I have a close personal friend who is on the Optifast program. I’ve hesitated writing about it here, because I haven’t wanted to embarrass my friend.
For the sake of simplicity, let’s call my friend “Lola”.
Optifast is the rapid-start all-liquid weight loss diet that has been fairly popular for several years. It’s the infamous pounds of fat on a wagon plan popularised by Oprah in 1988.
When I first heard about Lola’s plans to try the diet I begged her not to. It wasn’t that I wanted her to stay heavy. I wanted her to stay healthy. But her doctor (with the help of an increasingly alarmist society) had convinced her she was at the point where weight loss was absolutely necessary for Lola’s continued well-being. Several bouts of insurance company negotiations later, Lola was a bit poorer and well on her way through the maze of Optifast.
She is now at the halfway point. And I am at the point where I need to share her experiences with anyone who stumbles across this blog.
— A patient’s daily allotment of shakes and bars totals 960 calories–well below the recommended minimum of 1200 calories. Lola has seen an average loss of 4lbs per week. But after three weeks into it she is suffering from a severly weakened immune system. She has persistant congestion and sore throat combined with ongoing weakness and tiredness. The lack of fibre in the diet means that she also has severe gastorintestinal problems.
–One of my most strenuous objections to the program was that it was dangerous to the patient’s health. Lola questioned the Optifast team and was told that the entire program was medically monitored. She is to see a physician once a week as part of the plan. True to their word, they do have her see a doctor weekly. The operative word being “see.” There has never been a week that Lola has spent more than five minutes total with the Optifast doctor. At her most recent meeting she had several issues she needed to address, all of them related to the diet itself. The response of her “medical monitor” was that Lola needed to see her family physician about her complaints. Apparently Optifast’s idea of “medical monitoring” means that a doctor will review your pulse, blood pressure and temperture on a weekly basis.
–The program also stresses the availability of psychological counselling. In Lola’s case that means a once-a-week meeting with a group therapy session. The counselor is not a licensed therapist, and two of her four sessions have been combined with another group. That means there have been as many as thirty people in group session…far too many for adequate psychological treatment. Not that the unlicensed counselor is qualified to offer the promised therapy in the first place.
–The food tastes terrible. Yes, I realise this is a diet. But there is no reason to force people to consume awful tasting concoctions. That will do nothing for behaviour modification, because it only drives the patient to view the diet as a short-term process after which they can resume their regular eating habits.
I know that obesity is a dirty word, and that losing weight can be better for your health. But please consider another diet.
I commented this on your post at NiT, but here it is again, lol.
Oh, something I didn’t include in the NiT comment is that, as a general rule, a person can only lose two pounds per week in a healthy manner. Any faster than that, and something is very wrong. The exception is if a relatively sedentary person begins to exercise and change their eating habits, they may see some rapid weight loss at the beginning of this life style switch, but we’re talking maybe 3-4 lbs/week instead of the afore mentioned two…but it is NEVER healthy to drop 5lbs, 10lbs, or more in one week, especially over a prolonged period.
I’ve never been a big fan of “diets”, as a whole. I do believe that there are clearly some diet systems that are more healthy than others, but the problem with nearly all diets is that you gain weight back once you stop the diet. What people, especially Americans, need to do is learn how to eat correctly. Any and every nutritionist would tell you that it is most healthy to eat 5-7 small meals per day (don’t worry, healthy and substantial snacks between breakfast, lunch, and dinner are considered “meals” when eating this way).
A good book on the subject would be Body for Life by bill philips. The companion book, eating for life, would be a good purchase as well. I like that these are not books about dieting, but books that help teach people the basics of fitness and how to, as many people don’t realize, eat more to lose more.
I’m sorry your friend is going through that “diet” — I have a good friend who is in the position of *having* to lose a lot of weight, and the liquid diet is the second option her doctor gave her if the first, Weight Watchers or some other comparable program, doesn’t work. I’m praying she doesn’t have to resort to that because it’s just not a good long-term solution. (As Oprah ought to be able to attest given she gained back much of the weight she lost on it.)
Last year I was faced with the realization that I probably wasn’t going to live out 2006 if I didn’t do something about my weight — I was in congestive heart failure and barely moved from one spot all day long. Going on a liquid diet probably would have gotten the weight off me fast, but it wouldn’t have done a thing to change my mindset or my eating habits. Weight Watchers did that for me, and I just reached my first goal of losing 50 lbs this past Sunday. I feel 100% better than I did this time last year, and I’m afraid a person on a liquid diet might not be able to say that, given the havoc losing that quickly can have on a body.
Holy congratualtions, Southern Girl! 50 pounds lost is a HUGE accomplishment. You probably won’t come back to read this, but on the off-chance you did, I didn’t want your hard work to go unrecognized.
Keep it up.
Perhaps I am the exception to these comments, but I have used Optifast successfully over one year and lost 88 lbs. I was on the “full fast” for 4 months, then transitioned to the modified diet which consists of a combination Optifast and regular healthy food. I really had no dramatic side effects to report other than a little lightheadedness in the beginning. I was given Potassium supplements, which did the trick. I have to say, with any diet there are draw backs, but this really can work and work well for many people who are desperate for assorted reasons to lose weight.
Probably shouldn’t knock it until you try it.
hey i have started the optifast diet and i plan on doing it for 4 weeks. check out my blog to see whats going on with me.
firstly the shakes are not vial they are quite nice a taste. well the vanilla i personally despise but the strawberry and chocolate are quite good to me i hate coffee so go figure.
secondly the whole concept of reduced immune system does concern me i plan on keeping my health up by eating the 2 cups of salad or vegetables every day that in addition to the daily supplement i got from my local pharmacist and i think im set.
the optifast diet is not a be all end all you still have to work through the issues that gave you your weight in the first place i am one that worked on that first mentally now im working on my family to do similar and when i come off the shakes in 4 weeks i will be in a better position to exercise and keep ahead of my intake to use ratio. i started my weight loss diet at 370 pounds im 5ft 7 so thats a bmi of 55 so i needed to do something.
There are so many potassium supplements on the market. I always take the NOW Brand potassium supplements because they are cheaper. ‘;*.*
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