Has anyone tried lighter life or the cambridge diet?

fuzzylu

i have done the cambridge diet 2 years ago and lost 4 stone, i am currently back on it again i did put some weight back on but only some of it.
i did end up with gall stones and had to have a lap chole (gall bladder removed)
however there are many causes of gall stones and one is a high fat diet, which anyone who is over weight has had at some point. also putting weight on or losing weight quickly can cause gall stones. so yes the losing weight quickly could have caused them but so could the being fat in the first place.

i have found the cambridge diet the best one for me as i have a real problem with food and this takes away the problem untill you lose the weight then gradualy introduces it back, with the aim to re educate your relationship with food.
however after finishing the diet the first time i went back to eating how i did before the diet, hence you i put some back on, if i had then maintained the loss by eating a balanced diet i wouldnt have had a problem.

XxX

india

Thanks for all your replies. i've decided to do the cambridge diet. I brought my week supply today and I'm going to start on money.

My friend starts the lighter life diet on tuesday. So where gonna to go through it together and she's going to share the information she gets from her weekly meetings with me.

jackomdj

Good luck India. I am a Cambridge Diet Councellor.

Regarding starvation mode, your body does not do this as it is receiving all the vitamins, minerals & nutrients it needs every day - which as a previous poster said you do not usually get even with a fairly good balanced daily intake. Your body goes into a mild form of ketosis so it has used up it's short term energy store of glycogen & had started to use its longer term energy store, ie your fat.

I always say to customers that if you go back to eating what you used to eat in the quantities you used to eat them you will put weight back on - for the same reason as it went on in the first place. If however you use you sole source (where you are just on Cambridge products) time to think about what you eat & why you eat it (ie for me I used to habbit eat as I walked through the door from work & late at night when OH was snacking) & change that when you go back to conventional food. Also it is so important to work back through the plans, introducing the correct food in the correct quantities until you are back to eating the correct volume & mix of foods.

I am sure you will have been told this by your Cambridge Counsellor but I am writing it in part to help you & partly to counter some of the negative comments above.

Also a lot of my customers are health care professionals, I have had Doctors, nurses & health visitors diet with me...if it was that bad I would not be seeing all these people. Additionally Cambridge work alongside health professionals assisting people to diet prior to operations etc.

HTH
Nicky - Cambridge Diet Counsellor

lynzpower

oliviasmummy wrote: »

the packs on lighterlife do contain 100% plus the nutrients your body needs in fact your body would probably be getting more nurtients on the diet than eating regularly now.

it is true that alot of people put the weight back on and its not advised as a quik fix but if you take on board the councelling and change your lifestyle alot of people have kept the weight off myself included.

if you believe you ahve the will power to abstaeinf ro the 100days then i would reccomend it worth every penny in my eyes and the councelling was the main attraction to me as i needed that support along with the food packs.

Completely agree. I lost 3 stone on cambridge and never felt or looked better, there was no question that I was "unhealthy" my skin was brighter, teeth whiter , hair silkier, I really did look the biz! :T UNfortunatley due to other events in my lie at the time I didnt maintain well and started eating high levels of carbohydrate again. I have put the weight on, but that is a stone and a half in 2 years and I have eaten a lot of chocolate in that time.

I am a firm believer in low carbohydrate diets, and those I know who follow thme ( even those as half-hearted as me!) know that the relationship between your blood sugar and carb intake is the reason for a lot of overeating/ eating more carbs. Even if you use Cambridge for a few weeks as an introduction to a low carb lifestyle this also works well ( this is what Im going to try this time, maintain over a longer period though) You wll see this for yourself within days of doing CD, how little your body actually needs. You do not STARVE your body, this is a myth.

It helps that I went down from a 14 to an 8-10 which is really my natural size ( tiny feet, quite short!) . Im now a 12 and want to deal with this now, before the weight makes me more tired and low. I need 100% energy for my job and I know the CD will do it for me and give me the help i need to get there.

I have als phoned a new CD lady, and I hope to see her in the next few weeks. Theres a long running thread on the beauty forum here of CD ers.

grey_lady

Isnt the long term success rate of both cambridge diet and lighter life (and WW and SW) e.g people who lose weight and maintain that loss long-term around 2-5%? that means that 95-98% of people regain... bearing in mind the cost it doesnt seem very MSE :-)

becs

I had a friend that did lighter life and although she lost the weight she looked absoloutely dreadful. She was tired, had no energy and just felt awful. She lost all her vibrancy and lust for life. I agree with all the other posters who say the only healthy real way to losing weight is the hard way sadly. Quick fix's are just that, usually temporary and in my opinion unhealthy. They may have all the vitamins and minerals etc thast are bodies need but we all know that the best way to have these is through fresh fruit and vegetables and not through chemical replacxements.

grey_lady

Actually on Martin's blog a while back there was a post about him losing weight - from what I can remember he just changed a couple of habits, e.g going for the skinny cappuchino instead of fullfat and a few other similar things and gradually lost a stone or two.

poppyolivia

I know 3 people on the LL diet, they are doing great and you do get all the nutrients from the food they give you.

sarymclary

My best friend has done both diets (in fact ALL diets).

On the CD she lost 5 stones, and looked great. She gained 7 stone over the next couple or so years again.

She did Lighter Life after having her daughter, and going up to 18 stone. She lost 6 stone in the 100 days, sticking to the plan 100%. She didn't do as much of the exercise as she was recommended to do at her meetings - in fact she gave me the sealed CD's & fitball! She was 12 stone, and at about the weight she'd wanted to be in the November. By the following spring she was 15 stone. A year after reaching 'goal', she was back to her starting weight again.

Despite all this she was not only receiving the counselling from CD or LL, but was paying £80 a week to see a private nutritionist/counsellor to learn about her eating, and relationship to food, who was very much against her doing anything like LL or CD, because they are VERY low calorie diets, and the body simply is not designed to exist on so little food. Unless a health professional has a vested interest in any of the diet plans, I would imagine an impartial nutritionist would not be happy to condone them (bear in mind the medical profession have one of the highest alcoholism rates, as well as suicide rates, so they are as prone as any other person to drastic measures).

My friend, after gaining all her weight, and dabbling with LL in fits & starts, then tried the Go Lower diet plan. This is pre-prepared meal packs & snacks. The difference for my friend is that she has to be confronted with food preparation, without the temptation of the supermarket shop. This, again, is not an ideal long-term solution, and it has been a yo-yo experience.

For long-term weight loss I believe a person has to ask themselves why they've been able to gain so much weight? Why have you been overeating? What are the triggers? Do you eat for comfort, from boredom, when stressed, when happy, etc. If you can recognise your 'triggers' you can try to control situations that lead to you making either bad choices, or eating too much when they occur. If you don't tackle the root cause, I'm afraid you'll be looking at tackling your weightloss for many more years to come.

The CD and LL, and those like them, offer a rapid weightloss, which in extreme cases, can be life saving. It's a bit like having virtual gastric band, which prevents you from eating too much each day. Conventional food is taken out of the equation for a set period of time, with the hope that when it is reintroduced, you have dealt with the demons, triggers, or reasons for you overeating.

What will maintain a lower weight will always be portion control, a healthy, balanced eating of lower and healthier fats, unprocessed natural complex carbohydrates, and fruit & vegetables, combined with regular exercise. If you don't adopt this way of living, you will forever be faced with bouts of weight gain, and attempts to lose it.

If you were to take a trip over to read through the Losing Weight thread in the 'I wanna' board, you'll find some inspirational stories, as well as lots of support from the contributors, who are attempting to either lose weight or maintain a weight by a variety of means (CD included).

India, ultimately the choice is your's, and I hope the CD works out for you (I remember my friend's mantra when doing it: 'mmm, I'm going to have my delicious, nutritious shake' but after about week 4 she didn't believe a word of it). Well done for making a decision to tackle your weight, and ensure you get as much support along the way as you need. Have you bought your meals through a CD counsellor, or bought them online from an 'independent'? I know there are always lots for sale on places like ebay, but you don't get the benefit of the counselling that way.

Bitsy_Beans

Diets don't work IMO. I know 2 people who followed LL and still put weight back on. As far as I am aware fat is needed to fuel the body. I don't see how LL or CD shakes, soups etc can provide that sort of fuel. Sure you might be getting vitamins and minerals but that's not the same as decent fuel for your body. the only thing I can see that might be useful is counselling to sort out your relationship with food.
The diet industry exists because so many diets fail. They rely on people losing weight and putting it back on, losing weight etc etc.
I would suggest looking at your portion sizes, comfort eating, over eating etc.