650 kal a day

[Differentstarts]

For 2 months iv been on a vlcd consuming 650 kcal a day and lost 2 stone - AMA

Do you feel hungry?

Thankyou so much I definitely need to start adding exercise in. Also congratulations on your weight loss and your maintenance. I love hearing stories like this 🥰

Not really day 2 and 3 where really hard and I was really hungry but after that it's amazing how quickly your body adjusts. I still do get hungry when I'm due a pack but that's about it

1. What is the GPs/your plan for maintenance and repairing your physical and emotional relationship with food after eating nothing but processed/packaged food for months?

1. What was your BMI at the start?

1. Do you have kids and how do you balance eating as a family with this kind of extreme diet?

It's the new you plan. Their not regular crisps and chocolate their high protein it's not like eating a bag of doritos and a bag of maltesars as a snack although they do taste similar

Do you have a plan for how you will eat once the 12 weeks are up? Is support for transitioning back to 'normal' food built into the programme, or do you have to work that out for yourself?

Is this just an ad for the New You plan?

I’ve done a severe calorie deficit of 650 cals and while I did lose weight (as you’d expect), I also had massive hair loss and very nearly fainted in a parking lot.

This is not healthy whatsoever.

Part on the plan when you do your 12 weeks is you move on to switch where it's all based on calorie counting for maintenance. One of the reasons I chose this plan is because your supported for aslong as you want even when you finish the vlcd. My bmi was 36.7 🙈. I eat with my kids but why their having their normal meal I have a pack. Last night we all had spag bol but mine was from a pack

Well done OP. There is evidence that vlcd can be very beneficial for some people.

do you think it is mostly a mindset shift to be able to stick to it? Do you think you could do it with “normal” food?

Iv not had any of that iv genuinely never felt better.

I've just looked at the fibre content and there's nowhere near what you need. I dread to think what else it's lacking.

Could you eat any more shite?

Had a quick look myself, there doesn't appear ti be an actual ingredient in anything that's been anywhere near food. I would be extremely concerned about a friend if s/he was doing this. Especially as it also recommends drinking between 2.5 and 4 litres if water. Filling people up with powder and water. How is this even allowed.

I don't have a question for the OP but I'm interested in the concept of a VLCD. I was diagnosed as anorexic for about about a year in my 20s - I would eat between 500 and 800 calories a day. I'm not trained in nutrition but did think about things like vitamins and nutrition. Mostly egg whites, tuna, spinach, mushrooms. Sonetimes an apple. I weighed 57kg at the start and 44 at the lowest point. The weight loss was dramatic at the start and then plateaued.
What is the difference between this and a VLCD?
(I'm not going to pretend this thread isn't incredibly triggering for me. It's vaguely exciting to think there is a recognised "diet" that gives legitimacy to eating like this, although realistically I wouldn't return to it as it cost me my job and my relationship at the time.)

Thankyou, absolutely a mindset you have to really want it. I think it will be harder with actual food as I think the reason I feel so well is because I'm getting all my daily vitamins and minerals and because I'm not eating junk my blood sugar has stabilised so I'm not getting all the dips I previously was. So I hope to be able to continue this feeling with actual food. And I plan on following the switch plan which is calorie counting when I finish the 12 weeks of total food replacement and theirs no time frame on that so I hope to learn a lot about healthy eating plus theirs a lot of support and recipes ect on their Facebook page. Iv also thought about in the future doing a pack for breakfast and lunch and a healthy meal for tea as quite a lot seem to do well with this.

I’d be interested to see the ingredients list of these packet foods. I imagine them to be very long (and full of junk 😬) What will you do after the 12 weeks?

People freak out when anyone mentions a VLCD, and make dramatic claims of malnutrition, periods stopping and huge weight gain. I did a VLCD in 2017 to lose 3.5 stone. My doctor was supportive. I've kept it off and it was the kickstart I needed to change my habits. Many do, but the reactions inhibits some people, like me at the time, from mentioning it.

Of course if you do a VLCD, and revert to bad habits, you'll get fat again.

This is such an old fashioned and out dated view, which has been dis credited.

it’s like saying ‘don’t shave as the hair grows back thicker’

the only reason people put on weight after extreme diets is by going back to their old way of eating.

it’s been proven to be an effective way to lose weight if you have a lot to lose- it means you benefit from the improved health more quickly.

@Differentstarts
You’re in touch with your doc, you’re working hard on a goal for yourself and feeling physically good, so good for you!

Anyone who knows how hard it is to struggle with obesity and then weigh up the options of losing weight vs other illnesses would not comment how most people have here - as if they know everything and you’re a fool who knows nothing. I’m sure you’ve done your research. I wish you the very best.

W: why did you choose this diet Vs Keto or some other diet?

Sorry I should have put a trigger warning up I suppose it's mindset an Ed is a mental illness as a vlcd is a diet for an obese person so the reasons behind it are very different I'm doing it because my bp was high my cholesterol was high, I had no energy struggle with mh and my knees and back hurt plus I feared having a heart attack. Iv been told for years by drs to lose weight. However an ed is usually based around a lack of control in someone's life and food is the only thing they can control. But their is definitely a fine line and I would imagine their is a percentage of people who develop ed from dieting.

Packet foods can be healthy in the long run.
What was your starting weight?

Can't not can!

Have your nails become poor quality ie splitting and breaking? I found that when I was on an extreme low cal diet my nails immediately became awful and I also couldn’t fight infections.

Do you eat the calories you earn back from exercise?

Do you still bathe - as you shouldn’t really, getting up from a laying down position at such small calorie intake is likely to cause a faint.

and not to scare you but you may find that your body begins to burn tissue it shouldn’t in order to make up the deficit. So you’ll lose weight but it’ll be things like muscle and bone marrow

Thankyou. I chose this one as it seemed simple to follow and it offered support alongside it. I was also aware that the nhs do a similar diet for people who have type 2 diabetes so I knew it would be safe. Before starting this diet I was referred for the injections but was rejected so I looked online at buying them privately and this diet popped up as I was researching weight loss options.