CIGNA is my insurance company

Freebird · September 17, 2007

and I am down to two months left of their 6 month requirement and I have not lost weight on the "medically supervised diet", I have gained 4 pounds and I am so scared they are going to deny me. It has me up at night, I can't sleep, I can't stop thinking about. I have done everything that has been ask of me. I exercise 5 days a week, I have cut out fast foods, pop, etc. I just want to cry at this point.

Thanks for listening. :cry

faithmd · September 17, 2007

Do you have a number of pounds that you have to lose to be approved? If you do, you HAVE to get on the bandwagon. I read that you have cut out soda, fast food, etc, but you are obviously substituting that with something else. In general less calories=weight lost. I'm not trying to badger you, merely trying to help.

One thing that worked for me (I gained almost 30 pounds in my ONE YEAR medically supervised diet requirement and was denied once, I stepped it up and was approved the next month) was to cut out all white or refined carbs. Anything that said high fructose corn Syrup or enriched flour on the label didn't go in my mouth. It makes you hungrier. So I went out and bought Slim Fast Low Carb Diet (not Optima, not High Protein-Low Carb Diet is richer and has lower carbs and higher Protein that even the High Protein) and drank two or three of those a day along with a huge salad and snacked on an ounce or so of nuts per day. I lost about 15 pounds in two weeks (but everyone is different).

I wish you luck!

KD8888 · September 17, 2007

I just finished my 6 month medically supervised period. I agree with faithmd that you should cut the white or refined carbs. I have an Atkins shake every morning for Breakfast. I find that on most days, it keeps me full until lunch. I also kept Protein bars in my desk at work for when I thought I was starving (even though I know I wasn't - but somewhere around 4pm every afternoon seemed to be a bad time for me.) Some Protein Bars are awful, but I found one at my grocery store that is pretty good. It's Pure Protein - S'mores. It has 19 grams of protein, 180 calories and 5 fat grams. There are many others, but some are really bad. If you do decide to try Protein Bars, I would suggest that you limit them as the calories do add up. I used to eat one nearly every other day, but I've cut down now to about 5 a month.

I would also suggest that you log everything your eating on FitDay - Free Weight Loss and Diet Journal or some similar website. At first I was just writing what I had eaten in a notebook in my purse. In reality, even though I was writing it down, I had no idea what was what as far as total nutritional information. When I found Fitday (recommended by someone on this site), it was definitely an eye opener for me. Now my family thought I was nuts the day they came in and found me with all this food in front of me while I was sitting here at the computer. I wasn't eating it, I was inputting the nutritional info for the foods I most often ate. That made it was easier to log because I didn't have to search everytime I needed to log what I had just eaten. I've seen some people recommend that you log your food before you eat it. I didn't start using Fitday until 4 months into my 6 month program, but the dietician seemed impressed and I did see more weight come off.

Good luck.