Wow! She lost 119 lbs and 8 sizes!
How much will you lose on

THE ER MIRACLE DIET

Want to get skinny stat? The secrets that helped ER star Yvette Freeman shed a jaw-dropping 119 pounds can also be your key to quick, easy, lasting weight loss...

by Allison Nemetz

We may know her best as ER's no-nonsense Nurse Haleh Adams, but these days, actress Yvette Freeman is also playing the role of...Cinderella. And she's got the tiny-waisted ball gown to prove it.

"My mom was thin and stylish, and when she passed away, I kept some of her things, but I never thought they'd fit me," recalls the actress, who recently shed 119 pounds.

"My favorite was a sweeping pink dress. The other day, I pulled it out and slipped it on. It fit perfectly! It was such an incredible, peaceful feeling, because getting to this point has been a lifetime struggle for me."

She couldn't have done it without help from a team of fairy godparents at UCLA's Risk Factor Obesity (RFO) program...

How Yvette dropped up to 7.5 pounds a week

Yvette, who has a family history of diabetes and a longtime love of fattening food, sought help from the RFO pros after a checkup revealed, "my blood sugar and blood pressure were out of control," she says. "my doctors had always told me I needed to lose weight, but this time, my health was really at stake." Determined to live a long, happy life with musician-husband Lanny Hartley, Yvette ruled out all the plans that had failed her in the past--everything from food combining to the Zone. How about gastric bypass, which worked wonders for stars like Carnie Wilson? Yvette found the drastic procedure too terrifying. Eventually, the Delaware native remembered a pal who lost 30 pounds on the RFO plan, which combines supervised "shake fasting" with group support and lessons on replacing fattening habits with slimming ones. "When my friend originally told me about it, I pooh-poohed the idea. Then a few years later, another friend of mine did it and lost 25 pounds. So I thought, 'Maybe I'll try it,'" says the 45-year-old.

Prescribed a regiment of seven 100-calorie vitamin-enriched shakes daily and assigned to an "AA-like" support group of fellow dieters, Yvette got off to a harrowing start. "The first week, you hold on by your fingernails," she laughs. "But after that, it gets easier."

Especially once you start seeing results like these. "In the beginning, I lost over seven pounds a week," smiles the star, who ultimately dropped from a size 24 to a size 8. While Yvette's regiment was so low in calories she had to be monitored by RFO doctors, many other dieters have gotten the same results using Yvette's approach at safer calorie levels. Take Miramar, Florida mom Anne Bryant, 33, who used a 1,200-calorie Scan Diet shake plan--along with online behavior modification tools--and dropped six pounds in five days and is now down 70 pounds. Tampa Bay mom Wendy Patton formed a support group with her dad, stuck to a 1,200-to 1,500-calorie Slim-Fast plan and blew past her 20-pound weight-loss goal in six weeks. "I ended up losing 41 pounds," she says. Meanwhile Jericho, NY mom-of-two Jessica Bellia used meal-replacement shakes and bars in conjunction with the Weight Watchers plan, and shed 43 pounds. "I lost weight a lot faster than other women," she says.

None of this comes as a surprise to experts who have seen the proof piling up for years...

The best weightloss strategy science has to offer

Meal-replacement plans--particularly when combined with behavior modification techniques--have the best track record among the dozens of strategies scientists have tested. Studies show that diet, exercise or both--even when combined with appetite suppressants--usually result in minimal weight loss with rapid weight regain. But when behavior modification is combined with any of these programs, the results improve dramatically, say RFO experts.

Some sample evidence from the Journal of the American Dietetic Association: Dieters using a Slim-Fast plan and attending nutrition classes lost nearly twice as much weight over 12 weeks as those on an equal-calorie traditional diet. In a separate three-month trial, Kashi's GoLean meal-replacement plan whisked pounds off test subjects five times faster than a traditional low-calorie meal plan. What's more, a University of Nevada study found that shake dieters enrolled in a support program lost up to three times more weight than folks who went it alone. How can you make it work for you?

Making fat-melting magic happen for you

To get the fastest and most lasting results, experts recommend...

• Choosing the right meal replacement. It used to be you only had traditional sweetened, high-carbohydrate, low-fat shakes and bars to choose from. But now there are new options out there for just about every taste and weight-loss need. For example, if your metabolism is slow or your appetite fierce, you might want to consider high-protein varieties like Twinlab Metabolift High Protein Meal Replacement Shake Mix or Powerbar Protein Plus Bar, Sugar-Free. Protein is the most satiating of the major nutrients, beating out both carbohydrates and fat, say experts. High protein shakes and bars can also minimize the release of fat-storage hormones and maximize the release of fat-burning ones. "The result is increased fat loss," says Carlon Colker, M.D. who saw shake drinkers lose 34 times more fat and nearly twice as much weight as other dieters during a study on a high protein mix called CytoPlex.
  
  If your weight gain seems to be age-related, you might want to consider soy-based meal replacement, such as Scan Diet and Revival Soy brands. As hormone levels drop after age 35, soy can jumpstart metabolism and shrink fat cells, says Aaron Tabor, M.D., of shake-maker Revival Soy.
  
  But what do meal replacements have over home-cooked, low-cal fare? Meal-replacement plans effectively keep calories under control, says Harvard nutrition expert George Blackburn, M.D., Ph.D. And that's most important for weight loss, pros add.
  
  "On the other plans, I never felt sure that they'd work. But on this one, I knew I was only putting 1,200 calories in me, so I felt confident--and didn't cheat," Bryant recalls. That said, folks using plans that call for two shakes plus a "sensible dinner" might want to consider...
  
  
• Not cooking your "sensible meal." Instead of cooking a healthy dinner each night, Wendy heated up a frozen entree. "I didn't have to think about my choices, and that cut back on temptation," she says. "eating the Lean Cuisines also helped me learn what healthy portion sizes looked like, so I could keep eating sensibly once I reached my goal and started cooking again." Did her husband and toddler mind the microwaved meals? "My husband was very supportive and ate nondiet frozen meals. And my daughter was thrilled with chicken nuggets of something like that," Wendy adds.
  
  Wendy would sometimes have a frozen meal for lunch and a shake for dinner, a strategy recommended by Cathy Nonas, R.D., who has supervised shake dieters at St. Luke's Roosevelt Hospital in New York. "Eating a normal meal at lunchtime instead of dinner is less likely to trigger the urge to keep eating," she says.
  
  
• Remembering it gets easier as you go. While some dieters, including Jessica and Wendy, find meal-replacement plans a cinch from the get-go, others like Yvette and Karen Whritner, a TV production manager from Bergen County, NJ, experience that initial hanging-on-by-the-fingernails feeling. If you fall into the latter category, know this: When we drastically reduce our calories, it can have the same effect on hunger and appetite as starvation--which means after four to five days, hunger disappears. Because of this, people like Ghandi could endure repeated hunger strikes, say RFO experts. Adds Nonas: "A big part of appetite is interest. When you take away much of the variety from your diet, you take away interest, which in turn takes away hunger."
  
  "By the time I started adding regular food back to my diet, I had virtually no appetite, which made the transition easier," says Yvette. Adds Karen, how used a nutritionist-prescribed shake called Ultra Clear: "It was a big relief that I wasn't getting too hungry."

• Getting help learning skinny new habits. The fancy term for it is behavior modification, which simply means helping you find slimming substitutes. "This includes things like identifying and avoiding a 'trigger food' you can't seem to stop eating and discovering non-fattening ways to deal with stress," says Jean Hardesty Radecki, Ph.D.,an RFO-affiliated clinical psychologist who worked with Yvette . "Look in your area or online for support groups. This is key to getting lasting results."
  
  Yvette found the support group experience empowering. "The people in these groups were doctors, lawyers, nurses, actors. I finally realized that being overweight doesn't make you lazy. It gave me a real feeling that I could do it," she says. "I also learned a lot. I didn't know that 3,500 calories equaled a pound. I didn't know that if you exercised, you could eat more. It all finally clicked!" Karen, who joined a free 12-step program for overeaters, says the combination of support and education "worked like a miracle. With other diets, I only addressed the physical part of my problem. But now, I know it's not enough to eat less, you have to find out why you're overeating and deal with your feelings instead of eating because of them." If a 12-step program isn't for you, there are lots of other options. Wendy, for example, teamed up with a diet buddy--her dad, who lost 25 pounds--and used Slim-Fast's online behavior modification resources. Jessica went to Weight Watchers, which now offers online "meetings." Or she could've chosen TOPS or a church-based weight-loss group. Some Web-based support sites include www.cyberdiet.com and www.caloriescount.com.
  
  
  
• Keeping a food diary. "Keeping a record of what you eat is the most important thing," says Hardesty Radecki. Yvette explains the reasoning behind this trick: "A naturally thin person can automatically track their daily eating. They can eat alot one day and cut back the next without, even being aware of it. I'm not naturally thin, so I'm still learning to balance my calories. If I plan ahead, I can literally eat anything."
  
  
  
• Using exercise to predict your success. While the RFO experts point out that controlling calories--not exercising--is the fastest and most efficient way to lose weight, they also note that every study of successful weight loss has shown that exercising for at least 30 minutes a day, four days per week is a top "predictor" of short-term and especially long-term success. As Yvette slimmed down, her energy soared and she was ready to work out. She gradually built up to a schedule of three 45-minute toning sessions a week and two 60-minute sessions of aerobics, such as dancing or kickboxing. "Just know that if I can do it, anyone can," she smiles. "Everyone is strong. You just have to find your strength and focus it on losing weight."
  
  You can get more info from Woman's World magazine. Look for Yvette on the cover!