General Chat

Sorry if this has been discussed before but I wondered if anyone had experience of it. A friend has just started it and I was reading her info on it. It certainly looks very effective - there are testemonials from many who have lost massive amounts of weight - they reckon you lose 3 stones in 3 months.

It certainly look harsh, NO food WHATSOEVER for 14 weeks!! - just their "food packs" which consist of Shakes, Cereal type bars and soups. You have to drink 4 litres of water per day and can have unlimited black tea and coffee. Incidentally a weeks supply of "food packs" costs £66 (!). 66 x 14 = £924 - so it is quite pricey.

Apparently at meetings you are "counselled" to change your whole attitude to food.

I would be interested to read anyone's experience of this programme

I dont hold with these type of diets.

I think they are dangerous and do nothing in educating long term healthy eating.

A healthy balanced diet, low fat, lean meat, fruit and veg but with a bit of everything you want added from time to time should bring results every time.

People dont realise, that by adding good amounts of certain foods such as salad and veg to your meals in addition to lean meat or fish with a jacket potato or rice for instance you end up eating far more and losing far more than on a restricted diet.

In fact you could eat a meal like that twice a day & still lose weight ..(along with a breakfast as well & snacks in between such as a peice of fruit, sugar free jelly or a low fat yogurt.)

I did.(but over the years got into very bad eating habits again because of depression & used eating again as a crutch to feeling better)

What concerned me when reading the bumpf was the section concerning "coping strategies". It tells you that if you go to a function "put a few crumbs on your plate and push them around - people won;t notice that you are not eating" . Also "if people notice that you are not drinking tell them that you are driving or you are on anti biotics".

La Gooner - the point of this programme is that for 14 weeks you abstain from food totally!!! other than their "food packs" NO alcohol just 4 lits of tap water a day and black teas and coffee.
After 4 days your body goes into ketosis (basically starvation mode) so that is when you start burning your fat - hence the dramatic wieght loss. It appears that the "food packs" provide you with your vitamins, minerals etc.

Please do not think that I am promoting this programme - I am not, I am just interested in other people's views on it.

I always think every diet will work for someone but, the y dont always tell the end results when you stop them, this kind of diet (hate that word) is the most boring gly awful diet, and most folk cant stand the lack lustre food packs, I agree entirely with the others, it should be a controlled way of eating that is sensible and sustaining, there are other progrrames of eating to achieve great weight losses, what we havent got is patience!! nice talking to you Ginny.

Jean x

Hi Jean - I believe that the only "diet" that works has to be a sensible eating plan.
At the end of the 14 week plan apparently food is reintroduced gradually - I would be interested to find out what happens then!!

What a rip-off! Yes, the weight might fall off, but I'll bet in most cases it goes straight back on again. 4 litres of water a day is just ludicrous.

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7339312.stm

is someone's negative view

quote

"After 4 days your body goes into ketosis (basically starvation mode) so that is when you start burning your fat -"

.........

Fat and muscle !!!

Then your metabolism slows down because you are in starvation mode.

On any diet you will lose up to 7lbs in the first week anyhow as most is actually water.

Hence the disappointment when the following weeks just show smaller losses...which in fact is normally fat loss.

For some, this diet could be a prelude to anorexia with bad advice given to play with food and pretend you are eating it..and the feeling of starvation which seems to go on for a while, what happens when you eat normally again ?

...will you ever eat normally again ???

Mildred, I have to say that when I was reading the info on it the word "anorexia" was screaming out at me!!

Apparently to be accepted onto the programme you have to be at least 3 stones overweight and you have to have a form signed by your GP !!

I would certainly steer clear of anything like this... it would certainly damage your health.

4 litres of water / day will cause horrific problems for many.

We all know what we are supposed to eat... stick to a healthy eating plan and reduce the amount.

I lost 3 stone in 6 months by cutting down. It's the brain that's greedy not the body... what goes in is just too much.

Tina x

There's only one way to lose weight and that's eating healthy and exercise.
I hate these fad diets,they do far more harm than good.
educating your body is the only long term answer.
treating yourself now and then does no harm at all,everything In moderation, is my philosophy.
Im 47 and its worked for me for 30 years,I am still the same weight I was at 30,so I think I can safely say it works:-))
People do put on weight as they get older,the secret is to moderate your eating,adapt it to your needs,you need different things at 40 than you did at 20.
Ladies especially need to adapt their eating, hormones are our biggest problem.

Regarding your second post about "coping strategies", Ginny, that advice about saying you are driving so can't drink or pushing crumbs around on your plate sounds like the type of "tip" you might find on those "pro-anorexia" sites - I'm sure a lot of people have heard of their existence.

It all seems to amount to lying to others about your food intake and that isn't far off the behaviour people with eating disorders resort to in order to deflect questions about how little/how much/how much of one type of food they are consuming.

Just read the link - I see she claims people with eating disorders are referred to the "system". I presume she means overeaters - to somebody who is anorexic, this kind of thing could be a killer, mentally and physically.

I find it amazing that Gps are prepared to sign the form to enable people to embark on this plan.

I guess the amount of "Food Packs" available on E bay goes to show how many people embarked on it and paid for the goods only to leave the programme!!!

I would just like to endorse what has been said already. Lots of good advice on the board here. Any diet which works in this way is VERY DANGEROUS and I speak as a professional nutritionist.

All that will happen is you will loose muscle with the fat and end up so weak even though you look slim you'll be too knackered to do anything!

Good point, Lorraine. I was just looking over the summary of what is allowed on this diet and none of it seems to involve carbohydrates, which I always thought you needed to give the body energy (I think I remember from Biology that the body turns carbohydrates into sugar).

I think it is quite scary how the "ideal" is promoted that if you can "control" yourself and not give in to "temptation" you are a good dieter. If you "weaken" and "give in" to a bar of chocolate, there are people out there who will feel guilty about that for ages.

When I was a teenager I was borderline anorexic and what actually made me start eating - I didn't want to, I more or less had to - was that it I didn't eat, I had no energy (I had to come home from school twice in three days for this) and the not eating was giving me blinding migraines. So I ended up starting to eat just to get rid of the headaches, as much as anything else.

3 people from school have been on this & have lost between 2 stone & 5 stone !!

They were told over 90% put the weight & more back on !!!

I have done this diet and I did so for 11 weeks and lost over 3 stone...about 5 yrs ago and have NEVER gone back to the weight I was... it use to cost me £25.00 a week and you need lots of will power....

nudging this up

nudge for Chris