I'm 350 pounds and going strong

[miss jelly tot]

I agree LV

[Mrs Taurus]

Totally agree with LV30!

[fatmonkey]

Hi,
thanks for the comments... Good to see all the replies...Im not 'dissing' the Cambridge Diet at all... it sounds very interesting... Just asking some questions trying to work out if its something I want to do.

Over the years I have tried so many things... Gone on some diets, lost some weight and then put more on after it...

Help me, I'm just a little cautious of diet schemes and want to know why this one is different. Im willing to try anything that will help me lose weight...

There are a lot of diet schemes on the internet.. and looking around before I jump... Any others people have tried>..

Help...

[minx]

hey monkey, just try reading through some of the threads on this board, you'll find all the info you'd need on the diet.. dont think you'll hear a bad thing about it. abstaining from food totally helps you take a step back to really think about your old food habits. the results happen so fast it keeps motivation up to lose all the weight in record time so hence no boredom. depends how badly you want it i suppose... its quite empowering finding i have willower i didnt know i had. i've tried plugging away for months on end, cutting down, portion control, excersise.. 0.25lb, 0.5lb loses per week only made me quit from dissapointment. this diet does exactly what it says on the box..

[KD]

Over the years I have tried so many things... Gone on some diets, lost some weight and then put more on after it...

Yeah, I did that too for years It seemed like the more I dieted, th bigger I got

For me, this diet worked because I could abstain from traditional food for a good period of time and watch the weight melt off. Ketosis to stop hunger and reduce cravings, very low calorie to get the pounds off quicker, and no measuring or decisions (short term). It was a joy to have a diet that didn't give me constant plateaus. A diet where I knew that a 'cheat', however small could bring me out of ketosis and mess up that weeks weigh in. It was a pretty unforgiving diet, but one that surprisingly kept me on the straight and narrow.

I researched it for ages before diving in, because I was terrified it would be 'too fast', or lacking something that I needed and it was important to me to stay well, obviously. My immediate health was more of a concern to me than getting into the next dress size down.

I was happy to find it had everything I needed and followed strict guidelines approves by NICE which our national health service follows. Also conforms to the safety standards set by the EU.

Spoke with my doctor, who was happy for me to do the diet, so I went for it.

The diet has a number of plans. Some with just shakes, soups and bars, which I followed most of the time. Others with low GI foods added and which include more calories and carbs. If a person wishes, they can do any of the plans, so basically can do the diet with normal foods added for the whole time, though weight losses tend to be slower. Depends which plan they do.

Towards the end of the diet, you work up the plans, adding more and more normal foods such as fruit, more veg, bread, cereals, pasta etc, until you finish the diet at goal. By then you are on 1500 kcals, and ready to step out into the world having spent at least 2 to 3 months using a diet that includes food.

8 stone later (that's 112lbs in your language) and I have a chance to start again. New body, new lifestyle, new habits learnt and much, much healthier

So why is it different from other shake type diets? Well, it's probably one of the most (if not the most), researched diets in the world. It's been going for 25 years. It is flexible (includes food at least at some points, and again towards the end). Dieters are monitored by counsellors. It can't be bought online, or even ebay. There has to be face to face contact.

It's very carefully thought out. Not just some odd bodd who's decided that it would be fun to put some ingredients together and call it a shake.

After all this, I think you may have a problem anyway, because as far as I know, even though the diet is sold in many countries, I believe it's not sold in the US (well, not the same as the UK diet). They have their own versions called Cambridge Original, or the Success Diet. Neither of which is much like ours, though there are similarities.

Hope that helps. Sorry for the essay.