Like many of the patients I see in my practice, I too have struggled with my weight for many years.  As a plastic surgeon, I help my patients enhance their natural beauty which results in a natural enhancement of self-esteem.  However, I have a fair percentage of patients come to me for cosmetic procedures, but who are overweight and who will not be able to achieve the outcome they desire because of their excess weight.  It is always painful to see the expression on their faces as I deliver that disappointing news and I it bothered me to send those patients out of my door with little hope for the renewal they were seeking.  So instead of enhancing their self-esteem, I would have to advise them to lose weight, but had no direction to give them.

 
In February of this year, I realized that I needed to follow my own advice – even if I wasn’t seeking a cosmetic procedure, my weight was putting me in a high risk category for a man my age.  I had tried many diets over the years with great short-term outcomes, but nothing sustainable.  Ironically, just as I was pondering which path to take, I went to visit my brother (also a physician) who was shockingly 30 lbs lighter and fitting into clothes from 20 years ago (don’t ask me why he still had them, but they fit perfectly!!).  Curious, I asked him about his successful weight loss and was shocked to hear my usually skeptical brother so incredibly enthusiastic about something called the Ideal Protein diet.  He went on to tell me about many of his friends and colleagues who had similar amazing weight loss on Ideal Protein.

After many years of many trends in dieting, I was still a bit wary of yet another “most effective” way to lose weight.  So, I did some research and here is what I found:  The Ideal Weight Loss program was initially designed for Olympic level athletes who needed to lose weight but not strength or protein mass. This system was then converted for use by the general public. There are four phases to the program. The first 2 phases involve a substantial amount of your weight loss. The second 2 phases involve transitioning back to an eating style that is sustainable for life. As we all know, diets always seem to work when you are in the initial phases of them, but I was looking for something that would help me adapt a lifelong approach to eating and staying at a healthy weight.  This is obviously the key to the long-term success of the Ideal Protein program.  To me personally, sustainablity of the program was the most important part of my weight loss journey.  Now 10 months after having lost nearly 50 lbs myself, I realized that this program was something that I would be confident in putting my reputation behind. 

The Ideal Protein program is not designed to deprive you for the rest of your life of all the foods you love to eat.  Conversely, unlike many other diets, Ideal Protein helps you learn to how to incorporate the foods you love back into your life while maintaining a healthy weight.  I would not be sharing this program with my patients in my practice, if I had not tried this diet myself and been absolutely amazed at the results.

To learn more, I would like to personally invite you to join us at one of our monthly seminars.  There is no obligation, but we will introduce the basic concept behind the day-to-day processes. If you decide to enroll in the program, you will then be assigned a personal coach who will work with you to achieve your long-term goals.

Our next seminar will be held on November 21, 2011. If you are interested in attending, please call 703-924-3144 to register.

I hope to see there.

Eric Desman, M.D.

President, Virginia Center for Plastic Surgery