HMR Weight Management Question

If you lose it fast, you'll probably gain it back just as fast. Eat right, exercise and it will come off.

We have an HMR program here in our medical office and I was the HMR nurse for a few months while the regular nurse was on maternity leave. There are several different varieties of the program, some are medically supervised, there is an at home program as well. For the most part it is a meal replaecement program. Most of the people doing it have 3 shakes a day and 2 entrees, others do 5 shakes a day. If you choose you can also do a version that is 3 shakes, 2 entrees and 5 fruit/veggie servings a day. The food is not bad at all. They also have oatmeal, soup, bars to get you through the day. They have what is called a "minimum prescription" at the very least you have to eat the 3 shakes and 2 entrees. If you continue to be hungry, they encourage you to eat more of the product.. everything is low enough in calories that you will still be left with a deficiet. The program is designed for you to follow the diet using their products until you get to your goal weight, then you transition you into the second phase of the program where you are introduced back to regular foods/eating out but making healthy choices. You attend a class every week for accountability and encouragement.

I have seen this program do wonders for people. I did it myself for 6 mos and lost almost 50 lbs. Then I got cocky thinking I could do it on my own, skipped the second phase, and now I am back to the weight I was before I started and have to do it all over again.

I was on the program for about 5-6 months in 2011.

The good news is that the program does work in respect that you do lose weight by sticking on their program. At the time, I lost 50+ pounds through excercise and following their prescribed shake and meal-replacement routine.

That said, there are a number of negative things about the program that puts it into the "do not recommend" file for me:

1) Ridiculously expensive.

2) The food choices get really monotonous and not sustainable for any prolonged amount of time.

3) Food choices and shakes are chock full of sweeteners, not really a great choice if trying to break the cycle of being dependent upon junk food and certainly not a great choice for a diabetic like myself. Their default mode is "You're hungry and need a snack between your shakes? - then why don't you eat one of our diet protein bars?" which are pretty much like having a Snickers. Also the attitude was that if you are getting tired of the taste of their HMR shakes then why don't you jazz things up by mixing a diet Coke or diet orange soda with the shake powder. Really? That's their answer, put a soda pop in your shake?? really???

4) Most importantly, the program doesn't teach you and pattern you to change your lifestyle towards learning how to eat normal healthy food in proper proportions. What it does do is limit your daily calorie intake so that basically you are near starvation mode.

After 3 months on the hardcore program and 2+ months on maintainence I just could not stomach another one of their damn meals or shakes.

That's when the spiral backwards started. Even though I had lost 50+ lbs, I had not changed anything (except I did excercise more) with respect to my eating habits.

Within 1 year I had regained every one of those 50+ pounds - and then some.

In Fall of 2012 I vowed to get myself back into shape and to do it right as a lifestyle change this time and not look to one sort of an unsustainable diet or another (of which I have tried many and always failed).

This time in I am doing it sensibly by realizing that the key to turning things around is nothing more than math. Eat Better + Portion Control + Calorie Journaling + Move More + Time Passing = A lifestyle change that is sustainable for the long haul and leads to a more healthy self in both the physical and mental sense.

I am eating normal food, but have given up sweets and sodas, and excercising again. Most importantly, I am now logging the calorie content of everything I put into my body so that I am aware of how many calories I have consumed each day and can make conscious decisions about what foods I can, or cannot, afford to eat on each particular day.

From starting out at nearly 350 lbs, I am now down to 295 and am well on my way to my goal of getting my 6' 3" body back down to under 200 lbs for the first time in 25 years. This time I am 100% confident that I will do it, it might take me over a year, but those lbs are coming off daily/weekly as I have made the lifestyle change necessary to learn how to eat properly.

This is not a diet, I'm eating real food (steak, eggs, tacos, bbq, chicken, fish, fruits, vegetables, etc...) but I am now eating them in proper quantities in a conscious manner.

The funny thing is, this time it feels easy - whereas every other time before it has been a daily struggle.


Anyway, please don't let this discourage you on your journey to get control. Just wanted to relay my own experiance and why the HMR method only provided to be a temporary band-aid solution to what has and is a long term/life-long issue for me.

Go ahead and read some of the success stories in these forums of any number of people who have recounted their journies of lossing 100 lbs, 200 lbs and, in some cases 300-400 lbs or more, and have kept the pounds off long-term.

I searched those out and read through those accounts and have found so much inspiration in their stories that at times I was in tears.

Almost invariably, the people who have been the most successful are those who made the commitment to move their bodies more (slowly at first with baby steps), have kept close attention to logging their calories, and have not allowed thier long-term goals and successes be derailed or discouraged by the short-term road blocks and failures that we all invariably face.

It's those accounts that helped me realize that this is so very do-able, that it is not "brain-science" or "rocket-surgery" , but simply nothing more than Math, Consistancy and Time.

I can do this and am doing this. I have all confidence that you can do this to.


Wishing everyone the best in thier own journeys.



- DG