Hollywood 48-hour miracle diet

I started with calorie count 3 weeks ago and have lost 12 pounds. I had bought the Hollywood 48-hour miracle diet a few months ago, and wanted to use it before it expires.  I decided to try it today to see if it could jump start me a little bit on some weight loss.... then, I would continue with my regular calorie count again....

Does anyone have any thoughts on the Hollywood diet plan, and if it could be beneficial for a short term jump start?

12lbs in 3 weeks wasn't fast enough for you?......  If you're losing weight that rapidly the last thing it sounds like you need is a 'short-term jump start'....  NB anything with 'miracle' in the title hardly inspires confidence.

All that is doing is going to put you on a liquid dite for 2 days. Use it if you want, but you are already losing weigh the healthy way and a pretty quick rate. Just don't get discouraged if your weight loss slows down a bit, it happens to all of us eventually, but you just have to stick with it.

BTW I bought something like that one time. I started back calorie counting and working out, I took that mess back to the store and got my money back.

It's just that I had put on so much weight so fast, above the weight I wanted to start dieting at, so I feel like those 12 pounds should have never been there to begin with......  It is like I have something really gross on me and I can't shake it off....  I feel like I need to lose 10 more pounds quickly, then I will be a a weight that I am still very uncomfortable with, but that I can work with.

The discouraging part is when I go a few days without losing, or if I have a day that my weight goes up...

Kim,

Honestly, its pure and total bupkis.  Its a fad diet borderline starvation.  You only get about 400 calories for that 48 hours and even that can really screw up your metabolism.  Another thing where does the weight loss come from.  Well, a pound or two will be fat, that’s for sure, but along with the fat you will lose a couple pounds of muscle and mostly waste materials that are already in your digestive system.  The Hollywood Diet consists of many different types of juice as well as enzymes and minerals that will have a laxative effect on your body.  Which is why i think its more of a cleanse then a diet. You will probably gain most of the weight back when you resume a normal eating pattern.  My opinion it took a couple months to years to put the weight on it will take months to years for it to come off.  Oh and another thing two pounds variation on a scale day to day is not that big of a deal its water weight or a BM. Also, when your weighing in can make a HUGE difference.  The best time to weigh is right out of bed after uve used the toilet. But, if you weigh after you eat shower dress do that everyday.

Original Post by kimpowers:

The discouraging part is when I go a few days without losing, or if I have a day that my weight goes up...

Then don't weigh daily, especially if you can't handle the result..... Day to day body-weight goes up and down for all kinds of reasons, mostly to do with hydration levels rather than fat storage.  Week to week you're more likely to see genuine gains and losses.  If you're going to get upset at daily weights - don't do it.

I'm concerned at the rapidity of your weight-loss, your description of your body being 'gross' and the anxiety you have about losing more weight quickly.   There are no short-cuts to being a healthy weight and all you're achieving through crash-dieting and 'miracle diets' like this is setting yourself up for a fall.  I'm guessing if you put on weight very fast in the past it's because your starvation weight-loss technique ultimately leads to massive bingeing.....   That's classic yo-yo dieting in action.  

I seem to lose more at the beginning of the week, and then I have a standstill for a few days..... The weighing daily actually keeps me motivated...  The 12 pounds that I lost were actually pounds that had just come on really quickly, so maybe that is why it came off a little easier.  One thing I had changed was that I felt I drank most of my calories, especially in the fall and winter.  I like to drink hot cocoa, and I would drink about 5 a day.... and coffee a few days a week, so I cut that out completely for now.  I have never tried a drink fast like this before, but I just want to try to get the next 10 to 15 pounds to come off as quickly as I can, then the next 30 to 40 pounds I can try to get off without feeling so uncomfortable in the skin i'm in.  If I could lose 4 to 5 pounds a week for the next two to three weeks then maybe 2 to 3 pounds a week after that, it would be ideal.  It is not only how I look, my cholesterol is high also, and my sugar is borderline.

I did try the drink yesterday, and at the very end of the day, I decided to eat a scoop of chicken salad, because I thought that I should have a little protein for the day..... but if nothing else, I think that drinking the water in between like I did, made me realize that maybe if I drink more water, I won't think about eating food so much.

I am just trying to find my way to figure out what my body wants. I have heard from some people that I need to always eat protein first,  I have heard not to mix carbs and protein, I have heard that drinking plenty of water takes off weight, and I have heard that only calorie counting takes weight off.... I just don't know how or what to do.....

What your body wants... is good nourishment, regular meals, a balanced diet and regular exercise.  Not 'eating carbs before the protein', not a crash diet and not some idiotic fast-in-a-box laxative drink with a scoop of chicken salad.   A safe rate of weight-loss is about 1% of your total body-weight each week.  If you're 400-500lbs then 4-5lbs a week is fine.... if you're not then really don't aim for that.

Panicking and wanting rapid weight-loss is not helping you at all - it's just clouding your judgement.

Work out your total energy needs using the CC calculator,  make your calorie intake 500-700 cals lower than that number,  choose a good mix of healthy foods.... fruit, vegetables, grains, meat, fish, oils, dairy.......  and then you should be losing weight safely and steadily.  Build your meals around vegetables and add moderate amounts of everything else second.   And above all, calm down...  Eating is not complicated.

From the math in your post above, it sounds like you are looking to loose from 52-67 pounds. I needed to loose 64 pounds (I've lost 37 pounds to date), so we are in the same weight-loss goal category. So please listen to me, I know where you are coming from. GI-Jane is right. Just breathe. Don't panic (easier said than done, but deep breathing will help you a lot more right now than "The Hollywood Diet" ever could). Accept the fact that this is more about a lifestyle change than a dress-size change. Kim, we are in this for good now - that's the only way the weight will stay off. Find a way to LIVE - find the eating and exercise system that keeps you healthy and helps you loose weight, one that will work for good, and no quick fix will do that. Doing dumb things like fasting is how I put on 64 extra pounds. My personal wake up call came in a series of steps, integrating healthy eating and exercise into my daily routine. That's what you need to do, just take small steps, small goals each week, then each month, and suddenly you'll be turning heads again. I'm only half-way to my goal, and already, I'm getting those looks that I've missed so much. You will too.

Step one, find your calorie intake. Once I settled on the right formula in the Calorie Target Tool, that's when I started seeing consistent results. Step two - get realistic goals. In my head, I only want to loose 1 pound a week. Because I set my sites low, I have been pleasantly surprised every week, loosing an average of almost 2 pounds a week (this includes a 9 day trip to New Orleans in August and 2 weeks in China just now). I am not at all worried about the holidays, because I have changed how I eat and how I act around food. This is as much about what you put into your head as it is about what you put into your mouth. 

Step three - listen to Michael Pollan. "Eat food. Mostly plants. Just less of it." Eat a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables, lean sources of protein, WHOLE GRAINS (do not cut out carbs, we need them), and healthy fats. Stay away from processed foods as much as possible. Measure your food at home, estimate when you go out. I have found that spreading my eating out - basically 3 moderate meals and 3 healthy snacks a day - has really helped.

Step four - if you weigh yourself frequently, become a scientist about it. Let your rational brain take over from your emotional brain. Right now you are only listening to your emotional brain, which is not going to help at all. When you weigh yourself, and you've gained a bit, try saying, "hum... what happened here? Did I not get enough sleep? Did I eat too much sodium? Is this just normal weight gain?" Watch it, study it and see what happens. Use the information to inform yourself about your body. On the other hand, if you can't turn off your emotional brain in these circumstances, only weigh yourself once a week.

Here's the best part: I am so into my healthy living and eating plan, I'd be fine if I didn't loose another pound. I'd still eat and exercise the way I do. The weight loss is now just a really cool added benefit. Make smaller goals, and you will succeed. Let your rational brain take over from your emotional brain (turn that raging 13 year old off!), and give yourself 6 months. You'll be amazed at the results.

Thank you!  It is just that I don't have time to exercise right now, and hopefully that will change in a few weeks, therefore, I am relying totally on my calorie intake.  I have been eating eggbeaters for breakfast most days, and for the rest of the day, I try to eat cucumbers, apples, bananas, pears, or plums for snacks.  I have found some nice low calorie meals from Healthy Choice, Lean Cuisine, Marie Callendars, and smart ones.  I am trying to eat some of those when I can, because they are filling and the portion size is perfect. Those meals usually range from 220 to 380 calories.  I try to keep home cooked foods for dinner time with the kids, but sometimes I try to stick to the prepackaged foods, especially if they want pizza or homemade mac & cheese or something.  I know that my doc had previously told me that my sodium was on the low side, so I decided that maybe I didn't need to worry about that right now.  Sometimes if I have a sweet tooth, I will eat a bowl of Lucky Charms or something.  I am trying to keep my water intake as high as I can. It is difficult when I eat, because even if I am not that hungry, when I am done, I feel like I could eat more.  I try to ignore it, when I can, because I know that it will usually go away in 15 minutes or so.