My doctor wants me to try it, my husband wants me to try it. I’m supposed to start next week but as it gets closer I get more and more apprehensive. It’s not the fast that concerns me - I know I can do that part - but I’m worried about messing up my system permanently, or worse, dying.
I just need opinions on the program from those who have tried it, please. Thanks!
I have not been on the program, but my mother did it when I was a kid a few times. My personal opinion (which you didn’t ask for since I haven’t personally done it) is that I believe it is a worthwhile thing for someone who is morbidly obese and needs to drop some weight pretty quickly for their health. But I feel like learning how to eat real food in the right way and dealing with the issues behind the food is important for long term success.
So to me it depends on how much you need to lose.
I had two friends do it. Both lost a lot of weight very quickly. One exersized and worked on her eating habits when she went back on solid food. When I saw her years later, she had only put back on about 5 lbs and looked fabulous. The other gained back her weight quickly with extra because she went back to her old habits almost right away.
Like a lot of diets, it’s a whole lot easier to lose the weight than to keep it off.
Mrs. Cake - multi-decade yo-yo dieter
A few guys I worked with started on it. Unfortunately I wasn’t around long enough to see the long-term results, but they both started to lose a fair bit of weight.
I’m tossing up myself whether to give it a go or not.
I know a man who lost a bunch of weight very quickly on Optifast. The minute he was given the go-ahead to eat solids again, he ran out and had half a dozen chilli cheese dogs.
Unsurprisingly, he regained the weight.
Apparently, it works. Long term results appear to be dependant on the individual.
Personally I tried a similar kind of plan and only last a couple of days before I got very tired of the shakes. Of the anecdotes I’ve heard, the vast majority of people ended up regaining quickly after they stopped the plan.
So I wouldn’t advice a diet like this unless it was for a short term goal like helping to shrink your liver for weight loss surgery. It’s too hard to maintain the weight loss while trying to figure out how to eat solid food again.
You gotta figure out a plan that you can stick to for life.
To be fair, this is true for pretty much any plan out there.
That’s the diet Oprah went on a few years ago. Remember when she rolled a kids’ wagon out on stage with an amount of butter equivalent to what she lost? My (now ex) mother-in-law tried it too and lost a lot of weight, but she felt it was too fast and that it goofed up her metabolism (and she gained it all back, and then some). I am surprised it is still on the market because it got a lot of bad press at one time. Yes, it is effective in the short term, but that’s because you are fasting (obviously). You lose a lot of weight (mostly water) right away, then if you don’t take in enough calories, you lose muscle.
Note: IANAD
I appreciate the opinions; keep 'em coming!