A food that you wished you had let go of sooner, or gradually. I am vegan and I am used to cutting out foods but any insight would be helpful.

I am planning a weekend detox with a couple of weeks to go so I am not in heavy detox while on the diet making it even more miserable.

To be clear, it will be shakes provided by the program and not my own creations.

Any thoughts would be helpful!

trogalicious

just curious how 12 weeks is long term, and what happens afterwards?

jsherrill92

just curious how 12 weeks is long term, and what happens afterwards?

^^^

tarakizer

What program is it? I did the HMR Diet last year, medically supervised for 12 weeks and then transitioned to phase 2 and quickly went into maintenance mode. I'm almost a year out now, still attending support meetings and learning from the dietitian, and haven't gained anything back. The key has been my exercise routine though. The diet was simply a quick way to get rid of the weight. I had always lost weight at a snail's pace before (strict adherence to any diet that was tried), so this is why I sought out this diet.

fiercelittlebird

If I am understanding correctly, they said a 1 year weight loss program. Maybe 12 weeks is just the start to see how things are going and then adjust accordingly?

imabigvegan

its a one year program with the first 26 weeks of having weekly sessions that include group sessions, dietician, behaviorist, and exercises specialists and of course weekly Dr. appointments. After the 12 weeks there is a 1-2 week food introduction and continuation of the above noted support. A food plan and exercise plan that fits my lifestyle is created and worked. After 26 weeks there is one appointment per month for continued follow-up

trogalicious

Have you tried using MFP? I only ask because you note that you signed up for the site to track your calories and exercise. Has that not worked?

...and I haven't seen anything logged since October of last year. You don't have to go to extremes to see change, just tossing that out there.

imabigvegan

This program sounds very similar and my experience has been very similar to yours. weight loss has been slow or not at all regardless of diet and exercise. The hope is that the diet will kick my metabolism in the *kitten* and allow me to drop significant enough weight so that exercise is less painful.

feliligram

I can't imagine being on an all liquid diet. :P I'd miss chewing food.

ismiseciara

just curious how 12 weeks is long term, and what happens afterwards?

yes what happens after? I know your probably going to get a lot of "that's not a healthy way to loose weight" so I am not going to ..im just curious of how it works and what do you do afterwords? you must have some will power to do 12 weeks of it , fair play ! I don't think i could last that long,and if i did and i lost allot of weight i think id be afraid to eat solids afterwards , that's why im curious to know is their a process in place to return back to solids so that there's no weight gain?

imabigvegan

Have you tried using MFP? I only ask because you note that you signed up for the site to track your calories and exercise. Has that not worked?

...and I haven't seen anything logged since October of last year. You don't have to go to extremes to see change, just tossing that out there.

I have tried MFP and many other things. Part of the reason I have been referred to this program is that nothing has worked. I will rely heavily on MFP moving forward as I know it will work once I am able to get things moving.

imabigvegan

just curious how 12 weeks is long term, and what happens afterwards?

yes what happens after? I know your probably going to get a lot of "that's not a healthy way to loose weight" so I am not going to ..im just curious of how it works and what do you do afterwords? you must have some will power to do 12 weeks of it , fair play ! I don't think i could last that long,and if i did and i lost allot of weight i think id be afraid to eat solids afterwards , that's why im curious to know is their a process in place to return back to solids so that there's no weight gain?

yes for sure, thankfully it is actually a one year program that includes a lot of education, and maintenance, and exposure to exercise and healthy food plans etc.

imabigvegan

What program is it? I did the HMR Diet last year, medically supervised for 12 weeks and then transitioned to phase 2 and quickly went into maintenance mode. I'm almost a year out now, still attending support meetings and learning from the dietitian, and haven't gained anything back. The key has been my exercise routine though. The diet was simply a quick way to get rid of the weight. I had always lost weight at a snail's pace before (strict adherence to any diet that was tried), so this is why I sought out this diet.

sorry, i forgot to quote in reply. the post about the program sounding very similar was in response to your post! lol

trogalicious

Have you tried using MFP? I only ask because you note that you signed up for the site to track your calories and exercise. Has that not worked?

...and I haven't seen anything logged since October of last year. You don't have to go to extremes to see change, just tossing that out there.

I have tried MFP and many other things. Part of the reason I have been referred to this program is that nothing has worked. I will rely heavily on MFP moving forward as I know it will work once I am able to get things moving.

doing this extreme liquid diet isn't going to jump start anything. You haven't logged anything since october, so I'm not sure you're really giving it a fair shake.

I'm not trying to sway you because you're a grown man that is going to do what he wants, just give yourself some credit here. If you haven't logged regularly in 4 months, is this extreme liquid diet going to make you change that habit too?

Maybe you haven't given it enough time. Even looking back, you dove into a ton of fast food and I don't remember seeing much exercise out there. Find a balance. Try legitimately logging your food now, give it 6 weeks at an honest caloric deficit.. add some easy exercise in and see if it doesn't make a difference.

Mpol2

Is this the optifast program? If so I did this....and (embarrassment) I also did the Encore program for relapsers sevearral years after the original long program. There are a lot of good behavioral modification and educational aspects to this program and once you start transitioning back to real food it does give you useful tools to succeed long term, but like anything else, sustaining good habits and maintainence is the challenge. I encourage you to log via MFP the whole time, so that you have that good habit engrained for the long run.

imabigvegan

Have you tried using MFP? I only ask because you note that you signed up for the site to track your calories and exercise. Has that not worked?

...and I haven't seen anything logged since October of last year. You don't have to go to extremes to see change, just tossing that out there.

I have tried MFP and many other things. Part of the reason I have been referred to this program is that nothing has worked. I will rely heavily on MFP moving forward as I know it will work once I am able to get things moving.

doing this extreme liquid diet isn't going to jump start anything. You haven't logged anything since october, so I'm not sure you're really giving it a fair shake.

I'm not trying to sway you because you're a grown man that is going to do what he wants, just give yourself some credit here. If you haven't logged regularly in 4 months, is this extreme liquid diet going to make you change that habit too?

Maybe you haven't given it enough time. Even looking back, you dove into a ton of fast food and I don't remember seeing much exercise out there. Find a balance. Try legitimately logging your food now, give it 6 weeks at an honest caloric deficit.. add some easy exercise in and see if it doesn't make a difference.

I appreciate the feedback. Unfortunately its based on a quick glance through my history on here which does not tell the whole story. I have gone to great lengths in tracking my food and pushing the exercise to my limits. I have tracked and shared my food every day for the last 5 years through multiple channels and have had professional help along the way. I have had every incarnation of food plan you can imagine. This is not a quick fix I am seeking.

If there is one thing I have learned on my journey to health, it is that there is no one solution that works for everyone and I need to be willing to adapt when something is not working.

trogalicious

If there is one thing I have learned on my journey to health, it is that there is no one solution that works for everyone and I need to be willing to adapt when something is not working.

Understandable, but I just have to wonder...

How long have you been a vegan? Did you just recently change that as well? With looking back at the last time you logged food on here, there was a lot of tim horton / mcdonalds / etc. That's only been a few months.

I just worry that you're not giving certain changes long enough to reflect in the body. I know that it's a limited scope that I have into your world.. and do understand I'm not judging, just trying to understand. If you say that you're going to rely on MFP heavily after/during this extreme diet that you're set on, why have you not logged here more than 2 weeks in the last however many months it's been, ya know?

I wish you the best either way.

imabigvegan

Is this the optifast program? If so I did this....and (embarrassment) I also did the Encore program for relapsers sevearral years after the original long program. There are a lot of good behavioral modification and educational aspects to this program and once you start transitioning back to real food it does give you useful tools to succeed long term, but like anything else, sustaining good habits and maintainence is the challenge. I encourage you to log via MFP the whole time, so that you have that good habit engrained for the long run.

the shakes are optimist yes. great advice, I agree the habit of daily logs and truly embracing the maintenance moving forward with continued vigilance will be critical to my long term success.

imabigvegan

If there is one thing I have learned on my journey to health, it is that there is no one solution that works for everyone and I need to be willing to adapt when something is not working.

Understandable, but I just have to wonder...

How long have you been a vegan? Did you just recently change that as well? With looking back at the last time you logged food on here, there was a lot of tim horton / mcdonalds / etc. That's only been a few months.

I just worry that you're not giving certain changes long enough to reflect in the body. I know that it's a limited scope that I have into your world.. and do understand I'm not judging, just trying to understand. If you say that you're going to rely on MFP heavily after/during this extreme diet that you're set on, why have you not logged here more than 2 weeks in the last however many months it's been, ya know?

I wish you the best either way.

Thanks. If you are looking at the more recent items that are on here, they are not my food log. I have entered food for friends talking about what they had eaten. Also my daughter was doing a project for school that required calculating some items and I gave her access to my account for this.

I have been vegan for 2 years now.

As I mentioned, I have logged my food through other channels while working with a physician and dietician who wanted me to use her tools.

While it would have been nice to maintain a connection to the community here and log daily here as well these other tools, as a single dad I with an otherwise busy do not have the time for both.

trogalicious

While it would have been nice to maintain a connection to the community here and log daily here as well these other tools, as a single dad I with an otherwise busy do not have the time for both.

and logging daily is all it really takes. If you didn't have time before the optifast... As much as I dig the community, really... the only reason I'm even on this site is to log the food.

Best wishes and good luck with it all.

imabigvegan

While it would have been nice to maintain a connection to the community here and log daily here as well these other tools, as a single dad I with an otherwise busy do not have the time for both.

and logging daily is all it really takes. If you didn't have time before the optifast... As much as I dig the community, really... the only reason I'm even on this site is to log the food.

Best wishes and good luck with it all.

I did have and make time "before optifast". It just wasn't here.