Thoughts about losing weight and my VLCD or Very Low Calorie Diet.

With all the questions that I have been getting, I thought I would take some time and explain a few things here.  I am on a VLCD or Very Low Calorie Diet eating between 500 and 800 calories a day.  For those that don’t know me, on July 15th I weighted 284 pounds and am way too short for that weight, 5’11”.  I have had issues for years and it isn’t new.  My parents would give me incentives to run as a kid.

In Grad School, Theology, my second year I decided to lose weight and started running.  I was able to run 10K’s in 40 minutes and won the McGuire AFB 5K in 1986 with a time under 17 minutes.  I kept this up for years and started cycling and was finishing Ride the Rockies in the top 50 every day.  This was an annual cycling tour of the Rockies with over 2000 participants.   All was good till things went sort of bad in my personal life and the weight came back.  My eating and lifestyle took me away from anything healthy.  One day, a button popped of my pants at a chamber function and I knew I needed a change.  This time I lost about 50 lbs and focused on cycling.

What I accomplished the second time…

I was riding 4000 miles a year until 2008 when my dad died.  And it was  friend that had my out on New Years Eve to get my last 35 miles to reach 4000 that year.  That year started the weight gain.  My mom needed help and traveling with a bike wasn’t easy and when she got sick and died 18 months later, exercises was gone and I resorted to comfort food.  I think all the kids gained weight.  We all love to cook and eat.  Here is from when I got this scale and what I  have done.

Weight-loss Part 3

The graph shows that I have attempted many times to lose weight, but lost my focus.  I get distracted, upset or other things seem important.  The first time I lost, I had the seminary and my vocation director who would run with me to keep me on track.  The second time, I went to LA Weight Loss and I guess I can blame them for weight gain as they closed down their stores here.  JUST KIDDING, all my fault.  They had a great accountability program and you got 1/2 your money back if you kept weight off for a year.

I need a motivation and I am not good a doing things like this in moderation.  A VLCD is perfect for me.  The scale moves almost every day in the right direction.  I need that.  I will write another post on just how I use the scale and how it is an important part of what I have learned about myself and my weight.

Motivation

I had a very bad dizzy spell in sacristy (vesting room in Catholic Church) and had forgot blood pressure meds and BP was 192/112.  I went to doctor and on the paperwork it said morbidly obese.  That struck me, and she wanted to do blood work.  I had a feeling from blood work last year that I wasn’t going to like the results.  I bought a glucometer and my blood sugar was 197.  (should be around 100)  With blood work I would be labeled a diabetic and it was all my fault.

I went to a parish physician and said I needed help and needed to lose this weight quickly to get my numbers back in line.  He suggested the cr500 diet.  I am not going to debate if it is healthy.  Remember, I am not a Doctor, but in under three months, I have lost almost 6o lbs.  I have gone from numerous BP pills to normal, UNREGULATED BP.  My a1c was 5.4 which means my blood sugar is consistently good.  That is the good news, the bad news, is that I have 40 more pounds to lose.

Finally, For this post…

The only thing I will say about this diet in terms of being healthy, being 284 was not healthy, I am much healthier now then I have been in a very long time.  I am getting more deep sleep a night then I was getting in 2 or 3 weeks before.  Sleep, blood pressure & blood sugar/glucose numbers read as normal!  All those things are fixed, so I will not debate if this is healthy or not.

Remember, I have lost weight and maintained before.  Unfortunately, I am a pro at this.  As a doctor that has known me for all 3 losses said, you just need the weight off so that you can get back on your bike.  For me moderation in this area of my life is hard, this is actually much easier.

Coming posts will share more of what I learned, but needed to clarify this first.  Hope it helps.  I feel amazing and it will only get better.