Three Weight Loss Programs that Didn't Work for Me

Many people who are overweight will pay any amount of money for the hope of losing a lot of weight in a small amount of time. There is always someone else waiting to take that money and make unrealistic promises in return. The trick is to find a program you can endure long enough to lose the weight. These are three I couldn't stand.

Curves For Women

First of all, Curves does work, just not for me. This was a personal problem, but it's not possible that I am the only one who feels this way. While I was working out at Curves, the trainers, many of whom were overweight but hired anyway for their willingness to make a sales pitch, would hang out in the middle of the circuit and talk to me about absolutely nothing while I worked out. I could not even wear headphones because the program depends on being able to hear a voice coming out of the speakers every thirty seconds to tell you to change stations or check your pulse. I did not have a workout buddy because I wanted time to myself out of the house; being a stay at home mom with a new baby at the time I found that time alone precious.

Even though the gym fees were coming out of my bank account automatically every month, I avoided the place because I was so uncomfortable. Extroverts should learn to understand that just because someone is alone, it does not mean they are lonely.

From a financial standpoint, even if you crave social interaction while you exercise you must understand that even at the end of your contract at Curves, you still have to ask them to stop taking the money out of your account. I'm sure I signed something in the mountain of paperwork that allowed them to keep taking the money at the end of the year; I just didn't read over it well enough because I was dying to get away from the chatterbox who was selling me the plan. I wish I had felt okay about saying, "I'd really like to be alone with my thoughts while I'm exercising," because the program was working.

L.A. Weight Loss

Even though I went to another town to join L.A. Weight Loss there was a girl working there who went to school with me. So, I had to listen to more talking. Like some of the Curves trainers, this girl was also overweight. That should have been the first red flag. Then I started the beginning phase of the diet, which was supposed to ease me into it. That part did make me lose weight and I probably should have kept to that plan on my own and stayed home. But the main phase of the diet was misery-inducing. L.A. Weight Loss was a starvation diet to make me lose fifty pounds in three months. Anyone who is thinking clearly would know that this is not healthy and that you will probably gain the weight back, but when it is April and you are being promised that you will be looking awesome by July, you may become deluded.

The worst part was that in order to keep going to the weigh-ins and receive counseling, I was required to buy some sort of diet drink from them that was supposed to be all-natural. It clearly said on the label that aspartame was one of the ingredients. I've read enough to know that aspartame is a dangerous chemical, and I called the L.A. Weight Loss center to explain to them that I did not want to buy any more of the drinks because they contained an artificial sweetener. The manager lied to me, saying that I was mistaken about what aspartame was. Despite having spent my tax refund that year on the program I stopped going. I was pleased to hear a few years later that L.A. Weight Loss was criticized in the news for making people buy drinks that contain artificial sweeteners.

Weight Watchers

Weight Watchers, as you many know, works on a "points" system, meaning you get a certain amount of points to spend each day and every food has a certain amount of points. I've known people who lost a lot of weight on the Weight Watchers program and kept it off. I just didn't want to pay for the weekly meetings only to be weighed and listen to a speaker, and the meeting times were not convenient seeing as how I live in a small town with limited meetings. The first meeting I attended featured a woman telling us to put the snacks you would normally eat into a plastic baggie for a week in order to emphasize to yourself the point that you were eating too much.

I continued with Weight Watchers on my own for a while using a book I bought from them which gave the number of points that different foods contained, and I found the math formula online to calculate the points for items that weren't listed in the book. I found that I spent the entire day thinking about food and that made me more miserable than just being fat. Then I would crack and go on a binge, mentally beat myself up a bit and attempt to start again. I finally gave up completely on points. Now that the program is available online it probably works better, but I still don't want to pay for information I can find for free.

Where I Am Today

I lost about thirty pounds in the summer of '08 by being very active and by living with a friend who wanted to do all the cooking and portion out the food. It was like having a personal chef. The friend moved away for job purposes, but I stayed the same size until January 2010 when I started to notice that my jeans were getting tight again. For the past two weeks I have been eating the amount of calories I need to slowly lose weight; I determined the amount of calories by using a calculator on About.com into which I entered my age, height, current weight and goal weight. I have already lost a jeans size and I am extremely happy with my plan. I eat whatever I want within the limits of my daily allowance of calories.

I find that I am learning to give up one thing I want in order to fit something else into the plan, instead of just eating them both. This is a ridiculously simple technique that thin people naturally use: giving up the bread and coleslaw with the meal in order to have dessert, for example, or drinking a medium sweet tea instead of a large and then drinking water the rest of the day instead of more tea. I guess I'm just stubborn and have to figure things out on my own. I now feel more energetic than I have since in several years. Being miserable is not a good trade-off for quick weight loss. I'd rather be happy and watch myself shrink slowly.