Hungry

At the end of Hepatitis C treatment on June 30, 2011 I weighed 166 lbs. (75 kilos), a loss of 35 lbs. (15.5 kilos) from my weight before the trial started. Granted, my lovely wife had been assiduously packing the weight on to me before the drug trial began so it wasn’t as if I lost only muscle, but still 15% of your body weight is nothing to sneeze at. The great majority of the weight loss, 25 lbs. (11 kilos) came in the first 5 months of the drug trial. It held steady for the first 6 months of standard treatment, then there was another quick 5 lb. drop. It plateaued again for another 4 ½ months and then there was another steady 1lb. per week drop till the end of treatment. It was as if the body dropped weight until the metabolism adjusted to the drugs, then held steady until the drugs broke through the plateau then dropped more weight until another adjustment was made and balance was achieved again.

The first week after I finished treatment was the same as being in treatment. My weight was steady, my appetite was suppressed, my energy very low. After about 10 days, it was as if a switch was thrown in my metabolism. I was hungry constantly. Breakfast in the late morning (I was trying to bring my sleep cycle into line with the rest of the world and not having a great deal of success), then a sandwich an hour later. Some sort of lunch at around 2 p.m. and again something to eat ever hour or so until supper; after supper, more grazing until bedtime. I even woke up hungry in the middle of the night and had to eat an apple or banana so I could get back to sleep. This continued day after day for about 2 weeks. I was astonished at how much I was eating after 18 months of trying to convince myself to eat anything. The only problem was that my diet hadn’t made a change from the on treatment period. My doctor had encouraged me to eat whatever seemed appealing in order to keep my weight up. This meant ice cream, baked goods, cheese etc. The problem now was that these foods were being consumed in large quantities. Two weeks after the eating began, I had gained 7 lbs. (3 kilos). That’s a lot of weight, especially when you look in the mirror and realize it went straight to your abdomen.

Some changes were made to the diet after that realization, cutting down on the ice cream especially and trying to manage the urge to eat. I am down to 3 meals a day without much between meal eating, but am still eating a great deal more at each sitting than during treatment. One month after my metabolism decided it wanted food again, I am 10 lbs. (4.5 kilos) heavier than at the end of treatment. My head likes to believe that the weight gain has begun to change to muscle instead of fat, but convincing my waist of that is a bit harder to do. Still, it is a wonderful thing to enjoy food again. There is nothing like enjoying fresh tomatoes on lettuce and toasted bread, grilled ribs, asparagus and a wonderful ripe peach. This sort of talk is making me hungry again and luckily it is just about time for dinner. So on that note, I will sign off and fulfill my task of gaining more weight. It is a difficult job, but someone has to sit down and do it.

Welcome to: The Everything Tastes Like Crap Diet

Most everyone has had a time in their life when they wanted to lose a bit of weight. Anyone who has ever decided to lose some weight faces the sad fact that losing weight is both a simple process and a very difficult one. There are three ways to lose weight. Eat less and be more physically active is the best and most successful way. Then there is the option of eating the same amount of food but increasing the physical activity. This method is slower, but still successful. The third way to lose weight is to eat less and have about the same level of physical activity. This is the slowest, but still you eventually lose weight.

If none of these simple yet difficult methods appeal to you, there are many dieting options available. The Grapefruit Diet, The Water Diet, The No Carbs Diet, The Take Two of These Pills and Don’t Eat After Eight P.M. Diet, and the many programs that offer you the opportunity to pay them for both food that they prepare and for support during the process of only eating their food. Maybe these diets work and maybe they don’t. I, on the other hand, can offer you a guaranteed method to lose weight over a 6-12 month time period. The interferon and ribavirin diet. You could call it the Hep C Diet, the I & R Diet or even the Treatment Diet but the most accurate title is indeed “The Everything Tastes Like Crap Diet.”

The problem with the 3 most effective ways to lose weight and, for that matter, the popular diets as well, is that you still miss food. You still want to eat. You sit around between meals distracting yourself from the fact that you are hungry and still want more food. Well, the TETLCD solves that problem. After you have been on the plan long enough (which is generally only 6-8 weeks) the last thing you want to do is eat.

How does the TETLCD achieve this miraculous transformation, you ask. Well, there are actually two separate methods the diet uses. The first is that the TETLCD removes all taste from 80% of the foods you used to love. Ice Cream – tastes like cold, sweet Styrofoam; Mexican Food – the beans and tortillas taste like cardboard with the flavor removed; Sandwiches – the taste and texture of the bread actually causes you throat to close; Salad – the lovely tomatoes and avocados and lettuce look enticing but then the smell of the French dressing makes you nauseous. Speaking of nausea, that is the 2nd secret weapon of the diet. You can feel nauseous for hours at a time and boy is there anything less appealing than food when you are desperately trying to keep your gorge from rising, I think not. This two-pronged approach is the secret of the success of the TETLCD. Just ask anyone you know who has been on it.

While I could cite numerous testimonials as to the effectiveness of the diet, most of the folks who have had the opportunity to experience TETLCD are trying so hard to blot the experience from their minds that they, mostly politely, refused to discuss the diet. That leaves it up to me to offer my testimonial. I am only 19 weeks into the full 48-week TETLCD program and I have already lost 16 pounds. Just think, by the end of the program, I could be a shadow of my former self - literally.

So, while I don’t recommend contracting Hep C just to get on the program, for those of you in the midst of it or considering it, the steel-gray lining to undergoing treatment is that you will lose that extra weight. You might also lose weight you can’t afford to lose, but most dieters have no sympathy for those folks anyway.

Happy Dieting!