Kristina: Weight Loss Success*

How long have you struggled with your weight?

I’ve always struggled but I would lose five pounds or ten pounds, and then I would gain and then lose them again. Then, at one point I did lose the weight that I needed to lose, but I got depressed and I gained all of the weight back. Ever since then I’ve struggled to lose it; all my life I’ve been on a rollercoaster with my weight.

How was weight loss with Dr. Kerendian different?

Dr. Kerendian was really nice, and he explained to me that I was going to have a thorough blood test done. Not the typical physical one that I was used to, because I’d already had one.
My insulin levels were high and he told me that I was insulin resistant and that was the cause of my fluctuating weight. That’s why I could eat a whole bag of chocolates in one sitting, because it was out of control. It was just up and down, up and down. Dr. Kerendian told me: “If you continue this way,” he said “you’re going to be diabetic”. He told me that eventually it is going to affect my heart and I’m going to be diabetic. No doctor has ever told me that I was insulin resistant, and it helped me understand why every time I was on a diet I couldn’t stop eating candy. By noon, I would have already had two or three bars of chocolate.

What weight loss program did you use?

We started on the OPTIFAST, and then the bars and shakes and now I’m on two meals a day. With OPTIFAST it was good, I lost a lot quickly. I think my first week I lost about eight pounds.

Why is this program different?

I think it’s because I see a doctor. He motivates you, the first time he said, “Oh you did good, you know you lost this amount and that’s a good job”. And I told him I don’t like going to the gym, and he told me that if I have a wii, there’s these games I could play, it doesn’t necessarily have to be killing yourself at the gym.

I think I’m more motivated here, and I know what my issues are here. I notice that part of me gaining weight is insulin resistance. So now I know it’s not just me wanting the chocolate, and I’ve learned to control it with the medication and wanting to control it. Also, they’re teaching me how to eat, he’ll tell me my portion size, what I should eat and what’s ok to eat. It’s not just “here, here’s your diet, follow this sheet and that’s it”.

I’m gardening, I’m walking. I lost like about 35 pounds