Shake diets

[guitarpete247]

GF and I started Jan 2nd on one of those shake diets, the Cambridge. When we got weighed last Sun day we have both lost 2 st 3 lbs. We started on 3 shakes for her and 4 for me (each about 140 cals) and minimum exercise. We have now moved up to step 2 which is 810 cals a day which includes an evening meal and I am doing some cycling about 10 - 15 miles but trying not to push too hard. At this stage we are still in ketosis so not feeling hungry on the reduced calorie intake.
On Sunday we will be moving up to step 3 which is 1000 cals and introduces carbs and fruit. This takes us out of ketosis so the 6 weeks we have done so far, hopefully, will have shrunk our stomachs so we won't want big portions again.
If I can get down to 12.5 st by May, which at expected rate seems likely, I'll be well chuffed as I'll have dropped from 16 st 2 lbs. So just short of 4 stone and down to BMI of 25 from 31.

I've also not had any alcohol in these 6 weeks either which I never thought I could do.

 

[youngoldbloke]

How tall are you? At 14 stone, you'd have to be under 5ft 3 to be classed as "obese" (rather than merely "overweight") on the BMI scale.

d.

Actually....... 5ft 3 x 14 stone = BMI 34.73 == seriously obese (NHS Choices BMI tool)

 

[MacB]

I find cutting out cheese, and also alcohol (Sunday eve - Friday lunchtime) works for me.

But I also find it really hard to get the eating balance right during the day when weight watching/dieting, so as to be able to ride home comfortably in the evening, especially once the commuting mileage in a week reaches over 100km.

I found that bit hard as well, I ended up having a bowl of cereal and a banana 20 mins before I left work, though that was for 20 miles then. Without that I just steadily flagged and became more miserable in the second half of the ride home. Whereas I had no trouble riding to work in the morning and having breakfast after I arrived.

 

[T.M.H.N.E.T]

GF and I started Jan 2nd on one of those shake diets, the Cambridge. When we got weighed last Sun day we have both lost 2 st 3 lbs. We started on 3 shakes for her and 4 for me (each about 140 cals) and minimum exercise. We have now moved up to step 2 which is 810 cals a day which includes an evening meal and I am doing some cycling about 10 - 15 miles but trying not to push too hard. At this stage we are still in ketosis so not feeling hungry on the reduced calorie intake.
On Sunday we will be moving up to step 3 which is 1000 cals and introduces carbs and fruit. This takes us out of ketosis so the 6 weeks we have done so far, hopefully, will have shrunk our stomachs so we won't want big portions again.
If I can get down to 12.5 st by May, which at expected rate seems likely, I'll be well chuffed as I'll have dropped from 16 st 2 lbs. So just short of 4 stone and down to BMI of 25 from 31.

I've also not had any alcohol in these 6 weeks either which I never thought I could do.

What the hell? A 5 month old baby consumes around 750cals per day. Much more than you!

You really are going to do more harm than good. 31lbs is 4-5 months(if not more) worth of loss if you're doing it sensibly. Not 6 weeks. The ignorance to food and dieting is astounding.......

 

[smutchin]

Actually....... 5ft 3 x 14 stone = BMI 34.73 == seriously obese (NHS Choices BMI tool)

Interesting. I worked it out using a different online BMI calculator - an American one, as it happens. It gave 14st and 5ft 3in as 29.8, with the cutoff for "obese" as 29.9. I wonder, do they use a different scale over there or was it a duff website? Edit: Doh! Just realised the error was in my calculation. Being an American site, it asked for weight in pounds, not stone. I entered 168, which any fule kno is 12st, not 14...

Now I think about it, though, your figures make more sense - you'd have to be pretty round to weigh 14st if you're just 5ft 3 tall.

d.

 

[Riverman]

Sorry having a terrible day today at work, had a really bad nights sleep.

I need to apologise as I generalised a bit. I started off on a branded shake diet and did this for two months. I was lucky to purchase this for £5 a week but wasn't able to get more than 9 weeks supply, and wasn't willing to pay the £25/week RRP of the shakes. This was the period of greatest weight loss.

I stopped the diet at the beginning of December, only to start again mid January having gone a bit overboard on chocolate and beer over Christmas and New Year. This time I decided to buy two tubs of Sci-Max diet shakes as they're a lot cheaper. I initially thought this was very similar to the branded diet I was on but it turns out Sci-Max shakes don't have the same balance of vitamins.

Lastly, I also take a drug every day that is known to cause weight gain so it's definitely been a success.

As for whether I found it easier to do exercise whilst using fat supplies. I think there is some truth in this, especially during the early stages of the diet.

I think you're all absolutely right about the effects of cutting out alcohol, that in itself should be enough to shift a few pounds in most active people. I think it was the absence of alcohol + replacing breakfast with a shake that has had the greatest impact.

It's very weird to think that I've only had about three normal breakfasts since October. They were veggi fry ups though lol.

PS: Nothing can beat celery! Especially combined with healthy dips. There's no better snacking food out there imo in terms of fullness, perhaps not flavourwise though but that's where the dips come in.

 

[smutchin]

I managed the 3 pounds a week loss without changing what I eat, so I suppose I chose to lose the beer rather than the food! This time round, I'll slightly reduce my food intake and reduce the beer intake by about 75%, which I think is a better compromise.

To be fair, I do drink a bit less than I used to, so it probably has contributed to my weight loss to some degree, but I couldn't cut it out altogether, and I've still had the odd pub session running to, ahem, several pints, and those occasional lunches at my parents' usually involve at least half a bottle of wine.

I've not changed what I eat either, I've just become a lot more careful about the overall quantity I eat (keeping a food diary has been very helpful). That combined with an increase in my levels of exercise (ie cycling) has been the main driving force in my weight loss.

Maybe shake-based diets are fine for some people, but I enjoy food too much. Eating isn't just about fuel - I enjoy cooking, I enjoy good food. The idea of making the act of eating some kind of purgatory is enough to put me off diet shakes. Aside from anything else, they look so very unappetising.

It's not just shakes though - I'm suspicious of diet products generally. I caught a colleague of mine making himself a cup of strange-looking herbal tea recently. I didn't know that's what it was and he was very coy about it, so I looked it up on the net and it turned out to be some kind of Chinese snake oil that's apparently scientifically proven to help you lose weight. I SHOULD FLIPPING WELL HOPE SO AT £80 FOR A MONTH'S SUPPLY!

d.

 

[smutchin]

Sorry having a terrible day today at work, had a really bad nights sleep.

Get a nice pie and a pint down yourself. That'll see you right.

d.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

I found that bit hard as well, I ended up having a bowl of cereal and a banana 20 mins before I left work, though that was for 20 miles then. Without that I just steadily flagged and became more miserable in the second half of the ride home. Whereas I had no trouble riding to work in the morning and having breakfast after I arrived.

Last night was a typical experience. Stupidly skipped breakfast y'day morning. 23km in 59 mins on way in. Easy. No worries. Muesli bar to break my fast. Chicken breast sandwich at 12:00 and an apple, meetings all afternoon, too much caffiene therein, two jaffa cakes, probably not enough hydration during the day, leave just after six. Jelly legs and hollow feeling after 10 km (approaching the 85km mark for the week), lead/dead legs for the sawtooth climbs at 20km, journey home took 1:10ish and it is usually faster then on the way in!

Trained it today. Back on bike tomorrow and Friday. Friday going home is usually the worst, towel, trousers and laptop all in the panniers for the weekend.

 

[MacB]

Last night was a typical experience. Stupidly skipped breakfast y'day morning. 23km in 59 mins on way in. Easy. No worries. Muesli bar to break my fast. Chicken breast sandwich at 12:00 and an apple, meetings all afternoon, too much caffiene therein, two jaffa cakes, probably not enough hydration during the day, leave just after six. Jelly legs and hollow feeling after 10 km (approaching the 85km mark for the week), lead/dead legs for the sawtooth climbs at 20km, journey home took 1:10ish and it is usually faster then on the way in!

Trained it today. Back on bike tomorrow and Friday. Friday going home is usually the worst, towel, trousers and laptop all in the panniers for the weekend.

Well I never ate before leaving in the morning but on arrival I had fruit and bowl of cereal or porridge. Then some fruit mid morning, a bigger lunch than you indicate. But Jane was great she was deliberately making more allowing me to take a full meal ready for the microwave each day....way better than a sandwich fix. Then there was more fruit/nuts/cake mid afternoon and finally the bowl of cereal and a banana before heading home. I'd have a full meal in the evening as well and maybe milk/chocolate milk straight after the ride.

I was still losing weight at a good rate, however if I dropped below the above intake, when I was commuting every day, it saw me fading daily and as the week progressed. Weekends the same as you though, whatever I wanted Friday night to Sunday lunchtime. I even had the energy for night and day rides at the weekend as well. I'm certain that wouldn't have been possible, on top of 200 commuting miles, if I hadn't eaten enough.

 

[guitarpete247]

What the hell? A 5 month old baby consumes around 750cals per day. Much more than you!

You really are going to do more harm than good. 31lbs is 4-5 months(if not more) worth of loss if you're doing it sensibly. Not 6 weeks. The ignorance to food and dieting is astounding.......

You need to read up on the Cambridge weight plan before comments like these. The diet has been used for over 40 years and is both successful and healthy. Look at the about us section for some history of the plan

 

[T.M.H.N.E.T]

You need to read up on the Cambridge weight plan before comments like these. The diet has been used for over 40 years and is both successful and healthy. Look at the about us section for some history of the plan

Silly me,I forgot that 560 calories via LIQUID per day is a perfectly healthy,sustainable diet for an adult male.

Millions of people around the world have successfully lost weight and kept it off with Cambridge since 1984, why not join them?

40 years?

Your body is yours at the end of the day.

 

[Riverman]

I just can't believe how they get away with such high prices.£72 a week for some sachets of powder?

From around
£2.00 per meal*

Cambridge has a plan as individual as you.
Please contact your local Cambridge Consultant to find out more details.

BrandWeekly Price
Cambridge Weight Plan £42.00 Information
LighterLife £72.00 Information
Weight Watchers £54.29 Information
Slimming World £53.25 Information
Slim-Fast £52.50 Information
Conventional Eating £48.50 Information
*Prices may vary. On our Sole Source programme you can expect to have three or four meals a day depending on gender and height. These meals will be made up entirely of Cambridge products. Please click here to find out more about our product range. Please contact your local Cambridge Consultant for more details.

 

[guitarpete247]

You have to remember that those prices are for your weekly shop. When we started we were on 7 products per day. GF 3 me 4. That comes to £13.30 a day and £93.10 for the week for the 2 of us. That sounds a lot but we didn't have to buy anything else. No veg, bread, milk, eggs, meat or anything. The shakes, soups, porridges contain all the vitamins and minerals you need. As you go up the steps you reduce the number of products you have so your cost to Cambridge goes down.

We used to spend over £100 per week on our weekly shop then extra through the week so £93.10 is a saving.

 

[youngoldbloke]

Two of us, weekly food bill around £40. Not dieting, not overweight. Maybe we just eat less?