[deehunk]

This is going to be a long story, but I am revealing all the truth here to underline that if we are ready to put in the effort, there will be results, and age is just a number.

A brief medical history of when my weight gain started: it was in November 2013 when I first experienced difficulty breathing while working in the lab at Honeywell. Everything was fine after a few minutes. A couple of weeks later, I started sweating while driving the car; again, everything was fine within a few minutes. This continued until June 2015. On a Saturday morning at SFO, when I was walking on the Golden Gate Bridge, I experienced serious fatigue, breathing difficulty, and imbalance and could barely move my feet. My manager noticed that I was not comfortable, but again, in 10–15 minutes, I was normal. I then traveled with him the whole day and saw all the popular places in SFO.

The next day, on a Sunday morning, I woke up with a heavy head, and the pain was unbearable. But since I had just joined Lam Research and could not risk losing the job, I stayed in Fremont in as-is condition to complete my business travel. My discomfort only increased during my stay, and I reached Bangalore at the end of June. I took off for a couple of days for a medical checkup and then went to the office. But all these days, I had been suffering from intermittent bouts of high fever. It was July 15, 2015, the day I collapsed near Banashankari Bus Stop while waiting for the bus.

A conductor came to my aid, and again, within 5–10 minutes, I was normal and boarded the bus, and the whole day I was normal. After 2-3 days, I started experiencing a lack of movement in my left limbs while driving the car and it was serious as I got stuck in a signal near Kumaraswamy layout, unable to move ahead. After this incident, I visited my family physician, and he advised me to get an MRI. It was diagnosed as a life-threatening colloidal cyst at the center of the brain. Within two weeks, a neuroendoscopy was performed and the tumor was removed. I was relieved of all my discomforts by September 2015. I weighed around 107 kg (even then obese), but by November I had put on 15 kg to weigh 115 kg. My weight started increasing until I reached 128 kg in February 2020. I was diagnosed with L4 and L5 bulged discs and had just survived a stroke in November 2019. It was diagnosed as Stenosis and another operation was carried out to remove the bulged disc in February 2020. Then it was the COVID-19 epidemic, a month of bed rest, and then the lockdowns restricted all my physical activities for 3–4 months.

My orthopedic surgeon advised me to lose weight; he told me that my L4/L5 problem was because of bone degeneration. I first visited Dr.Moinoddin, a reputed bariatric surgeon, for a solution. He did a body fat analysis and suggested I go for bariatric surgery, as my condition was really bad. Since the health insurance did not cover bariatric surgery, it was not affordable for me, plus this was irreversible.

[deehunk]

I did not notice my weight gain until August 2021, as I had no physical disability to perform my day-to-day tasks with such a heavy body. Then a photo with cinematographer Ashok Kashyap raised a red flag that my condition was serious enough not to be ignored. I considered visiting an endocrinologist for medical advice, so I visited Kanva Diagnostics in Nagarabhavi for an executive health checkup. After my check-up, I was advised to meet endocrinologist Dr. K. V. Suryanarayana at Kanva Diagnostics in Nagarabhavi. He listened to my history and checked all the reports. It was concluded that it was hypothalamic obesity as no other issues were found in the reports. I have shared the medical reports in the forum.

https://rarediseases.org/rare-diseas...sity-acquired/

I tried a lot of things, including Ayurvedic treatment for a year or so, only to put on more weight. This medication was also expensive, and I used it until April 2022, but with no solution for my weight gain. I had to quit my job in March 2022 because of my deteriorating health, and then the struggle with EPFO to get back my money for one year aggravated my situation both financially and physically. My breathing during sleep was severely affected, and at times I could not sleep at all and could hardly walk for 200–300 meters. I was sure that something would happen if I lived with these problems, I was too physically and emotionally drained to do anything.

[deehunk]

It was May 10th, 2023 that I decided to visit a nutrition club near my house, I had personally seen the positives of people using Herbalife products and of course, had read about the negatives of Herbalife products. Since I had nothing to lose except my weight, I went to the club one fine day. Most of us would know about Body Fat analysis and how different parameters are assessed to determine obesity levels. In my case, the weighing machine showed an error on the first day, the same on the second day and for a week I did not know how much I weighed to start the weight loss program.

On May 16th, I got my first weight reading, 144.2 kg but other critical values were not shown and the machine showed an ERROR message, this continued till May 29th, and after 16 days of joining the club, I could see the readings of my Fat level, BMI, BMR and muscle values. But in these 15 days, my weight had reduced to 134.8 kg. The max weighing capacity of the machine was 150 kg, so how much did I weigh on the first day, Ever since I have followed the instructions of my coach and have used the Herbalife nutrition products, the weight loss has been consistent with tremendous changes in my lifestyle, eating habits, and sleep patterns.

Initially, I started with an early morning walk of 1-2 km followed by 1km walking at night. It was a struggle, in the beginning, to move on my legs, but my energy levels improved day by day, and started walking for 4-5 km within a month. From 3rd month onwards, I started walking in the sun between 12:30 pm to 2:00 pm, slowly I increased my walking to 7 km per day. My reflexes improved after 2 months and I could bend my body, cut my toenails, climb steps, become physically active, and start using public transport for all my needs.

Earlier because of water retention, I had problems with bladder control, but this problem slowly reduced. Of course, there were people around me who always fed negative views about Herbalife products, but the change within myself was enough for me to trust the product and I continued to compliment Herbalife products with some physical effort from my side. Thanks to my community, wife, and coach who stood by me, I have been able to shed 50 kg to reach 101 kg today. This has happened over 6 months, with no food restrictions or diet plans. I am now focused on reaching my ideal weight in 2024. I want to share my weight loss experience with this community, there are no commercial or financial aspects involved in my post except the fact that age is just a number. Today, I easily walk for 10-12 km every day and avoid using lifts everywhere. I have shared a small profile of my weight loss transformation, plus the weight chart maintained by my coach since May 2023.

[Aditya]

Thread moved out from the Assembly Line. Thanks for sharing!

[Iyencar]

@deehunk you're a champ! Very impressive achievement and your motivation and consistency is an inspiration. I would suggest you however try to wean yourself off Herbalife now. You're at a stage where you can walk 10-12 kms. Now focus on diet, get a personal trainer or get some inputs from others in the forum to slowly start a fitness regimen hopefully involving varied exercises- bodyweight or with equipment after consulting a good physio and doctor. I don't know how Herbalife works. Am glad it did in your case but whenever someone says they lost weight without focusing on diet, it sets alarm bells ringing in my head. This takes nothing away from your achievements. All I am saying is going forward you can now attempt a more well rounded, holistic approach. Best wishes.

[rajeevsulu]

Hi sir,
Congratulations on your achievement!! What you have achieved is fantastic, however, I request you to do away with herbalife from now on.
The basis of any weight loss program is exercise, weights and most importantly, the right diet. You are fit enough to do the first two. The only thing missing is a healthy diet.
Meet a dietitian after getting clearance from your physician, orthopedic surgeon and consulting doctors.
Get a customized diet chart with realistic weight loss goals in mind. In the long run, this is the only way you will see realistic results which can be sustained.
All the best
Cheers
Rajeevsulu

[deehunk]

Originally Posted by Iyencar

@deehunk you're a champ! Very impressive achievement and your motivation and consistency are an inspiration. I would suggest you however try to wean yourself off Herbalife now. You're at a stage where you can walk 10-12 km. Now focus on diet, get a personal trainer, or get some inputs from others in the forum to slowly start a fitness regimen hopefully involving varied exercises- bodyweight or with equipment after consulting a good physio and doctor. All I am saying is going forward you can now attempt a more well-rounded, holistic approach. Best wishes.

I have been advised by my orthopedic surgeon not to do anything that can harm my back, so a fitness regime in the gym is ruled out. Since I did not have any kind of cravings for junk food, no specific diet was not recommended by my coach who otherwise gives a diet plan to people in our club. I only added salads and curd to my daily food. Some of the good habits I developed in 6 months,

• Earlier I used to drink 8-10 cups of coffee, but have stopped drinking coffee completely after joining the weight loss program.
• Either walk or use public transport as much as possible, with almost zero dependency on lifts, cabs/autos, or private 4-wheelers.
• I have made it a habit to finish eating before sunset for 6 months now, drinking as much water as possible till sunset
• I go to sleep by 9:30 pm, walk for 2 hours early morning, again 30 30-minute walk in the noon and 30 30-minute walk in the evening.

My sister-in-law who is a doctor has been my guide during this program to understand the factors affecting body metabolism which is related to weight gain/loss. Hypothalamic obesity remains a medical condition without any medication. I enjoy my lunch as usual but my breakfast and dinner have been replaced by Herbalife nutritional shake. I have attended several of their events and interacted with community members who have been using Herbalife products for 10-15 years without any complications.

[amitoj]

What an inspiring story! Congratulations on your success.

Originally Posted by deehunk

I have been advised by my orthopedic surgeon not to do anything that can harm my back, so a fitness regime in the gym is ruled out.

You can have a fitness program that does not damage your back if you work with a qualified physiotherapist. The orthopedic is mainly concerned about your spine but not your overall health. Even getting up from a chair can hurt someone's back if they have very weak core strength. All the weight that you've lost includes a lot of muscles as well, so you need to shore that back up.

Walking is a good exercise but several studies have shown that including resistance training is the most essential thing as we age.

I was recently hit by a car while riding my bicycle (thread here: Crash and recovery as a Cyclist (The Crash and Recovery as a Cyclist)
I believe that the main reason my back injury did not require surgery (apart from my guardian angel keeping watch over me) was that I have been consistently training my overall body with weights as well, focusing on overall strength.

I have personally seen cases where people have lost weight through diet and light exercise, only to have strength related issues down the line.

[deehunk]

Originally Posted by amitoj

What an inspiring story! Congratulations on your success.
You can have a fitness program that does not damage your back if you work with a qualified physiotherapist. The orthopedic is mainly concerned about your spine but not your overall health.
Walking is a good exercise but several studies have shown that including resistance training is the most essential thing as we age.

I wanted to approach it in a phased manner when I look back in time, I was slowly moving towards a bedridden stage. My waist was 52 inches, unable to bend yo wash my toes, could not pull up my trousers without support, always having heavy breath, the time from Feb 2020 to April 2023 was like living in hell. I still have some financial constraints to approach an expert, so kind of managing things with my limited knowledge.

[Red Liner]

Originally Posted by deehunk

I wanted to approach it in a phased manner when I look back in time, I was slowly moving towards a bedridden stage. My waist was 52 inches, unable to bend yo wash my toes, could not pull up my trousers without support, always having heavy breath, the time from Feb 2020 to April 2023 was like living in hell. I still have some financial constraints to approach an expert, so kind of managing things with my limited knowledge.

Sire, this was a fantastic journey to read. I am sure it must have been a heroic journey for you!

I would only suggest 2 things for you to continue doing:

1. Eat healthy. Ensure all your portions are 75% protein and green leafy vegetables and only 25% of rice or rotis. Add millets to replace all rice, wheat. This is for every meal of yours. Completely avoid eating out. Cook your own food in the kitchen along with the wife. She might get annoyed though lol.

2. Walk, walk, and walk some more. You are already doing a great many miles. Once a week do a marathon distance in the outdoors at a park. Or once a week do a mild trek to any one of the numerous temples we have on the outskirts of bangalore which are typically situation on top of a hill. This variability of the heart and breathing is especially important.

Everything else you are doing is exactly what our forefathers did. You can now begin to ease off the herbal health supplements. Encourage your mind and body to depend on itself. Remember our forefathers never had access to things like supplements.

Once your body turns healthy, the mind will too. You will find new vocations or will learn to amplify your existing one. This will ease your financial constraints soon. Just slowly start applying your mind to work going forward. Avoid anything mentally stressful (worry or anxiety inducing work).

I met you once many years back at your home. I was shocked to read all these things happening in the interim. You got a second lease of life. Make this lease a life long one!

[sagarpadaki]

Originally Posted by deehunk

I wanted to approach it in a phased manner when I look back in time, I was slowly moving towards a bedridden stage. My waist was 52 inches, unable to bend yo wash my toes, could not pull up my trousers without support, always having heavy breath, the time from Feb 2020 to April 2023 was like living in hell. I still have some financial constraints to approach an expert, so kind of managing things with my limited knowledge.

Very inspiring story sir! You have the grit and determination to bounce back. May your health improve.

Is the hypothalamic obesity the reason why you were feeling so tired when you were in the US? If I may ask, is this age-related issue and what was your age when you first started getting these symptoms?

[GTO]

deehunk, big congrats on your incredible transformation! It's the best gift you can give to yourself. Our body is the most important tool we will ever have, and we don't realise the value of good health until we lose it.

To answer the thread question = Herbalife, safe or harmful? Well, it clearly worked for you. Herbalife products helped you, so I will say safe. End of the day, it all comes down to portion control, activity levels etc. etc. A trick I highly recommend is 16 : 8 intermittent fasting, that's the easiest way to lose & maintain weight levels.

Herbalife might have its naysayers, yet the results on this thread are there for everyone to see. Have read in detail of how Bill Ackman (I like the guy) took on Herbalife...and lost. Herbalife is like Skoda = 50% of the market will never own one, the other 50% absolutely loves Skodas.

In the long run though, try to have as much of "fresh" food as you can, and as little of "packaged" food as you can.

[PearlJam]

Congratulations on your amazing transformation, and thanks for sharing!

I am personally not at all in favour of using any of these products. They are processed, reductionist, and does not give you the wholesome and overall nutrition that a good balanced diet gives. We don't know the long term side effects too. Losing 51 kgs within 5 months seems drastically too quick for my comfort.

We have a very nice thread on Intermittent fasting, by @graaja, and it's a treasure-trove of information. Please go through it:
https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/shift...s-journey.html (Fat to Fit - A journal of my fitness journey)
(and any action you take, should be approved by your doctor ofcourse)

I strongly recommend that you do not share your medical reports here, or blank out sensitive information. You can get it deleted through the mods.

Wishing you all the best!

[PreludeSH]

Great transformation and congrats for you hard work. Not sure what the contents of Herballife are. Meal replacement drinks are supposed to contain most nutrients our body needs and brings down the calorie intake.

Since you have been successful using this, can you replace it with normal good diet. You can use more vegetables, bit of fruits etc and make sure calories remain same.

[am1m]

Originally Posted by deehunk

This is going to be a long story, but I am revealing all the truth here...

I don't know anything about supplements and personally I'd rather stay away from them, but it takes real guts to write your story down and to post pics! And a real desire to help others with information.

Kudos to you sir!