My Patients Don’t Gain Weight Back

​I will share with you an e-mail from my patient P.T., but first I want to make a comment. I have been doing bariatrics for 17 years, but I have only gotten this good in the last year, after picking up lessons #2 and #4, i.e. use dark plates and don’t balance meals. The other lessons are important, too, but the addition of #2 and #4 completed the set. I just don’t fail anymore with young women, soldiers and kids. Other groups are a challenge, but I am doing better there too. And having lost weight, my patients don’t gain weight back.

So where did Dr. G. get off telling me that my patients do gain weight back? Since he can’t possibly really know, what was the motive for his statement? Why did the doctors in P.T.’s letter tell her that patients gain weight back after going off phentermine? They can’t know, having read nothing, having no experience or curiosity. It’s just meanness to say such a thing. I thought doctors were supposed to try to help. How could such a statement help? It’s stupid, too, because P.T. is obviously succeeding. Listen to her.

Good afternoon Dr. Anchors!

I am hoping you are having a beautiful weekend and enjoying this first real burst of autumn. I thought I’d just send you an update - it has been a while!

Well, I stopped taking the pills about a month ago. I was quite nervous because all the other doctors I went to were being kind of unfortunate in that they would say, "Well, you need to figure out a plan B because usually people just gain all the weight back after phentermine!" This has not been the case with me, and with the application of your rules (which I feel are the core of your plan) I have continued with steady weight loss and don’t feel hungry and eating is no longer a guilt trip for me. I am now at 129 pounds (I started at 185, remember?)! I love shopping for clothes. I am doing better in school because my brain isn’t so cluttered with worrying about health and I totally look forward to planning my meals and incorporating fruits and vegetables and generally feeding myself well and in proportion. I think my relationship with my family has greatly improved too - I guess because of an increase of ‘respect’ of how I did what used to be the impossible and am maintaining it. I am now 100% confident that I can follow this plan for my entire life and not feel like I’m missing out on anything and actually enjoy it. Dare I say, I kind of feel like a food elitist now - I’ll try not to let my habits get to my head and annoy those around me. Sometimes I will allow a sugary treat but I plan well in advance. For example, I’m gonna have one cupcake on my birthday which is coming up. I think that’s alright, don’t you think? I’m fortunate in that I never had a huge sweet tooth so I can go for quite long stretches without feeling a need to have some.

Again, thank you so much for all your help and guidance. I’m sure you have many success stories but I personally feel my greatest success so far in my life has happened with your help and I feel my age and healthy and that I treat myself properly. I hope we keep in touch for many years and I can continue to learn from you.

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