I’ve tried every diet that exists. Keto, paleo, Whole30, that cabbage soup thing from the 90s that made me hate vegetables. I did Weight Watchers three separate times. I bought weight loss pills from Instagram ads that did absolutely nothing except make my heart race. I spent probably fifteen years yo-yoing between the same 40 pounds.
Then last year I finally went to Garrow Wellness Center in Wall, NJ and started an actual medical weight loss program. Took me six months to lose weight supervised by actual medical professionals, and I’ve kept it off for eight months now.
That’s longer than any diet ever worked for me. And I’m not white-knuckling it, either. I’m not miserable or starving or obsessing over food constantly.
Here’s what I learned about why the doctor-supervised approach actually works when everything else failed.
Medical Weight Loss
Fad Diets Set You Up To Fail
Every fad diet I tried had the same basic promise: follow these rules, lose weight fast, keep it off forever.
The reality was more like: follow impossible rules, lose some water weight immediately, get excited, hit a plateau after two weeks, get frustrated, eat an entire pizza, gain it all back plus five extra pounds, hate yourself, repeat in six months with a different diet.
Keto had me so obsessed with carbs I started dreaming about bread. Not exaggerating. I had actual dreams where I was eating bagels.
The problem with these diets is they’re one-size-fits-all. They don’t care about your medical history, your metabolism, your medications, your lifestyle, nothing. You’re supposed to just force yourself into their rigid system and if it doesn’t work, that’s a you problem.
I spent years thinking I was the problem. Turns out the diets were the problem.
Medical Weight Loss Looks At Why You’re Not Losing
When I first went to the wellness center, I expected them to just put me on some strict meal plan and send me on my way. Instead, I spent the first appointment answering questions for like 45 minutes.
What medications was I taking? (Birth control and antidepressant—both can affect weight.) How was my sleep? (Terrible.) Stress levels? (Through the roof.) Any thyroid issues in my family? (Yes, my mom.) When did the weight gain start? How much exercise was I doing? What had I tried before?
Then they did actual bloodwork. Checked my thyroid, my hormones, my insulin levels, vitamin deficiencies, all of it.
Turns out my thyroid was sluggish. Not bad enough that my regular doctor flagged it, but enough that it was making weight loss really hard. Also my vitamin D was basically nonexistent, which affects metabolism.
No fad diet was going to fix those things. I could’ve eaten nothing but chicken and broccoli for a year and still struggled because the underlying issues weren’t addressed.
They Actually Explain How Your Body Works
The doctor at Garrow Wellness Center in Wall, NJ spent time explaining why my body was holding onto weight. Something about insulin resistance and cortisol and how stress affects everything. I’m not going to pretend I understood all of it, but the basic idea made sense.
My body wasn’t broken. It was responding to signals—medications, stress, lack of sleep, hormonal stuff. Treating those signals meant my body would actually respond to diet and exercise instead of just clinging desperately to every calorie.
No diet guru on Instagram ever explained any of this. They just told me to drink lemon water and do intermittent fasting and manifest my dream body or whatever.
The Medication Question
Here’s the controversial part: they put me on weight loss pills. Actual prescription medication, not the sketchy stuff from online ads.
I was really hesitant about this at first. Felt like cheating. Like I should be able to do it on willpower alone.
The doctor was pretty blunt with me. “If you had high blood pressure, would you consider blood pressure medication cheating? Or would you consider it treating a medical condition?”
Fair point.
The medication they prescribed wasn’t some magic solution that made pounds melt off while I ate donuts. It helped reduce my appetite so I wasn’t constantly starving, and it made me feel full faster. Combined with the other changes—fixing my thyroid, improving sleep, managing stress, eating better—it worked.
I was finally able to lose weight supervised by people who understood that this isn’t just about willpower. Sometimes there’s actual medical reasons losing weight is harder for some people.
They Track More Than Just The Scale
Weigh-ins at the wellness center included way more than stepping on a scale.
Body composition analysis to see how much was fat vs. muscle. Blood pressure. Measurements. How I was feeling, how I was sleeping, energy levels, whether I was having any side effects from medication.
When the scale didn’t move for two weeks (which happened), they didn’t just shrug and say “try harder.” They looked at what else was changing. Was I building muscle? How were my measurements? Had my medication changed? Was I getting enough protein?
With regular diets, if the scale didn’t move, I’d panic and either give up entirely or restrict even more and make myself miserable.
It’s Not Just A Meal Plan, It’s Actually Sustainable
They gave me guidelines, not rigid rules. Aim for this much protein. Get vegetables in. Stay hydrated. Watch portion sizes.
But they didn’t ban entire food groups. I still eat carbs. I still have pizza occasionally. I went on vacation and ate whatever I wanted for a week and didn’t spiral into regaining everything.
The nutritionist at Garrow Wellness Center kept saying “this has to be something you can do for the rest of your life, not just for three months.”
Every fad diet I tried was designed to be temporary. Suffer through it, lose the weight, then go back to normal. Except “normal” was what made me gain weight in the first place, so obviously I’d gain it back.
This was different. They were teaching me how to actually eat in a way that worked for my body long-term.
The Accountability Thing Actually Helps
I had check-ins every two weeks at first, then monthly once I was doing well.
Knowing I had an appointment coming up kept me on track way better than just trying to motivate myself. Not because I was scared of judgment—everyone there was supportive and realistic. But because I’d made a commitment and somebody was paying attention.
When I hit a plateau, I had someone to talk to about it who could actually help instead of just Googling “why am I not losing weight” at midnight and reading seventeen contradictory blog posts.
When I had a bad week and ate terribly, I could talk about what happened and figure out why instead of just beating myself up and giving up.
The Difference Is It’s Actually Medical
Fad diets are marketed by people selling books or supplements or programs. Their goal is to make money, not necessarily to help you.
Medical weight loss is overseen by doctors who understand endocrinology and metabolism and how bodies actually work. Their goal is to help you get healthy, and they have the medical knowledge to do it safely.
They can prescribe medication if you need it. They can adjust your plan based on bloodwork. They can spot problems early—like when my blood pressure started dropping too much because I was losing weight and didn’t need as much of my blood pressure med anymore.
Was It Expensive? Yeah. Was It Worth It? Also Yeah.
I spent more on medical weight loss than I ever spent on a diet program. Between appointments and medication and labs, it added up.
But I also spent hundreds of dollars on fad diets over the years. Weight Watchers subscriptions. Whole30 cookbooks. Those sketchy weight loss pills from Instagram. Buying new clothes every time I yo-yoed up and down. The cost added up that way too.
The difference is this time it actually worked. I lost 42 pounds over six months, I’ve kept it off, and I’m not miserable.
I still go in for check-ins every few months to make sure everything’s stable. My thyroid medication gets adjusted if needed. I’m still on a low dose of the appetite medication because when I tried going off it, my hunger went nuts and I could feel myself starting to slide backward.
And that’s fine. Taking medication to manage a medical condition isn’t failure. It’s treatment.
If You’ve Tried Everything Else
Look, I’m not saying medical weight loss is the only way or that fad diets don’t work for anyone. Some people do great with keto or Weight Watchers or whatever.
But if you’re like me and you’ve tried everything and nothing sticks, it might be because there’s something medical going on that diets can’t fix.
Going to Garrow Wellness Center was the first time anyone looked at the actual reasons I was struggling instead of just handing me another meal plan and telling me to have more willpower.
Turns out willpower wasn’t the problem. My thyroid and my medications and my stress and my sleep were the problem. Fixing those things while doing a sensible diet—that’s what finally worked.
I wish I’d done this years ago instead of wasting so much time and energy on diets that were never going to work for me.