Dr Cameron Norsworthy, an Orthopaedic Surgeon, knew something had to change when he “cracked the tonne” – his scales read 101kg.

“I was 85 kilos when I finished surgical training in my twenties, and the weight gain happened very gradually – I put on a kilo every year for the next 20 years,” Dr Norsworthy said. While some may consider this weight gain a natural part of getting older, he partly put it down to the way he ate – specifically, around lunch.

“As a surgeon, you often can’t go outside for lunch so there’s a table that’s filled with sandwiches and food,” he said. “I would “graze” throughout the day – and the little snacks would add up.”

His dietitian recommended he use Formulite

After trying to lose weight a few times with no lasting success, Dr Norsworthy spoke to a dietitian, Merril Bohn. She recommended he use Formulite to replace the grazing lunch meals. With the high protein content, Merril knew it would keep him feeling fuller longer, while providing the nutrition he needed. 

To help him make changes he could stick to, Dr Norsworthy found an easy way to make Formulite feel like part of his existing routine. Instead of cutting out grazing completely, he replaced it with ‘grazing’ on Formulite. He filled his shake blender bottle with ice before pouring in the shake. This meant he could sip from the bottle over the course of about five hours before it was all gone, helping him replace lunch without getting hungry.

 

“Anyone who’s tried to lose weight will tell you it’s the hunger that’s the hardest thing,” he said. “The shake completely eliminated my hunger.”

 

Losing 15 kilos in 13 weeks 

Dr Norsworthy’s dietitian originally told him that replacing his lunch with Formulite would lead to him losing two kilograms in the first week and a kilogram a week each week after that.  “And that’s exactly what happened,” he said. 

By replacing lunches with Formulite (and not even doing any additional exercise), within 13 weeks he reached his goal weight of 85 kilograms – the same weight he was in his twenties. 

“I felt awesome that summer,” he said. “I had more energy and would look in the mirror and think ‘I’m so much different.’” Seeing the difference gave him the motivation to keep going. “When you see the numbers going down, you’ve got to dominate and really go hard. I found that quite easy to do.”

 

His next goal after weight loss: running the NYC Marathon

Having reached his goal weight in January 2019, Dr Norsworthy set his sights on another goal – running the New York City Marathon in November that year. “That was my 50th birthday present to myself,” he said.

Because he’d reached his goal weight, Dr Norsworthy reduced his Formulite routine to maintain his weight, from seven meal replacements a week to four. “Sometimes I’d add a Formulite soup in the afternoon if I wanted a snack,” he said. Through training for the marathon, he lost another seven kilograms, dropping to 78 kilograms. But he’s quick to point out that exercise isn’t always the first place to start when trying to lose weight.

“Everyone says you need to exercise to lose weight,” he said. “But when you’re 100kg, you’re too heavy to exercise enough. You need to break the back of the weight first with dieting, and then start exercising after.”

For 10 months, Dr Norsworthy then trained nine days a fortnight, and ultimately flew to New York and fulfilled his goal of running the NYC Marathon.

Maintaining the weight management routine

Since completing the marathon in November 2019, Dr Norsworthy has continued his weight management routine – four Formulite shakes a week with the occasional Lupin soup. His weight has stayed the same (around 83-84 kg) and Formulite has become a natural part of his routine: “The blender bottle fits perfectly in my laptop bag – so I just take it to work without even thinking,” he says. “Finding something that works for you is really important – for me it’s Formulite.”