Le Diet - anyone tried it?

Crisp_£_note

Hi

I had an email today inviting me to join Le Diet (.co.uk). Has anyone tried them and if so was it successful?

To be honest I am now so confused I dont know which group to use. I need one online and have tried (with success but then failure) Rosemary Conley and Tesco ediets and now was going to try Slimming World as have heared so many people recomend it but my Dr told me Weight Watchers or LighterLife were better as they deal with the emotions as well.
I researched LighterLife and after consideration I was put off by the costs I simply cannot aford £70 a week for myself then having to get food in for hubby as well.
Weight Watchers and Slimming world both have to sign up for 3 months which is a bit costly (and what if I dont like it?) but Le Diet is £16 a month.
If I went back to Rosemary Conley or Tesco ediets it would just be £10 - £15 a month.
But as bad as it may sound I need a fresh start a new approach.

Thanks

hot.chick

I hope no one shoots me down...

But the Cambridge diet is VERY similare to the lighter life and it's much cheaper. Don't forget with these diets the idea is that you replace the food you buy with the meal pack so you wold't be buying regular food - so you need to take this into account when working out the costs..

So if you liked the idea of the plan but were put off by the cost - maybe consider it as an alternative.

I'm like you - I've tried every diet under the sun, they all work while I' on ythem but my will power is weak, so I'm working on that and have plumped for the hypno CD that was recommended on here to see if it can work on me from the iniside... day one today so can't report back as of yet.

Good luck what ever you decide to do.

stormcloudgathering

Another vote for Cambridge Weight Plan. There is also a very active forum where you can get lots of support, which helps with working out why you overeat.
Good luck with whatever you choose!

Crisp_£_note

Having thought about it most of the day I dont really want a Meal Replacement plan, I know I might be successful with it in a shorter space of time but I am worried its not healthy and wont stay off once I move back onto real food.

I know I need to make a decision (and hopefully the right choice) as the way I look and feel is now really not helping me mentaly let alone physicaly.

Thanks for all the help.

jenniewb

Crisp_£_note wrote: »

Having thought about it most of the day I dont really want a Meal Replacement plan, I know I might be successful with it in a shorter space of time but I am worried its not healthy and wont stay off once I move back onto real food.

I know I need to make a decision (and hopefully the right choice) as the way I look and feel is now really not helping me mentaly let alone physicaly.

Thanks for all the help.

You sound like you have a good head on your shoulders! A diet is for life, not just for a few months, its a different healthy approach to eating, cutting back when you want to lose weight.

Portion control, moderation and a little bit of what you want now and then are what sound like boaring tedious and hard to do ideals but lets face it, this is how to eat healthily and its what keeps the weight off. You'd have to do it eventually (if you wanted to keep the weight off) so its a good idea to get doing this as soon as you can. Thing with shake replacement diets is they don't teach you any of that so you go back to normal eating and gradually slide back into the portions you were having before, even if not at first, you will with time. This is why they fail to keep the weight off long term. I'd also worry about missing nutrients, too much sugar (risk of diabeties) and not being able to confront your hunger issues which again doesn't teach you how to moderate your eating.

stormcloudgathering

Most of the meal replacement plans are nutritionally complete with all minerals, vitamins and trace elements required. They have no sugar, thereby the risk of diabetes is avoided, and some of the plans such as Lighter Life have inbuilt counselling sessions weekly in order to address what made you fat in the first place and how to re-educate your palate (and your brain) when food is reintroduced.
When I was nursing in the 80's, the Cambridge plan was devised by doctors at Cambridge University so that obese cardiac patients could be operated upon quickly. Yes, it's controversial, yes, it should be undertaken with medical supervision. But for an awful lot of people it's proved very successful.

jenniewb

stormcloudgathering wrote: »

Most of the meal replacement plans are nutritionally complete with all minerals, vitamins and trace elements required. They have no sugar, thereby the risk of diabetes is avoided, and some of the plans such as Lighter Life have inbuilt counselling sessions weekly in order to address what made you fat in the first place and how to re-educate your palate (and your brain) when food is reintroduced.
When I was nursing in the 80's, the Cambridge plan was devised by doctors at Cambridge University so that obese cardiac patients could be operated upon quickly. Yes, it's controversial, yes, it should be undertaken with medical supervision. But for an awful lot of people it's proved very successful.

I think its good that many of the shakes have nutrition added and indeed some with very poor diets may even benefit from this but you have to understand that the body is a complex thing and giving it a lot of vitamins and nutrients in a condensed form of food really can be problematic as for example some vitamins need fibre to be absorbed more fully, and what happens to your 5-a-day? what happens to your fibre intake? theres only so much a shake can do as the body requires the fibers to enable it to take on the nutrients yet the fibers have been already broken down when in a shake, as far as science goes, you can have as many smoothies, juice drinks etc as you want but it will only ever count as 1 portion of your 5-a-day.

And whilst I can see some (but not all) diets also have councelling to help with meal portions, what someone says yes to and what they actually do end up doing are often two different things, educate people by all means, but actually carrying out meal portion control day in day out and not slipping back to what can be a habit of a life time can really produce a lot of problems for many people.

Thing is, I have yet to meet someone in the flesh that has had a shake-type diet work for them, hence my scepticism- I know an awful lot of people who have done these diets, several have had quite severe (and I hope abnormal) experiences following them, stuff I am not sure I want to say here- which is why they worry me and it just adds fuel to the fire, after speaking to a dietitian about them, it just seems quite obvious what goes wrong -as it would if anyone spoke to a professional who is pro food and not pro shakes but I guess each to their own huh.

stormcloudgathering

Many of the meal replacement plans have fibre added to them, witness the Cambridge bars, and I'm fairly sure the LL ones do.
I have several clients who have been very successful with all manner of diet, including meal replacement ones. I also have many clients who have not embraced the whole re-education idea and have slipped back to their old ways.
The Five a day thing is an interesting point. New thinking is that the five a day should be five vegetables as opposed to five fruit and veg. Meal replacements are not a permanent thing; indeed you must go back to eating at least 800 cals a day after a maximum of 12 weeks on a VLCD. And the food you must eat on that week has to be lean protein and green veg.
As stated previously these are not for everyone but they do give a lot of hope to very overweight people for whom the prospect of losing 2lbs a week when they have 5+ stones to lose is disheartening.

SUESMITH_2

i think your gp doesnt know what theyre talking about, sw and ww both have a talk built into the meeting.

also you pay weekly at both sw and ww, you can buy a countdown which is payment upfront for a number of weeks from sw which gives you a couple of weeks free but you're under no obligation to do that, personally i pay weekly cos i cant afford to lay out all the cash at once.

i love sw as you get to eat lots and dont feel hungry - you also eat food all the family can enjoy which is a bonus

angelicmary85

Sue I think what the op's GP may have been referring to is the different 'steps' that are associated with WW's.

You learn how to deal with boredom so you don't start pigging out, you learn how to deal with having 'naughty' food in the house etc and they are all to do with the emotional side of eating.

The online monthly plan was only £13.75 for months and that was for your 1st 4weeks. The cost then goes up to £18.00 odd which gives you access to the whole of the ww's esource and you can stil get weighed at weekly at the meetings if you want.

If you registar with WW's through Quidco then you'll get money back aswell.