Saints and slimmers VLCD

spurs0127

Member
Hello all,

I am on my 5th day of the VLCD (600 cal) option from saints and slimmers. I have trawled the web for information and feel i have a good knowledge of what i'm doing but still have a couple of aspects i am unsure of.

The VLCD on saints and slimmers supposedly forces your body into ketosis. I have read that to get into ketosis you need to consume less than 80g carbs a day MAX. Now here's my problem. Some of the meal replacement products saints and slimmers provide contain around 28g of carbs (specifically the shakes), therefore if i was to have 3 of those a day as my meal replacements i would exceed the recommended limit of carb intake. I haven't been consuming 3 shakes a day and generally mix it up incorporating a meal replacement bar and a savoury meal replacement which i notice contains less carbs. However, they state on their website you can use any combination of products throughout the day.

So i done some more research and other sources state that a restriction on calories alone can also force you into ketosis. So does this diet still allow your body to enter ketosis even if you are still consuming slightly above 80g carbs a day because it is also very calorie restrictive? I notice other dieters say you should be consuming under 30g of carbs!

I genuinely feel ok through the day and am still able to exercise moderately. I can go on a 30 min walk and do some weights although i did feel noticeably more tired throughout especially during the weight session. I also feel full after eating any of the meal replacements. However, i do on occasion feel hungry (late at night most often) and go through phases of being tired- which i didn't think was the case when in ketosis- but then again, just today the thought of eating my last meal replacement (savoury) made me feel sick so i had to substitute it with a shake, so maybe my appetite is suppressed (which i am led to believe is a symptom of ketosis).

I just want to make sure i am in ketosis. I have had some of the symptoms, dry mouth, urination etc but during the day i still get tired have brain fog etc. which goes away after eating. I thought was only a side effect whilst entering ketosis not when you're actually in it. I have ordered some ketostix just to be sure. I am worried that my daily carb intake may exceed 80g a day even when sticking to the diet plan religiously and constantly knocking me out of ketosis during the day. I realise my body is probably still adapting so it may be too early to tell?

There's a lot of conflicting information from my body as well as on the internet! So any help/clarification would be greatly appreciated.
 
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Hi Spurs, welcome! Glad you're doing well - it really is worth it.

All of the food replacement VLCD plans are very similar, so I recommend you have a look around the other forums here - in particular, Cambridge, Exante and Slim & Save - to read about other people's experiences.

People get very hung up on the ketosis thing, probably needlessly. That's because no one really knows what it is exactly about having fewer carbs that makes you less hungry. Some have speculated it's because your insulin levels aren't going up and down like they would on a normal diet. Others think that the appetite suppression is due to eating a smaller amount of food.

The thing about VLCDs, they work because of the low calories, not because of ketosis. Ketosis is a given, because you're burning way more calories than you've consumed. In fact, ketosis is a normal physiological state, even when eating normally - your body goes into fat-burning mode every time you don't eat for several hours, then back out again when you eat carbs. Technically, a ketogenic diet is anything below 100g carb a day, so I wouldn't worry at all about having 80g. If you were doing Atkins or similar low carb plan it might matter more because you're likely to eat many more calories, and therefore need to make adjustments to facilitate ŵeight loss.

But you're doing a VLCD, not Atkins. The thing that makes a VLCD work is the low calories. You cannot *not* lose weight on 600 calories a day. But weight loss might well slow down if you had 80g carbs in your VLCD meals plus 500g of chicken - the calories in the chicken matter (despite chicken being carb free).

Not sure if that makes a whole lot of sense - I hope so! Basically, the ketosis thing is a red herring - it's not the most important thing. Sticking to the plan is. :)

(oh, and if you're doing moderate amounts of exercise you probably need the extra carbs - as I said, I really wouldn't worry about 80g)
 
Oh, and it's a myth that you never feel hungry on a VLCD so long as you're in ketosis. Uh uh. You're basically starving - of course hunger will rear its head from time to time. But ketosis makes it easier to bear (at least, we think it's the ketosis that makes it easier - as I said above, no one's really sure what it is that makes the difference).
 
Hi Lily thanks so much for your reply it really is helpful.

I will certainly look through the other VLCD programmes and see peoples experiences.

I was getting pretty hung up on the ketosis thing but i guess i am thinking too much. They claim on their website that if you stick to the plan it will send you into ketosis so i guess just stick to the plan and i should be OK. Even if not in ketosis all the time i should still be losing weight on 600cal a day! I was reading about people on the keto and atkins diets but need to remember they are completely different diets and can still be consuming a normal amount of calories, albeit less carbs.

Re the hunger: It really is late at night or when i haven't had a meal replacement for a few hours. Understandable really but considering the amount of calories i'm eating i feel pretty good most of the time!

Thanks for your help. I have actually been writing a short one sentence review of each product that saints and slimmers provide, more for my benefit then anyone else so that i can keep track of what i like and dont like for reordering, but i guess i could post it here somewhere for the benefit of others if there's an appropriate place.
 
Thanks for your help. I have actually been writing a short one sentence review of each product that saints and slimmers provide, more for my benefit then anyone else so that i can keep track of what i like and dont like for reordering, but i guess i could post it here somewhere for the benefit of others if there's an appropriate place.

It would be best to keep your results on your own diary so that you can find them as we do not have a forum for Saints and Slimmers and I can not see us having one in the future as it is not very popular on here.

Admin
 
OK thanks for advice. Is there a reason Saints and Slimmers doesn't have a sub forum other than low interest, or probably the question to ask is why aren't people interested? I know its a relatively new company (2-3 years old i think) but want to make sure there's not a reason people avoid it?
 
OK so far so good.

Just one issue- i really cant face eating the hot meal replacements anymore. Like the savoury meals (spag bol etc) and the soups. Anyone else experienced this? When i first started i actually thought they were quite tasty but now the thought of eating them makes me feel sick. Perhaps a side effect of ketosis?

I hope its OK just to survive off the shakes, meal replacement bars and maybe the porridge as thats what i plan on doing from now on.
 
OK so far so good.

Just one issue- i really cant face eating the hot meal replacements anymore. Like the savoury meals (spag bol etc) and the soups. Anyone else experienced this? When i first started i actually thought they were quite tasty but now the thought of eating them makes me feel sick. Perhaps a side effect of ketosis?

I hope its OK just to survive off the shakes, meal replacement bars and maybe the porridge as thats what i plan on doing from now on.

Yes, that's really common. You'll find you go through phases of liking and then hating things! There's still a particular soup that even now makes me feel sick to simply think about having it!

And yes, just having shakes and bars and porridge is fine. I know one person who only has chocolate mint shakes, and another who lost all of her weight having nothing but vegetable soup packs (bleurgh!) :)
 
I just can't see myself eating any of their hot food choices for the rest of my time on this diet! Last night i even struggled to throw down one of the meal replacement bars.. good job ive ordered another 21 :rolleyes:

13lbs lost in first week and my ketostix i bought said i have very high (8mmol/l) ketones in my pee.
 
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