Can I carry on?

Dowd

Member
I'm doing the total solution, have done for the past 2 and a half weeks. My BMI has dropped from 25.something, to 23.5, but I'm still far from happy.
I went down from 14st last year to 11st4 in about 11 weeks, but I ended up putting on weight again over Christmas and went back up to 12st11 since then.

I'm 5'10, currently 11st10, BMI 23.5, but I really dont want to stop (not that I will before the 4 weeks are up), but I hear that you're not supposed to carry on once below 25 BMI. I'd like to get down to around 10st10lb, which would bring me down to 21.5 BMI.

I'm not sure why I'm not 'allowed'. Does anybody know? Or have any advice on whether I should just continue?
 
I think for your height your weight sounds about right, but i think it does depend on your age as well as we all change as we get older. I lost 4 stone and got down to 11.6 and im only 5.3 and looked very gaunt and grey, but for my height ideally i should be lighter still. You should do what you feel is right for you but just dont make yourself ill. Why dont you have 3 packs plus a meal so that the weight comes off at a slower rate and you will have a better chance of keeping it off and your body will adjust better and shrink better.
Hope this all makes sense.
Good luck
 
I "loosely" believe in BMI numbers as many things and factors can change what a Bmi may be. Though if you are "average" by that, I mean not a rugby player...weightlifter lol..then bmi can be a guide we can look to.

The danger of doing a Vlcd when your bmi is on the lower side and I would say 23.5 is low (healthy though! well done!) is what fat is left on your body for your body to break down and use as energy? That's one of the ways we survive on a vlcd, our bodies break down our fat to provide us with fuel. Your body may have to look elsewhere which could cause you major problems.
 
Exante say you're only supposed to do total solutions if you have a bmi of 25 or over.
 
But if you start with a BMI over 25 and your goal weight is in the healthy BMI range wouldn't you just carry on to target using the management stratergy? you would still lose weight just a bit slower and it would ease you back in to eating.
 
My BMI has lowered from 31 to 24.4. I have 4 weeks worth of packs left but I'm slowly starting to wean myself off my packs. I still have 29lbs to get to my ideal weight but I believe the BMI level is set at 25 for a reason. I'm hoping to wean off the right way, but only time will tell! I'm doing 2 weeks of 3 packs and 1 meal, 1 week of 2 packs and 2 meals and then 1 week of 1 pack and 3 meals. Once my packs have finished, I'll be moving on to Slimming World to try to get me to my goal.
 
Thanks for the advice everyone :)

I must admit, I have been a little silly this week. Twice I've only had one sachet in a day, and today it's looking like I'll only manage 2. I've been so busy!!
 
Sometimes I don't get to have my last pack until around 10pm because I've been so busy with the girls and then doing the housework! Please try not to miss your packs, no matter how late in the day it it!
 
i would go down to whatever you want as long as its not under bmi of 20 you will be fine.
 
You won't be fine!
You're not meant to do a VLCD once you get to BMI of 25 for a very good reason. The body burns fat when you're overweight or obese. When you're in the healthy range it can and will use muscle for energy.
The main muscle in the body is the heart, so doing a VLCD when you're in the healthy range can be incredibly dangerous and put you at risk of heart attacks.
I would not recommend it. You can quite easily move up the plans and still lose weight. I have concerns that you're not having all the packs and that you have occasionally had only 1. There is a very real reason why eating disorders are contraindicated in this diet. You do lose your appetite, so it's important that you are sensible and force yourself to have the packs.
You should be moving to a Low Calorie Diet now, not a VLCD.
 
I agree with the post above, it's important to have all 3 packs as they contain vital nutrients/vitamins that your body needs to keep you healthy on this diet. Theres no point looking good and feeling rubbish! :)
 
you cant just come straight off so i would suggest doing working solutions by adding a meal for a while so your body gets used to you eating again and you could still lose some weight and then slowly come off dont just swap to a low calorie diet you have to wean yourself off slowly otherwise you could gain weight.
 
Well....after a week of being pretty rubbish at making sure I had all three packs, I've definitely been paying for it today.
I'll spare the gorey details, but lets just say I've been pretty ill....lesson learned!

I've been intending to start introducing a meal each day next week (the 4 week point), and slowing down the weightloss.
I must admit though, I didn't realise the possible dangerous side of this diet at my current BMI.
 
You won't be fine!
You're not meant to do a VLCD once you get to BMI of 25 for a very good reason. The body burns fat when you're overweight or obese. When you're in the healthy range it can and will use muscle for energy.
The main muscle in the body is the heart, so doing a VLCD when you're in the healthy range can be incredibly dangerous and put you at risk of heart attacks.
I would not recommend it. You can quite easily move up the plans and still lose weight. I have concerns that you're not having all the packs and that you have occasionally had only 1. There is a very real reason why eating disorders are contraindicated in this diet. You do lose your appetite, so it's important that you are sensible and force yourself to have the packs.
You should be moving to a Low Calorie Diet now, not a VLCD.

I don't believe that to be true, it may well be on exante as you are not doing it under GP supervision but whilst i was on lighter life my bmi went down to about 23.5 and i would of been able to go to my desired 22.5 if i had stuck to it.
 
You may not believe it to be true, but it wasn't my opinion, it was based on scientific fact. You may have reduced your weight by carrying on with a VLCD once you had achieved a healthy BMI, without any complications, but how do you know that your body wasn't using muscle to fuel it?

The diet does not change based on whether or not it is medically supervised. It is the same concept; a very low calorie complete food replacement diet that contains all of the vitamins and minerals that you need. Exante, Cambridge, Lighter Life, they all follow the same basic principle.

You could get down to a BMI of 18 on Exante, no-one is disputing that. What is being called into question is the safety of it and VLCDs remain an option for the overweight and the obese, not the healthy.

Even under a doctors supervision I would not choose to do a VLCD once I had reached a healthy weight and I don't know of any doctor that would agree to somebody of a healthy weight existing on 600 cals a day and not consider muscle wastage.
 
Also want to add that a lot of medical advice states that you come off a VLCD before you hit BMI 25. Cambridge, which I did, you have to stop Sole Source when you are BMI 25 plus a stone. These diets have been carefully studied. They work, but you have to follow the rules or you put your health at risk and surely we're all working towards being healthy, not being stick thin?
 
Also want to add that a lot of medical advice states that you come off a VLCD before you hit BMI 25. Cambridge, which I did, you have to stop Sole Source when you are BMI 25 plus a stone. These diets have been carefully studied. They work, but you have to follow the rules or you put your health at risk and surely we're all working towards being healthy, not being stick thin?

I'am not looking at being stick thin, i would like to be 9 1/2 stone and i'am 5"4, i'am currently 10 stone 4 which makes me 'healthy' but for me i'am still over weight. Like i said before when i did lighter life before i was under the gp and had a ll counsellor and got to a bmi of 23.5 without anyone saying it was a problem, i had just had my concent form from the gp signed to do another month but gave up. For me a feel i'am too close to being over weight to give up.
 
I think had Lighter Life known this your counsellor might have been sacked! They recommend LL total for people with BMI over 30 and suggest that for BMI 25-30 you do LL Lite unless I am missing something. You're saying that you did LL Total when you were about 6.5 BMI points under what you should be to do it? Don't just take my word for it:

LighterLife Total

I'm not sure why you're arguing the point here! VLCDs are not meant for people with a healthy BMI regardless of where you are in that healthy range. If you did it, whilst on LL, then you shouldn't have and your GP is irresponsible and I'm afraid I think it's irresponsible to tell people on here that it's safe to do. You may have chosen to do it, against the diets guidelines, but that doesn't mean it will be safe for other people.

Exante is not like LL or CD. You don't have counsellors or doctors looking out for you. That's why it's important that if information is given on a board like this, it's accurate and safe.
 
I think had Lighter Life known this your counsellor might have been sacked! They recommend LL total for people with BMI over 30 and suggest that for BMI 25-30 you do LL Lite unless I am missing something. You're saying that you did LL Total when you were about 6.5 BMI points under what you should be to do it? Don't just take my word for it:

LighterLife Total

I'm not sure why you're arguing the point here! VLCDs are not meant for people with a healthy BMI regardless of where you are in that healthy range. If you did it, whilst on LL, then you shouldn't have and your GP is irresponsible and I'm afraid I think it's irresponsible to tell people on here that it's safe to do. You may have chosen to do it, against the diets guidelines, but that doesn't mean it will be safe for other people.

Exante is not like LL or CD. You don't have counsellors or doctors looking out for you. That's why it's important that if information is given on a board like this, it's accurate and safe.

Watergirl i'am not arguing with anyone, i am pointing out that prehaps not all vlcd's are the same, if you go back and read what i said!! I stated that prehaps exante is different as its NOT medically supervised I started ll with a bmi of 31 and yes i was allowed to get to 23, gp approved it, local pharmacy and councellor, i am just saying do you think they were all wrong. Not sure why my post annoyed you when it was my own personal experience.
 
Karen, I know you're not arguing with anybody; I said I wasn't sure why you were arguing the point. You're taking this rather too personally. Your post hasn't annoyed me at all, but if I read something that is incorrect and could potentially hurt other people then I'd be silly to not say something. I'm just clarifying things for other people who might stumble upon this post and think that what you are doing is safe or correct. I did read what you said and I corrected you because all VLCD's are, by definition, the same. They are a 'type' of diet and they all follow the same principles. The fact that something is or isn't medically supervised is neither here nor there, as it does not change the composition of the diet. Adding your local pharmacy into the equation does not add weight to your points. Yes they are all wrong. As I have answered your points, would you care to answer mine and let me know if you're read the Lighter Life website. You are not recommended to even do Lighter Life Lite when you reach a healthy weight, let alone Lighter Life Total. If that is what the website says, then how can you think that your doctor, counsellor and pharmasist know better?
 
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