Should I consider lighter life?

[dollywashers]

I am several stone overweight and a size 20. Have been for years. I've messed around with a million diets, losing 1-2 stone then getting demotivated cos it takes so bloody long.

My main worry is maintaining it after. Anyone got any thoughts? Aibu to think this could be a solution?

Is that the one where they deliver meals to you?

Two people I know have just finished 3 weeks of this and have said they wouldn't recommend it. They were miserable as sin and one of them got upset when her partner ate something in front of her.

Cambridge diet is nicer and I have maintained 4 of my 5 stone loss.

It does take serious willpower though!

I'm thinking YANBU to consider it as long as your considered opinion is that you don't go near it with a barge pole

I know 3 people that did it who all lost weight very quickly but they got angry, depressed, spotty & smelly -mmmm ketone breath!

and then as quickly as they lost it, they put it all back on again

there are better if slower ways

No they don't deliver. Although they should on a gold plate for the bloody price they charge.

It's the seeing results quickly that appeals to me.

Is there any counselling/weigh in with the Cambridge? I need that bit I think.

My friends did it. They had faster results than I did but said the counselling sessions really helped. They maintained by changing to slimming world with me when they were allowed to go back to eating properly to learn how to eat sensibly again. They've kept their weight off while mine went back on after 4 years.

My cousin has just done it and lost a lot of weight very quickly.

However, I'm low carbing and losing 1kg/2lb a week, which doesn't sound like much when you have a bit to lose (like you, I have a bit to lose!!) but I'm hoping that by doing it this way I wont end up with 'baggy' skin and that I'll find it easier to maintain at the end of it.

I also like 'real' food rather than meal replacements.

Briffa is my main 'guru' and BIWI & the Bootcamp threads are brilliant :) Let me know if you want more info or links.

Good luck whatever you do!

Do you need to do the full or the Lite?
I did Lite, lost 2 stone and (with the help of Weight Watchers) it's pretty much stayed off.
I couldn't have done full - not being able to eat a proper meal for a while wouldn't have suited me.
I've known some it's worked for and some it's not. Depends on how determined you are.

have you tried weight watchers, I've lost 3st with them(another 3 to go) and the meeting and support were really helpful to me.
The leaders are on commission, so the more you lose the more they are paid. Nothing motivates like money, so the leaders want you to lose and will trip over themselves to support you.

Would you really see the results quicker than a normal diet though?

BIWI & the Bootcamp threads are counselling in themselves :) Really, very supportive and low carbing means you really don't need a lot of willpower and you definitely DO NOT need to be hungry to lose weight. I'm doing it as a vegetarian who doesn't eat eggs ... so if I can, you can :)

I've lost 24lbs in 13 weeks and although I'd love it all to be gone, like magic, overnight - I can live with that rate as hopefully it will be easier to maintain (when I get there) and as I said, hopefully I wont have 'baggy' skin.

Also, I'd say that aiming to lose small amounts weekly will be much more beneficial and easier to maintain than a large amount quickly.
Good luck op and well done for taking the first step

Yaimee I don't think it is quite true that the more you lose the more they are paid - they get money because the products are very, very expensive (£70 p/w.) You also have to pay a £15 joining fee and get a doctor's note which most doctor's charge you £25 for so you're looking at over £100 just to get started. I'd suggest Cambridge or Exante as cheaper alternatives, I really would. The counselling in LL isn't very good I don't think!

I meant at weaight watcher, not lighter life, I'm pretty sure the leaders at ww are paid on results.

It depends on your advisor with Cambridge as to how much support you get but for me the memory of how horrible those 3 month were was enough to keep me sensible!

I've done Slim and Save, which is a much cheaper version of a VLCD- similar prices to Exante. I lost 4.5 stone last year on it- great! But I put a lot of it back on with terrible eating after. I know where I went wrong, I'm just starting it again and this time hopefully will have better self control. All the gain was down to me, not the diet.

Although you don't get counseling or anything on S&S I found the company great to deal with, you have a question and they'll get back to right away, plus they have a support part for re-feeding after which I wish I'd done.

You do see results much, much quicker on a VLCD than a regular diet, n average you can lose a stone a month. The first week is a bigger loss, usually around 7lb, but that's your water weight. I found it easyish going after the first few days. I've never had bad ketone breath or got spotty. In fact my skin and hair was much clearer!

You do have to be really strict on a VLCD or it doesn't work. No food unless it's allowed- that's why I liked S&S, you could have 4 packs a day (shakes, soups, meals, bars) or 3 plus 100g chicken/tuna. Plus some veg from a list. I sound like a blinking advert, but it worked for me. And hopefully will again!

Two of my friends did lighter life. One went from a size 22 to size 16 and then up to a 24 very quickly. The other went from a 16 to 8 and is now a 16 again.
What's the hurry to lose weight OP? In 2011 I low carbed and lost a third of my body weight and have kept it of. I lost between 1 and 2 and
a half pounds each week and it took just under 8 months to go from 13 and a half stone to 9 stone.

I tried Cambridge when I needed to lose weight quickly for a holiday. it was hard going but it did work. It was expensive too. I'm not much good at sticking to diets but it certainly curbed my appetite. For a good while anyway. I couldn't stick to weightwatchers though.

Agree with Fluffy I have watched a dear friend follow Lighter Life and go from 22 stone to 13 stone then up to 24 stone and back down in the course of two years.

She is back up to around 20 stone again now.

What must it be doing to her heart? She doesn't give herself proper time to get out of the starvation cycle of it and her willpower gives way.

She is miserable on it and even more down when the weight goes on. It's such a fast transition that she has two wardrobes, thin and obese. The temptation to go back on it is there because the results are instant, but she can't keep it off. Her skin is stretched and when she is thin she has a turkey wattle under her chin, her arms just look awful so even thin she can't bare skin due to the dramatic weight loss.

The 5/2 method might be be safer, or the Lite version where you at least have a meal of some kind. Slow weigh loss is safer and even that can give fast results at the start?

YANBU at all.
It's interesting how people blame specific diets for the weight regain (which is common after most weightl loss diets - irrespective of rate) rather than the fact that they begin to eat, the way they used to, ergo, they will become the size they used to.

There is no evidence that losing weight quickly is of any detriment to health, compared with losing it more slowly and there has recently been worked published in NEJM (a major review of weight loss myths which addresses this one) as well as lots of other academic work which shows that VLCDs work well, help retain muscle and are one of the best ways to help reduce T2DM - which is common in very obese people.

As a weight loss method, it is gaining traction amongst medics and NICE alike so OP, don't not do it based on purported health reasons (ketone breath aside, which stinks but isn't bad for you). i can totally understand the issues with cost though... it's a litttle dear, although you do get the 'counselling' aspect of things, which again, is considered to be one of the most important ways of addressing obesity.

p.s. they have a new management programme coming out and no, I don't work for Lighterlife

Why are you fat in the first place? the same reason I am. calories in are greater than calories out. why? because we eat more than we need and more than we burn off. there is only one way to lose weight and keep it off. reduce calories in to be less than or the same as calories out. Not just for 2 weeks or 2 months or 2 years on a faddy diet but for ever. Its about permanently changing what you eat. if you faddy diet you will lose it. you will "come off the diet" eat as you did before and it will sooner or later go back on. yes it is depressing and disheartening and it takes ages to completely change what and how you eat but there it is. the longer you procrastinate about it, the more faddy diets you go on, come off again, put weight on again the longer it will take. There is no quick fix pill or wonder diet because if there was all the fat people like me would be on it. I have lost 4+ stone in almost a year. I need to lose another 1.5 or 2 to get to a good weight for me. I don't see it as a diet, I have to see it as a way of life. stop looking for the quick fix Op because there isn't one. all you can do is knuckle down to it and aim for a pound off every week/2 weeks and then just keep on doing this for ever. (I am on SW but only because its the right one for me. Its just teaching me to eat less of the wrong things and more of the right things)

Mummymeister

I'm guessing the op knows the theory behind the biology of weight loss however the fact that she mentions the counselling would suggest she is an emotional eater

Telling an emotional eater not to over eat is the same a telling an alcoholic not to drink

Eating can be linked to so many emotions it is difficult to pin down the reasons and for many of us, until we understand those links as to why we over eat then no 'diet' or 'change' however you want to phrase it, will be successful

I know someone who was 30 stone and lost 20 stone on lighter life. 5 years on and she is back to 30 stone [sad