Does the Lighter Life Diet work? Is it good for you? Dietitian Juliette Kellow investigates Lighter Life's VLCD.Lighter Life Diet Report - Weight Loss Resources. By Dietitian, Juliette Kellow BSc RDUPDATE: Lighter. Life now has three plan variations, all based on the original Lighter. Life format: Lighter. John Boghos Lost 100 Pounds: 'For the First Time in My Life, I Felt Empowered to Love Myself'.
Life Total – Aimed at those with a BMI of 3. Foodpacks a day with no conventional food. Lighter. Life Lite - Aimed at those with a BMI of 2. Foodpacks a day plus one meal from a list provided by Lighter. Life. Lighter. Life for Men is simply Lighter. Life Total for men.. Plus for 2. 01. 5. Now the latest weight loss plan to lure slimmers is the Lighter Life diet – and it’s one of the most extreme plans ever. With followers losing large amounts of weight in relatively short periods of time it sounds too good to be true. But as is the case with many weight loss plans, there’s a catch. And in the case of the Lighter Life Total Programme, it’s a pretty big one – you’re not allowed to eat a single thing. Not a piece of fruit, slice of wholemeal toast, pot of fat- free yogurt or plate of vegetables! What does the Lighter Life Diet involve? Effectively, Lighter Life combines a very low calorie diet (VLCD) with counselling. Depending on the plan followed, normal food is banned or limited and instead you have four meal replacement shakes, soups, mousses or bars every day, which provide around 5. All products are made especially for Lighter Life and meet government guidelines for meal replacement products in terms of their nutrient content. They're not the same formulation as other meal replacement products such as The Cambridge Diet or Slim. Fast. Every week, you also attend group sessions with a qualified Lighter Life counsellor. The counselling is aimed at helping you understand the relationship you have with food, so you can make lasting changes to keep the weight off for good. The diet sounds extreme! Can anyone join the Lighter Life Programme? The Lighter Life Total diet is only recommended for adults who have a Body Mass Index (BMI) of more than 3. In other words, only those people who are verging on obesity and have approximately 3 stone to lose are suitable for the programme. Before joining the programme, you’ll need to have a medical with your doctor to check you don’t have any health problems that make Lighter Life Total unsuitable for you. Then once you’ve started the Programme, you’ll need to see your GP every four weeks for a check up. This is an essential part of the Programme – the National Obesity Forum suggests that very low calorie diets (VLCD) should only be used under close medical and dietetic supervision and recommends people are medically assessed before starting a VLCD and are closely monitored throughout the treatment. Like alcohol or drugs, food can be an addiction for some people. People who want to conquer a drink or drug problem need to do two things – stop drinking or using drugs and understand why they turn to these substances. In line with this way of thinking, the Lighter Life programme believes that to deal with a food problem, you need to stop eating and understand why you turn to food. This effectively means . So the Lighter Life Programme provides Foodpacks, consisting of meal replacement drinks and bars. These contain all the essential nutrients, but allow people to lose weight without them having to think about food. Effectively, the meal replacement products are designed to take away the need to make any decisions about food by removing people from situations such as shopping, cooking, mealtimes and eating out. You don’t even need to think about the Foodpacks – every week, you simply receive them from your counsellor. So how long do you use Lighter Life Total for? That depends on how much weight you have to lose. The Lighter Life Total diet involves three phases. Initially you sign up to the Foundation phase, which lasts for 1. During this time, you stick to the Foodpacks and weekly counselling sessions. During this time, you slowly return to conventional food, while cutting back on Foodpacks. There are various eating plans to choose from to suit your lifestyle. And you’re not allowed to eat anything until you’ve lost your excess weight? No, but you do need to drink 4 litres of water every day. Most people think this is because it helps to fill them up, but there other important reasons for drinking lots of water. Firstly, food usually provides a significant amount of water, so if you’re not eating it’s essential to compensate for the fluid you’d normally get from food by drinking more. Secondly, you need to produce plenty of urine to remove all the waste products caused by the rapid breakdown of fat. And finally, if there’s not enough water in your circulation you might get dizzy when you stand up suddenly due to a fall in blood pressure, which occurs as a result of rapid weight loss. What about exercise? People following the Lighter Life plans are encouraged to be more active, especially once they have lost sufficient weight to move around more easily and start feeling better both physically and emotionally. Part of the Programme provides a pedometer, exercise bands, balls and a Pilates DVD. The big question! How much weight can I expect to lose? You can expect to lose around 1 stone a month with Lighter Life, although some people claim to lose more than this, sometimes shifting as much as a stone in the first week alone! Surely there must be some side effects? Yes! Very low calorie diets (VLCDs) cause fat to be broken down rapidly, producing a by- product called ketones. These can result in tiredness, weakness, dizziness, insomnia and nausea. However, these effects should be short lived and there’s even some evidence that ketones help to suppress appetite and actually promote a feeling of wellbeing. Meanwhile, constipation, diarrhoea, dry skin, hair loss, menstrual changes and intolerance to the cold can also occur. Losing weight rapidly also means you’ll be more likely to be left with loose, saggy skin – quite simply, your skin doesn’t have time to shrink to your new body shape. Usually, the only effective treatment for this is surgery to remove the excess skin. Also according to the National Obesity Forum, there are some more serious side effects of VLCDs, including the development of gout, gallstones and cardiac disturbances. In particular, the risk of gallstones increases when people lose more than 1. So what are the pros? The counselling is a fabulous idea. Exploring eating habits, behaviour and attitudes towards food is not usually a part of most conventional weight loss methods, yet it can make the difference between success and failure – particularly when it comes to keeping the weight off for good. Meanwhile, following a VLCD and losing weight rapidly may dramatically and quickly improve the health of people who have life- threatening conditions due to their excessive weight. Having a complete . Having the opportunity to stay away from any situation that involves food, be it shopping, preparing meals or eating itself, can be an effective way to help people get in touch with true hunger and to examine the reasons why they eat. Meal replacement diets also offer a hassle- free approach to losing weight – there’s no weighing, measuring or decisions to be made about what to eat – or what not to eat. Finally, most people find it very motivating to lose such large amounts of weight in a relatively short period of time. There’s limited evidence to suggest that people are more likely to stick to their diet if they lose good amounts of weight in the initial stages. And the cons? Apart from the potential side effects, it’s not much fun! The Lighter Life approach to losing weight tends to neglect the fact that food is an enjoyable and normal part of life. Many social events involve food or drink – parties, celebrations, dinner with friends, night’s out with the girls, even birthday cake in the office – and many people may feel it’s better to turn down invitations rather than attend them and stick to water. This in itself may make some people feel socially isolated, although it’s true to say that some obese people already feel like this due to their excess weight. Family Living. Family life may also present difficulties, especially if you are responsible for shopping and preparing meals for your partner or children. And surviving on shakes and soups doesn’t exactly send out a positive message about the importance of eating a healthy, balanced diet to children or teenagers. Keeping it off? Furthermore, while the Lighter Life Programme can result in impressive weight losses, especially in the early stages, research shows that VLCDs don’t do significantly better than more conventional weight loss programmes when it comes to keeping the weight off after one to two years. In other words, you’re just as likely to achieve the same results after a year or two had you followed a more moderate calorie reduction. On the positive side, Lighter Life seems to offer plenty of support with regard to helping people maintain their new weight. Medical Supervision Needed. Meanwhile, despite the importance of medical supervision while following the Lighter Life Total Programme, some people are selling the Foodpacks on auction websites. Purchasing the meal replacement products and using them without being part of the Lighter Life Total Programme is not something that’s recommended. Expensive Diet. The Lighter Life diet is incredibly expensive. Each week’s Foodpack and counselling session costs a massive . Of course, you’ll be saving on your weekly grocery bill and won’t be having takeaways, snacks or meals out, but it still seems a large amount of money. Muscle Loss. In the past, research has shown that the amount of muscle lost during dieting is directly linked to the degree of calorie restriction. In other words, the lower the calorie intake, the more muscle is lost. However, newer research has indicated that very low calorie intakes might not affect our muscle mass as much as we previously thought. Two Meals a Day Are Ideal. By Dr. Mercola. How many meals a day is ideal? There are many answers to this question, but if you want to optimize your lifespan and decrease your risk for developing chronic degenerative diseases, the answer is becoming very clear. Other less obvious risks are biological changes that result in metabolic dysfunction, subsequent weight gain, and diminished health. In fact, a number of beneficial effects take place when you go for periods of time without eating. Valter Longo,1 director of the Longevity Institute at the University of Southern California, where he studies meal timing and calorie restriction, even three meals a day may be too much. As reported by Time Magazine: 2. They often look only at the short- term effects of increasing meal frequency. While your appetite, metabolism, and blood sugar might at first improve, your system will grow accustomed to your new eating schedule after a month or two. When that happens, your body will start expecting and craving food all day long instead of only around midday or dinnertime. More recently, I have refined my views on skipping breakfast. The key to remember is to only eat within a window of six to eight consecutive hours each day, and avoiding food for at least three hours before bedtime. As long as you restrict your eating to this window, you can choose between having breakfast and lunch, or lunch and dinner, but avoid having both breakfast and dinner. I have recently appreciated that this is another important factor that can help optimize your mitochondrial function and prevent cellular damage from occurring, which I'll review in the next segment. That said, none of this probably applies to normal weight teens or growing children. They likely need three square meals a day unless they're overweight. For kids and teens, the type of food they eat would be a primary consideration. Ideally, all of their meals would revolve around eating REAL FOOD — not processed foods, fast food, and sugary snacks. Drinking plenty of pure water and avoiding sugary beverages is another key consideration. This is due to the way your body produces energy. Many don't realize that your mitochondria are responsible for . Your cells have between 1. When you don't have insulin resistance this energy transfer works quite nicely, but when you are insulin resistant or you eat excessively, dysfunctions tend to emerge. These excess electrons leak out and wind up prematurely killing the mitochondria, and then wreak further havoc by damaging your cell membranes and contributing to DNA mutations. Simple: resolve your insulin resistance as soon as you can, and do not eat for AT LEAST three hours before you go to sleep. Personally I stop eating around 4 PM or even earlier and typically go to sleep around five to six hours later. This is one of the reasons why I now believe skipping dinner may be an even better strategy than skipping breakfast. Clearly skipping dinner is more difficult to implement from a social perspective, but it might be a superior biological strategy. Obese participants who . All participants, including the control group, received a weight management consultation on how to improve their diet and exercise. Those who ate three meals a day and drank water prior to each meal lost an average of nearly 9. Those who only pre- loaded once a day, or not at all, lost just over 1. In all, 2. 7 percent of the treatment group who pre- loaded with water lost more than five percent of their body weight, compared to just five percent of the control group. This makes logical sense, as thirst is often misinterpreted as hunger. Drinking water before settling down to eat will also make you feel fuller, so overall this strategy could result in eating less. Interestingly, research. So one reason why calorie restriction may lengthen lifespan appears to be due to the positive effect it has on gut microbiota. Earlier research has demonstrated that calorie restriction helps extend the lifespan of animals by improving insulin sensitivity and inhibiting the m. TOR pathway. This was demonstrated in a 2. Research included in that review, and other published studies, indicate that intermittent fasting can help: Limit inflammation, reduce oxidative stress, and cellular damage Improve circulating glucose Reduce blood pressure Improve metabolic efficiency and body composition, including significant reductions in body weight in obese individuals Reduce LDL and total cholesterol levels Prevent or reverse type 2 diabetes, as well as slow its progression Improve immune function,1. Improve pancreatic function Improve insulin and leptin levels and insulin/leptin sensitivity Reproduce some of the cardiovascular benefits associated with physical exercise Protect against cardiovascular disease Modulate levels of dangerous visceral fat Boost mitochondrial energy efficiency Normalize ghrelin levels, known as . Fasting can raise HGH by as much as 1,3. HGH plays an important part in health, fitness, and slowing the aging process. It's also a fat- burning hormone Lower triglyceride levels and improve other biomarkers of disease Boost production of brain- derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), stimulating the release of new brain cells and triggering brain chemicals that protect against changes associated with Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. For starters, it's a lot easier to comply with, and compliance is everything. The calorie restriction route is also extremely dependent on high quality nutrition — you want to sacrifice calories without sacrificing any important micronutrients — and this can be another hurdle for many who are unfamiliar with nutrition and what actually constitutes a healthy diet. Most people fail to appreciate that there are many intricate biochemical dynamics that occur that are unaccounted for when you just count . As pointed out by Fight Aging: 1. Thus only the mouse evolves a relatively large plasticity of life span in response to food scarcity. Ancel Keys demonstrated this in the mid- 1. Thirty- six young healthy male volunteers were placed on a 2. They also had to walk for about 4. But instead of resulting in continuous weight loss, at 2. The men became obsessed with food to the exclusion of everything else in their life, and when the calorie restriction ended, they all over- reacted. Within a few weeks, they regained all of the lost weight plus about 1. Other studies have come to similar conclusions. So starvation- type diets may not be ideal for the average person. Your body will tend to shut down various processes in order to survive. For example, by reducing thyroid function, your body will not burn as many calories. On the one hand, calorie restriction promotes beneficial biological changes that tend to extend life; on the other, there are built in mechanisms that when triggered by chronic calorie restriction can trigger other health problems. These are complex issues, and any extreme measure is likely to cause more problems than it solves. The best we can do is come up with some general guidelines that replicate ancestral patterns. In my view, daily intermittent fasting and avoiding eating for a number of hours before bedtime has many advantages over general calorie restriction and other radical diets, while providing many of the same benefits with a minimum of risk. It's important to recognize that, with few exceptions, you cannot burn body fat if you have other fuel available, and if you're supplying your body with carbohydrates every few hours, your body has no need to dive into your fat stores. When you apply intermittent fasting you not only avoid this but also will typically decrease your food costs and increase your health. If you're not insulin resistant, intermittent fasting is not as crucial, but may still be beneficial. If you're among the minority of Americans who do not struggle with insulin resistance, then my general recommendation is to simply avoid eating at least three hours before bedtime. That automatically allows you to . To that, I would add avoiding sitting, engaging in non- exercise movement throughout the day, and getting regular exercise. Exercise will not produce significant weight loss without addressing your diet, but when done in combination it can be significantly beneficial.
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