Thread: VLCD menu based diet

I am doing something like this. My dr Friday told me that I needed to go on one of the VLCD programs with her supervision and that what she had in mind costs $300 a month. I am a nursing student with 4 kids and when I stopped working to go to school we are now on just my husband's income and it is extremely tight. We are barely making due now. I spend about $300 a month of food for all of us so the idea that this won't cost more than I already spend on food doesn't work out in this case.

I had some left over protein shake powder and some leftover slimfast powder. My doc said the program she wants me to do works out to 1 gram protein to 3 grams carbs, 110 calories each supplement, with 5 supplements plus 1 meal of essentially salad with some lean protein and a small amount of a whole grain.

I mixed the two powders together to get very close to the protein:carb ratio she wants and am eating salads with whole grain toast or brown rice and some chicken. I need to get a better multivitamin, but this is what I am doing for now. I am for under 800 cals so I might go with 4 supplements and the salad if the salad has some substance.

I use fitday to calculate my calories and nutritional intake. It is quite detailed with each vitamin and nutrient so I can see where I am lacking. There is a free version at fitday.com and a CD version you can purchase for your pc at home. I strongly recommend buying the cd as it gives more than the online version, but the online version was a good start.

I started Friday having never done a VLCD before. I was told it was 'life-saving' at this point as I have begun to have cardiac issues. So, desperation is doing for me what I couldn't do before and on day 5 I am doing ok on it. A little nausea and a lot of hunger, but the discomfort is gradually easing up.

Best of luck with it - please keep us posted as to how you get on.

The vitamins are all important as is the protein. You could maybe drop the carbs a fraction if you feel hungry all the time. Carbs you can pretty much live without unless you do arduous exercise, but without enough protein, your body will consume your muscle, including heart tissue. Keeping the protein levels high will mitigate this and also it is well known that protein is a hunger inhibitor.

So lean chicken breast, lean steak lean pork cooked on a griddle with no fat and served with lettuce,cucumber, mushrooms, green beans, mange tout, asparagus would be good!

or fish of course!

Hi. I was on CD and very successful on it but I just cannot afford it any more. Can anyone tell me if theyve followed a menu based VLCD and what kind of weight loss they have been experiencing?

Just a quick update. I've lost about 4 pounds this week. I've been eating around 500 cals a day - omlettes, salad and a lot of quorn, together with quality multivits to make sure I'm getting all my RDAs. Been on it 4 days and judging by my breat, im well into Ketosis. It is the first week - so weightloss is always pretty amazing, but will keep you all informed for coming weeks .

Good stuff - Keep us posted.

It would be great if you could keep a log of your meals too as it might help others as well.

Cheers
Mike

I'll keep this brief as I'm not wholly doing what you guys on this thread are: I'm having avidlite shakes, although I have considered replacing them with just ordinary skimmed milk and vitamins. I'm also having unlimited green veggies, plus 100 grams a day high quality protein [lean meat, fish, soy or dairy], and some fruit. So it's very low fat and very low carb, but plenty to fill up on and that all important protein. Calories are about 600-800 a day. I feel good and weightloss is fast!

moximc good luck and please keep us posted. I am very interested in VLCD that don't involve packs. Although I am packs right now.