The LAWL plan has two main components. First, you see a counselor one-on-one 3 times a week to keep you on track. Secondly, the "diet" is a exchange system. You get a certain number of protein, fruit, veggie, fat, starch exchanges per day. In order to stick to this plan, you need to measure/weigh your food to make sure your portion size is correct. It's basically counting calories without all the work... LA has made up exchanges instead of counting individual caloric values for foods.
There are some foods you can buy from LA (soups, muffins, shakes), but they are optional. Also optional are the supplements and vitamins. I choose not to use them. They will try very hard (even tell you it is mandatory) to use their low-fat candy bars, but at some centers you can get around this by telling them you can't stomach them. The bars are pretty good, though, and they control my chocolate craving... so I use them.
BTW: I'm not sure I agree with "being fat is harder than any diet." Dieting is one of the hardest things I've ever had to do. It was so much more comfortable to just be fat
But that's just my experience.
Just curious
