52lbs in 10 weeks, and still going

italiamusica

italiamusica

New member
Saw a friends posting up here, so I figured I'd throw up my story.

24 years old, living in Portland, and I have pretty much been overweight my whole life. I have tried countless diets, tons of methods passed down from friends and a truck load of advice from other people on how to lose weight, but for me, none of it worked. No matter what diet I tried, or what method I used to work out, I could barely shed a couple pounds over a month long period. So, before finally giving up I gave one last thing a try, and that has been working amazingly for me.

I'm on a diet program of sorts, called Take Shape For Life (and I am now a health coach for them), and they base their program around using Medifast foods. Prepackaged meals, so I don't have to think about what to cook or how many calories to count, and I stay fairly satisfied throughout the day.

On an average day I eat about 6-7 times, and 1 of those meals is something I prepare myself, like chicken and broccoli or fish and tomatoes, something like that. I only take in ~900 calories a day, but I'm never starving and I never feel weak or out of energy. I feel better than I have in years, and I have yet to cheat on this program. Still a while longer before I transition out and exercise so I can tone up, but it has been more than worth it so far.

Anyways, just wanted to throw my story out there. Let me know if ya'll have any questions.
 
taking in that little amount of calories are you loosing muscle mass. Did u see your BMR and deduct 500 cals. why did the program only give you 900 calories how did they figure that
 
briggz68 said:
taking in that little amount of calories are you loosing muscle mass. Did u see your BMR and deduct 500 cals. why did the program only give you 900 calories how did they figure that
Click to expand...

I have not been losing any muscle mass, no. The program itself doesn't have a system to figure out how many calories you are/should be taking in. Each meal has near identical nutritional info, and every meal is loaded with vitamins and other things, so I'm not just taking in empty calories and starving myself.

They have programs for specific people. Adults, teens, seniors, adults and teens with diabetes, and other things like that. These programs are also based around a non-workout environment, so it can be used efficiently for people who currently have little physical activity.

It's a food program that has been around for ~25 years, but as far as I know, only in the last few years could you get it without a referral from a doctor.
 
Last edited:
Also, forgot to post some stats:

I'm 6', and my starting weight was 350. I actually errored out my scale when I started this, which is beyond embarrassing. I just weighed myself today and I am down to 295. Still a long ways to go, but I can see the end.
 
No matter what you might think what you are doing is NOT healthy. And, on top of that since you are eating so few calories if you ever stop inyour life you will gain back ALL the weight PLUS some, how do I know? Because I did it. I was living off of about 700 calories a day, lost 30 pounds in a month and 6 years later here I am at 165 pounds from 120, DON'T KEEP DOING WHAT YOURE DOING. As for losing muscle it is true, you may not think it is true, but it is and that is def something you dont want to happen.

Here is your resting metabolic count:

DAILY CALORIC INTAKE CALCULATOR
Age: 24 Years
Gender: Male

Weight: 295
Height: 6'

Exercise level: BMR

RESULTS - GUIDELINE ONLY
Maintenance:
2369 Calories/day

This means your body NEED 2369 calories a DAY just to function, do you realize if you keep your body on such low calories you WILL kill yourself my making it impossible to function? To lose weight you should be eating about 2,500 if you exercise moderately 3 times a week. I don't mean to sound harsh but I don't want to see someone die because of an unhealthy program or the other scenario that you gain all your weight back plus 40 pounds, I don't want to see that happen to you. I highly suggest slowly going out of the program your in and just switching to eating healthy foods and stay within your calories... the bare minimum calories someone should eat a day is 1,200 as out lines by the government but you are a 6' 295lb male and anything below about 1,900 is completely ludicrous.
 
Thanks for the reply shawnnam. I definitely appreciate your concerns and the things you have to say, it's nice to see that people actually care on this forum.

As far as the program I'm on goes, I can only really explain so much of it, but it is definitely something worthwhile and helpful. I've already met people who have lost much more than me, 150+lbs, and they have kept it off for years now. The best way I can explain it is to just have everyone here look at their site:



And also, here's a little example of the kind of nutritional info the foods have. Obviously this is something that people are going to either agree or disagree with, and it's a program I've looked at for a long time, but in my eyes it is something that is more than worth it.
 
I guess I should also explain further that this isn't a program meant to be used with an exercise/workout routine, this is a stand alone weight loss system. Of course if I were exercising I would want to be taking in a lot more calories.
 
I agree with shawn on this but in the end its up to you i droped my cal by 500 and exercised and not only do i maintain muscle mass im loosing weight i dropped two pant sizes in 2 months which was healthy weight loss. i hope you dont gain it back once you stop because i feel your body is in starvation mode. not to mention when your body adapts to that many cal you wont be able to loose any more unless you reduce your cals more then its really unhealthy so you should get off this bro
 
Like I said, I definitely appreciate your guys' concerns, but things are going extremely well and will be fine in the end. As far as gaining the weight back, there's a 2-3 week transition period I'll be going through, incorporating more normal foods back into my diet, so as to not shock my system and stop completely.
 
Haven't updated in a little while. Down 71lbs so far now, with I'm guessing another ~70lbs to go, but I'm not totally sure yet. Definitely happy though!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top