Hi Again,
Thanks for the encouragement everyone - I guess I'm just having a PMSey day. Feeling kinda down and not real hungry.
My center is a corportate center, not a franchise, I understand there are some differences. My counselor keeps stressing that as long as I keep on plan as I have been, if I don't meet my goal at the end of the weight loss weeks I purchased, then any additional weeks I need to get to stabilization and maintenance are on her. However, I have been following the plan to a t - no cheats - eating my lites, and weighing in three times a week. I was concerned about the probability of not being able to weigh in three times a week once school starts, but she said not to worry about it, she'd honor the guarantee even if I couldn't make it in 3 times a week all the time. Kristi, they haven't asked you for any more money for weeks yet right - is your center a coroporate center too? Maybe the franchises are a little stricter on that issue since the money for the weeks is really coming out of the owner's profits rather than the corporations. SY and Karen are your centers franchises?
As far as the plan being based on calories or food combination, I think it is both, which is where it differs from weight watchers - and is perhaps why weight watchers is a much slower process for some people. On WW, you calculate point values for everything you eat using number of calories, grams of fiber, and grams of fat. Since you are given a target number for your daily point intake, this is actually a way of controlling your calories and portion sizes, but not the types of food you eat, although in addition to counting points, you need to include 5 servings of fruit/vegetables, 2 milk products, and 6 8oz. glasses of water. There is no control over the number or portions of protein, carbohydrates, starches, or fat you take in on this plan. So you could have absolutely no protein content in your diet and as long as you stay within your point range you are on program. From what I saw when I was on the program, most people did not lose very rapidly. I, however, did very well on the program - but I ate a lot of protein, and harldy starches or fat - so I think that's why I did so much better with it. The only thing that I wasn't doing on WW that I am doing now on LAWL is minimizing my beef intake. So..... I do think that in addition to monitoring calorie intake (the portion control on LAWL does that) the food combinations (set number of proteins, vegetables, fruits, starches, dairy, and fat) on LAWL, as well as the limited and unlimited food categories contributes to the average weight loss predictions. In my center, many of the women are averaging 3 pound losses per week. One woman, in particular, has lost 60 pounds in 4 months. She generally weighs in when I do, so we have been exchanging notes. She started out with a 90 pound weight loss goal (she is about the same height, but weighs a quite a bit more than I do now, even being down 60 pounds - so I think that the more you have to lose, the faster it comes off until you start nearing your optimum weight). Anyway, those are my thoughts.
Dahlia, I too was skeptical when I started the program, and my center worked with me and initially sold me a 5 week trial program, and gave me the opportunity to convert to a full program (meaning what I spent on the 5 week program was credited to the full program at the end of 5 weeks.) I lost 11.8 pounds during the first 5 weeks, which officially ended today (the target was to lose 10 pounds in that time period - I was already at that target last week, so I converted to a full program). I doubt there is any website which posts the portions etc. for the various plans. There are quite a few plans, and the one they recommend for you is going to depend on how many pounds you want to lose and how much excercise you normally do. Even then, they may have to play with that plan, as I found out. They started me on the Gold Plan, and after one week put me on the Red Plan which has more food, and that's when I saw the weight loss start to take off. They told me that the type of excercise I was doing, as well as the amount of excercise, required more food in order to kick up the metabolism - it worked. Anyway, bottom line is, I would make an appointment for a consultation - see what they say - and maybe inquire about a 5 week trial if you are still unsure. Hope that helps - good luck.
June
