Medifast, a “fast, safe, and effective weight loss program recommended by 20,000 doctors since 1980,” is one of those super low-calorie weight loss programs. Oh, but the doc oversees your progress so it’s “safe.”? Kind of like chemotherapy.
Speaking of which, the inspiration for this post came from my mother, who I’m staying with for a few weeks here in “Nashvegas.”? Yesterday she went to have her hair done down at the local beauty joint, and came back excited to tell me what she heard down at the salon.
Seems someone came in after having lost a 100 pounds or so on Medifast.
“Wow! Congratulations you look so great!”? Blah, blah, blah.
“Oh little old me?? Why thank ya’ll. I feel amazing!” (hyperchondria)
You get the picture. Of course, she’s there because she is having some serious problems with her hair falling out. This must be a side-effect of healthy weight loss and feeling amazing. And in fact, it is. It’s a recognized side effect that Medifast acknowledges. They recommend, to minimize this side effect, to take 1-2 T of canola oil daily. Good to know.
I guess it’s just like how one HCG weight loss site describes hair loss while on HCG – “Some may experience hair loss while their thyroid is going through changes and resetting itself.”
Oh,?”resetting itself.”? That’s what it’s called. I see, as in resetting itself closer to the metabolism and 93 degree body temperature of the tree sloth.
So what?would you do if you?had undergone a medical treatment that made your hair fall out – something that the workers of the salon told my mother “happens’to a lot of people that come in here and have lost weight quickly?”
This?woman?announced that she was going to take her husband and 13-year old daughter to the doctor to get them started on Medifast.
When I rule the world, everything will be wire-tapped. When someone says something like this?in public sirens will sound, and?Ninjas in Chuck Norris masks will drop from the ceiling and’taze people into a mild coma. Offspring will be immediately taken into custody by Child Protective Services’s (CPS) special Dieting Parent Unit – DPU (yes, all government branches are to be referred to by their acronym, which will be a law).
At that point they will be shipped to a chain of?paradise islands in the Pacific currently inhabited by Lorelei, Gina, Pippa and others but soon-to-be?owned by me and purged of all non-believers. There they will be?able to eat to appetite of unadulterated, nutritious foods and frolick in the sun in loin cloths with me and’the ghost of Bernarr MacFadden who, post-mortem, has invented a device that, when activated, erases all memory of the existence of television, internet, airbrushed models, and commercial flavor enhancers.
And yes, Johnny Lawrence, if he is still alive after his last feast at Waffle House, will train the team of Ninjas in Chuck Norris masks.
Summary:? Medically-supervised or not, intentional weight loss via calorie restriction comes with a great penalty to your health and metabolism, leads to weight regain within a year or two, and increases risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and, ironically, obesity. Like author Jon Gabriel describes – “Dieting is like holding a volleyball under wudder (water). You can keep it down for a little while but as soon as you let go it shoots up much higher.”
?There is no good evidence that significant long-term weight loss is beneficial to health, and a great deal of evidence that short-term weight loss followed by weight regain (the pattern followed by almost all dieters) is medically harmful. Indeed, frequent dieting is perhaps the single best predictor of future weight gain.
?’treating cosmetic weight loss as if it were medical and moral issue tends to make people both considerably fatter and a good deal unhappier than they would otherwise be.
?’there is a great deal of evidence that weight LOSS increases the risk for cardiovascular disease among ?overweight? individuals…”
?The case against fat proceeds on the assumption that if a fat person becomes thin, that person will acquire the health characteristics of people who were thin in the first place. It also assumes that there is some reasonably safe and reliable method for producing this result.
~Paul Campos; The Obesity Myth
How to RAISE YOUR METABOLISM.
Been awhile man. Hair loss is something that I have been noticing on "dieters" more and more. I had this dude at my office who has lost a ton of weight "looks great" and says he "feels great". Everyone compliments him on his appearance, but the dude looks 10 years older, forgets everything and blames it on everyone else, has no more muscle, and is graying like crazy. He was standing next to me the other day running his fingers through his hair. After he left I noticed I was standing in a pile of the shit. His hair was everywhere. Kind of gross.
Anyways, the material as of late has been great. Keep it up man. Interested to hear more about this "research" you will be starting in July.
Oh and thanks for the "tater hater" plug a few posts back!
"There is this dude" I don't "have" or own him. Goddamn grammar.
"Wudder." Excellent.
When I lost 140 pounds in under a year and a half I felt great. Granted, I was doing cardio and weight 6 times per week and pounding Red Bull and a pot of coffee per day. Everyone telling me how great I looked, how inspiring I was, and clamoring to have me guest speak at their whatevers contributed greatly to my "feeling" good.
The good feeling didn't last long. Neither did my glorious golden brown hair. Glorious I tell you! Thick, long, naturally curly, and smelling like 3 different levels of heaven. It fell out in handfuls while the weight loss surgery cheerleaders comforted me with the lie that if I drank enough protein shakes it would all grow back. It didn't.
Now I can't gather my hair into a pony tail thick as a dime. It's more like a pencil.
Medifast is shit, obviously.
I'm going to go sip my orange juice with gelatin and read the latest issue of Cosmotarian Times.
When my hair grows back maybe I'll join the beach frolic party!
Enjoy NashVegas!
Thanks Lisa, I actually looked for a post of yours to link to, as I knew you had lost quite a bit of hair on your escapades. Those compliments are so hauntingly addictive too eh? Making you go crazy to get them again.
Nathan-
Oh you earned the plug my good man.
Hair loss, memory problems, lack of energy, loss of sex drive… These are all such clearcut signs of having your metabolism slow down. This little 1-minute video says it all…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNHj6qJCwHs&feature=player_embedded
Sad to not have my name mentioned in the article… sniff sniff
I feel your pain. I too was voted off the magical island. sniff sniff sNORT! sorry. :-******(
I can chime in on this one too. I didn't even have to loose weight to loose my hair. Long time restricting and over exercising can do that too. Even though the hair loss has stopped, like Lisa, the hair that has grown back, is thin like Posh Spice on a diet.
`
"There they will be able to eat to appetite of unadulterated, nutritious foods and frolick in the sun in loin cloths with me and the ghost of Bernarr MacFadden who, post-mortem, has invented a device that, when activated, erases all memory of the existence of television, internet, airbrushed models, and commercial flavor enhancers."
That sounds like my kinda paradise! But not quite perfect — you forgot the TREEHOUSE!! :-)
—
And this was legen… wait for it… dary!
"When I rule the world, everything will be wire-tapped. When someone says something like this in public sirens will sound, and Ninjas in Chuck Norris masks will drop from the ceiling and taze people into a mild coma. Offspring will be immediately taken into custody by Child Protective Services's (CPS) special Dieting Parent Unit – DPU (yes, all government branches are to be referred to by their acronym, which will be a law)."
Hilarious!
Great video, Matt. And great post.
That whole endless treadmill of compliment fishing is rough. It feels great, but of course comes with conditions, especially compliments after weight loss.
Non-violent communication literature makes a big point that both praise and criticism are manipulative and 'life-alienating' in their way, and put the issuer in a position of judgment, and the receiver in the position of judged, which often sucks, especially when you when can't keep measuring up and judge yourself because of it.
Hi Rob A!!!
Your old pal Deb the Hag xoxo
Oddly enough, when I suddenly and unintentionally lost enough weight to be considered underweight, people started complementing me. -.- It kind of pissed me off. I was never even remotely overweight to begin with. XD
It is SO amazing to finally have a full head of hair again, and I get to eat fruit and ice cream! I've decided a bigger butt is an alright price to pay to not be balding.
I'm a teacher and I have often wished there was a government authority I could call when a child was being raised on a diet of soy milk and raw broccoli with PUFA ranch dressing.
I watched a documentary the other night where a woman dying of liver cancer was marveling at how everyone was telling her how good she looked. She said, "What they mean is I am thin now." Its pretty scary when we consider a person who is literally wasting away to be beautiful.
Saddest thing I have seen lately.. a thin.. and bald.. obviously Chemoed woman at Whole Foods, putting gallon after gallon, after seemingly endless gallon of fucking SOY fucking milk up on the check stand. I wept internally.
=(
How did you get your hair to grow back?
Wow, both of these comments brought a little tear to my eyes. When will we learn to stop doing what we “should” and just live life?
YEAH. Yay for big butts and beautiful hair. :)
Why is it that when I, a healthy sized person woman, becomes underweight, I get complemented? Like that person with cancer? I DON”T UNDERSTAND IT. I aaaallllwaaays wanted to have a more curvacious figure, but then after finally achieving it, people find me more attractive after loosing it. They disliked my butt and boobs or what? >.< FTW. :P
But whatever weight a person is, if they are happy and feel good and not sick, then they are beautiful. :) And I'm feeling pretty good as I am. :D
Kathleen, though I agree with you that it is disheartening, I think being able to call a "government" something about someones dietary choices would be fucking creepy.
Rob very good point.
Rob A said,
"Non-violent communication literature makes a big point that both praise and criticism are manipulative and 'life-alienating' in their way…"
No way! They can't always be "manipulative" and "life-alienating." And the conditional "in their way" does not rescue the absurdity of such a statement.
What does it mean to be manipulative, anyway? Or "life-alienating'"?
For instance, if I tell my girlfriend that she "is beautiful", or that she just said something perceptive or insightful, its because I adore and value her and I want her know that she is appreciated. Or, for example, if I tell a friend that I enjoy his (or her) conversation and value his input, its because I value his friendship and him as a person.
Only a terrible, cynical person would believe that the examples I just gave always have a sinister motive, i.e. manipulation, etc. Ultimately, it can only be manipulative if a) The praise is not meant, and b) One hopes to gain something from said praise: sex, a favor, a raise, etc**. But as I alluded to in the previous paragraph, sometimes praise is genuine and one wants to let those one values know that they are appreciated.
Context and motive and intent matter when it comes to praise. The some goes for criticism, which I did not address.
As for compliment fishing, that is an independent, separate subject.
Regarding the whole judger/judged thing: All human actions and interactions have this element. What is important is, once again, context and how it is applied.
Huh! I suppose saying "I love you" to a loved one is also "life-alienating" and manipulative, too?
**This is the only sensible criteria for "manipulation" I could think of. If people are aware of others, please inform me.
Kathleen-
Generally a little extra gluteal fat is considered very healthy :)
Rosenfelt-
You know I always drop your name whever possible.
Sheila-
Great reference to Posh Spice. +14 points.
Admittedly, I was manipulating you, giving you a compliment on your wit so that you would in turn associate the good feeling with me, return to the site frequently, and tell more friends and family members about how awesome I am.
Rob-
I wasn't being all that facetious above. That is kinda how humans interact on a subconscious level. Every thing we do and say illicits a response of some kind, whether we have conscious motives to manipulate or not. Even DML's "I love you's" illicit a response, and changes behavior and how he is perceived. Depends on how you define "manipulation."
What I'm really trying to say, to both you and DML, is, well, I love you guys.
well if gluteal fat is a health measure, I believe I am exceedingly healthy 3
:-)
MATT-
No hard feelings, I do the same to you all the time so that you can associate the good feeling with me, return to the site frequently, and tell more friends and family members about how awesome I AM. -Heeey, wait a minute.. I don't have site?! DOHH! -insert Homer Simpson here-
You had me at bikini in profile pic. It completely changed my behavior towards you. You totally manipulated me with it!
Off topic here. Matt, could you do a post on the Dukan Diet sometime soon?
Thanks for the lol's!
I have to say to those who have lost hair that it can grow back. After my worst (as in lowest weight) anorexic time past and I was maintaining at 90lbs as a fruity person, a lot of people said that the main difference in my appearance wasn't the extra weight (I was still pretty darn thin) but that _my hair had grown back_ –lots of people, including my very traditional Israeli grandma, made that comment. That when things were bad, you could basically see my skull. And that was on fruit.
Now, even with having done the Aajonus madness, gained weight, relapsed, lost weight, lost thyroid function… I still have thick hair. I guess it's a question whether it's as thick as it 'should' be for my heritage, and my scalp does sometimes tend to flakiness, but not surprising after all that…
Fair enough DML, and this is something I struggle with in my attempts to use NVC: sometimes the mechanics get in the way and become just another set of rules, and trying to not step on toes can cut off communication altogether sometimes.
The main point is: NVC tries to encourage you to talk about what's going on for the speaker. When I say 'You 're awesome for cleaning that stove well,' for example, what I'm trying to communicate might be something like: 'I'm so happy to see the stove cleaned; I feel supported in my need for cleanliness.'
Again, the point is to be clear and honest about what's going on for you that you feel good or bad in response to. And to recognize that you feel good or bad not because of what's going on, but because the external circumstances are interacting with your internal ones. That helps foster intimacy and the opposite of 'life-alienation.'
Another example. You see someone you recognize on the street, and they don't say anything to you. Depending on what's going on for you, you might feel sad or relieved. But the same event externally happened. When you say: 'You were mean to not say anything to me on Broadway last Friday afternoon,' you might just as accurately say 'You were kind not to say anything to me on Broadway last Friday afternoon.' Maybe the person was a debt collector, or a bounty hunter. But NVC says to be clear about what's going on inside of you- what specific action elicited what response in you, and why? What need of yours was or wasn't being met? It suggests communicating that in a way that doesn't make demands, doesn't imply wrongness on the other's part (who likes to be made into the bad guy, or the good guy really?). It creates space and an invitation for the other to contribute joyfully, if they want, in helping meet a need for you, and empowers you to identify and meet your needs for yourself, so that you don't need to seek other's approval, and so you're immunized from manipulation based on that carrot or stick. If you come to believe, or experience directly that the only way to experience love is by dolling yourself up for your partner, that can drive a wedge of resentment between you two, and alienate you from one another.
That's not to say you can't appreciate the other person, but NVC tries to offer a way to express that that preserves everyone's autonomy and doesn't create those wedges of resentment. And in a way that allows the things we do that please others to be joyful and of our own accord, and disentangled from unconscious (manipulable) attempts to meet needs of our own.
And you know, this doesn't all come easily to me, but I appreciate the spirit of it, and that's what I'm trying to get it. Certainty not to undermine your or anyone's expression of appreciation.
And Matty, love you too buddy. :-D
Rob – love this:
'I'm so happy to see the stove cleaned; I feel supported in my need for cleanliness.'
My DP does the dishes every night and wipes down the stove top and although I know he always does this, i often like to express my appreciation and I usually say something basic like thanks for doing the dishes, which is not what i really want to convey at all. I will hence from this day forward use this phrase, and he will look at me real funny and say Huh?
Renaee
Matt, about what you said earlier about getting warmer hands and feet with ice cream than with bananas – it just occurred to me (I'm slow ok?) that whole fat vanilla ice cream has exactly the same macronutrient composition as human breast milk. Is it just a coincidence that more than a century of fine-tuning of the recipe to get the tastiest final product (to adults and children alike), has yielded something so remarkably similar to mothers milk? Could it be something about this macronutrient ratio that is particularly supportive of healthy metabolism? If so it sort of throws doubt into the idea that mainly eating as much carbs as possible would be the best for raising metabolism, saturated fat probably has some synergistic pro-thyroid effects like competitively inhibiting PUFAs or raising leptin.
I mean, there has got to be some reason Ray Peat eats a got damn quart of Haagen Dazs (thats 2700 calories!) every single day. He doesn't otherwise strike me as a hedonist who would make something a part of his daily diet simply because it tastes good.
Anyway, do you still find eating a lot of ice cream makes you gain fat, or was it a passing thing?
"I mean, there has got to be some reason Ray Peat eats a got damn quart of Haagen Dazs (thats 2700 calories!) every single day"
I'm pretty sure he doesn't.
I agree it doesn't quite add up for a sedentary normal-weight 74 year old man to eat 1 quart ice cream, 2 quarts milk and still derive half his calories from fruit juices (7000+ calories by my reckoning), but what do you reckon he does eat? He still promotes ice cream a lot, and with Peat it seems like every food choice has a functional purpose.
Colld?n, Have you still abandoned the high sucrose meals? If so have the negatives you were reported subsided? Thanks.
undertow, I'm back on the high-sucrose meals, though I still have more protein and somewhat less sugar in the morning than before. I tried going back to intermittent fasting, but something must have changed because even after two weeks of IF I was having energy problems and low grade headaches during the fast. Its like the problems I used to get by eating more sugar were now appearing during fasting instead. Plus by the end of IF my feet were starting to get cold more frequently again.
Most problems I had with headaches and afternoon energy crashes are gone since I started having a quart of milk in the morning. I've been introducing more and more fruit sugar plus some ice cream the past couple of days, and its going fine so far. Still cannot wear my contacts for more than a couple of hours without pressure building up behind my eye though, no idea why eating more sugar is having this effect.
I'm getting sort of interested to try something like Danny Roddys gelatin+orange juice diet after reading his blog post on it.
http://www.dannyroddy.com/main/2011/3/28/avoiding-serotonin-for-joy-intellect-sex-hair.html
According to Peat, it seems like at least in rats, a completely tryptophan-deficient diet for a short time can have many of the same beneficial effects as a lifetime of less severe tryptophan restriction. Danny was pretty gushing about the effects on him. Anyone know anything more about his experiences other than whats in the blog post?
Having partaken of the oj/ milk/ gelatin/honey/salt/egg smoothie, I have to say it’s freaking awesome. Add more yolks and it’s a party.
Colld?n, what is your daily fat content like, how much starch? High Sat, and low PUFA still? Very weird about the contacts. I was reading through Danny's post lately too, he is definitely into Peat now, has some good posts up.
"Dieting is like holding a volleyball under wudder (water). You can keep it down for a little while but as soon as you let go it shoots up much higher." Jon Gabriel says that? Hmmm, I wonder where he got it from? Not that I mind. I love that quote and use it all the time (though I always say beach ball rather than volley ball)- though I've never read any of Gabriel. But that statement was very common back in my old usenet days of the late 90s. I wish I could remember who originated it back then. Maybe Gabriel even hung out on usenet in those days and read it there too. :-) (I wasn't attributing it to him as I'm quite sure it was a female who first coined the phrase).
I don't think you're allowed to pass the Inspirational Guru/Coach exam without having that beach ball quote memorized… they all use it.
Jannis,
Ray Peat might not eat that much ice cream now but he did at some point (unless you think he is a liar). He writes "I kept eating the same foods as before (including a quart of ice cream everyday), except that I added 200 or 250 calories per day as coconut oil."
Hey Renaee,
Awesome! Glad that's helpful for you. :-D
undertow, yes, very low PUFA. I tried doing nonfat milk for a while to really keep fat intake down, but that messed with my bowels somehow and moved back to 1% milk. Now I get maybe 100g of fat, mainly from coconut milk and cocoa. I have like 50g of starch and 500g of sugar+lactose a day.
I still dont have consistently warm feet even though my hands are always warm, its particularly hard to get them to warm up before noon unless I move around a lot, though they always get warm towards the late afternoon and evening.
OK, the theory is PUFA kills your metabolism and gives you cold hands / feet. So how come my hands and feet are fine while I'm seriously relaxing my view on (unrefined) PUFA? I've been eating a good deal of chicken these days (skin and all), sesame seeds, peanuts etc. My carbs come from both starch and sugars (fruit and honey.) Calorie wise around 2,500 or so. Is there some alternate explanation on why I'm doing OK temperature-wise? I mean I'm not the kind of person to whom this comes naturally.
I decided to practice caloric restriction in 2005 through 2006 because I looked overweight. I lost weight, and I only weighed 110 pounds or so at a height of five foot five inches. My hands and feet felt cold during those years. Then in the end of 2007 I had decided to increase my caloric intake and my hands and feet felt warmer. My sex drive increased. My strength increased. And my face grew more masculine. But then during early 2008 I felt dehydrated, I can't sweat, and I began to up my water intake drastically within a short period of time. That was probably caused by a deficiency of magnesium and potassium. Only in 2009 I ate food intake to my appetite and my hands and feet were the warmest. In August 2010 I decided to up my caloric intake to 2,500 calories and I my hands and feet didn't feel cold at all. I didn't felt like wearing any clothes at that time.
Hans, what's your e-mail address? Mine is alplex9@gmail.com.
Ignore the previous comment. My email address was typed wrongly.
I had difficulty contacting some members, including JT and Rob A., because I couldn't find any way to contact them in private.
organism,
it's roba then 289 and it's the google email if you'd like to reach me.
@ orgasm
contact me at chokeout2000-a@yahoo.de
Thanks
This made me laugh out loud. Great info and perspective, thanks.
I have a friend who has lost ALL her hair within the last 2 years. She is 31. :( It started happening around the same time she started a weight loss challenge. She lost a ton of weight.The idea behind it was similar to “Biggest Loser” but it was hosted by a local gym. She’s been diagnosed with an autoimmune disease, but I don’t think she see’s the link between her weight loss and hair loss. She wears wigs all the time now. :( I feel really sad for her.
If people only knew how typical that is. It’s not abnormal at all to lose hair and develop an autoimmune disease as a young woman. All in the name of health which is what is so crazy. She would have been better off eating only McDonald’s food and watching The Biggest Loser on tv.
that island sounds nice. …sigh.
Good post! I laughed. I cried.
I see so many women lately who are balding. And of course, men have been going bald early for decades now.
I’ve become convinced that they only way to good health and weight loss is to figure out what your problem really is, and do your best to fix it. For me, it was having my tonsils out. At 42. It was horrible, and i’d already made dozens of health changes, but one week after they were out (and just after a subsequent hemorrhage), I had a glorious fever. My body temp was about 100 – 101 for four days, and it felt absolutely wonderful – like being in a really pleasant sauna.
My weight began to drop, my body began to respond normally to food, my hungry/full signal that had previously been broken was immediately fixed, plantar fascitis and bladder control problems are over, I got pregnant after 18 years of infertility (1 month after the surgery) – I could go on and on about all the changes.
I don’t know that I would have had such radical health improvement if I hadn’t made all the other health changes, but I would never have gotten better at all if I hadn’t taken the risk and had the tonsillectomy.