Question:
Can anyone Help Me with a Diet History

I would greatly appreciate any help on a diet history. I'm having difficulty remembering more than 5 of the diet programs I have been on (although I know there have been tons more) and recreating the timeline. I have been dieting for so long that I can't remember when or for how long. Any help would be appreciated. My email address is [email protected]. Thanks    — A M. (posted on July 5, 2003)

July 5, 2003
Hi - I had to recently do my diet history and it came out pretty nicely. I used a table format and made a column for my age at the time of the diet (that is how I remember things, by my age, not what year it was), then the next column was the diet, then how much I lost and regained. Then when I thought I was done, I sort of did a stroll down memory lane from my very first diet, remembering different things that happened, moving to a new house, buying new exercise equipment, etc., and added in the others as I remembered them. Good luck!
   — bethybb

July 5, 2003
For me it was helpful to get a copy of my medical records from my PCP. I then matched my weights from my dr visits with my memory. So there were no questions by my insurance about unmatching dates/diets/weightloss.
   — Sarah H.

July 6, 2003
Here is a list of the diet plans I have used. I hope it is useful to you. Don't forget to include any diets suggested by your family physician such as heart diets or diabetic diets or even nonspecific limited-callorie diets. As long as you tried them, count them. In my list of weight loss attempts I wrote the following: I have been over 100 pounds over weight for more than 10 years. I have made many attempts to lose weight during the past 15 years, including the following: Weight Watchers, Slimfast, Chromium Picolate, Atkins diet, American Heart Association Diet, American Diabetic Association Diet, Nutritionist consults, Gym memberships, Richard Simmons, Meridia, Chromium Picolate, Counting Calories, and many of the over-the-counter diet plans and diet medications as well as various exercise tapes. I have included exercise with all weight-loss attempts except during the times it was impossible due to severe asthma. I can lose some weight, but then I gain it all back and more. Hope this is useful to you in some way. Much of this came from the letter suggested by obesityhelp.com. I agree with others that you should get a list of dates and weights from your doctor. I did this to compile a history of my weights over the past five years; then I had my doctor sign it and his office stamp it with their name and address info. This is the list I sent in to the insurance company. I listed the specific diets in a letter I mailed them. It just depends on what your insurance company requires.
   — Beth B.