Conrtibutions to a letter to LT please!

JanD

maintaining since June'09
Hi Everyone!

I'm thinking about writing a letter to LT outlining the discrepancies between the information we've been given when we phone them AND in the info that we get from our pharmacies (though how the pharmacies can be consistant when they're not I don't know!)
I feel it should be brought to their attention how unsettling it is and that although we love the diet, when advice varies it doesn't inspire confidence.
Hopefully this might inspire them to at least come up with some definitive answers to the questions we keep asking and be sure their staff (and pharmacies) all sing the same tune!
If you think it's a good idea would you please either post what you've been told again in this thread or find your old post and copy it here. This will obviously make it a lot easier for me than scouring the board to find examples. I don't need to identify you if you don't want me to.
I am copying below what I was told and will include the gist of it.
All comments and contributions gratefully received. xx

"I rang LT this morning to ask about strawberry mousses. You see the making up instructions on the LT bags say you can make mousse out of choc or vanilla shakes but don't mention strawb. My pharmacy didn't know when I asked them so I decided to just try them, they were fine so I've been having ALL my shakes as mousses.

With my lousy loss last week I thought I'd better leave no stone unturned so - although I couldn't believe it could have had anything to do with it - I rang to check that making the strawb shakes into mousse doesn't add a few million calories to them ;) - or whatever ..... :p


ANYWAY!! The lady I spoke to said she didn't know why they weren't included in the mousse instructions and asked if I'd tried them. When I said I had and they were fine she said carry on then and that having them all as mousses would not affect my losses but to remember to have an extra glass of water as I wasn't having a shake.

I said that my water intake shouldn't be a problem as I have between 4 and 5lts a day.

SHE said - well you musn't have more than 8 pints. My heart sank - 8 pints?? I asked why and she said that if you drink more than that you will wash away all the nutrients and just wee them out.

But I said I was concerned that I'd be thirsty on only 8 pints and SHE said - well that's not including any you have in shakes and you can also have as much black tea and coffee as you like ..... (which I think answers that question of whether T & C is included in fluid intake - obviously not!)

So I came off the phone concerned that I was going to have to cut my water down when I really enjoy it and feel as though I need it!

So - to be sure, instead of guessing or doing it roughly, I found the conversion factor (which is x 0.568) got the old trusty calculator out and guess what? 8 pints is 4.5lts!!!!!"
 
I copied & pasted LT's replies to my queries from emails received from them- hope this helps?

"Not including the water you are taking in your shakes you should only be drinking between 2-4litres per day (small sips throughout the day). Also please don’t split the shakes you should make up and drink the entire shake within 15 minutes.the tea and coffee intake is included in the 2-3litres per day.
Your pharmacy are supposed to be logging your details into a PC and should be printing charts for you to show your progress. If they are not using the computer system then get them to fill in a patient card with your weigh in dates and losses. You should be losing on average 1 stone per month."

My questions to LT directly:

"1. Can you use mouthwash?

2. Can you use other 'fibre' bulking agents?
3. Can you have sugar free chewing gum
4. Can you add pepper to the soup?"

Their answer:

"1. Yes - original Listerine or Oraldine or Corsidyl
2. Fybogel (unflavoured), senokot, psyllium husk
3 No - It is not carbohydrate free
4 No, Black pepper is a berry . It could make you more hungry than you need to be and slow your weight loss. Please add nothing. Also please watch the DVD. It explains a lot."
 
copied this from another thread

i did a menu for week and then phoned lipotrim to check it was ok the lady told me not to snack inbetween meals not to have evening snack and to limt carbohdrate but on there sample menu day 4 to 7 theres snacks on it and evening snack now i wernt going to do that but i think its really strange why they would put that and then when you phone you get no dont do that i asked why theres no menu plan ideas ie for two weeks and they said it because there are so many efenic cant spell and different people doing diet to do but surly a few diffent menus could be done just for reference as from what they have done on samle sheets you get from chemist its not very clear at all
 
Last edited:
this ones not really what i have been told its the quality of the pharamcies....and i know other people have experienced this aswell...

i just get weighed and pay for my packs then i go home. im in and out in 2 minutes. surely they are supoosed to check up on me make sure im drinking plenty if water, having all my packs, etc?
 
this is bits of a thread copied and pasted....go to do with prescribed medication.

i havent named names just in case they dont want me to.

Hey all, am a little concerned, some of my prescribed meds have laculose and sucrose.
I can't stop taking them as there important meds.
Will this be ok ?

I did tell him I was on pills but he didnt seem bothered, altho it's not the pharmacist you see its just the young lad who works there
I will go see the doc or nurse and see what they say, thanks everyone

He didn't even ask me what meds I was on should he of ?

I will double check it with the GP now to be sure, and might change pharmacy as there is another one not too far away that does it also
 
I don't mind you naming me, I was just going to add that lol :D
 
i just wanted to be carfeul just in case :)
 
he he no problem :)

Great idea by the way the letter
 
good idea jan.

ok heres what i found and basically why im back here doing LT again cause i just didnt know what to do with such conflicting advise:

i remember phoning them to ask about the maintenance side of things once you finish the shakes. they told me on two different ocassions different facts.

1. it says on the maintenance paperwork that you eat maintenance products ALONG SIDE other foods (which should total no more than 100 cals). when i phoned about this the lady who answered said oh no, you have to REPLACE any food with the maintenance products so that you bring your weight down again.

i did phone again about this and spoke to a man who said, no you have to replace all meals for anything up to a week at a time with maintenance products.

so which is it??!!!!

i then wondered, if you have to replace all meals, all the time does this then take you back into ketosis and would you have to do the refeed afterwards? no one knew.

h xx
 
I'm not going to bother with the maintenence products- I don't see why they're necessary after re-feeding with 'normal' food? I have to eat 'normally' eventually!
 
Hi JanD,
very good thread and an excellent idea to write to LT.
I do not have any concerns with my chemist as they are all trained in the diet and are not allowed to deal with you otherwise. My chemist was so good he rang me when I had a difficulty and said he would do so every day if I needed him to. Thankfully I haven't.
However I am concerned with the ammount of people on here who don't seem to be seen by a trained professional after their initial consultation. This method of operation will make guidelines loose and can only lead to failure. Lipotrim has proven itself to be a great diet and a success, yet untrained staff will let it down and people may become disillusioned with it. I hope you get a positive response to your letter, look forward to hearing about it.
Doirin
 
I'm not going to bother with the maintenence products- I don't see why they're necessary after re-feeding with 'normal' food? I have to eat 'normally' eventually!




when/if you start to panic about what your eating after finishing and you have a few days of eating rubbish or something, thats when a person might decide to give them a try..which is what i did...why would i think there was anything wrong with that when the products were there to try for exactly that purpose?
 
Thanks everyone this is a great start ... particularly you Kels, you've obviously gone to some trouble to find things you've seen elsewhere.

I want the pharmacy stories as well!!

Funnily enough I've just been reading the maintenance product leaflet and I don't really understand it tbh.

Keep 'em coming folks!

When I've put something together I'll post it for your comments and then obviously any reply I get. I'm thinking I might send it recorded delivery so they'll realise it's serious and they need to address the issues.

Thanks peeps xx
 
when/if you start to panic about what your eating after finishing and you have a few days of eating rubbish or something, thats when a person might decide to give them a try..which is what i did...why would i think there was anything wrong with that when the products were there to try for exactly that purpose?
I didn't mean to criticise anyone for using them, just that I'm hoping I don't need them? Of course there may come a time where I feel I do, but hopefully if I do have a few days blow-out, I'll just try to go back to eating healthy and counter-act any harm done? As I said, it mightn't just happen like that, but hopefully I'll be fine? Sorry again?:eek:
 
Hi JanD
Just wanted to say good on you for taking up the mantle :)
Thankfully my pharmacist is lovely and informative and supportive. But, last year, when I tried LT and failed the girl that weighed me was negative and said she hadnt tried it (must have been around size 24 - not being mean, just that she could have at least tried it). She said that she didnt think I would stick it as not many people do! Inspirational or what.
I think that some pharmacies take on LT for extra income and see it as a moneymaker and not look at why people want to do it..that is my personal opinion.
Not sure how they recruit, or whatever you call it...
Good luck though.
Look forward to the response you get from LT.
 
Jan - I'd like to see LT do a little more variety. What about a vegetable soup for example (yes veg. protein does exist guys)? It would be horrible for a vegetarian who hadn't eaten meat for years to not have a savoury option. I also think that the flapjacks are horrible - I took my second one back I found it that dire. Even the pharmacist thought they would be hard to sell!
On the training side, I always see a pharmacist at a large Boots branch and they always ask if I have any questions and have given me some good advice. But I never get a print out. They always get my file and note down my results, but I have to write down my results to keep track.
 
Back
Top