Feeding tube diet: Inside the controversial weight loss method

HOUSTON -- Have you ever considered losing weight with a feeding tube? Many across the country are paying big bucks to drop the pounds fast with the KE Diet.

Jeanetly Lizalde was fed up with trying to lose weight and wanted a quick fix. As the manager of Novopelle Med Spa in Houston, she decided to be the first in the city to try the feeding tube diet, which entails wearing a portable feeding tube for 10 days.

The 800-calorie per day solution consists of vitamins, minerals, protein, oils, and no carbs.

Lizalde said, "The first couple days was the hardest just to get used to what was going on...traveling with a bag...getting used to people look at you and say, 'Oh my gosh, what's wrong with her?' And after that, it was easy breezy."

And, successful. She lost 15 pounds.

"For me not to get hungry, I was in shock because I'm always hungry," Lizalde said.

Inspired to lose even more weight, Lizalde wants the feeding tube again.

KE Diet coach Teresa Fernandez said, "Patients who want to repeat the cycle can do 10 days of the cycle, 10 days off, and then 10 days on the cycle."

This time, her goal is to shed 20 pounds.

Lizalde said, "It doesn't hurt going in. It's just uncomfortable."

Ten days later, Lialde said, "I did really good. I lost 16 pounds. I lost five inches in my waist."

The reason it worked? Fernandez says with this low-carb diet, the body goes into ketosis, which means it feeds off fat.

"The only way that your body can go into ketosis in such a short period of time is for you to be basically for the solution be fed 24 hours a day," she said.

But Houston Methodist bariatric surgeon Dr. Vadim Sherman disagrees.

"The issue with the KE Diet is, first of all, ketosis doesn't really start until about two to three weeks of being on a ketotic diet, meaning a carbohydrate-restricted high-protein diet," Sherman said. "In this case, a 10-day diet isn't enough time to get into ketosis."

He added, "Everybody is looking for help, but unfortunately these quick fixes are not the answer. If they were, we'd see a lot more of them in permanency. They're called a fad diet for a reason. They become popular and fall by the wayside."

Candidates must have a body mass index of 27 or higher -- and it isn't cheap. The KE Diet costs nearly $1,600 for 10 days.