Weight Loss Programs - A personal review

I have been trying to reduce my weight, or rather maintain my weight since the time I got married. For a woman who gets married in India, its very difficult to maintain one's weight especially if she decides to be a homemaker.

After a hectic and activity filled life of college and work at a big hospital, sitting at home can have many side effects; gaining weight being the uppermost. More so after the first child is born, as you are tied down to the child's requirements and hardly have time to look after your own health and needs. Well, needless to say, I did put on a lot of weight after a few years of the birth of my son.

I decided to do something about it and at that time I heard about Herbalife. There seemed to be a big craze about the product as it had newly been launched in India. I went to a distributor and signed up for the program feeling convinced that this could be the ideal solution to a fast and convenient and safe method to lose weight. I started on the full program that included a protein shake, some Multivitamin capsules and fat burner tablets. I was instructed to take the protein Shake twice a day and have just one meal in the day, along with the capsules and tablets given.

I must say that the program worked wonders with me. I felt great at all times and energetic and did not suffer any side effects at all. I followed the instructions given to the dot and managed to lose 10Kgs in about 3-4 Months time. The products are very expensive and so I had joined as a distributor so that I could get the products for myself at a 25% discount rate and also had the privilege to sell the products to other people and keep the profit to myself. Therefore, I managed to sell just enough of the products to be able to afford my own weight loss program.

However, my husband being in the government sector, we do get transferred to small stations and way out places and so in the next few years, although I struggled to maintain my weight to what I had managed, I still kept putting on weight as my eating habits slowly went haywire.

So, no surprises that after a gap of three to four years I was back to square one. So, I decided to join another weight loss program. This time I chose Anjali Mukherjee as the place was within walking distance from my house and easily approachable. I signed up for the program with the goal of losing 10Kgs. It cost me about 10,000 Rs/-.

Well, for a start they gave me some herbal capsules to boost my metabolism or probably burn fat, I am not sure. Then they made me purchase a whole lot of diet products from their "diet store", which they said were all essential for the weight loss program. Brown bread, Soya Atta, Bran, Diet biscuits and snacks etc (the list is never ending). Let me tell you that they are not very cheap either. So, they were making a huge profit out of people like us!

To add insult to injury, the program also required me to purchase from outside some multivitamins, calcium supplements, and other such supplements that were again deemed to be equally essential towards the success of the program. These supplements were the most expensive ones that they could come up with! Can you believe that a single strip of tablets cost me around 500/-Rs. Well, it was too late now to retract as I had already started on the program, so I had no other alternative but to go along with all that they said.

To their credit, I did lose 10Kgs after about 4-5 months. But all during the program I must have cursed them a zillion times. I did not like their diet plan at all, and in fact it made me feel weak and tired and fatigued all day. I was sure that I was deficient (in spite of the supplements given) of essential nutrients after completing the diet. For, they don't allow you to take any milk or milk products for the entire program, other than just curd or buttermilk or Paneer. In short, I would never recommend this program to anyone.

History repeats itself, it is said. And so it is but natural that I again put on all the weight that I had lost in another 5 years time. It's been a total of 7 years now since I had lost weight with the Anjali Mukherjee diet.

Anyway, since I am back to square one yet again, I decided to try something else this time. I went to the VLCC center and signed up for their weight loss program.

For a start, it sounds promising as they don't give any kind of supplements. They have charted out a customized diet plan and encourage you to exercise your muscles with lots of activity during the day. They have some machines which provides electrical stimulus to focused body parts which helps in mobilizing the fat from the real troublesome areas like the hips and abdomen. Along with this they also apply heat pads and taps on those areas.

I joined the program this week and am feeling good about it. Let's see how it progresses. I will write my feedback on this program in subsequent Xombytes here.

Hope to lose another 10Kgs is my New year Resolution for 2009 and this time to maintain the weight for the rest of my life. Will I succeed with my goals, only time will tell. So, wish me luck.