Very Low Calorie Diet ..any experiences?

purpleshoes_2

Ive put my before and after pics on as my avatar. I wont keep them on very long. I was almost 16 stones in the first pic and around 12 stones 5 in the second. Im a bit lighter on the scales now as the second pic was taken last summer and that's why Im a big believer in exercise as Ive been 12 stones in my life and looked awful and bigger than 12 stones and looked ok.

It makes such a massive difference to the way you look. Anyway, from my before pic people can see that I was very overweight and needed to change things. Took about just over 12 months to get from the before to the after.

purpleshoes_2

haras_nosirrah wrote: »

have just googled and the calories in 3 cuppa soups and 2 apples amount to 202 calories

I have googled about how long a person can survive on 200 calories a day and it doesn't make pleasant reading

if someone ate that many calories without drinking adequate water they could die in about 2 weeks

obviously you are drinking water which will apparently delay this slightly however I don't fancy your chances of doing this for 12 weeks without severely damaging your health and causing yourself potential problems which could be fatal!!!

Using the same google tells me that annorexics typically eat around 400 calories a day. You are talking about eating half of what a skeleton eats.

I am not saying this to scare you but to wake up and go to a doctor - today. Not next week because you were able to nibble a bit of fruit today - make an emergency appointment with a different gp and get down there now before the damage you are doing is irreperable.

I am really really scared for you and your family. Losing a bit of weight is not worth losing your life - your family would rather have you chunky and with them than dead.

Please please please I am begging you don't do this to yourself.

It would depend on whether the cup a soup was slim a soup or not. The ones that arent slim a soup are around 100 cals, the ones that are are around 50-60. But I agree with you.

My main concern was when the OP spent a day just drinking water and after she had palpitations, she was determined to carry on.

If you feel ill, stop. That's sensible. I dont know what else to say except Id never do a VLCD, but if I were ever going to it would have to be with supervision as the OP is going to be deficient in so many minerals, vitamins, there's no good fats at all, hardly any protein.

12 weeks of that, of course it's going to damage you, even 12 weeks of home made soup, still not a healthy diet.

fairy_lights

I hope OP comes back to this thread and lets us know how she's doing as I'm actually quite worried now. If having palpitations wasn't enough to make her eat then god knows what will.
Maybe she's taken all these comments on board and is tucking in to a bowl of porridge right now but I doubt it.

purpleshoes_2

Eating regularly keeps your metabolism ticking over. I eat 3 meals a day and two snacks and I don't starve. Of course its tough. Id love to be someone who could eat what they wanted and not put on an ounce, Im far from that. I went on a weeks all inclusive holiday last year, I kept to the eating plan as much as I could and swam and walked, but I still came home 5 pounds heavier. Its just the way I am, I know that.

In the very beginning, I did workouts in my living room. If you cant or dont want to go to a gym there is no reason why you cant just workout at home. You dont need loads of kit, there are plenty of workouts on you tube.

Im not someone who keeps up home workouts as I need the discipline of going to the gym, but plenty people can and do.

purpleshoes_2

http://nomnompaleo.com/recipeindex

Id recommend this website for anyone interested in Paleo. I do eat porridge although its a grain because the guy I do my bootcamps with is happy that we eat along Paleo principles and thinks porridge is ok, its a bit more relaxed than some of the Paleo diets.

Its helped me clean up my diet and get rid of my food hang ups. I dont calorie count either, again, I spent too many years being obsessed by calories and Im fine not counting them.

starrystarry

I don't quite understand what attracts people to VLCDs when there are alternatives that will be much easier, allow you to live a normal life and still lose weight at a decent pace. I joined Slimming World last summer and the weight has just dropped off me, I don't think I'd have lost any quicker than if I'd done a VLCD over the same period. Not that I'd have been able to maintain a VLCD for that period of time, I don't think anybody would.

purpleshoes_2

The problem with meal replacement which is what the op is doing is that if it's not properly supervised it can lead to malnutrition,

I'd say the same for herbalife, body by vi.

Slimming world didn't work for me. I did it way back, when it was red day green day. A mate of mine lost 3 stones on it but as soon as she left group she put it all back on.

People need to have the motivation to make life changes and of course when reality hits that you are overweight you want that weight to go all at once.

But the op has said she has been overweight for several years. I was too. I can think back to being 40 and being out for my birthday and the photos my mum took of me, I cringe when I think back.

I had no motivation. I was sad because a couple of years previously I had been really fit and I just gave up. On some level I was in total denial.

When I started teaching classes the weight came off but my diet wasn't good.

I don't even know what weight I was about 6 years ago, it could easily have been 16 and a half stones plus.

One thing I don't do either now is separate food into good and bad, if I want a cake id have it and get back on with the clean eating,

One thing I am sorry about is the time I spent sitting rotting in the house.

I can totally identify with how it feels to feel awful about yourself, but the answer is not spending days eating soup and apples or just water. The op could end up hospitalised if she carries on like this.

purpleshoes_2

Not knocking sw above, just saying it's a matter of finding what works for you.

purpleshoes_2

The op has deleted all her posts. All I can say is I hope the thread has been of use to someone out there.

fairy_lights

I didn't know posts could be deleted by users, maybe the mods did it for some reason?