How does Exante work in the long term?

[loulalou]

sorry for all my questions. I'm thinking of giving it a go. the things that concerns me is how to maintain afterwards.

I have a friend who did LL and lost 3 st. A year on and she has gained half of it back. Also a family member lectured me when I told them about it. She said if I am going to lose weight eating 600 cals a day then I'm only ever going to maintain if I eat 800 a day. Is that right?

Sorry - just so confused now. Want to lose the weight, but want to keep it off! Has anyone managed this?

 

[Starlight]

Ignore them, thats rubbish, absolute rubbish.

If your friend put the weight back on thats cos she went back to over eating thats nothing to do with the diet. If you look at WW/SW forums there are loads of people there whove lost weight and regained it again nothing to do with the diet. 100% down to their eating habits.

Once you stop the packs, you refeed, over a period of several weeks increasing your cals etc as you go and reintroducing things like carbs if you want to. Once youve done that youll then maintain on the same cals as anyone else. Some people dont refeed and have a small gain the first week but thats fair enough then they just maintain as normal.

To say youll only be able to have 800kcals is just absolutely ridiculous. Where the hell do people get these ideas

 

[Blue Butterfly]

People will gain weight back after any diet if they eat like they used to, it doesn't just happen to people that have done vlcd's!
After Exante you re-feed and introduce foods gradually you obv dont just start eating as before.

 

[Suzisu]

Thanks Starlight, I am afraid to talk about it because people seem to have such strong (negative) opinions - just a case of employing self-discipline to maintain a healty lifestyle on reaching target I think.

Sue x

 

[loulalou]

Thank you. I guess I'm worried about messing my metabolism up but everything you have all said makes sense. I always thought that the recommended 2000 cals a day was too much for me, I seem to be able to eat 1500 and maintain whatever weight I am so that will seem a lot in comparison to 600!

Its hard when you try to tell people and they are so negative

 

[Bobbi]

well, I maintained since last summer! I am back on Exante not because I put weight on but because I want to lose more and I didnt reach my goal. I did have a couple of starts and false starts in the mean time but I didnt put weight on. I ate 'normally', well as nornal as one can when not wanting to gain. I tried my best not to eat bread, pasta, chips, cereal and that stuff and it was sufficient to keep me going. I ate lots of chicken, salad, some rice9figuring it was a better carb than bread or potato), eggs, bacon, cheese, some chocolate (ssshhh) and drank diet sodas, water, tea. the only carbs I ate were home baked scones and such like as I figured there was no nasty chemicals and things in. So all in all it was fine. I am glad I took those few months out as it has taught me that I can maintain - sort of a practice or half way till I reach goal. Maintaining the weight wasnt even deliberate, there was no throught it just happened.

 

[Andrea5867]

I did Cambridge three years ago and lost 4 stone - and over that three years put it all back on
At first I maintained but it gathered momentum as my eating habits returned to
Normal - I just didn't learn and I think my biggest mistake was not working through the stages and up the calories
I'm a comfort eater and I recognise that now so I'm determined this time will be different
I know there will be times when I gain a little but exante will be there as a backup - in fact my CDC lost 7 stone and still replaced one meal a day with a shake after 4 years at goal
Hope this helps
Andrea x

Sent from my iPhone using MiniMins

 

[cannyscot]

I have a monitor that monitors my calories burned. It is amazing how many you can burn by extra walking but jst general jumping about -a few extra knees up and waist bends while the kettle boiling etc on a day like that you can burn 2500 on a day where you sit about -1600 . So all that get off at anextra bus stop /take the stairs is actually true. I watched a friend who is super fit and 62 and actually buzzes and realise it is true thin people just jump about/walk more/go a bit faster.

So once you refeed I'd just move a bit more and keep your calorie burn up as the knock on effects like feeling stronger and having more energy come with this as well.

 

[LastEverDiet]

There was a study in the papers recently that had found that people who lose weight very quickly are just as likely to keep the weight off as people who take a slower route - like everyone above has said it's all down to what you choose to do after the diet!
Having done WW before, got to goal and put back twice as much weight on :cry: I'm determined to learn my lesson this time round!

 

[loulalou]

Thanks everyone I now have a few facts and stories to throw at the negative brigade next time I get a comment!

I'm going to carry on with Atkins until I run out of bars and shakes, then move on to Exante! Looking forward to it now