Very Low Calorie Diet ..any experiences?

[Deleted User]

Diets don't work!!!

stir_crazy

I too did Cambridge, starting at level 1 (440cal) almost 3 years ago and I wouldnt recommend it to anyone. I'm 5'5" and wanted to lose a couple of stones quickly for my wedding. Although I wasn't fatigued, I ended up in a starvation/ binge cycle which I still havent managed to stop fully. I've put the weight back on and more. My mum did it with me and she has also put more weight on than she had to lose before.

My advice (if you want it) would be to find a balanced plan that allows you to lose weight safely. It'll take longer and you might fall off the wagon every now and then (I do) but at least you will have learned what your body requires and what it doesnt need.

jenniewb

Mumcoach wrote: »

To be honest my head has been in the sand for a very long time with regards to my weight for a long time, I'm sure many people can relate, you don't relaise how big you have got until someone mentions it and then it hits you! I have been having a few symptoms and went to my gp, I mentioned the fact I had palaptations a few months a go when I was walking and he took my blood pressure which was slightly high but not worryingly so. He asked me to get on the scales but said he knew by looking at me I was vastly overweight (lovely)
I mentioned in the past I haven't ever managed to loose weight and asked if he thought a vlcd was a good idea) he said that someon of my size would probably benefit as the dangers we there but at my weight there were more dangers.

I need to lose about 6 stones I think. I'm embarrassed to say really. I'm 5ft 5 and at present I'm 89kg so far to heavy for my weight but when I went to docs last week I was 95.6kg

Please don't feel that anyone on here is judging you on your weight- I have not read anyone here to be doing so and I am definitely not judging you on your weight- you are a person, not a number on a scales. Your weight is just indicative of an inner struggle you have with things which in my mind are probably nothing to do with food.


I still think you should go back to your GP. You mentioned that you said the term VLCD to your GP but in my experience, many medics and even people in general are not so clued up on each and every diet to their full extent. He may have thought you were just cutting calories or may have even gotten confused with the 5:2 diet where people stick to 500 or 600 calories 2 days a week (not every single day). I think if you go back and explain exactly what is happening at the very least he should be able to tell you what could be wrong.


Please go easy on your body; we only get one and as we get older it is harder and harder to repair the damage we can indirectly end up causing. You only get one heart...

Sharon87

What are you eating to stick to 500 calories a day? Could you give us a break down of what you are eating on this plan? What you eat as well as the very few calories you are eating could be the cause of your stomach issues. Very low fat diets can cause an upset stomach - I would suggest watching the BBC show 'The truth about fat' 'the truth about calories' and the 'truth about the sugar'
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/b05p5v5f

I found it very informative and may help you make healthy eating choices.

Just_a_Girl_2

You will never lose weight and keep it off in the long term by crash dieting. In fact, I'd go as far as saying that you won't lose weight and keep it off until you address your reasons for over eating.

Very few people end up 6 stone overweight from being greedy, I don't care what anyone says. A lot of people use food as some sort of mental crutch and until that is addressed, dieting will only ever be a sticking plaster. Treat the problem and not the symptoms. IMO, anyone considering bariatric surgery or any kind of dangerous fat loss plan (which this is) should have a course of therapy to discover the reasons for their unhealthy relationship with food.

VLCDs don't work. If they did, there would be no obesity, no requirement for bariatric surgery and all of the companies that sell these "diet plans" (which all cost a small fortune) would go out of business.

Developing a healthy relationship with food and exercise and finding a sustainable way of eating that you can happily manage for the rest of your life, is the only way you will ever lose excess weight and keep it off.

Oh, and as for the GP giving you the go ahead - in all of their medical training, they probably had a half day of training in nutrition and dietetics. I'm yet to see a GP give good, healthy advice where dieting is concerned as there is no requirement to keep up to date with this kind of information.

Mojisola

Mumcoach wrote: »

At present I'm eating 3 cupasoups per day and 2 appless. With as much water as I can drink.

You are going to make yourself ill.

Mojisola

Mumcoach wrote: »

I will mention my diet and see what she thinks as I often feel female gps are a little more clued up on diets than male gps. (sounds a bit sexist)

They both have the same training. If she knows any more, it's probably from the same stuff you have read in magazines.

Doesn't your surgery run a weight loss group? Many have a nurse-run weekly session now.

If you don't deal with the reasons why you eat, no amount of dieting is going to keep the weight off.

Ask the GP about a referral for CBT or counselling.

Katiehound

For your 500 calories you could have a lot more real food- look at the cookery books for 5:2 diet.
On the fast days I have either breakfast or lunch: 75g smoked salmon & I tablespoon oat bran made into a pancake with 1 egg white and dried herbs.
Dinner: 1/2 med onion chopped and cooked with 1/2 can chopped tomatoes, 1/2 can drained and washed chick peas and teasp tomato paste. served with 1/2 small head broccoli (cooked) and 1/2 cucumber. Maybe a few mushrooms or 1/2 carrot cooked in with the onion. I can assure you this is a plate full of food and comes in at around £1. Breakfast is dearer with the salmon!
These 2 meals together come in at around 500 cals.-

I wouldn't recommend anyone to try the Cambridge diet. Yes, I've done it and as I said before lost weight, then put back the amount and even more.

Maybe you have already been told this, but the thing you really want to eat is the very thing you should avoid. In my case that is anything sweet!

Stick in there, but lose weight gradually and save your health.

Anoneemoose

I agree with the sentiments about finding out the reasons for overeating. I have posted many a thread about finding ways to lose weight and none of them have been successful for me.

I recently finished a course of really helpful CBT for my OCD and the anxiety associated with it. However, I mentioned my weight and said I need to get to the bottom of my overeating but we never seemed to 'unlock' that. We did talk about not eating unless hungry but talking was all it was and no 'strategies' were put in place go stop the mindless eating I did.

What I have come to realise is I do use food as a support. I am in a lot of pain tonight with my fibro, which means I haven't really enjoyed tv which I have been trying to watch. So to 'cheer myself up', I have had some chocolate. Not as much as I usually have, but some all the same.

I also find my OCD and anxiety is very fluid, sometimes no symptoms, sometimes a few and sometimes lots. When I am feeling anxious, I eat! When I am happy, I eat. When I am stressed, I eat. Half the time, it is totally mindless and don't actually enjoy it.

I have come to realise that until I can find a solution for this, I will probably get bigger.

purpleshoes_2

Mumcoach wrote: »

I have had a very unhealthy relationship with food since I was little ..food was used as a reward. If you wer good you were rewarded with sweet things. If mum was in a good mood (she was bipolar I would guess) we got nice food otherwise the cupboards were bare.
This lead to my whole adult life being me over eating and never knowing when I was full, I literally have no idea when I'm full I don't get the feeling of when to stiop eating. I reward myself with food and always have done.
For a good few years in my 20s I was bulimic and managed to stay a healthy weight but I fell off the wagon and piled it all back on.
I can't diet in the conventional way. If I could afford a gastric band I would have one but the gp suggested the only way to get one would be to put more weight on .
At present I'm eating 3 cupasoups per day and 2 appless. With as much water as I can drink. I appreciate this is not the same as the Cambridge diet but I can't afford to pay the £50 a week that costs at present

3 cup a soups and 2 apples probably wont be 500 cals.

I don't believe you can't diet in the conventional way. Ive had food issues for a long time. I put weight on very easily. Ive never done ridiculous diets and only briefly did a slimming club once and I havent always been overweight, but I like my food and I put weight on very easily.

Since I cleaned up my diet, I dont eat junk, I dont have it in the house. If I ever do want a bit of junk I go out and get it. Im not thinking about food all the time. I dont have cravings, I dont crave sugar, I dont crave salty foods, Ive cut down on alcohol. It wasnt a quick fix, in the beginning the weight came off fairly quickly but I have had plateaus as well.

You also aren't too big to exercise. I was 100 kgs when I started a programme of exercise and it wasnt gentle exercise either.

A vlcd is a quick fix. So is a gastric band and Id be surprised if you would get a gastric band because you really arent that overweight.

My advice to you would be, see a nutritionist or a very good personal trainer. Get someone to give you decent nutrition advice and also someone to make up a programme of exercise for you.

Most people do have willpower and if you do have issues in your past that make life tough when it comes to food, go and speak to someone about them.

Also, speaking as someone who has lost a good few stones, I still get my down days now and then, life is very much better but when life has been tough and it has been for the last 12 months or so due to various external stresses, Ive had to learn how to cope without reaching for the crisps, or the wine.

Ive managed ok as well, I do know what its like to be overweight, but you are not so obese that the way to get weight off needs to be so drastic.