to think that Lighter Life is a big gat waste of money!

[macdoodle]

One of my colleagues has just signed up to this and has gone off in a huff because I have said she is wasting her money!

FWIW I too am overweight and I know the only guaranteed way is to eat less and exercise more - I have done it before I got pregnant and yes its bloody hard work but this is one area where I am pretty sure there is no quick fix!

Also FWIW I am a GP and she is one of our nurses

So AIBU anyone prove me wrong??

The diet industry makes a fortune - if it worked they would lose money

Howtotell - IME people on LL tend to have more energy after the first week.

Howtomum - yes, I can see that! I don't work for them honest! I've posted on MN for years (check my history mostly under sycamoretree) - this is just a thread that got me very interested that's all.

When you have a lot of spare fat, you do not have no energy on 500 calories, you just start buring the excess fat. I'm not just hyping the diet now, but I can honestly say I never had more energy than when on those packs. My skin was amazing. I was drinking lots of water. It was whilst on the packs that I trained for my first 5K run - unthinkable in previous fat life. I also slept much better.

My bowels were fine thanks for asking! I took additional soluble fibre supplement - but the water flavours they sell also have fibre in them. You can also add those husks - can't remember their name, begin with P to your shakes if you want.

But yes, definitely those that did not follow the plan correctly, didn't drink enough water etc had some constipation issues. I'm not going to pretend otherwise. But with any diet, it's down to the individual to take responsibility. All of us in the group were happy to endure a bit of constiptation if that's what it took for the long term health and psychological gain.

LO- I suppose they have more energy cos they are not stuffed so full of food that weighs them down, lol!

In the interests of transparency, I should tell you all that the carbohydrate come down on day three was so intense that I actually vomitted. Most felt pretty shitty for the first 3 days, then suddenly you just spring into life and have more energy rather than less, as you don't have all that crappy food you've been eating making your feel sluggish and bloated.

But I had stupidly eaten for England in the run up to starting. Last Supper syndrome.

Energy wouldn't be a problem I would think. Ketones are actually the body's preferred form of energy.

OK, so I have skipped over some of this thread (and the heated arguments) but thought I'd add what I have seen. V close friend did this, she lost weight and looked great, but she is now one year on and exactly back where she started (only £100s worse-off). The problem was, despite whatever the mentors said, she had not addressed her eating patterns/issues, so she gradually slipped back to her old ways. Whilst she had the plan to control her food she was fine, but given "free will" she reverted to how she had always eaten. So I am v sceptical.

Think is, like HTTM, I'm a bit of a foodie.

"That would be odd really........ To set up a diet that directly competes with your existing product?"

I don't see it that they've set up competition against their own selves
....more that they have re-marketted the same diet and are cleaning up.

Of course I could have heard wrong - but I believe it. It makes sense to me.

Well, we're all foodies really aren't we expat - that's what got us into this mess!

Housemum - you scepticism should just be directed at dieting in general, not at LL. Because your friend behaved as 97% of dieters behave after weight loss. She went right back to eating how she'd always eaten.

At least with LL there is the option to stay in the counselling programme for free.

Paisley-
LL do not own CD.
Ther are two cambridge companies- 'cambridge health & weight care' who sell the products and provide counselling. and 'cambridge manufactoring' they sell the shakes to CHWC and LL.
two seperate entities.

Paisly - I think you probably ought to find out your facts really before posting. I'm not having a go, but it's not that helpful is it, to debate on heresay?

Both diets still exist and are making plenty of cash.

Sycamore - my scepticism is with meal-replacement diets (LL, Cambridge, Slimfast) as opposed to those which teach you to eat the food you like cooked differently (WW, Slimming World) - I think that if you have not had to think about cooking meals, the temptation to act like a kid in a sweet shop is greater when you have to make your own choices.

Housemum - LL does do that too, if you read my posts on this thread .

Sorry, but your comment is a classic of the uninformed.

It's not just stop shakes and fuck off! Please read my other posts.

Fair enough.

Well now.

I have done every diet under the sun....Weight Watchers, Slimming World, Atkins, F-Plan, cabbage Soup, all of them...calorie counting etc.

I was, at my heaviest, around 26 stones. Every diet I tried I lost weight on, and EVERY time I put it back and more...NONE of them ever sorted my head out.

I heard of LL around 3 years ago, and like the OP was very sceptical. 18 months ago I reached the point where it was lose the weight myself or have a gastric bypass. I decided to have one last shot and went to LL.

18 months on and I have lost around 11 stones. I see the GP/Nurse every month for a BP check, my GP too was sceptical at the start but signed me up because he knew a gastric bypass was dangerous for me (I have Malignant Hyperpyrexia).

LL has been the only thing that made me work out WHY I was eating. WHY I could not stop...why I was binging/eating everything I could. Why I self-sabotaged every effort I made to lose weight.

LL does NOT throw you back out into the big bad world of food...it reintroduces food SLOWLY and teaches you HOW to enjoy it PROPERLY.

I am not ashamed of the fact I was so big...I am sad that I didn't get the help I needed earlier.

LL counsellors are highly trained and accredited, they are not witch-doctors or quacks. I had had counselling before, and seen a psychologist, both through the NHS, also a dietician. They could not help me break the cycle.

I now have a meal a day and 3 packs, and will slowly over the summer re-introduce other food. I am not frightened of eating again...I KNOW I will never put the weight back on.

When you are obese, your brain does not function in the same way as a "normal" person. You do not eat slowly, savour every mouthful, stop eating when you are full. You do not think "oh I've had three meals today, I don't need anything else".

My brain used to be consumed by food thoughts from the second I woke until I fell asleep, when we went out my first thought was "where can we go for coffee/lunch/afternoon tea". My life revolved around what I could manage to eat, often eating in secret. Forgetting 80% of what I'd eaten that day because the volume was too great to contemplate.

It is very, VERY easy for you people to sit in judgement of someone who is truly overweight, but believe me, until you have walked a mile in our shoes you have absolutely NO RIGHT to comment.

The people who regain the weigh after LL have NOT done RTM. They have NOT retrained their brains/dealt with their triggors to find out WHY they are eating. The % of people who regain their weight AFTER RTM and Full Management is very, very low.

OP, you have no right to slam something you have not tried and know nothing about. When your friend succeeds, and keeps her weight off after RTM, and you are still "restarting the gym/diet", maybe then you'll have a rethink.

I'm bloody proud of myself, unfortunately opinions like yours are something I have to battle against every day. You ARE uneducated about LL, and very closed-minded.

Sycamore I think you're right.
It never occurred to me that they weren't the same until I got quizzed about it so much just now.

i don't know about LL but with CD you go thru a stabilisation process where you increase your cals and widen your variety of food gradually. eg start with chicken/ cod and brocolli/ salad, you work up thru 5 steps until you get to the point (usually between 1600-2000 kcals0 when your weight stabilising. you then maintain your weight at that level.

unfortunatly some people loose weight then immediatly go back to their old eating habits. thats when the weight goes back on. look at the minimins website foir some long term maintainers.

ilove I am glad you have done so well!
But if you read my posts I am neither ill informed or close minded, I am extremely well informed (a GP with a special interest in diabetes)!
I am afraid you and sycamore are in the tiny minority but good for you!
I am morbidly obese - I am 5ft2in with a weight of 14st 4lbs this gives me a BMI of over 35 and at least 4 stone to lose (and 3 to get back to my prepreg weight which I worked bloody bloody hard to achieve)!
I am unable to advocate a VLCD I think the risks are too high associated with the failure rate

ilove, what a brilliant post. Huge congratulations on your weight loss and continued committment to a healthier life

I think you put very well into words why something like LL has an absolute place in the market.

Even I at 14 stone do not know what it would have been like to walk a mile in your shoes. To me, 4 stone seemed like a mountain to climb.

I understand that idea of being consumed always by what you can eat next - it can be an obsession, and it really messes with your head.

Have you rung LL and spoken to them? Have you looked at the literature they produce specifically for GP's? Have you looked at the information on their website aimed at the HP? Or have you read the advertising aimed at the man in the street and made your own mind up?

See for me it does come down to gaining an awareness of what you eat, when you're eating it.

I have been calory counting for the past six weeks. And combined with exercise I have so far lost ten lb.

For me the difference has been in looking at what I'm eating as I'm about to eat it. So I might think I fancy a bar of chocolate. But when I look at the calories in a bar of chocolate I see that chocolate contains 500 calories per 100 grams. And to me that would just be a waste of half of my 1100 calory limit (excluding exercise cals). For those 500 calories I could have an entire, healthy meal which would fill me up. 100 grams of chocolate wouldn't do that.

That's just one example but ykwim.

Whereas if I replaced all my meals I wouldn't be learning about what i'm eating as i'm eating it, I could just eat the soups and the shakes and watch the weight come off. Whereas for me now, every lb I lose I know I have actually taken the time to plan my meals and ensure I'm eating healthily, far more healthily than I have in the past.

OP, I understand your position, I really do.

But does it not say something that this thread has thrown up at least a couple if not more people who have really found this diet to be, not just successful, but life changing?

We are only a representative of that magic 3% which as I keep saying, it the best statistic any diet can offer. It's not surprising that LL can only offer the same statistic as WW or SW for eg.

As ever, it's up the individual to size what's on offer.

ilove I havent read the LL stuff but I have done a lot of reading around diet/diets and VLCD diets I will post a link later as promised

but sycamore its the SAME 3% at a much much higher risk - sudden cardiac death and heart failure just to name the 2 scariest!