Which Diet?

B

BravingABikini

Full Member
Ok I thought That it might help to get some opinions on this. I know that I am not the first person to switch from one plan to another, so I am hopeful I might get some good advice from fellow miniminers.

So at the minute i am on a meal replacement diet called DropWeight. It seems to me to be pretty similar to Exante (although I have no personal experience to say for sure) and consists of a shake, soup, bar and one meal per day.

I have just over a week left on this before my packs run out and it is £200 for another months worth. I can't really afford to pay this, and am looking for a cheaper diet. I've whittled it down to 3 choices.

1) Exante. 1 month seems half the price of drop weight, and it doesn't seem dissimilar
2) Low carb/Atkins style diet. I am getting on well with the low carb in my current diet and am reluctant to give up the ketosis benefits.
3) Weight Watchers. I have done this in the past and have all the books. I find it quite easy to follow, but I would want to still avoid carbs within this diet.

Any thoughts on what I should do? I wouldn't be going to the meetings for WW if I did that, so that isn't really a factor. £100 is still quite a lot for a month when I still have to pay for a dinner, but I think I am doing well on the DropWeight diet and am nervous about switching to a less controlled diet. :confused:

Sorry if I have rambled but I have been trying to make a decision and am just going round in circles at the minute.

:gen147:

Thanks if you read all that.

BAB
 
On looking at their site Drop Weight doesn't appear to be a VLCD. A VLCD is 800kcals or less

Exante is half the price of that. Exante though is like most Vlcds 3 packs a day and NO food. I'd definitely recommend it. What kind of losses does DW give
 
Starlight said:
On looking at their site Drop Weight doesn't appear to be a VLCD. A VLCD is 800kcals or less

Exante is half the price of that. Exante though is like most Vlcds 3 packs a day and NO food. I'd definitely recommend it. What kind of losses does DW give
Click to expand...

I was looking at doing Exante working solution which allows me that extra meal. It would be more cals than I am on now as the exante packs are more calorific than drop weight, but I don't think it would be too different.

I have only done dropweight for a few weeks and I don't weigh myself, but the website and emails I get suggest up to a stone a month loss for the first 3 months.

I have just noticed that slim and save are a similar price again to exante, so now there is even more diets to consider. Oh dear.
 
It's prob worth having a look at Lipotrim too Welcome to the Lipotrim Website. With this one you get the shakes from a pharmacist each week and have a weigh in. The web site will tell you the closest pharmacy, looks like there are some in Bristol :)
There aren't as many options as Exante but it may work out cheaper depending on what you buy. It is £36 a week.
Have a look at the Lipotrim forum, there are a lot of people it has worked for, including myself. I lost about 3 stone 11 in 11 weeks x
 
Oh dear, my attempt to narrow down my options has just led to an ever expanding selection. With lipotrim you have a consultant, right? I am not really looking for anything like that. I just want to be able to buy things online and eat them :eating: I don't want to have to weigh myself or anything like that.

There is so many food replacement diets that it is difficult to know exactly which are available, but I thought that S&S and Exante were the only two that you just pay for as and when. Not sure.
 
Is there a specific reason you'd need to go for meal replacements?

I ask because when I decided to lose weight, I bought some wonderful Low-GI cookery books from Amazon, sat myself down at the computer and drew up a week-by-week meal plan based on what I'd enjoy eating & cooking out of the low-fat recipes.

Then I'd write out my shopping list and have things so well organized if I slacked off and didn't buy what I'd written down, there'd be nothing to eat except fruit & veg until I went shopping again.

It's worked very well for me and it's taught me a lot about portion control and how to cook a delicious, but healthy, meal for when I finally reach my goal weight and wish to maintain without any meal replacements and such.

I know some people need pre-structured plans, though.
 
RayeRaye said:
Is there a specific reason you'd need to go for meal replacements?
Click to expand...

I have meal replacement as an option as I am currently on one through wanting to kickstart my diet. So I either want to continue with meal replacement, do low carb, or WW.

I do think that plans like WW are very good for getting you thinking more about making good decisions yourself, where as meal replacements don't really teach you how to eat properly. I do need to work on planning meals more. With only having one meal a day at the minute, it's quite simple, but if I step away from meal replacement, it would definitely make me think more which has got to be a good thing for the long term.

I guess, the question really is, do I want to step away from meal replacement YET? I know I will need to move to a diet where it can be a lifestyle, but am I ready for that. Sorry to ramble, your question has made me very reflective.
 
my mum has done lipotrim, she is one of them people were it's 'all or nothing' when she is on diets like WW she knows she can have treats and she isn't happy with just 1 packet of crisps she has to have like 4 or 5 were as with lipotrim etc she can't have anything but the downside is when she stopped it she hadn't gotten used to eating less food or the right food so she just went back to the way she was before and put the weight on plus more in less time than she lost it! she started WW and then used most of her points on treats rather than food, she just can't win! I'm currently trying to get her to do SW with me were I can encourage her
 
RosaxEx said:
my mum has done lipotrim, she is one of them people were it's 'all or nothing' when she is on diets like WW she knows she can have treats and she isn't happy with just 1 packet of crisps she has to have like 4 or 5 were as with lipotrim etc she can't have anything but the downside is when she stopped it she hadn't gotten used to eating less food or the right food so she just went back to the way she was before and put the weight on plus more in less time than she lost it! she started WW and then used most of her points on treats rather than food, she just can't win! I'm currently trying to get her to do SW with me were I can encourage her
Click to expand...

What a nightmare for your mum! Meal replacements definitely don't prepare you, and I can agree with that, where I would rather have no chocolate rather than a bite as I will end up eating the whole lot. you will never find an open pack of jaffa cakes in my house.

I do like WW and have lost on it before, but I think the weighing in was my downfall and I got a bit of a complex. Ended up sabotaging the whole diet for me, so if i did it, I would be doing it from home. My thing with SW is that you can just eat whatever as long as you are eating the correct things, and I struggle with that. I think I need some form of calorie control, whether it is actual cals or points.
 
that's what my problem was with WW i lost 13lb in about 7 weeks but the weighing annoyed me and i wanted snacks because i was still hungry! first week of SW and i prefer it upto now!
 
Its all horses for courses, isn't it. 13lbs is a great loss in 7 weeks though. If I can manage anything like that I'll be chuffed. My sister has some of the SW cook books that we used to use and then point it and SW is definitely a great diet for if you are a foodie. everything is so yum. I noticed you have just started a diary, i might try and follow and see how you are getting on with SW.
 
yeah well i love pasta, potatoes etc so SW seems better to me! I am happy with the loss, i think this week i will have gained though because SW lets you eat so much more food so it will prob take a week or so for my body to get userd to it, i gained in my first week with ww too haha
 
RosaxEx said:
yeah well i love pasta, potatoes etc so SW seems better to me! I am happy with the loss, i think this week i will have gained though because SW lets you eat so much more food so it will prob take a week or so for my body to get userd to it, i gained in my first week with ww too haha
Click to expand...

that must have been frustrating when you get all these people on the boards with amazing first week losses. Good that you recognise this and aren't worried :)

Being on this diet they don't let you eat carbs really, and I have to say, I don't really miss them at all. I actually quite enjoy thinking of substitutions, such as the ever present cauliflower. I was surprised to learn that carbs are the reason that people get hunger pangs (with the whole ketosis thing) so it is good to not feel like I am dieting despite only having 900 cals a day.
 
i love cauliflower! and broccoli and carrots YUM

it is upsetting when i see most people get big weight losses first week, for some reason i dont and on WW i would have a week where i would lose or gain 0.5lb then the next week lost 3 or 4lb it's so bizarre i don't know why it does it! but as long as i average around 2lb a week i'm happy :)
 
I'm hoping so! I am only trying it for a month, I prefer the foods but may not lose, if i don't succeed as much as WW i MAY switch back not quite sure yet!
 
BravingABikini said:
I guess, the question really is, do I want to step away from meal replacement YET? I know I will need to move to a diet where it can be a lifestyle, but am I ready for that. Sorry to ramble, your question has made me very reflective.
Click to expand...

I think if you have a specific goal and are only (hah, only... what a terrible word :p) dieting for around 5 months, your own meal plan, whether on WW or your own concoction, is more suited to a long-term lifestyle change, so if you already eat somewhat healthily, meal replacements wouldn't be so terrible to stick to.

If you don't, there's no time like the present to start planning for yourself. I don't think it matters psychologically when you start, but if you wait until you reach your goal, you may run into a few maintenance issues until you figure out which meals work best for you.
 
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