I lost 100 pounds on HMR back in 2001-2, but I joined the program, and I cannot understate just how valuable it was. While I kept the weight off for a few years, about a year after I left the maintenance program I began inching back up. I've now got about 31 of 40 regained pounds left to lose, trying to lose it myself, without the program. I've lost 9 pounds in a month, which isn't bad, but it is the first month, so at this rate, it might take me as long to lose this 40 pounds as it took me to lose the 100 pounds six years ago.
I think the debate about whether prepackaged meals do the trick is valid, but the problem isn't the meals, it is ourselves. We get this idea in this head that we can "go back to eating normally" afterwards: Eating normally got us fat in the first place!!! Rather, we need to come to the realization that what you see in those prepackaged meals is actually what you should be eating normally. Whether you expend the time to make it yourself (I don't know how busy your life it, but I surely will never have time to do so) or you use prepackaged meals, that's what your portions should look like. Use this weight-loss period to retrain your brain, and remember it, because if you don't, you'll end up having to re-lose 40 pounds six years later.
