Hi

I have just stumbled across this wonderful site and have been looking into the cambridge and lighterlife diets.

They both seem very similar to me ??? apart from the cost ??

Would welcome any advice from people already doing either diet.

Are both ok to do as a veggie ???

Thanking you in advance for any help.

xx

Welcome

I'm doing neither but I didn't want you to think you were being ignored.

I don't know if we've got anyone doing Cambridge here but we've got a few doing Lighterlife, although I'm not sure if any of them are vegetarians.

Do the LL and Cambridge diet websites mention if they are suitable for vegetarians?

I'm not doing either sorry - what is the cost of the Cambridge diet? I had a quick look at the site but couldn't see the cost quoted, I know the Lighterlife is £60 per week.

Hi im doing cambridge its 30£ per week very hard to stick to and they are veggie approved

I was wondering if it was the Cambridge Diet they featured on The Diet Doctors, this week? They showed how a woman had wrecked her health with 'a meal replacement diet' - which obviously they couldn't identify for legal reasons! Looked like Cambridge to me - did anyone else see it? Given that woman's story I'd be cautious.

As for veggie dieting - I'm a veggie and found plenty of good recipes in Rosemary Conley's books, and also Antony Worral-Thompson's and Rick Gallop's Low GI books. Also got good eating ideas from Collette Harris's PCOS Diet Book and PCOS Protection Plan.

I also found using the FitDay website useful for tracking my daily protein intake, which I aimed at around 50g per day. By tracking the nutrients in what you eat you can be sure of getting enough of every food group. There's not much advantage to meal replacement diets IMHO as they're not re-educating you for lfe, on how to eat. Also, your body needs fibre and pref lots of wholefoods - why deprive it? Costs nothing to track what you eat on FitDay or some similar site, so t's cheaper to eat real food, too.

I found that cutting the crap out of my diet like biscuits, cakes, etc I was saving enough money to afford to go organic, too!

Jennig - how long have you been on it for now and is that what you've been on when you've lost your 2lb or 12lb showing on your ticker? I'm seriously considering giving one of them a go, the only thing that's really putting me off is that I'm going away with hubby for a child-free weekend to Amsterdam in November and will definitely want to eat and drink while I'm there.

I find it hard.. it takes will power but i had great results. My counsellors son does it mond-friday.. soo its kinda cheating as he eats on weekends but he doesnt binge and still is loosing weight

i lost 10lbs my first week

Oooh I just dont know what to do for the best!!

Do I or dont I ?? I have found many reviews on both diets with 'great' results, but I am just so worried I will crash and burn with it! To go from eating too much to 3 meal replacements a day seems so difficult.

Plus would love to know all the side effects etc of going on a diet of this kind.

Wish there was a magic pill you could take and be the weight you wanted.

Wouldn't it be lovely!

I know that everyone seems to get good results from meal replacements but, like PhatPhoenix, I wonder whether they are good for you in the long term. I heard about a hospital where they were putting their morbidly obese patients on an 'as much as you want skimmed milk only diet' together with mega vitamin tablets. The idea is similar to Cambridge or LL - a total exclusion diet where the subject isn't tempted because they don't have a choice in what they eat - they found that the patients lost huge amounts of weight but failed to keep it off when they went back to 'normal' eating.

I think the trick of long term weight loss is to change our perception of what 'normal eating' is.

I've just checked the Diet Doctors website and can't find any info about the woman they featured who made herself ill from meal replacement diets... Did anyone else see it? She wasn't the main person featured, it was just that little extra 5 minute story, they do. They showed the replacements and it didn't look like SlimFast so I was guessing it was Cambridge. She wrecked her health in every way imaginable, with it and I think she re-gained the weight anyway.

I think these things are marketed to appeal to that very natural impulse we all have of 'Make the weight go fast' and 'I wish I didn't even have to think about what food I eat!' I know I've had those thoughts, too! I know they get round that now by saying they support the person back into a healthy diet when the meal replacements tail off, but I can't see that as being anything more than superficial - a couple of weeks, where you could have been re-educating yourself for months. As so much of why we got overweight in the first place is behavioural - depression, or sheer habits, or both - I can't see how meal replacements could ever address the underlying issues. Also, it's all chemical stuff and messed about with - not what your body needs, to recover, exactly. I know I'm anti meal-replacements, but not because I'm feeling superior or 'I did it the hard way' - I'm guessing that way of being bored and hungry and actually your body eating at medical starvation level probably is far harder! I started at a whopping 1600 cal a day and easily lost a pound or two a week. And that's with PCOS. For a woman without insulin issues, that would translate to 4-6lb weight loss per week. If you're very overweight you'll lose fast at the start anyways. I'd rather eat real food, re-educate myself and not go spotty/have all my hair and teeth drop out! Also, why make some company rich off the back of your problem?

im not pro or against.. However i too have severe PCOS have had it for over 10 years of my life. im only 25! I have tried every diet fad excersize looking at food... Hypnosis etc.

Im just saying this WORKED for me. I did fall off of Cambridge ate a whole week of normal food. and lost a pound I just found my balence

For me the replacements work and no i didnt go and binge after. Binging isnt my issue.. My PCOS was it stopped me from loosing the weight with traditional diet and excersize. Salads werent working, soups wholesome meals etc.


So i figure id give it a go. I say try it.. Its not a long term thing for me. I want to get into a healthy BMI then im back on full foods. and yes after 5 6 days i do want some food so i dont deny myself. I know im not getting the full results but im ok with that because i refuse to mistreat my body!

so thats my side on it again its just my honest opinion. and i have NO problem making a company rich if it helps my self esteem and makes me feel good. **** Ive made food companies rich over the years LOL

Oh another thing i did excersize. A lot!

PhatPhoenix I saw it, was deffo LL or Cambridge. Diet Doctors makes me laugh I like the bit where they make healthy people binge drink or eat fast food for a week. I see it's now on most days on the new 5 Life channel.

Hi Guys,

They are both about the same - same idea as to how you loose weight, just depends on if you want the counciling (this is an integral part of LighterLife) You have to be 100% comited and not cheat to get the results you are after.

I am doing LighterLife and I am just finishing week 12 - 2 more to go to complete the 14 week foundation. I have never once felt hungry and havent found it hard to do.

All depends on what you want and how much you can afford to spend in my opinion.

Thanks for the info Jennig, appreciate that. I'm still pondering but today has caused a bit of a stir into that as I've signed up to do the Playtex Moonwalk with my sister next May and it's 26.2 miles! What I've figured is that I'd better not sign up for LL or Cambridge while I start the training as I don't want to go into training while not eating properly. I'm petrified as I'm obviously not the worlds greatest walker but we've got 7 months to prepare and we're going for our first mile tomorrow.

Katie thats a good idea.. I do work out and i work out hard (i played rugby hence my weight) so i go to the gym and bust out and dont find i feel weak at all.

but agian eating well for a race is a good thing!