Our Programs - Outcomes and Testimonials

OTC Success Stories: Raye Bellinger, M.D.

Raye L. Bellinger, MD, MBA, FACC, FSGC is a cardiologist with Sacramento Heart and Vascular Associates with offices in Sacramento, Davis and Placerville. He first came to OTC as a patient six years ago.

Tell me about your experience in gaining weight.

I failed at every diet I tried. It was a process. After getting out of the military I had no commitment to stay skinny, stay healthy. And, in a busy practice it was very difficult to work in exercise. It was too laborious, too boring and I had too many things to worry about like family, kids and earning an income so it wasn’t part of my world.

What was your high point?

It turns out when I left the military I was 210 pounds and I gained up to about 280.

How long were you there?

For ten years, at least ten years.

Was there one thing that triggered you to turn that around?

The story goes, I had a meeting with the governor of California, at that time it was Gray Davis, for a committee I belonged to and I couldn’t get my last pair of pants on. Basically I’d gotten to a size 46. I popped the button. It was my last pair of pants that fit and I actually had to get a safety pin to keep my pants closed. At that point I called John and said I don’t care what it costs; I don’t care what I have to do. I’m sick of this. Fix me up. Period.

So you knew John Hernried personally, that’s how you knew about OTC?

Absolutely.

Had you tried any other diets before that?

The Atkins diet was not popular at that point and basically I tried a few typical starvation diets. I’d eat one meal a day which is miserable and I (horribly) failed. I tried some very bizarre diets. For example, I went to Duke and think of the Rice House and the rice diet. It’s a very popular diet on the East Coast. You eat rice three times a day. People lose weight because it’s a fixed amount of calories so I lost a little and gained it back and finally recognized I was addicted to food.

How many times do you think you gained and lost the same 20 pounds?

Mine was just a steady weight gain. It was five pounds back, five pounds up and another five pounds forward. There was not much back. It was mainly going forward until I hit my peak.

How did you feel about being a physician, knowing better, and being overweight?

I ignored it.

How long did it take you at OTC to get the weight off?

Three-and-a-half months. Figure five pounds a week, sometimes I’d lose up to seven pounds a week. So I went from around 280 back down to 210, at 20 pounds a month.

It’s difficult for people to keep weight off after they’ve lost it. How have you dealt with keeping the weight off?

It’s a constant struggle. What I tell my patients is that everyday is a battle. There’s no free ride. You have to think about everything you eat when you eat it and the consequence of what happens when you eat it. For me recently I started a weight training program, actually a physical fitness program five days a week with a personal trainer four days a week. And I’ve gained about 20 pounds. Probably, because I’ve let my diet go a little bit in order to gain muscle mass.

Now I’m back on (supplement) two times a day with a light meal in the evening and I’ve lost about seven pounds as of today. I started last week. In about two or three weeks I’ll be back to where I want to be, around 210.

Do you use supplement as a strategy when your weight is up a few pounds?

Absolutely, because it’s an easy way to get re-oriented. When you think about it, it’s 200 calories, low fat, low carbohydrate and the nice thing is you can use it in a busy routine. Eat something quick, you’re on the road, it’s over with.

Why does the OTC program work for people?

It’s a question of resetting the clock, resetting your weight and then understanding that it’s a lot better to be lighter. You get a lot of benefits. You feel better. You can exercise easier. You’re not as short of breath. (At first) people look at you like you’ve developed some debilitating disease! After a while they recognize that this is just the new you. Secondly, if done properly, you learn behavior modification and how to get past the eating binges. A lot of eating is based on sight as opposed to smell. If you can get past that, life is good. There are a lot of foods now I can’t eat because they’d make me sick. Things I would have traditionally eaten in a second.

What kind of people do you think could benefit the most from OTC?

There are several levels of discussion in that regard. First, the people who are between 50 to 100 pounds overweight with BMI’s at 39 or greater need some form of help. Psychiatrically they are in trouble. Basically they are food addicted; there is no question about that. It’s hard to make an excuse they’re not food addicted. A patient of mine recently asked why there aren’t any 300 pound 80 year-olds. I said because they’re all dead. When you get later in life, late 60’s early 70’s and (are) overweight the development of orthopedic problems is just dramatic. The people who do well the longest are the ones who do well the earliest.

The second group of patients are those with BMI’s between 35 and 39 who can afford to lose the weight and do it effectively and have the best success because they’re not as far out of whack. And the final group are those that just need the touch up work. People who are maybe 15 to 20 or 25 pounds overweight and who are basically too lazy or it’s too hard or they have too many excuses not to do it and they need a quick fix and a reset.

Do you refer patients to OTC?

Absolutely.

Do they come back to you with success stories?

[Yes, in fact] what we find is that the ones who complete the program, we have to stop a lot of their medications because their blood pressure goes lower, their cholesterol plunges dramatically. In an interesting case, a lot of times we can get people off their insulin who are type II diabetics from being morbidly obese and they’re almost shocked how little diabetic drug they need.

Having gone through the process yourself do you think you have more empathy for your patients who are struggling with their weight or less?

The hardest thing for a fat person to hear from a skinny person who’s never been fat is how much they need to lose weight and how easy it is to do.

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