Lighter life - is it just insanity to think about doing it? Anyone done it and kept the weight off?

[NormaJeanAteMyHamster]

Quite a few people I know have been doing this with amazing results but I can't help thinking it would be a great way to get rid of the extra 2 stone I'm carrying at the moment rather than the long painful calorie counting route I am doing at the moment. The results are so quick and so obvious BUT having said that will you just pile it back on afterwards? Any experiences welcome. Thanks

do they let you do it with only 2 stone to lose? I think you have to be carrying a lot more extra weight than that.

Really? Two stone seems masses to me. I have been overweight (to varying degrees for about 16 yrs now ) I just don't know what else to do - well I DO know but I just can't make myself do it

My friend did it - she had 6 stone or so to lose. It did work for her, but she piled it all back on as soon as she was off the diet I'm afraid.

Really CMOT? - that's why I haven't done it What does she say about the whole lighter life experience?

I know one person who did it and like CMOTs friend piled the weight back on.

Ive also read lots of stories about people dying of heart failure because of the program (as its a crash diet). www.2medusa.com/2009/09/lighterlife-diet-starvation-and-another.html

I have to say I've got one friend who has done it and has huge eating problems now. It did work initially - she lost about 5 or six stone and went from a 24 to a 10 - but she has really bad eating problems now (and did put most of the weight back on - but not until she got pregnant - havent seen her for a few months so she may have gone back on the plan since stopping bf'ing)

Her problem was that she couldnt adjust to the maintenance plan - she'd basically do lighter life during the week and pig out every weekend. I've never seen anyones weight fluctuate as much as that.

2 stone is a lot to lose personally but its generally classed as overweight as opposed to obese - which is what lighterlife is aimed at.

I have thought about it but have gone the WW route, £4 a week instead of £60 plus and eating masses.

Honestly I'd try something like weightwatchers. I've spent most of my life overweight and its the only thing that ever actually worked (timing was bad though - got down to a size 12 then found out I was pregant - did ok till
I hit about 6 months then ate like a pig!) I did lose my pregnancy weight - again on ww - but have put it on again (pg once more!) arrgh these babies!!

The main thing for me is that I was allowed to eat whatever I wanted - I just had to put a cap on it. So I could have a ready meal or a bag of quavers or wotnot and just work out the points. Yes they encourage you to eat lots of veg and healthy stuff but you dont have to do that do lose the weight.

A friend of mine lost 5 stone but she put it all back on again. Once she had lost the weight she didn't seem to take on the maintainance phase.

I was suprised at how easy she seemed to find the whole 'not eating' thing, it seemed that she found it easier to stick to a no eating black-and-white type rule than the maybe more grey area of eating good foods in sensible portions. I kind of likened it to an the way an alcoholic needs to have no alcohol rather than enter the tricky world of drinking sensibly (not in any way saying being overweight is similar to being an alcoholic btw).

However she didn't really adjust her eating habits and reverted back and put the wieght back on.

DON'T DO IT!

Big sis did, and 2 years later she's bigger than ever...

lighterlife lite is for those with a bmi of 29 or under I think, so that would work for you. I investigated it following rave feedback from a friend, but found that for the £50 a week you have to spend on the meal replacements I could just eat more healthily of my own accord, so I did and have spent the money I saved on new clothes

BMI of 29 or over - more than a couple of stone unless you're 5 foot nothing...

I agree with Wheresmypaddle - my friend has problems with eating based on it being a reward/comfort/treat, and can do dieting with strict rules, and LL was pretty easy for her as you don't have to think about food at all.

It didn't make her deal with her issues at all (the counselling stuff is just bollox - friends nanny is a LL counsellor, and they really get minimal training), so she never sorted that out.

Really sad, as she's lost this amount of weight 3 times since I've known her, and I hoped this time would work as someone else was paying for LL as a gift, so thought she'd feel a commitment to keep it off.

Only person I know who has lost a lot and kept it off is a colleague who lost 8 stone, and has kept it off for 8 years now. She says she always has to think about her relationship with food and that she totally changed her thoughts about food to keep the weight off

LOL, I am 5 ft nothing! My BMI is 30.5 ATM I've googled LL and there are some scary stories out there. It's just so tempting to get the quick fix.
I've lost weight on Weight Watchers before, after I had my son. I have put back on about a stone of it. I've just been bingeing again over the last few months and have piled on the lbs. Just hate being at the beginning of another few tedious months of calorie counting/weighing/counting points...

Ooh, well guessed for me

Try this thread then - www.mumsnet.com/Talk/big_slim_whatever_weight_loss_club/802314-This-could-change-your-life - lots of happy people, real actual food, and only a few quid for the book. Good luck

the experience of a friedn that did it was -

1. it was effective
2. it seemed overpriced (£7 for a box of glorified cup-a-soups!)
3. they don't support the transition to 'normal' food well enough
4. that speed of weight loss can cause hair loss, stop periods, all the other negative things assoicated with rapid weight loss
5. many of the people doing it had really trauatic experienes, my mate felt a bit of a 'poser' with only the normal set of crap teenage experiences

she did find her way with Foodies anonymous, thouh that is also phenomenally restrictive, it is well supporte and uses 'real' food the whole way through.

it's the same as any diet - eat the way you did before, and you'll be the way you were before. The positive thing about meal replacement diets is that it does give you the oportunity to examine when and why you eat the things you do (I did the Cambridge Diet a few years back, and it took me a while to realise that before, I'd be cooking dinner and eating biscuits at the same time ).

The only way these sort of diets work is if you are prepared to be honest about what you eat (because we all say that we eat properly, don't we ) and commit to the maintenance phase of them.

I'm currently using Celebrity Slim (please don't hate me for the horrid name) which is pretty similar to LL and CD, but without the need to go and chat to someone each week (or even worse share with a group [shudder]). I had other life stuff going on after I'd lost three stone with CD and couldn't commit to sorting out maintenance properly, naturally all the weight went back on.

The two people I know who did LL, both have put on some weight, one more tha the other, but she freely admits that she didn't follow the maintenance plan. The losing weight part is comparatively easy with these diets, it's the changing the mindset when you re-introduce food which is the hard part...

Hi NormaJeanAteMyHamster. Did you decide what to do? I wondered if you have heard of Go Lower. It's a similar idea I think but you eat a meal too so it's a lot healthier. I am fairly new to it - have been on it 7 weeks now but have found it so easy.

Hi

A friend of mind did this diet and put most of the weight back on once she came of it!

I must admit that I was tempted to do the Cambridge Diet but from my research the majority of people put the weight back on and this put me off.

I have now joined slimming world (as it virtually involves no weighing - pet hate of mine when I doing WW) and so far so good. I would really recommend a healthy eating regime as you must change your eating habits for life.

Have you considered slimming world etc?