News

Optifit - for a healthier future

POST FALLS — Carla Madsen, R.N. has lost 70 pounds since starting Optifit in March. She says she feels better now than she has ever felt before.

“It feels like I’m just coming to life, and I don’t want that to go away,” she said.

Madsen can move without aches and pains now, her energy level has skyrocketed, and her once-high blood glucose and cholesterol levels have plunged. She used to hate shopping for clothes. Now she loves it.

“It makes you carry yourself differently.  It makes you feel differently about yourself,” Madsen said.

She weighed 244 pounds before Optifit founder Dr. John Pennings told her about the program, which launched this spring. She had wanted to talk to Pennings about Smartlipo, but Pennings thought Optifit would suit her better. It did.

“If you do what you’re supposed to do, you cannot fail. And if I can do it, anybody can do it,” Madsen said.

Optifit is a non-surgical and completely supervised 12-week weight management program using customized resistance training, a strictly controlled diet, and sophisticated technology to track weight loss and calculate calorie needs. Hundreds of successful patients have used Optifit components for an average weight loss of 43.5 pounds.

Optifit is for anyone who wants to improve his or her health by losing weight, whether or not the patient wants to pursue surgery.

“The overall objective of our program is not necessarily just to help people achieve weight loss, but to restore metabolic balance, normalize body fat percentage, resolve or improve obesity-related medical problems, and gain insight for healthy living,” Pennings said.

Secondary health problems like diabetes, hypertension, sleep apnea and arthritis can be significantly relieved through weight loss.

Each patient starts Optifit with precise measurements. Optifit’s professional staff use the highly-advanced BODPOD to determine body composition, and they use a calorimeter breath test to determine metabolic function.

Dietitians analyze the information to determine exact calorie and protein requirements. Calories are restricted and nutrition is delivered with pharmacygrade formula meal replacements meeting all core requirements for proteins, minerals and vitamins.

At the same time, Optifit participants engage in private twice-weekly 15-minute resistance training sessions with certified Optifit trainers. The exercise is tailored to meet patient needs and capabilities.

“This type of exercise is crucial in preserving lean body mass while fat stores are reduced,” Pennings said. It worked for Madsen. Sixty pounds of the weight she lost was fat.

Participants are also encouraged to attend support meetings designed to educate and address behavioral challenges, and they get dietary support so that they can transition into healthy eating habits.

To ensure patient safety and that the program continues to meet each individual’s needs, patients see a nurse every week and a physician every four weeks.

When participants complete the 90-day program, they can go into the Continuance or Maintenance programs. The Optifit program is rooted in Pennings’ eight years of experience with weight loss surgery at Surgical Bariatrics Northwest. Optifast, with its pharmacy-grade products, was a nutritional component of his weight-loss program.

Optifast has been around for 30 years.

The national average weight loss for the product when used in a medical weight loss program is 52 pounds. David Hawkes has lost just about that since starting Optifast in January and taking part in the Optifit program when it was launched.

He weighed 280 pounds when he began and now weighs 227. His pants size dropped from a size 46 to a size 38.

Life was “pretty slow” before Optifit, said Hawkes, who had trouble keeping up with his two softball-playing daughters.

“It took me forever to do anything because I couldn’t run. ( I got) winded very easily. Now it’s a lot easier,” Hawkes said.

It was tough sticking to the diet for the first week, but it quickly became easier, he said. The group counseling helped tremendously.

Hawkes said he learned a lot about eating out and eating junk food.

“It’s a lifestyle change, not a diet,” Hawkes said.

Madsen’s lifestyle also changed.

She participated in every aspect of Optifit, and said she will use the exercise portion of the program “forever.” She remains on the maintenance program and intends to continue going to meetings.

Madsen said that even though her calorie intake was restricted to 800, she felt better than when she was eating as many calories as she wanted to. It was because the Optifast meal replacements had everything she needed.

“I wasn’t getting the nutrition that I was getting in that 800 calories,” said Madsen, who likes the taste of the products, too.

Also, the support from staff was “amazing” and the group sessions were “phenomenal,” she said.

“I’ve learned so much. You do learn things from other people,” she said.

Madsen said people tell her she looks great. She said she feels great, and hopes to reduce her medication for diabetes and for high cholesterol because her obesity-related secondary problems have improved so much.

She remembered hearing “nothing tastes as good as skinny feels,” but she has her own twist on the adage.

“Nothing tastes as good as healthy feels,” Madsen said.

Click here to download a copy in pdf format.

Back to News Index