Lighter Life - Good or Bad???

[SparkleandShine]

If any of you have done Lighter Life I'd love to know what were the pros and Cons....

I have just over 2 stone to lose and am struggling with weightwatchers through lack of time to write stuff down and point up food, would lighter life be the answer?

Thanks in advance

[SarahFerguson]

No pay for it diet is EVER the answer

[ouryve]

What strikes me about lighter life is that it doesn't appear to encourage a lasting habit of sensible, healthy eating. You'd be better off with real, fresh food and portion control - maybe switch to the no count version of WW for a while?

[eleanorsmum]

try rosemary conley, its not a diet per sey more a healthly eating plan, basically cutting out fat! I've done it since end of jan and lost 2 1/2 stone! eating pretty much nothing with more than 5% fat in it. once you get going and re-educate yourself to cook healthily and snack properly, it's great! and you get an excercixe class each week too!

[SparkleandShine]

thank you all!

anyone actually done it?

[reddaisy]

I haven't done it but a friend has. She lost 4 stone but she put it all back on again and more once she started eating again.

I think it is a ridiculous diet, she didn't even have Christmas dinner with her family while she was doing it, what is the point if you can't even enjoy a Christmas dinner? I would rather be plump than miss out on that!

And I think it is designed for people who want to lose more than 3 stone but I could be wrong.

Good luck with your weightloss whatever you decide. I started running last summer and lost quite a lot of weight quite quickly but it is creeping back on since I got out of the habit. Maybe you could try healthy eating and up your exercise?

[duckyfuzz]

I contemplated LL a year ago, but like my food too much, so cut out the carby stuff, sweet things and alcohol and lost 2 st pretty quickly, I have kpet this weight off for 6 months now

[duckyfuzz]

plus I'd rather spend £50 a week on nice food than a diet!

[EdgarAllenPoll]

Um, my friedn lost 5 stone with them - she didn't put it all back on, but only because she switched to Foodies Anonymous for support afer ending the diet.

although they offer counselling with thei diet, she followed the dit to the letter and damaged her health with the speed of weight loss (no period for 2 years after the diet finished, hair loss, continual exhaustion)

foodies anonymous offer a real (though very controlled) food solution.

prsonally i think the amount LL charge for their foods is a con - it looked to me like cup-a-soups and cereal bars at £8 a box.

[FairhairedandFrustrated]

My friend done it & lost 4 stone in a very short period of time. But as soon as she stopped it, she piled more weight on than she had lost

Her & I were at slimming world together & she was doing well there, just losing slowly & managing just fine - she got fed up waiting & went to LL.

It has ruined her whole outlook on eating & she's now 23 stone

She spent a whole lot of money on the LL stuff & although she said some of it was nice, there was a lot of it she hated.

[SwansEatQuince]

Good- you do lose weight and fairly quickly.

Bad- if you have a physically active job/ small children, you tend to feel very faint and lethargic. Plus you pee gallons due to drinking more water.

[SparkleandShine]

thanks all for your comments!

[sparkleshine]

im sure on the advert it says your BMI has to be between 25-30 if that helps also

[SparkleandShine]

Just an update to help any of you who are thinking about it - I went for it with lighter life after much research - lost 35lb pretty quickly and have kept it off. No problems at all, and think this is due to following the diet to the letter, Not the cheapest solution in the box but worked for me.

[Xenia]

You really need instead to change your eating habits for life and move to a healthy balanced diet without processed foods of 3 meals a day and cut ot the junk. Most people who go on formal diets put on the weight they lost and put on more (not all but most).

[blindassasin]

I agree with Xenia,
-enjoy your food
-only eat when youre hungry
-eat natural food made from pure ingredients
-do half hour exercise a day

and you can't fail!! Don't line someone elses pockets.. spend the money on better quality food!

[OldAndUngraceful]

I did Lighter Life and don't regret it. I only had one stone and a half to lose and I lost it. I joined the Lighter Life Lite program which means you have one calorie controlled meal a day and 3 shakes/bars. Not cheap, not for the faint-hearted.

If you feel you can lose weight slowly by eating sensibly and being active, then by all means do that! However, if you feel you need the motivation that losing a lot of weight quickly would give you, then this might be for you.

As with any other weight-loss plan, the hard work continues when you've achieved your ideal weight as you need to maintain it. However, in my personal case, I felt that I wanted to worry about that side of things whilst looking and feeling good, and that's where I'm at now.

I have put on 2 kg over the Christmas break but I feel that is quite reasonable and I am not panicking as I feel I now have the 'tools' to fix it.

HTH

[SparkleandShine]

it isn't an easy choice but definitely the right one when you try to eat sensibly (I did) you go low fat and lower cal and STILL the weight doesn't shift.

I have no problem with maintaining my weight but needed some help to shift it. This was perfect.

[Verso]

It's interesting, a lot of the received wisdom about very low calorie diets (VLCDs). Obviously, it makes sense that for the majority of people, following a sensible, balanced, diet and taking regular exercise will enable them to maintain their weight, and moderately increasing their activity and reducing the number of calories consumed will produce gradual weight loss. What does NOT definitely follow, is that losing weight quickly is automatically "bad".

I too was sceptical before embarking on Lighter Life myself, having never done any diet I might have considered "faddy". So I read a lot of the medical literature on VLCDs, and discovered that as long as you are medically supervised, a VLCD is just as safe and effective as any other type of diet, and can be more effective when combined with weight management strategies to help you manage your weight longer term.

What swung it for me was the "Route to management" programme, and the weekly cognitive behavioural therapy and transactional analysis which are the bedrock of the plan. It stands to reason that if I don't take responsibility for and change my behaviours, of course I will regain the weight. So I am taking this time of abstinence from conventional food to examine why I may have overconsumed or used food inappropriately in the past, and to set up healthy longer-term habits for the future.

For me, it has so far been life-changing. I used to love going to the gym, but at five stone overweight it was nigh on impossible, or at the very least miserable. Have you ever tried to run on a treadmill carrying a six-year-old child and a baby? Think about it.

Now I'm lighter I'm doing yoga every week, and doing the "couch to 5k" plan, with a goal of running a 5k later this year for The Multiple Sclerosis Society (my husband has MS). Lighter Life isn't easy or a quick fix, but fast weight loss is very motivating and it feels wonderful to be able to bound up the stairs and play with my girls without getting puffed. It's true you get out of it what you put in (DO the homework! It helps!) but if your head is in the right place I heartily recommend it.

[CareBear7]

Hey,
Probably no one on here now but I'm a LLT on end of wk 2 and I think it's great. I'm not starving all the time like i was on WW and suffering heartache at the measley couple of lbs I would lose on WW. Will be planning my sensible approach to food at the end of this.

[PoptartPoptart]

I've done LL, lost 4 stone in 4 months. That's the good bit. The bad bit is that I put it all back on in just over a year.
I've also done most of the other VLCD's, the Cambridge diet, Slim & Save, Exante, all with varying degrees of success.
These diets are a quick fix and that's the appeal, but they are not sustainable. If, like me, you slip back into old habits, then the weight will just go back on.
I've lost and regained weight so many times (often over short periods of time) that I've actually ended up with chronic digestion problems, IBS and gallstones.
In my opinion, it's not worth it.
Slow and steady healthy eating and exercise is the only way to make lifelong changes IMO.