So I'm not quite sure what to do at this point. My roommate of many years has been plagued with a few health issues for most of his life. He suffers from OCD and depression and takes medication for both, and it may be the medications or the OCD but he's got some serious addictions to alcohol and food. Back in college we tried to convince him to take walks or go to the gym without much luck. He's passed on switching from regular Coke to diet. And then over the past 8 years he's almost doubled in size just breaking 300lbs recently. All of this time he's been seeing a number of doctors all managing his blood pressure, his cholesterol, his mental state, etc.

Now, he's starting a doctor imposed diet which is almost purely liquid for the next 4 months. Shake for breakfast, shake for snack, shake for lunch, shake for another snack - you get the idea. He's allowed "non-caloric drinks" and a few green vegetables ... for four months. The doctors he's taking this program with only do it in extreme cases as an alternative to gastric bypass and have proven success rate, but its very difficult.

That's some of the background, but he's having trouble even sticking to this diet knowing that "death" and other horrible things away if he doesn't. And truthfully, it shouldn't and won't be my job to babysit him and make sure he doesn't cheat - despite how much I care for the guy. So what I'm wondering is, has anyone ever heard of anything like a food rehab other than tv's biggest loser or stupid shit like that?

All honesty there is only 1 thing that'll get him on his feet and away from the table.

Himself, you can't force him to do something he doesn't want to do.

I'd push him to get reevaluated, OCD is one of the most over diagnosed conditions and the wrong meds can cause horrible side effects.

It's akin to diagnosing so many children with ADD just because their hyper and throwing them on ritalin. Too damn easy to throw that prescription pad around imho.

try this

http://www.fitday.com/

Its a long process. 2-3 lbs a week is the goal, anything more than that is temporary and will just be put back on. The program on that site is pretty good and helps track exact caloric intake and puts you on a food plan. Its good because you have to confront what you ate each day.

If the prospect of death doesn't motivate him, well then I'm not sure you'll be able to.

I would assume he's been checked for thyroid? Also, yes psychotropic drugs (some) can cause weight gain. Some on the other hand can cause weight loss. Having dealt with my neices ups and downs and different meds and seen her gain and lose I'd recommend him to be reevaluated for his diagnosis. Mental stuff imo is almost a crap shoot for finding the right diagnosis and combo of meds that work and I think constant evaluation should be in order.

It doesn't matter though, if you're not more active than what you eat disorders aside you're going to gain more than you lose. I see so many who have had that bypass surgery gain their weight back over time. For some people it's an addiction to food and not a matter of metabolic rate. You need to treat how you approach food first, then make the choice you want to change it, then take small steps to achieve it. I'm with L2, fast weight loss typically isn't permament. Slow and steady wins the race.

I do hope he finds the right path and having a good friend is a big help. Assure him you're trying to help and keep encouraging him. But ultimately he has to take the plunge.

Food is instant satisfaction and happiness. I've been there.

Loosing weight and getting fit is a lifestyle change. He has to change his attitude towards life. He has to want it bad enough to do something about it. For him, it's easier to ignore it and just eat. Being in his situation is enough to cause the depression he's suffering from.

That's just my opinion based on having to deal with the same thing. I was 360+ lbs. I'm 6' 4" tall. I was a very big man. I'm under 300lbs now (I don't weigh but on the rare occasion). This weight loss was done of my own accord over a period of last 5 years. Divide that up. 70lbs by 5 years. That's 12lbs. a year. ONE pound a month.

You have to eat. You have to feed your body. If not, you can die from malnutrition and be 500lbs. I simply stopped having seconds. That's how I started. I still ate, I still drank regular soda. I didn't stop eating sweets or cut sugar out of my diet. That's the start and I started loosing weight, slowly. Then I cut out snacking. Kept it to 3 squares. Next thing you know, people started noticing that I had lost weight. People that hadn't seen me in a year or so. My friends and coworkers noticed that I didn't eat that much at each sitting. This just happened. When you eat less, your stomach begins to shrink and you get full faster. Three days ago, I started drinking diet soda and unsweetened iced tea.

Basically, what I'm trying to say is, to quote "What About Bob", it's baby steps, baby steps.

Your friend needs to make sure that the diet he is on will nourish his body, sufficiently. He has a tough, tough, tough ass road ahead. He'll only succeed if he wants it bad enough. Gastric Bypass is an option. I've seen success stories and I've seen failures. I work for a casino that employs nearly 2,000 people. Our insurance covers the surgery. I've seen probably 25+ coworkers have the procedure. Maybe 10 have kept off the weight. If you don't want it bad enough, even the surgery won't help.

Sorry for the ramble, I've been there, and I have an opinion. Someday I'll be 250'ish and my health will improve significantly. Not to mention my self esteem.

I used to weigh 189 lbs. While a lot of people might not think that's a lot, it is when you are only 5'7.

Flashback to when I was 19 years old and weighed 139 lbs before joining the Army. Once I was in I gained 20 lbs of muscle, and was eating well over 2000 calories a day.

Once I had gotten out, however, I continued to eat like I was in. By the time I had reached 189 lbs I had been married for 13 years, and gotten used to sitting in front of the computer/television, with almost no regular exercise.

I got divorced and I could have very easily continued to pack on the tonnage. What made me decide to change?
Me.

I wanted to be there for my son, when he reaches my age, and beyond.
I wanted women that are younger than me to still find me attractive.
I wanted to be able to walk up a flight of stairs and not get winded.
And I wanted my X to realize that she had given up on me, and I was better for it, mentally and physically.

So I started eating less, and exercising more. I dropped from 189 lbs to 150 lbs, and now I'm up to 165 lbs. That's 165 lbs at 15% body fat, a very fit set of numbers for someone that is 38 years old.

The common theme in what motivated me was me. You can't do it for him, you can only provide the opportunities. If the person refuses to be motivated by death, and refuses to realize thier actions are the reasons for the health issues at hand, there is nothing you can do.

I hope it all works out for the best, keep us informed.

I knew a guy who was pretty fit and he would eat well all week, but then for 3 hours one day a week he would allow himself to eat as much junk food as he could take... then he would get back on the "good" food.

I found that an interesting take on how to keep those binge cravings away, but I never tried it.

Dieting tip #1

NEVER go grocery shopping stoned!

hahaha ain't that the truth...

Come home with nothing but the shit you didn't have on your list.

Even after losing 140lbs (I weighed 325 lb), I find that I can't give others the motivation to lose the weight. I think its something that you have to find in yourself. Virtually every obese person wants to lose their weight, they just can't motivate themselves to do it.

For me what finally got me going was that I timed my diet / exercise change with another major change in my life: moving out. In the same week I moved out I got my gym membership and when I went shopping for groceries the first time I knew I could only buy healthy food. There was just something about doing everything for myself at that point that kept me going.

As to your friend, I could give plenty of tips on how he could help himself lose weight, but I could never give him the motivation.

If you are not familiar with "Stages of Change", it is the theory of how people go about making permanent change in their life. The following article does a decent job of explaining it:

http://www.addictionalternatives.com/philosophy/stagemodel.htm

I bring it up because once you identify what stage someone is in, there may be opportunities to move them along to the next stage (see the reference to "The Toolbox of Change" in the article). As people have already mentioned, it comes down to the individual but knowing a little about the process can be helpful.

By the way Kelraz how is your friend doing with his new diet changes?

I'm glad someone bumped this, I had been meaning to ask how things were going but kept forgetting.

The toolbox link doesn't seem to be working for me... but the first article could be very useful.

So far, he's lost 5 lbs the first week and 2 lbs the second week. I can't help but think that's WAAAAY lower than he should only drinking "milkshakes" 5x a day. I guess at least he's losing some, but he's never gonna get to his 199lb goal at this rate. (2 weeks in, started at 295lbs now 288lbs)

Is he exercising at all? Walking at the very least.

He's supposed to be. I'm not babysitting him, so can't be sure, but he says he is. I offered to buy him a dog and all the supplies, to encourage him to take a few walks every day, etc. All he had to do was pick a time to go to the pound. Hasn't happened yet, and I'm not gonna force it because if he isn't gonna take the initiative he isn't gonna take care of it.

It takes a while to build up that kind of weight... it takes a while to lose it. In any kind of healthy way anyway.

Two to three lbs per week is healthy weight loss. I was burning 1000+ cal a day at the gym, 6 days a week, along with a 1000 cal diet and I only lost 3 lb per week. Yes, it is going to take him a long time, but there's a point that you hit where you realize how much healthier you feel. At that point its much easier to stay on track. Also, it depends on the exercise he's getting. Once he loses a bit, he should feel a little more up to the challenge when it comes to getting a good cardio workout in.

I mentioned it in the thread where I was talking about my weight loss, but I do highly suggest elliptical trainers. Very low impact and you can burn a good amount once you work your way up to longer workouts / higher difficulties. The best thing to do is bring something to distract you. A book works great. A portable DVD player is an option too.