Lighter life

meerkat70
meerkat70 Posts: 4,605 Member
edited October 1 in Health and Weight Loss
A friend has started using this programme. She's a former WW buddy, and has been frustrated over the years with yoyo losses and gains. I understand her frustration, but as far as I can tell this programme is suggesting she eat no more than 500 calories a day. She recently posted on her facebook page about making a positive choice between eating a meal and sharing some champagne with a friend (she chose the champagne) at dinner time. I mean, what kind of diet programme makes you choose between eating and drinking like that? On what kind of diet programme would you have to starve to enjoy a glass of wine???

I can't see how this could possibly be a safe eating programme, and I'm concerned it seems to me to be a training ground for eating disorders.

I wondered if anyone had any solid information on this (not their own promotional material)? I don't want to rain on her parade, but I am really worried.

Replies

  • SarahWrittenThin
    SarahWrittenThin Posts: 595 Member
    ummm I'm pretty sure MFP doesn't reccomend anything under 1200 calroies a day. So your friend is mistaken... or perhaps she has 500 for her dinner and decided to drink it away instead?
  • lazyspice
    lazyspice Posts: 8,258 Member
    A friend of mine did this for a few months and she lost loads of weight - but her hair started falling out, her skin was a mess, she had no energy whatsoever and she regained the weight as fast as she lost it. She felt ill ALL of the time. We were so worried about her while she was doing this, we tried everything we could to talk her out of it but she wouldn't listen to us. She felt like it gave her control but it did NOTHING to address her issues with food or teach her anything about nutrition and making healthier choices.
  • meerkat70
    meerkat70 Posts: 4,605 Member
    No, as I said, she's not on MFP, she's using the Lighter Life Programme. I'm asking for information about that.
  • jellybaby84
    jellybaby84 Posts: 583 Member
    Lighter Life is a VLC diet. I didn't know it was as low as 500 but I can believe it.

    However, it is only accessible to the significantly overweight and is carefully medically supervised afaik.

    I think it's supposed to be more of a kickstart than anything maybe?
  • meerkat70
    meerkat70 Posts: 4,605 Member
    Thanks Lazyspice - that sounds pretty much exactly like my friend. She sounds a teensy bit brainwashed by the whole thing - lots of talk about 'control', and she's really focused on speedy loss.

    Their promotional material includes a whole lot of 'conference papers' referencing them as if they were peer reviewed journals. As if that were 'solid' research.
  • lazyspice
    lazyspice Posts: 8,258 Member
    Thanks Lazyspice - that sounds pretty much exactly like my friend. She sounds a teensy bit brainwashed by the whole thing - lots of talk about 'control', and she's really focused on speedy loss.

    Their promotional material includes a whole lot of 'conference papers' referencing them as if they were peer reviewed journals. As if that were 'solid' research.

    We had a look at their forum when she started, it scared the hell out of us the way so many people thought this was a safe way to lose weight!
  • inaweofhim
    inaweofhim Posts: 9 Member
    I was on lighterlife about 3 years ago. It is very low calorie and live on only the food they give you ie when you go to the weekly meeting you are supplied with your weeks food - either shakes, soups or bars. At the beginning of each meeting you had to wee on a stick to see if your body was in Ketosis - you had to check each others stick to make sure you were in Ketosis too. I lost 3lbs per week which was a very small loss compared to others who were losing 9-10lbs per week. I lost about a stone and then left after I heard about a young woman who'd lost an enormous amount of weight during a short space of time doing LL and she had a heart attack. Put me off a bit, plus the diet was so severe and I was so tired and hungry all the time - it was like being tortured!

    You had to be a minimum of 3 stone overweight to get on the diet and have a medical form signed by your GP - BUT you are supposed to have a 'medical' - not true because I just took a form to the GP who didn't give me a medical - she just ticked a load of boxes and gave it back to me. Also, they say you are 'monitored' by your GP throughout the diet - well all that consisted of was a blood pressure check every 4 weeks which you could do anywhere.

    The counselling session during the weekly meeting was good - supportive and safe environment where you could go indepth and talk about your food issues.

    I put the stone back on quickly and some more when I stopped the diet.

    Things may have changed since I was on LL as it was 3 years ago but this is my experience of the die.

    Overall, would not recommend. I've since lost 102lbs on Slimming World in 17 months, have been able to eat normal food and have felt very well.
  • Lanfear
    Lanfear Posts: 524
    Just to add - I looked at Lighter Life a couple of years ago. There IS a version aimed at those whose BMI is between 25-30 - this is similar to slimfast where you have a shake for breakfast and lunch and then a "balanced" meal - so you have Lighter Life, for those with a BMI of 30+ and then Lighter Life Lite for the 25-30 range. But for me the £50-60-odd cost per WEEK was just mad.

    I do however know 2 people who have done LL - one friend lost about 3 stone (she's very short so BMI was high) and has kept it off - but the other one has lost/gained/lost/gained like a yoyo.

    Personally I don't see how it is a good or safe or more importantly sustainable way to lose weight and keep it off, which is the more important bit I think!
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