My center closes on the 26th and I was given the option of LA to go. Thing is, I need the accountability of going and stepping on a scale (SIGH). After years and years of yo-yo dieting, the reason LA Weight Loss was working was because I went to the COD and got weighed each week. Anyway, I am going to go to a TOPS meeting and I know we had a couple of discussions before on this forum of folks who's centers closed and they went to TOPS. IT is only $24/year and I can do that.

I just checked out TOPS website and found their program but I want to stick to the LAWL program that I am on (Red1 w/o Lites) and was wondering if anyone knows the calorie allotment for each of the LAWL exchanges. The TOPS exchanges list the approximate calorie count for each of their exchanges and I wanted to make a comparison to see how it breaks down.

If anyone knows could you post them, or PM me?

Thanks
Roberta

LAWL doesn't work by calories and they have nothing published that I know of. To get a range-try using any calorie counter and putting in a few of the exchanges to see what it is. Like a Heavy starch (pasta) and a light one (light bread). A serving of white fish and a serving of beef. That should give you a good range.

I'm not familiar with the LA exchanges, but I would bet that the exchanges are the same. Here's why.

If LA exchanges are different than the exchanges in other exchange plans - they will be the first program I've found that does so. Now how the exchanges are broken down sometimes is different (some plans may ask you to eat more milk exchanges than another, but what constitutes a milk exchange, probably is the same).

I've looked at a LOT of exchange plans, because I collect cookbooks, and when I went on an exchange plan diet, I wanted to know if I could use the other exchange cookbooks that I have. As a result, I've been looking for those differences, and I haven't found any. In every plan I've seen so far, the exchanges themselves are the same.

The diabetic exchange diet was developed in the 1950's - and the exchanges haven't changed much at all over all the plans I've seen (except that proteins are no longer usually divided into low, medium, and high fat proteins, instead foods that were considered a high fat protein are now considered a protein and a fat exchange).

I've not found a plan yet that uses different exchanges so every exchange cookbook I've found so far is completely compatible (if LA isn't, it would be the only exception I've encountered so far).

The plans I know of (again, all of which have had the same exchange breakdowns) Weight Watchers (before 1997), Richard Simmon's, TOPS, diabetic exchange diets since 1950's, First Place (a christian weight loss program), Joanna Lund's Healthy Exchanges, Duke Diet (not the rice diet book, but the newer book), Hillbilly Housewife website....

So - if you want to look at the tops exchanges and see if they are the same as LA's, you can just use the LA's number of exchanges and use a bar replacement for their bars or figure out how many exchanges the bars would be (there are tons of exchange resources online, you should be able to figure that out).

The exchanges might likely be close to South Beach Diet-since the programs are similar.

Excellent suggestions everyone, and I thank you for them all. I am going to stay with LAWL program after looking at the TOPS exchanges. SB is close, but since I have all the materials for LAWL and it works, I am going to follow that and attend TOPS meetings. They really don't care which program you follow as long as you follow a healthy "diet". Their program is available for anyone who needs/wants it (all of this I found out at the meeting I attended this morning).

Again, thanks for the responses.
Roberta

Roberta, Thanks for posting about the TOPS meetings. I'm following the Red plan w/o lites and my center closed down awhile ago. I'm doing ok on my own (14 days so far) but it's good to know about TOPS as option if I start to need more accountablility.

The annual dues for the TOPS meetings are $24 and I think that different clubs charge a monthly dues fee as well, they all seem to be different. I would love your feedback if you go to a meeting.

Know what you mean about needing accountablility.