I will chime in because I am not a proponent of dieting . His claims that one can gain 12 # over the course of a holiday and then lose it in 17 days may have a very small bit of truth in it. Weight that is gained that quickly would primarily be fluid from high salt foods. It would be pretty easy to lose it as it would not be long term fat gain. That isn't possible in that short a time. Think about it...if you are a normal weight , you don't have anything that you need to lose ... you then stuff yourself over a week or 2 and gain 12 #....come on...very unlikely that a person with healthy eating habits is going to gorge like this. The person he is appealing to, wrongly I feel, is the person who has gained weight...for example your 20 # ,and wants to lose it. Now think how long it took to gain this weight. Most people pick up a few pounds a year for years. It took time to gain it....it takes time to lose it. Add to that the slowing of metabolism as we get older and you have your work cut out for you. The one GOOD thing he stresses is exercise. He walks with his patients. The bad thing is they say to do 17 minutes of exercise a day. Sorry...that won't accomplish anything...it is a start but it will have to increase dramatically to have any effect on weight loss .Permanent change is what the person has to achieve. Lifestyle changes are the hardest to accomplish and the MOST rewarding. Eating a well balanced and very modest intake of food and increasing your activity is the only way to lose weight and keep it off. Portions are the hardest thing to change. Folks eat WAY more than they think they do and they exercise way less than they think they do...for the most part. There are always exceptions. See your MD first. Get a partner to help you stick with this. Keep a dairy of every single thing you put in your mouth. Start walking. Increase no more than 10 % per week of your activity level. Get good shoes and wear comfortable clothes. Do not weigh every day. Do not expect miracles. Expect to lose no more than 1-2 # a week and expect to hit flat places . Get a partner ! Good Luck ! You are already on the way....you want to lose the weight. c

Yes, it is a grand show, with his mature movie star looks, his delivery, and his dramatization of the subject. Very slick. But, actually, Kathy, we may well be aware of basic nutrition, but what hits you is when you see the choices side by side. You see that you can eat tons of delicious, nutritional and healthy foods and watch the calories. Perhaps, we should not readily accept simple choices like a chicken caesar salad for lunch, and think about other fine choices that have a quarter of the calories. It's easy for us to rationalize that two cookies would not hurt as a snack, but when you see the tableful of healthy foods which is equal calories-wise to those cookies, it strikes home. We would be better off to eat a quarter of what's on the table. I'm as guilty as anyone else. There are times, when I have probably had a 5,000+ calories day, because I've eaten a bag of Lay's chips (not in several months), plus three squares. Really, that is unnecessary.

Curiosity got the best of me this morning so I climbed up onto the scale. 159.5 lbs! Yippee! It does work. That is a 4 lb loss from what I weighed on Friday or Saturday last week. Unfortunately, I did not write it down. I remember 163.5, but I can't remember which day it was. I am just happy to be under 160. I sure did learn a lot this past week. Especially about eating the right portions. I don't have that stuffed feeling after I eat dinner that I use to have either. Tonight we went to TGI Friday's. I planned out what I would have before we left the house and I stuck to it. I especially used to overeat at restaurants because they give you such large portions. Well, I really noticed that when I finished eating what I wanted, that I didn't feel so full. It is a good thing. Interestingly, I feel somewhat lighter, but not skinnier. Well, while it is amazing that I lost those 4 lbs, I'm not overly impressed by it. I mean, I am glad that I lost it and it was a really great start. I certainly don't expect to lose this weight too fast. I just mean that I can see my weight fluctuating 4 or 5 lbs for no reason at all. What I am really looking forward to seeing is 10 lbs come off. Not at once, but a total of 10 lbs. Then it will seem real to me. I just think that if I could lose 4 lbs in one week, I could just as easily gain 4 lbs in one week. I'm skeptical of my ability to stick with it, I guess. Or maybe I just have a teensy bit of doubt that it is really due to the changes I made.

Hi, hope you feel better now. I am not sure if I have diverticulitis. A month ago I had some raw garlic and for a week felt awful in my stomach. I then took some medication I have taken many times over the years and again it seemed to hurt my stomach a lot despite never having hurt it before. My stomach is in constant agony. Like a severel period pain that never lessens or goes. Same whether I eat or drink lay down stand up or sit. I sit and cry. I am at my wit's end with it. Cannot work or go out or anything. I saw three doctors - uk - first one said ulcer and gave me the usual for that - for a few days it helped but then was far worse and had to stop taking them. Second doctor said it was a urine infection - which seemed to ignore that I had no other symptoms at all (?) and said to take antibacterial tablets,. Third one said it is gerd and very minor (!).. He said to take the tablets for ulcers that make me feel worse. I have insisted on a urine, stool and blood test which will all take about three weeks. I am petrified of what this is and coping in meantime. Painkillers make no difference. I have read that with some people who have diverticular flaxseed oil can help, as can fish oil and fibre. But this is just from looking through google past few days in an effort to get to grips with things. Would be good to hear from others with similar thoughts and experiences.