Meal replacement diets

I am not familiar with either of those programs you mentioned. But... I lost my first 40 pounds on a "meal replacement" diet. However, it was a hospital's program that required doctor supervision and attendance of two 12 week classes, the first one about over eating in general, and the second one about nutrition. I lost 40 pounds in 12 weeks, maintained that 18 months while I re-learned to eat regular food, and then lost 40 more over a year and a half on my own. I learned a lot, and it was worth every penny for me. However... I know many people who went there and failed, hated it, and didn't learn a thing.

When I started I was ready! I knew I had a reached a point where I needed serious accountability and "drastic" measures, so to speak, to change. I have several friends who have used other meal replacement types, and honestly, most of them have had success, but then gained it all or a portion of it back shortly after finishing. I think they work, but unless you are learning something and receiving some guidance for when you begin eating "real food" again... and of course, are exercising.... then the success is usually short lived... at least based on what I've seen. :-)

I was on 2 different ones: Medifast and another one I cannot remember anymore. I lost almost 100 lbs on each, but ultimately gained it all back.

These diets can be very enticing. Once I got past the first week or so, I became almost indifferent to food. Ordinarily, I am NEVER indifferent to food! I became a bit anorexic, and thought it might even be a good idea to take 3 supplements a day instead of the recommended 5. Not a good plan. I do remember feeling very mentally alert during the diet (which I liked...it wasn't due to meds because no diet pills or other drugs) but I also had a terrible taste in my mouth most of the time (ketosis, like in low carb diets?).

During the diet I lost weight so rapidly that it was hard to keep up with clothes that fit. As soon as I bought something new it seemed it was too large. Both times I was medically supervised. Ultimately I wanted to chew food, and figured I could take a "vacation day" once in a while and get back on the supplements. At that point, it started falling apart to the point where I could not abide the idea or taste of the supplements and ultimately went off entirely.

My impression is that few people maintain weight lost this way. At least in my experience, I do not know anyone who lost weight this way and kept it off. It didn't work for me, but maybe there are lots of success stories I don't know about...

I started LighterLife in March 2010 and between then and now I've lost 11 stone. I had to come off the full food replacement programme a couple of months ago due to (unrelated) medical reasons and obviously my weight-loss progress has slowed somewhat since then, but most importantly they've ensured that my reintroduction to food has been slow, steady and responsible.

In fact "responsible" is probably the best word I can think of to describe LighterLife, which I realise flies in the face of popular opinion about very low calorie diets (VLCDs) such as meal replacement diets. You can only follow the full meal replacement plan (Total) if your BMI is 30 or over. You also can't start without a medical form being completed by your doctor and they're quick to take you off the programme if your 4-weekly blood pressure and pulse checks don't look good or if you're having any medical issues. The food packs contain 100% of your recommended daily allowance of all essential vitamins and minerals. The programme works by putting your body into ketosis (similar to Atkins), which means your body is getting any additional energy from your fat stores and has the handy side-effect of appetite suppression - I was rarely hungry on the programme. You're also carefully advised about your water intake to ensure you're flushing the ketones through your system all the time but yet not drinking it so quickly you flood your body. Every 12 weeks you are also required to up your calorie intake to over 1000kcals a day for one week, effectively taking you from a VLCD to a Low Calorie Diet for the week. This complies with the NICE guidelines, which recommend that whilst VLCDs can be a very effective means of weightloss for the obese, they should only followed for 12 weeks at a time.

Besides all this, the main attraction for me wasn't the very low calorie diet aspect, but rather the counselling they provide. It's compulsory to attend one small group session per week and it covers things like Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Transactional Analysis and Neuro-Linguistic Programming to help you understand your issues with food and learn how to better cope with them.

For me this has been absolutely crucial. I'd lost weight through everything from calorie counting to the cabbage soup diet to Weight Watchers before but inevitably I lost my motivation and ended up putting all the lost weight back on again and more. I'm more confident this time that this won't happen because I understand my triggers for binge eating now. I might not be successful 100% of the time in actually avoiding that bottle of wine after a hard day at work but I'm more likely to when I understand why I want it.

However to my knowledge LighterLife is the only one of these meal replacement plans that has anything like this. I don't think I would have lasted 10 months on a liquids-only, 530kcal per day diet without the ongoing motivation and support at the counselling sessions. How anyone has the willpower to last more than a couple of months without that is beyond me. Don't get me wrong the results are fantastic (approximately 14lb a month on average, more for men) but it can be very tough, emotionally as well as physically.

Personally I would recommend LighterLife to anyone who is obese and wants to sort out their food issues with the counselling, but I'm not sure I would be so quick to recommend something like Cambridge, Celebrity Slim, etc. They may be cheaper but to me the benefits of the counselling are the main draw, not the fast weight-loss.