It makes me a little mad

ladylite

Gold Member
Does it you. All you see on the tellie at the moment is adverts helping smokers. Dont get me wrong I think it is a brilliant idea to encourage people to stop smoking.

It just bugs me that authorities seem to agree that obesity is also a killer but there is not too much help for us out there. I am just addited to food as they are to cigarettes but there is no patch out there for me and I cannot phone the NHS helpline.

In fact when I ventured on this diet my doctors surgery were not too helpful in giving me an appointment to see my doctor. I had to pay to have my form completed with information that was on their computer.

I feel that we are the lucky ones who have found our way of dieting be it LL or whatever and do have this lovely site to help but you would think that the government would start to get their finger out, as I am sure there is 1000's still struggling on their own.

Sorry Rant over.:banghead:
 
I couldn't agree with you more! This is one topic that makes me get up on my soap box.

There are pratically NO 'generic' weight loss support groups conducted by the NHS - we're just expected to go away and get on with it ... usually by lining the pockets of the huge commercial weight loss groups. Now, there's nothing at all wrong with the weight loss groups BUT for me, group support and some 'head work' (CBT) is what I need and that would still be true if I were attending WW, SW or on LL or CD (although LL do get some CBT - at a price!).

The only help I've ever been offered at my GPs is either an appointment with a dietician - but I KNOW what food is doing the damage: I just don't know why I stand over a bin and eat 6 penguin biscuits - or repeated efforts to get me to take Xenical ... no thanks!

How about some practical HELP?
 
CBT is a huge issue - I've heard that it's practically impossible to see a psychotherapist and when you do you get 6 weeks on the NHS, when it seems to me that if you need CBT, you need ongoing support for months, if not years.
 
The Sky Tv channels are all about weightloss and obesity at the moment - that or plastic surgery! I've become addicted and can't stop watching them.

Ads seem to all be for WW or Slimfast, but these programmes worry me as they don't help you re-educate your eating for the future, so you'll put the weight back on again (as I have done with SF AND WW in the past). Its only with LL that I feel that I really WILL be able to keep it off because I think about food SO differently now!
 
Totally agree.. don't know about you but anytime i have asked my doctor in the past to help me lose weight he has looked at me like I had 2 heads.. cue feeling mortified and reversing slowly out his door apologising profusely!

When i really really pushed I got a referral to see someone about binge eating. it took 6 months to get a consultation then a year to actually start to see someone. Even then, i only got 16 sessions in total, albeit they were very good.. no follow up nothing.. kind of like.. there you go 16 sessions of CAT (slightly diff version of CBT). you are cured.. off you pop and go buy your size 10s! The joke was although it was very good.. i actually PUT ON weight during the CAT counselling.. like nearly 2 stones worth!

If the NHS put more funds into helping people whose BMI is over x (whatever the dodgy limit is) then the would save a fortune on illnesses etc caused by obesity.
 
I really feel the time is coming whereby the NHS will have to provision services for obesity management.

It is not good enough to give someone a diet sheet, or tell people to go away and exercise.

The support is given once a person has had a heart attack, or heart bypass surgery (the standard is 2 exercise classes a week, advice about diet, weight monitoring before and after cardiac rehab, and support after the 6 week course is up to help people get an exercise habit). Why does it take something like that, something potentially fatal, and, might I add, mightily expensive to fix, for people to be offered support? Why can't people with obesity be given support before it reaches this point?

Grrrrrr.
 
Funnily enough, after seeking help for years, I finally was referred to a weight management psychologist by my GP. It took a year to get an appointment and I had started LL by then. I was told that they couldn't help me because I was already doing LL and so didn't qualify for counselling and support, but if I put all the weight on again I should feel free to ask my GP to refer me once again. Quite funny when you think about it!
 
Do you think it is because it doesn't give the pharmaceutical industry a profit? I know there are drugs you can help to suppress appetite or limit absorption of food, but as we all know obesity is just as much about what's going on in your head as your stomach so these I believe are not particularly successful, nor widely prescribed. Therapy and other routes are not lining the pockets of the pharmaceutical giants in the same way that nicotine replacement products are. Notice there is equally no adverts to support alcoholics or any other addicts for whom there is no hugely profitable drug fix.
P.S. I know that giving up smoking is really hard by the way and I am not putting down anyone who has been through that particular hell!
 
Linze, you may be right as there seems to be no problems getting pills; I've had them all! Just couldn't get anyone to help sort my head out!
 
My friend was given an appetite suppressant from her GP but it wasn't explained to her and she didn't know why the GP had actually given her it. It didn't solve the problem because my friend didn't eat when she was hungry, like the majority of us. Needless to say, she didn't lose much weight at all and after a chat from me she is now doing LL and has lost almost 4 stone.
GP's aren't interested in our concerns. They just want us to get on with it ourselves. Thank god for LL is all I can say.
 
The Sky Tv channels are all about weightloss and obesity at the moment - that or plastic surgery! I've become addicted and can't stop watching them.

Ads seem to all be for WW or Slimfast, but these programmes worry me as they don't help you re-educate your eating for the future, so you'll put the weight back on again (as I have done with SF AND WW in the past). Its only with LL that I feel that I really WILL be able to keep it off because I think about food SO differently now!

Someone said to me a few years ago that organisations like WW and Rosemary Conley don't work and people end up putting the weight back on. Hence the cycle starts again and people end up going back and once again lining WW & RC etc's pockets. I must admit I have done both and each time put the weight (plus more) back on.

My LL Counsellor said to us that they are not allowed to advertise LL on TV or Radio (although they are allowed to advertise in mags & newspapers)!

I will say that my doctor's surgery is very supportive and has not charged me for the form to be completed and for when I get my blood pressure checked and book signed. But I have heard of some surgeries not supporting LL.
 
My surgery was pretty unsupportive of Lighter Life to be honest - I think they see it as a crash diet, and therefore immediately dismiss it. What makes me angry is that they can see the results, and still don't accept that it works!

I haven't been back to my docs for a quite a while as I have had my BP checked elsewhere, but I think I will pop in and give him a little shock!

Leesy
xox
 
IMHO... firstly, the statistics for long-time success with LL are not fantastic, nor for any other plan I know of, though of course we all intend to prove them wrong! But I think that what this shows is that maintaining a healthy weight is about more than calorie restriction or lifestyle, and I'm guessing that it's the long-ingrained psychological issues which cause most of us to revert to our old ways. Ongoing CBT or similar is expensive and very scarce; a scandal in my opinion - we all know of people with mental health problems who are crying out for this kind of support, but when one of my children needed it we could only get private help at £70 a session. No way could we afford that long-term! So there's a big funding issue.

Second, imagine the headlines in the Daily Mail (etc) if the government did fund it. Loads of people would object to paying for obese people, whom the papers portray as living on burgers and chips (yuk), getting free therapy. Of course this is nuts, as the overall savings to the health service would far outweigh the cost of the therapy, not to mention the general happiness and wellbeing of all concerned, but that is not what the press wants to write about.

I think it would be very difficult for any government to give widespread quality psychological support for weightloss, although personally I think it would be completely logical and desirable for them to do so.

How about if you could claim back your LL or Cambridge expenses after a year of successful, monitored maintenance? That would be an incentive to the seriously motivated!
 
No disrespect to foreigners but I heard on the news that they may be funding free English lessons to all immigrants who cant speak English.

I think this is an excellent idea, but surely the could fund some sort of weight loss programme for us strugglers also.
 
At least with LL they have considered the effect of food addiction and at least TRY to combat it with CBT/TA and the RTM programme at the end. Most of the people who are still maintaining years later did RTM, and I think this is the key to the success of LL. People I know who are back on LL as returners often didn't do RTM and they are going to this time as they know that this was their error.

LL is the first diet I've done (and I've done them all) where I really believe I can keep it off, because I've altered my brain as well as my body this time!
 
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