Aussies - have you tried Tony Ferguson VLCD?

Moz2ie
Moz2ie Posts: 17 Member
edited November 22 in Getting Started
I'm getting started ---again :(
I'm totally hopeless at maintaining my motivation however in the past have had success with Tony Ferguson shakes. I lost 36 kilos using them however went well and truly off the wagon and gained back 22 kilos.
They now have a VLCD plan and I was wondering if anyone has tried this?
My doctor is all for me having a go.

Replies

  • Alatariel75
    Alatariel75 Posts: 18,329 Member
    Tried them, lost a ton, stopped them, gained a ton. It taught me nothing save for how to attempt to turn shakes into baked goods. Generally unsuccessfully.
  • Moz2ie
    Moz2ie Posts: 17 Member
    Thanks guys for your candid responses, a bit of tough love in there but I can handle it...lol
    I suppose I should clarify that last time I did the shake diet it was for just a 12 week program. I then used MFP to track calories for a further 12 months and continued to lose in a moderate way. When I say I fell off the wagon it was more a collective wagon and just didn't watch what I ate any more. I'm a carb addict - can happily forgo anything sweet or fizzy but struggle with carbs.
    I found the TF diet helped me by being so restrictive as I didn't have the option to sneak in an extra slice of bread or scoop of pasta. I am going to give the VLCD a go for 12 weeks and see how I go.
    The transition to calorie counting will be my challenge again.
    Thanks Firefly for your positiveness.
  • Alatariel75
    Alatariel75 Posts: 18,329 Member
    I thought Tony Ferguson was always a VCLD. It certainly was when I did it. Shake, shake, 1 x palm sized protein and veg.
  • Rickster1967
    Rickster1967 Posts: 485 Member
    Been there, failed that. A classic weight loss industry money spinner, and the only thing that ended up thinner was my wallet.

    VLCD's don't work for long term weight loss. If you are after the quickest fix possible then it is going to work because you are effectively starving yourself. The second you come off a VLCD, the weight starts coming back on. Plus, it’s even harder to lose it the second, third, fourth time around – because each time you aggressively cut your calories below your maintenance level and stick to that teeny-tiny amount of calories, your body adapts and learns to function on a smaller amount of calories. So when you come off the VLCD, you have to eat less to maintain than what you did before – most people put all the weight back on plus some. So then you think you need to drastically cut your calories again and get back on a VLCD. Repeat sad process.

    This app has been designed for people to track their calorie intake. It works, if you are honest with it about your activity levels and aren’t too aggressive with your weight loss goals. Why don’t you go through the set up, set it to want to lose 0.5 or 0.25kg per week (this is a not-to-aggressive-target), and eat that amount of calories?

    I get it. You are sick of the weight and you want it all gone right now. But if you try to do this too fast you set yourself up for failure. VLCD’s are not sustainable long term, you will definitely lose “weight”, but that weight won’t all be fat. Not only are you very unlikely to keep off any weight you lose, you make it harder to lose again in the future.

    You CAN do this. Be kind to yourself, be patient with yourself, educate yourself.

    This is what makes maintenance difficult - regardless of how you lose the weight, your maintenance calories at your goal weight will always be less than what they were when you were bigger as there is less of you to maintain. When people go back to "normal" eating, they're eating in a larger surplus so will regain.

    Having an appropriate calorie goal for maintenance at your new weight is important - continuing to log is probably necessary for many people.

    So is it possible my current 2000 a day with 100lbs to lose will end up close to my maintenance calories?

    Or will my TDEE be higher?
  • Firefly0606
    Firefly0606 Posts: 366 Member
    TDEE is your total energy output, averaged over a week, including everything you eat, your daily functions and any additional exercise. It's a bit different from the way MFP calculates your calories, which sets your calorie intake lower and adds back in any exercise you do.

    Your TDEE will depend on what sort of work you do i.e desk job or teacher where you are on your feet for part of the day, what sort of exercise you do i.e walking 30 minutes 3 times a week or lifting weights and running. Your TDEE when you have 100lbs to lose is going to be more than when you are at goal weight if all other factors (your daily job, activity and deliberate exercise) stay the same. But, if you are at your goal weight and add in more deliberate exercise and muscle mass (why lifting weights is fabulous - more muscle mass means more calories burned doing normal activities and at rest) then your TDEE could very well be just as much as it is when you are 100lbs heavier.

    A calculator which will give you an idea can be found here: http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/ one of a few available on the interwebz. You can play with the numbers and change your activity levels too to give you an idea of what it might be when you get there :)


  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,809 Member
    Been there, failed that. A classic weight loss industry money spinner, and the only thing that ended up thinner was my wallet.

    VLCD's don't work for long term weight loss. If you are after the quickest fix possible then it is going to work because you are effectively starving yourself. The second you come off a VLCD, the weight starts coming back on. Plus, it’s even harder to lose it the second, third, fourth time around – because each time you aggressively cut your calories below your maintenance level and stick to that teeny-tiny amount of calories, your body adapts and learns to function on a smaller amount of calories. So when you come off the VLCD, you have to eat less to maintain than what you did before – most people put all the weight back on plus some. So then you think you need to drastically cut your calories again and get back on a VLCD. Repeat sad process.

    This app has been designed for people to track their calorie intake. It works, if you are honest with it about your activity levels and aren’t too aggressive with your weight loss goals. Why don’t you go through the set up, set it to want to lose 0.5 or 0.25kg per week (this is a not-to-aggressive-target), and eat that amount of calories?

    I get it. You are sick of the weight and you want it all gone right now. But if you try to do this too fast you set yourself up for failure. VLCD’s are not sustainable long term, you will definitely lose “weight”, but that weight won’t all be fat. Not only are you very unlikely to keep off any weight you lose, you make it harder to lose again in the future.

    You CAN do this. Be kind to yourself, be patient with yourself, educate yourself.

    This is what makes maintenance difficult - regardless of how you lose the weight, your maintenance calories at your goal weight will always be less than what they were when you were bigger as there is less of you to maintain. When people go back to "normal" eating, they're eating in a larger surplus so will regain.

    Having an appropriate calorie goal for maintenance at your new weight is important - continuing to log is probably necessary for many people.

    So is it possible my current 2000 a day with 100lbs to lose will end up close to my maintenance calories?

    Or will my TDEE be higher?

    With the caveat that I only lost 30lbs my TDEE at maintenance is higher than before I lost weight - my exercise and activity levels are higher to compensate for being smaller.
    Fat isn't very metabolically active so just losing fat doesn't reduce your TDEE much but of course there's also the factor that you are moving less mass around with every movement to take into account.

    Move more and you get to eat more. :)
  • kommodevaran
    kommodevaran Posts: 17,890 Member
    zzzooo wrote: »
    Thanks guys for your candid responses, a bit of tough love in there but I can handle it...lol
    I suppose I should clarify that last time I did the shake diet it was for just a 12 week program. I then used MFP to track calories for a further 12 months and continued to lose in a moderate way. When I say I fell off the wagon it was more a collective wagon and just didn't watch what I ate any more. I'm a carb addict - can happily forgo anything sweet or fizzy but struggle with carbs.
    I found the TF diet helped me by being so restrictive as I didn't have the option to sneak in an extra slice of bread or scoop of pasta. I am going to give the VLCD a go for 12 weeks and see how I go.
    The transition to calorie counting will be my challenge again.
    Thanks Firefly for your positiveness.
    Isn't it fascinating how we defiantly defend what abused us and invent ways to degrade ourselves. You are not a carbs addict - carbohydrate is a macronutrient, found in real foods - sugar is a carbohydrate. You like to eat. Restraint and restrictions makes you binge.
    VLCD will go just as predicted.
    I stumbled over this yesterday (linked by user jgnatca): http://www.cci.health.wa.gov.au/resources/infopax.cfm?Info_ID=48 - I've only read Module 8 yet, but it was very eye-opening, and I recognized much of my own previous unhealthy relationship with food, even though I've never had an eating disorder. (Just ignore how they equate calorie counting with eating disorders.)
  • snowflake954
    snowflake954 Posts: 8,399 Member
    zzzooo wrote: »
    Thanks guys for your candid responses, a bit of tough love in there but I can handle it...lol
    I suppose I should clarify that last time I did the shake diet it was for just a 12 week program. I then used MFP to track calories for a further 12 months and continued to lose in a moderate way. When I say I fell off the wagon it was more a collective wagon and just didn't watch what I ate any more. I'm a carb addict - can happily forgo anything sweet or fizzy but struggle with carbs.
    I found the TF diet helped me by being so restrictive as I didn't have the option to sneak in an extra slice of bread or scoop of pasta. I am going to give the VLCD a go for 12 weeks and see how I go.
    The transition to calorie counting will be my challenge again.
    Thanks Firefly for your positiveness.

    Clutching on to shakes as a necessary to get you "in the mood" to calorie count is ridiculous. Listen to all the good adice you've been given. You don't want to backslide again. Get out that digital food scale and get serious. That way you can lose the weight and keep it off.
  • Moz2ie
    Moz2ie Posts: 17 Member
    Alatariel TF have a VLCD of 800 calories, a Rapid loss program of 1200 calories then a maintenance one.
    Snowflake I'm hardly clutching on to shakes. That sounds very dramatic...
  • Alatariel75
    Alatariel75 Posts: 18,329 Member
    zzzooo wrote: »
    Alatariel TF have a VLCD of 800 calories, a Rapid loss program of 1200 calories then a maintenance one.
    Snowflake I'm hardly clutching on to shakes. That sounds very dramatic...

    Ah. I did it so long ago, they only had the one program.
  • snowflake954
    snowflake954 Posts: 8,399 Member
    zzzooo wrote: »
    Alatariel TF have a VLCD of 800 calories, a Rapid loss program of 1200 calories then a maintenance one.
    Snowflake I'm hardly clutching on to shakes. That sounds very dramatic...

    OK. Please come back in a year and tell us where you're at (nobody ever does--tell you something?)
  • theabsentmindednurse
    theabsentmindednurse Posts: 404 Member
    edited October 2017
    Hate to say it..,,
    But it has to be said!
    THERE IS NO QUICK WAY TO LOSE WEIGHT!!!!
    That's sustainable :o:/
    And that is the majority of feedback you are getting.

    I joined MFP 2 years ago with no preconceived ideas or illusions.
    All I knew is THIS WAS FOR LIFE
    No quick fixes. Just CICO, log accurately and stay within my daily caloric goal.

    Shakes, cutting out entire food groups and being miserable weren't part of the equation.
    I am happy to say I am 92 pounds down.
    Sure. There might quicker ways to achieve the weight loss, but, this is step by step, every day.

    If you are serious about long term weight loss, perhaps trying healthier eating and logging your food accurately is far more achievable.
    That's certainly a more positive more proactive approach than shakes or other "Quick fixes".
  • missysippy930
    missysippy930 Posts: 2,577 Member
    zzzooo wrote: »
    Thanks guys for your candid responses, a bit of tough love in there but I can handle it...lol
    I suppose I should clarify that last time I did the shake diet it was for just a 12 week program. I then used MFP to track calories for a further 12 months and continued to lose in a moderate way. When I say I fell off the wagon it was more a collective wagon and just didn't watch what I ate any more. I'm a carb addict - can happily forgo anything sweet or fizzy but struggle with carbs.
    I found the TF diet helped me by being so restrictive as I didn't have the option to sneak in an extra slice of bread or scoop of pasta. I am going to give the VLCD a go for 12 weeks and see how I go.
    The transition to calorie counting will be my challenge again.
    Thanks Firefly for your positiveness.

    You aren't the only one that gained back weight. The statistics are staggering. Over 80% of people who lose weight gain it back within five year, no matter how they lost the weight. I am one of the 80% . Lost over 1/2 of my body weight using MFP in 2012 through 2013, and now I am back too, before I gain anymore of the weight I lost. Maintaining the weight loss for many of us is the big problem. It is a good idea to start any program with your health care providers professional guidance. The very best of luck to you!

  • Moz2ie
    Moz2ie Posts: 17 Member
    zzzooo wrote: »
    Alatariel TF have a VLCD of 800 calories, a Rapid loss program of 1200 calories then a maintenance one.
    Snowflake I'm hardly clutching on to shakes. That sounds very dramatic...

    OK. Please come back in a year and tell us where you're at (nobody ever does--tell you something?)

    Interesting....after reading these replies to one of my rare posts there seem to be a couple of categories people fall into.
    Snowflake you are a nasty piece of work and enjoy belittling people - shame on you.
    Everyone else thank you for your kindness, insightfulness and encouraging advice. You are the reason why I come back.


  • snowflake954
    snowflake954 Posts: 8,399 Member
    zzzooo wrote: »
    zzzooo wrote: »
    Alatariel TF have a VLCD of 800 calories, a Rapid loss program of 1200 calories then a maintenance one.
    Snowflake I'm hardly clutching on to shakes. That sounds very dramatic...

    OK. Please come back in a year and tell us where you're at (nobody ever does--tell you something?)

    Interesting....after reading these replies to one of my rare posts there seem to be a couple of categories people fall into.
    Snowflake you are a nasty piece of work and enjoy belittling people - shame on you.
    Everyone else thank you for your kindness, insightfulness and encouraging advice. You are the reason why I come back.


    Whatever you think--I'll be right here in October 2018, waiting. I really want to hear how it all went. We never hear back on these things.....I'm just curious, and imagine the lurkers are too.
This discussion has been closed.