[heatherleigh]

Hi all!

I'm new here I've been trying to find a company who provides products similar to the UK's Cambridge Diet. Basically, it's a Very Low Calorie Diet total food replacement using their shakes, soups, bars, meals, and oatmeals, and the most important part is they provide 100% of your daily nutrition in just 440-555 calories (hence being VLCD!). Additionally, it is low carb so it puts you into ketosis, which helps reduce your food cravings.

The company that sells the Cambridge Diet products doesn't sell their products in the US because back in the 1980s the then-owners of Cambridge sold the rights for America. The American company can only sell their version within the US and the UK company can sell their version anywhere except America. They have no relationship with each other and their diets differ in almost every respect.

The American version of the Cambridge Diet is sketchy, as their website doesn't even list nutrition values. There's another version of the Cambridge Diet in the US called the Success Diet and I guess some of the products are close to the UK formula, but their website just doesn't seem professional. It seems more like an "As Seen On TV" website!

Anyway, here I am in the US with a diet plan I want to follow, but no where to get the products! I've been researching and I've found that Medifast seems to be the most similar, if I skip the lean and green meal. Based on the nutrition facts, their products each have 20% of the recommended daily nutrition, times 5 products per day so that would be 100%. Plus the calories of even the highest product (110cal) times 5 would be 550 calories.

So I guess here are my questions: How does Medifast taste? I know it's not going to be delicious, but I've tried Nutrisystem in the past and those were AWFUL. Are they better than those (if anyone has had both)? I can actually probably search the Medifast forum for this answer as I'm sure it's been asked before!

Here's the reason I didn't post this in the Medifast-specific forum and the main question I have: Does anyone have any other ideas for a VLCD total food replacement program in the US? (Side note: I did look into Wonderslim, but their nutrition facts left a lot to be desired regarding vitamins and minerals, whereas Medifast met my requirements of 100% daily recommendations)
Personally, I need the strict limitation that total food replacement provides where I would not be "allowed" to choose food (not even 1 meal) because where I am right now, I don't have the discipline to make healthy choices.

Thanks everyone!!!

[heatherleigh]

I've actually been reading up on WonderSlim more and I'm starting to consider it over Medifast based on the positive reviews on taste and the lower pricing before and after discounts. I originally rejected it because of lack of consistency with vitamin and mineral amounts between each product, but I can easily remedy that by taking a multi vitamin! Duh

So in essence, I'd be eating 4-5 WonderSlim products each day (majority of the time would be 5 each day, unless I have 4 products that are all 160 calories each, then I'd skip the 5th that day). Nothing more, nothing less.

Any thoughts? Specifically on the effect of WonderSlim on ketosis? I remember reading a post stating that WonderSlim doesn't put you into ketosis as much as Medifast does (if it even does at all), but with me consuming fewer products and no lean/green meal, would ketosis occur?

Thanks again!!

[Sheridan]

HI,

HMR is a hospital based program that uses 5 shakes a day for a total of 500 calories. You may have one in your area. They have a home version but it includes 2 prepackaged meals. Now you could buy the shakes and do it on your own but this is not advised as there needs to be medical supervision. My ownopinion is that you could utilize your own doctor to provide the medical supervision. The hospital program also includes educational meetings but I do not know how valuable they are.

The website for Health management resources (HMR) if yourbetterhealth.com
or at least it used to be. You cam purchase the products online or directly from the centers if you have one nearby.

I will tell you that the products are $$$ but taste good.

Good luck
Sheridan

[AnnRue]

I did the HMR decision free plan. I chose HMR primarily because it was local and with my doctor's practice. I did not need medical monitoring but I paid for it anyway because I wanted to know... for sure... what would happen if I ate very low calories. I ate about 600 to 700 per day. That alone was valuable information for life and worth the money.

First, I lost all the weight. Amazingly quickly for me. Second, I had almost no health effect -- other than to get so so so much better. My liver function improved dramatically. Same with kidneys. My blood sugar went from 90 fasting to 75 fasting. But nothing else really moved. Giving me a sense that my body is amazing at balance.

I did take a multi and a potassium supplement but that was it. The only reason I took the potassium supplement was because my shake didn't have any in it.

I hated the classes but, I have to admit that I learned things that I will use going forward.

People say it is expensive but two points (1) since you eat only their foods I found the cost of food to equal what I was spending on "normal food" -- and their food doesn't go bad... and also (2) since you lose weight fast, the expense is a lot, for a short period of time.

Also my insurance paid for a lot of the medical portion. (medical tests and visits)

Highly recommended. It was worth it for me.