I had no problem with Gp - I didn't need to get anything signed but asked the practice nurse for advice as I was a bit unsure that CD was a good idea. She was really encouraging. Within a couple of weeks i felt more energetic than I had for years ! Losing excess weight can only be a GOOD THING !!!!!!!!!!!!
Hiya.
I have to say that how we lose the weight matters, too.
Years back total fasting was in fashion. Plain water or fruit juice was all one lived on, often for days at a time - and longer. Recently the big 'juicing' fad brought those days back to me. You lose a ton of weight, very fast. Nowadays everyone 'detoxes' on herbal mixtures or fruit juice or only fruit/veg or whatever. It could be argued that such a limited diet does not promote healthy weight loss.
When I VLCD I am trusting the manufacturers' information, their research, and the feedback I get from others. I have to do so because the only information I can find, on or offline, about the longterm success of a VLCD or any other diet is that between 95-98% of dieters regain all their lost weight, plus more, within, say, a year.
I've done this myself, several times, so I believe those gloomy statistics.
I hope that I am not doing myself harm by choosing to spend long periods in ketosis, and severely limiting calories. I've lost half of my body weight and I dearly want to avoid regaining this time around.
What I would just love, to be honest, is to be able to eat normal food in moderate amounts, get to a reasonable goal weight, go mad on goodies now and again, and just get on with life.
Everyone on this Board - and all the others - seems totally obsessed with eating/not eating/being thrilled at SS-ing/being miserable at 'failing' to SS/etc. There are days when all I can think about is food!
I think there is a great danger, when VLCD-ing, of becoming hooked and coming to believe that you can't lose weight any other way. I know it works, and works spectacularly well, but does that mean we need to live this way forever?
I started out my VLCD journey thinking, only a few months...