Very Low Calorie Diet ..any experiences?

purpleshoes_2

One thing I would anticipate happening to me if I spent any significant time on a vlcd diet would be that I would crack and end up face first in just about any junk food I could find.

Our bodies need fuel to keep our metabolism ticking over, even 3 meals a day for some people wont be enough.

Ive lost weight eating 5 meals a day (2 snacks), Ive not felt deprived at all. Ive managed to go out for meals and have nights out even if I wasnt drinking alcohol. Ive just cut down on white carbs, I eat brown rice very sparingly, Ive upped my protein intake, I eat fruit, veg. I have a way of eating that I can do for life and Im not sitting every day thinking about what Im going to eat next everytime I have a meal (I used to be like that, very much so).

Any GP worth their salt would be appalled if someone went to them and said that they were eating 3 cup a soups and 2 apples a day.

There is no way on this planet that you will be getting the nutrition your body needs with that diet, not at all.

No wonder you feel so awful and I bet you will get to the stage where you will be starving all the time.

purpleshoes_2

Just_a_Girl wrote: »

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.

Look at the eat well plate the govt want us to follow, a load of old cobblers, obesity and diabetes on a plate.

fairy_lights

Mumcoach wrote: »

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

No wonder you're not feeling well, that's horrendous. The more of your posts I read the more horrified I am that your GP gave you the go ahead to go on such a low calorie diet, with no guidance whatsoever, particularly considering you have had an eating disorder in the past. Please see a different doctor next time as this one obviously isn't good with diet related issues.
If you have trouble telling when you're hungry then the 5:2 diet might be a good option as your fasting days would allow you to feel hunger again while still allowing you to eat a balanced diet the rest of the time. However considering your previous issues with food this might not be suitable for you.

purpleshoes_2

I know a girl who had issues with food to the point where she survived on shakes plus a meal at night, she had to eat properly due to some health issues that she had and she was getting tests done, when she came off her low cal diet of shakes (not slim fast, home made), she put something like 5 pounds on in 4 days.

Her body couldn't cope with even a slight adjustment of calories up the way.

The problem the OP is going to face, is that when she gets the weight off, at some point she is going to start wanting to eat more calories because no one can eat apples and cup a soups for the rest of their life, what her body will do when she starts eating more is anyone's guess.

Getting the weight off can be easier than maintaining it, when you cut calories so drastically you give yourself no room for maintaining, because having been starved of food for so long, when you go back to eating 1500 cals or so (which in my view is still too low for many people on a cal controlled diet), you'll probably start to put weight back on.

fairy_lights

Mumcoach wrote: »

I think if I did this for 12 weeks and lost say 3 stones, then that would give me the motivation to carry on with maybe slimming world or weight watchers and get rid of the rest in a better way?

Sadly it doesn't work like that. Any weight you lose in this period will be regained as soon as you start eating more. I know it's frustrating but there really are no quick fixes, all you're doing is making yourself ill.
You're absolutely not too fat to show your face at the gym, but if you feel too self conscious for that at the moment how about just walking more?

Blackpool_Saver

I have never heard anything so ridiculous in all my life, you will end up losing your hair but that will be after you have fallen over and knocked yourself unconscious.....

I hope you are not driving in that condition....

Oh, and G.P.'s are GENERAL practitioners...see a dietitian, I'll bet you aren't taking any vitamins/minerals either...

Edited to add: have you had your thyroid checked?

purpleshoes_2

Mumcoach wrote: »

I know its not a balanced diet, It's a quick fix but I'm sure everyone who is overweight has got to the point they just want to lose it. I hate looking in the mirror. I avoid going out. I have cancelled a holiday because I can't stand being seen in public knowing people must be staring at the size of me.
I think if I did this for 12 weeks and lost say 3 stones, then that would give me the motivation to carry on with maybe slimming world or weight watchers and get rid of the rest in a better way?
It's odd I have no appetite at all anymore, the smell of food today has turned my stomach I couldn't managed anything at all other than plenty of water. So most of the side effects have gone. Other than feeling very very tired. (I slept for 3 hours this afternoon (very unlike me) my skin is very dry and breaking out in spots too..most unattractive!

I will discuss the diet with the gp on Thursday but I can't go on being fat, calorie counting doesn't work and I'm too fat to show my face at a gym. I have no idea how much gastric bands cost privately so that might be an option to save up and try that. However last time I enquired the gp gave me antidepressants ??

Im sorry, but you aren't too fat to show your face at a gym. People of all sizes go to gyms. I was a fitness instructor for a few years, then I got injured and I was massive. No one cares what you look like, they really don't. Some gyms actually offer weigh in sessions and low impact classes for people wanting to get weight off. I used to teach dance fitness and one girl came to my classes, I had to persuade her to go as she had gained a lot of weight after breaking an ankle, she loved it and that and a gym programme helped with her weight loss. Theres a guy who did the bootcamp I do, who a couple of years ago was 28 stones and hes 26 years old. People who train in the gym are all shapes and sizes, you think its just you, but it really isn't.

But if you don't want to go to a gym, there are plenty of exercises you can do at home. You can walk as well.

If anyone on here saw my pics from June 2013, well I was massive. I dont look as much as I weigh, so even when I was 14 stones and active, I could carry it reasonably well. When I tipped the scales at 15 stones 10, I knew something had to give. I know exactly what its like when you look in a mirror and think urgh. Ive been there.

Exercise is important. Any PT worth their salt would tell someone to focus on inches and not just weight loss. I did a bootcamp last summer, I ate clean, I didnt drink alcohol, for 7 and a half weeks and I worked my backside off. I didnt lose weight but I lost 14 inches all over and Ive kept them off and lost more. The way one person looks at a certain weight, will be different to another.
You take it a pound at a time.

Why would you want a gastric band at 14 stones something? Plus you are now saying that your appetite is gone and you just drank water today? Your skin is rebelling for a reason.

purpleshoes_2

Mumcoach wrote: »

I used to try and walk a few miles every day (when I was slimmer befor but at the minute I wouldn't have the energy...)

I just have no idea how many calories your supposed to eat and then exercise I have stuck to 1200 and walked and lost nothing in a month then lost motivation...it's so difficult.

Maybe you could stop counting calories. Its possible to lose weight on a non calorie counted eating programme.

This may sound harsh, but you are making excuses for reasons not to change your life, I was bigger than you are, by 15 kilos. Ive eaten well, I have worked my backside off in classes and Im certainly not skinny. I am pear shaped and curvy and always will be and yes, I felt awful at 15 stones 10, awful.

But 2 apples and 3 cup a soups or water and nothing else is not the way to do this.

purpleshoes_2

http://www.nhs.uk/livewell/loseweight/pages/very-low-calorie-diets.aspx

According to this, a VLCD is 800 cals per day and it should be done under supervision to ensure that you are getting enough nutrients

Never in a million years would I suggest to anyone who does my fitness classes, very overweight or not (and Ive worked with people who are much bigger than the OP is) to follow a VLCD

If you dont have energy to the point where you cant even walk a couple of miles for goodness sake start eating properly as soon as possible and find another way to get the weight off for good.

purpleshoes_2

Maybe your GP thought you were suffering from depression and that if you got medication to lift your mood you might deal with the eating issue a bit better, however if its the same GP who seems happy for you to eat 500 cals a day unsupervised, who knows.

I really hope that your child doesn't see you existing on these kinds of rations, the last thing you want is to be passing on issues about your body image to her, its a really unhealthy message to give out, mum is existing on cup a soup.

I cant remember the last time a health related thread made me feel as sad as this.