My first 45 days

Ahh .. welcome readers. So you want to know the secret of weight loss. Its simple really, find a way to eat less.  I know, I know its harder than it sounds .. in fact, if you are like me its down right impossible.  Why oh why is this so .. well dear reader its genetic.  Some of us are programmed to store fat and to have slow metabolisms.  More importantly, many of us have defective off switches to tell us when we are feeling full during a meal.  This is certainly the case with me.

I have been through this before. In my mid 30s I was part of the Fen-Phen craze that swept the country. If you had a BMI over 30% many MDs and Osteopaths would put you on the cocktale. It was all the rage.  Amazingly, after so much bullshit in the diet world and with so many jaded people it actually seemed to work. Millions of Americans like myself lost millions of pounds of weight.

I personally lost over 60lbs by taking the Fen-Phen and combining it with a regular cardio and weight lifting routine at least 3 or 4 days a week.  Not only did I lose the weight quickly in 1996 but I kept most of it off for many years.  Of course the great Fen-Phen craze ended when the heart valve damage trend emerged due primarily to the Fenfluramine (serotonin reuptake inhibitor).  Fenfluramine was removed from the market (rightly so as 45% of people taking Fen-Phen would have had heart valve damage) and millions of Americans went into mourning.

From about 1997 through early 2001 I struggled to maintain my weight at between 180 and 185, but unfortunately it started to creep up again.  It went from 180 to 185 to 187 to 190 to 195 to 204 to 210 to 215 to 217 where it equalized for many years.  In early 2002 I started doing Brazilian JuiJitsu which helped me get my weight back under 205 for quite some time, but being over 40 at the time I couldn't keep up with the sport .. to many injuries.

Eventually, I was injured pretty severely and was unable to exercise hard for over a year.  My weight ballooned up to 217 or so and stayed there since late 2002 until March 2006.

Now, it took me a year or more to recover from my injuries in 2002 and then less than two years later in 2004 I had a root canal go bad.  My reaction to this kind of stress was to put on weight (eating too much). So in May of 2005 I tried to take matters under control.  I started a regular cardio (biking) routine along with weight lifting.  I have religiously stuck to this since May of 2005 but I noticed that I was NOT losing any weight.

It became obvious to me that losing weight simply requires more than just exercise. You have to cut your calories. My goal was to cut my calories in half (eating half of what I normally did).  But eventually I realized that I couldn't do it by myself.

Then we started renovating the house and we had (and still have) no kitchen from Feb 2006 until present time. We were eating out every night and I started really putting the weight on.  I jumped from 217 or there abouts on Feb 6th to a max of 237 on May 1st.

That was the straw that broke the camels back. My clothes didnt fit, I couldn't touch my toes, my blood pressure was up and I felt like shit. My self image sucked badley. It hurt me at home and at work.  Ironcially, the only thing that kept me sane all this time was going to the gym regularly which I have been super disciplined about.

So, around 2001 I heard about a combination of Phentermine and Fluoxatine (Prozac) that was supposedly as effective as Fen-Phen.  At that time I went to see a Dr. Michael Anchors in Rockville MD (near my home) and he explained his Phen-Pro strategy.

Frankly, not being a doctor and reading all the scary reports from 1997/98 about the side effects of Fen-Phen, I declined to take the therapy.  I was paranoid and just didn want to take the risk.  But I kept it in the back of my mind.

Dr. Anchors and a handful of brave MDs nation wide kept prescribing Phen-Pro.  A report was published that definatively showed that the Phen-Pro combination had nothing in common with the Fen-Phen combination.  Phen-Pro causes absolutely NO damage to the heart and has very few side effects none of which are serious.  I learned from Dr. Anchors blog sight (www.phenpro.com) that he had succesfully treated over 3000 patients since 1995 and that most of them had lost 15% or more of their body weight on average and a good percentage of those had kept it off permanently.

So on May 4th I went to see Dr. Anchors.  He recalled my earlier visit. I assurred him that I was serious and told him about my desire to cut food consumption/calories in half. He felt that with my exercise routing and Phen-Pro I would be very successful and he was absolutely right on.

My dosage started as 1/2 37.5 mg phentermine for the first 6 days along with 20 mg of Prozac. After day 6 I took the full 37.5 mg dose of phentermine and the 20 mg of Prozac. 

In order to strengthen the effect of the Phen-Pro, I followed Dr. Anchors advice and added a supplement called 5HTP at the end of the 4th week.  Though the mechanism isn't fully understood, apparently this supplement helps the body continue to better use and metabolize the Prozac and the Phentermine so that you don't  experience Phentermine burnout. (which happens when you take phentermine by itself).  Of course this is the role of Prozac but the 5HTP appears to make the entire process metabolize and work much better. It seems to have helped me as it really damps down my dinner time appetite. It also helps me sleep a little better too and helps other things such as constipation.  I take 50 mg in the AM and 50 mg in the PM before my dinner.

Don't forget that you should be drinking at least 8 8oz glass of water a day .. and more than double that if you exercise hard like I do.

So here I am 45 days or so from where I started. I've lost 33 pounds.  I am down 2 pant sizes. Because I have been working out regularly both weight lifting and cardio wise I actually have a really good physique underneath all the body fat and it has come out of hiding.  I feel great .. I look really good and I am more than half way to my goal. Now the process is slowing down a bit and I don't think my next 15 pounds will come off quite as quickly as the first 30 plus.  But it is working pretty steadily and by the end of the summer I should be at my goal.

Ultimately I want to get down to below 12% bodyfat.  This should put me at a weight of 172 or there abouts.  But my initial goal is 185 .. if I get there and no further I'll be pretty happy.  But I should be able to make my ultimate goal. I did it on Fen-Phen and I WILL do it on Phen-Pro.  Frankly, I don't miss eating all that food. I feel better, Im less gassy,  better poops etc.

Now .. the ugly truth is that it hasn't been all smooth sailing.  While there are few side effects for the most part, taking phentermine is not side effect free.  It does make it harder to sleep, it can for some men make it harder to pee when you have it in your system (an enlarged prostate is not uncommon). It can make it difficult to have an orgasm.  I have experienced all these effects.  My next check up with Dr. Anchors is actually tomorrow Jun 15th and I am going to see if we can't work on these issues.  Perhaps another variation of a Prozac like drug might have fewer impacts. 

Thats the scoop.  There is absolutely no reason why anyone who is overweight can't lose weight using Phen-Pro. Its easier than weight watchers. Its faster than any diet I have ever used. I am in fact NOT dieting. I don't beleive in diets .. most of them are gimmicks.  Eat a balanced meal protein, carbo, and fat focusing on fruit and vegtables and lean meats.  Just eat less of everything.

In the end its all about calories.  Cut calories by 30% to 50%, exercise (walk, run, swim, bike, have sex, chase your dog or cat or kids or wife .. just move)... it will come off.