Well thats a bit scary.

[coley144]

I agree. If you can lose weight just on SW or WW then why not? Cambridge and Lighter life is IMO for people who struggle with conventional weight loss. But it does have its place.

 

[charlottegrace1]

I would imagine that its a lot easier for someone to follow if they are on their own rather having to cook for a family and shop for the food. That must be very hard and take sooo much willpower. I'm of the view, do what ever works for you.

 

[Sulleyp]

I found that being a single lad it was a lot eaier to do. Obv empty cupboard help the situaiton but I have often found myself standing at the fridge just looking at stuff.

 

[HellieCopter]

I imagine (having never done any research myself, or much reading other sections) that VLCDs or meal replacement diets could be good at breaking some of the bad food habits that some of us have.

I can see how not having solid food pass your lips for 3 months could get you out of say...the habit of always clearing your plate no matter how big your portion, or using food as a comfort, etc.

Then, when you are ready to go back to normal eating, doing something healthy like SW would be much easier.

Mind you, I can imagine the temptation to binge like crazy would be huge too!

 

[KD]

Its amazing how there are whole sections of the forum dedicated to it but people are still jumping to conclusions.

LOL. Yeah. When you think about it, minimins was mainly a VLCD forum at the beginning.

I agree that it comes off, but does it stay off?

I've kept 8stone off for 4.5 years so I guess it does It's not the diet that determines how successful maintenance is, it's how you do maintenance.

From what I've seen and read about these types of diets, they don't seem to teach you anything so you don't go back to your old ways as soon as the weight is gone.

Some people do go back to their old ways, but that happens after many diets including SW (well for me anyway)

Do they teach healthy eating of proper food?

Yes they do. Can't speak for the other VLCDs as I've never done them, but Cambridge has low gi calorie plans towards the end of the diet. Very healthy stuff

Mind you, I can imagine the temptation to binge like crazy would be huge too!

Ack, I could binge whatever...whoops. Did it through and after every diet. WW, SW, 'normal eating', and even after CD a few times. I'm not fussy

As for the cult thing. I found that I was most successful when I was truly passionate about the diet I was doing, whether it was WW, SW, calorie counting, Atkins (plus 1000 other diets). I had to believe that was the perfect way for me to diet to keep the motivation going.

I now belong to the 'normal eating' cult. It's absolutely the very best way for maintenance anyway