Gary Paquette

First off, I am a 59 year-old male. My goal is to lose 110 pounds. I am on a modified fast plan, 3 shakes + one light meal.
I am in a hospital controlled program and have the weekly group sessions and bi-weekly doctor visits. I have blood work every 10 weeks, get measured every 8 weeks and meet with an exercise physiologist monthly.
Most of the posts on this site seem to be newbies so I feel a little like a veteran. I am just finishing up week 8 and I'm on a 20 week program. Pre-fast, I had high blood pressure, sleep apnea, gastric reflux high cholesterol, and my blood sugar was high but not yet treatable.
So far, I've lost 39 pounds, none of my clothes fit anymore, even those that were way too small 8 weeks ago, my reflux is gone, my diastolic pressure is down 20mm, and I feel great. I don't know what my cholesterol or sugar levels are but I'll find out in 2 weeks. I also don't know if my apnea is improved as I use a CPAP machine but I'm looking forward to meeting with my pulmonologist in June. My hunger level was about an 8 out of 10 during weeks 1-2. Went down to around 5 out of 10 during week 3 and have been hovering at around 2 out of 10 ever since. I feel great and I'm getting all the positive reinforcement that I need.
These are my opinions of the "products":
The ready mixed shakes are convenient but they weigh a ton. Why pay for water? I use the powdered shakes.
The vanilla is too sweet for me and the flavor is not remarkable.
The strawberry is tolerable but not my favorite.
I love the chocolate shakes.
I find the chocolate bars to be dreadful.
The peanut butter and berry bars are not bad but I only use them when I don't have time to make a shake.
I never make the shakes with water. I usually use diet soda and a lot of ice. Root beer, cola, and cream soda go well with chocolate shakes. My favorite is root beer + chocolate. Tastes like a black cow. The strawberry shakes go well with Fresca, Squirt, and 7-Up.
Try adding enhancers like extracts (vanilla, almond) or cinnamon.
Some people use cold or hot coffee to make chocolate shakes but I'm not a big fan of mocha.
I'm told that the tomato soup is pretty good but I haven't tried it yet. The chicken soup is very bland but if you add a sodium-free chicken bullion cube it's more palatable and makes a decent lunch up here in frozen New England.
It is essential that you use a conventional blender to mix the shakes. A battery-powered stick blender will probably leave some lumps.
Good luck.

Mary

It really does get better. It takes awhile to get over "missing" food. Once you (and your taste buds) realize that eating is for fuel and nutrition, not pure pleasure, you will feel better about it. Will it ever taste better??? Probably not, but the results will make up for it. Keep up the good work. You are worth it.

autumnk

I'm now almost at my 2 week mark and the shakes are getting better but I cannot do the bars! I was a little upset about only losing 2.4 lbs. I did cheat and I let my nurses know. I'm not sure if that had something to do with the small weight loss. I'm almost over the craving point. I have to tell myself I'm paying for this to help me not for me to cheat!
I'm a 31 year old that is way over my ideal body weight. I'm 5'6" and I weigh 326 lbs. I do have a large frame and would like to get down to about 230. I don't have high blood pressure or high blood sugar but my cholesterol is very high. I work at a school and we went back to school yesterday and being back to my regular schedule was so much better. We have a weight loss clinic where I live and I'm actually the first one to do this program here. The nurses aren't exactly sure what to expect and neither am I. I weigh in weekly and get measured (waist) weekly also. I get a B12 shot weekly also.
What is a realistic weight loss amount for weigh in 2?

Robert

I mix my optifast powder with diet rite soda and 5 ice cubes. I cannot take it with just straight water.

Joanne

I use one shake to 500 ml (16 oz.) of water........works great! I don't find the flavour offensive at all.

Birgitte Frankfurt

This is my second time fasting and although I like the optifast flavors, its good to mix it up sometimes. Here are some ideas for some of the flavors, which I always mix with water first.
Vanilla: Luke warm with cinnamon, mixed with a glass of diet root beer and ice, or mixed with a cup of coffee and iced. Also try hazelnut coffee chilled with the vanilla shake, add sweetener if you like... its really good, like a starbucks coffee.
Strawberry: Mixed with ice cold water and ice. or mixed with another flavor like vanilla or chocolate.
Chocolate: I like it anyway.... warm with cinnamon, cold, mixed with coffee. chocolate is always good!
As for the soups... blah.... in the begining I could take it but now I have a hard time, after 12 weeks and now doing another 12 weeks. I like to mix the potatoe soups with different spices, chili, paprika, garam marsala, and often I mix the tomato soup with the potato soup otherwise I cannot eat/drink the tomato soup at all!!
I hope these tips help!

Ocean

I use the chocolate RTDs and chocolate Optifast bars. The chicken soup has to be diluted quite a bit but I also didn't eat salt before I started the program. Later on I added the powder chicken soup to brown rice. The vanilla shake powder I only put 8 oz of ice cold water. You can always drink the extra water immediately afterward. Just a note the RTDs have no lactose or gluten but the shake mixes have lactose in them. I eat up the gummy fiber bears and take a supplement that has Omega 3,6,9 all in one. I have restarted the program as of last week. My first weigh in will be feb 14th. I don't feel hungry but of course I still have environmental and psychological hunger cues.

Boobasos

Optifast recommends adding a variety of non calorie food flavourings to the shake. You can also use sugar free syrups. In addition, they give recipes in their binder saying how to make pudding and slush using the shake mixes. You can also add calorie free soda but it warns to stir and not shake if you do use soda.