Hi guys, I was wondering the same thing as the OP - I haven't ever tried Exante and similar, but since joining here I have checked out their website to see what it's all about. So my question is, in your experience why is it better than a standard calorie controlled diet? The shakes have 200 cal but it seems to me that I could have my regular breakfast for the same number of cals and it would be more nutritious?? Interested to hear your thoughts!
Whats made people start vlcd
- Thread starter MsJMC
- Start date
Val123
Silver Member
It's very scientific how it all works, but basically the vcld mealpacks are high protein and low carbohydrate, which puts you into ketosis after 2 or 3 days, so you're fat burning constantly. "After about 48 hours the brain starts burning ketones in order to more directly use the energy from the fat stores that are being depended upon, and to reserve the glucose only for its absolute needs, thus avoiding the depletion of the body's protein store in the muscles"
It's all to do with how your body processes glucose and glycogen and fat and water cells. All I know is that if you stick to it 100% the weight drops off much quicker than any other 'normal' method of dieting.
If you eat a lot of carbs (even if you're counting calories, if most of them are made up of carbohydrate, the body wlil convert the carbs to glucose which is used first as energy, so if there's a lot of carbs, the body will always use that as the first port of call for energy and can sometimes never need to start converting the fat. Ketosis means that your metabolism goes into fat burning mode. The lack of carbs means that the body targets the fat stores as its first port of call.
Calorie counting does work, but low carb works quicker.
Another benefit is that once the body is in ketosis you don't feel hungry at all which is why the diet is do-able. I don't think anyone could stick to a vcld if they were hungry.
Also, a lot of people get into a binge/dieting cycle over the years because of a sort of 'addiction' to food. VCLD can help break that addiction. By going on a total food replacement diet, you don't have to think about your favourite foods, buying, preparing or eating them, you just open your packs each day and get on with it. Once you get to maintenance stage and different food groups are reintroduced, for many people the cycle has been broken and they are re-educated about food and don't have the same urges.
Probably not a very good explanation, but I couldn't find a decent link to explain it to you more.
Val x
It's all to do with how your body processes glucose and glycogen and fat and water cells. All I know is that if you stick to it 100% the weight drops off much quicker than any other 'normal' method of dieting.
If you eat a lot of carbs (even if you're counting calories, if most of them are made up of carbohydrate, the body wlil convert the carbs to glucose which is used first as energy, so if there's a lot of carbs, the body will always use that as the first port of call for energy and can sometimes never need to start converting the fat. Ketosis means that your metabolism goes into fat burning mode. The lack of carbs means that the body targets the fat stores as its first port of call.
Calorie counting does work, but low carb works quicker.
Another benefit is that once the body is in ketosis you don't feel hungry at all which is why the diet is do-able. I don't think anyone could stick to a vcld if they were hungry.
Also, a lot of people get into a binge/dieting cycle over the years because of a sort of 'addiction' to food. VCLD can help break that addiction. By going on a total food replacement diet, you don't have to think about your favourite foods, buying, preparing or eating them, you just open your packs each day and get on with it. Once you get to maintenance stage and different food groups are reintroduced, for many people the cycle has been broken and they are re-educated about food and don't have the same urges.
Probably not a very good explanation, but I couldn't find a decent link to explain it to you more.
Val x
Last edited:
Wow thanks Val for your detailed reply! The psychological aspect of it makes a lot of sense actually - I definitely know what you mean about the binge/diet cycle 
and I can see how it would be easier to give up regular food completely than just restrict. Hmm maybe I will give it a go! So if I'm just having 3 exante shakes a day and nothing else that would be about £7 a day which is a bit pricey but worth it to see results! Thanks again
and I can see how it would be easier to give up regular food completely than just restrict. Hmm maybe I will give it a go! So if I'm just having 3 exante shakes a day and nothing else that would be about £7 a day which is a bit pricey but worth it to see results! Thanks again
Val123
Silver Member
Ibb why don't you try All About W8. That's what I'm doing. On that one you actually have 4 meals a day, plus a snack, plus half a pint of skimmed milk for your teas and coffees which is essential for me, cos I just cant stand them black.
Also, it's not just all shakes and soups - some of the packs make up food like spagbol, chilli, macaroni cheese and they taste delicious - and only have the same calorific and nutritional values as the shakes/soups. I just cant get my head round having a liquid meal, I've got to chew lol.
It sounds as though it's about the same price as Exante. £49 for 28 packs which is £7 a day, but for 4 meals a day, not 3. There are consultant mentors where you can go for support and weigh ins etc., but i just joined on line and get all the support I need from their on line mentors if I need it. Plus minimins is just fantastic and you will get all the support you need on here regardless which plan you decide to follow.
You could also have a look on the web at Avidlite, which is very similar to AAW but is a bit cheaper. You don't have to become a member of anything and can just order what you want on line - and since there are so many people on here doing vclds we can all give you any advice and support you need.
My advice would be commit for just one week - stick to it for 7 days and I can guarantee you once you see the huge weigh loss at the end of week 1 you will be hooked.
Good luck with whatever you decide to do. The most important thing is you've taken the first step in deciding to lose the weigt
Val x
Also, it's not just all shakes and soups - some of the packs make up food like spagbol, chilli, macaroni cheese and they taste delicious - and only have the same calorific and nutritional values as the shakes/soups. I just cant get my head round having a liquid meal, I've got to chew lol.
It sounds as though it's about the same price as Exante. £49 for 28 packs which is £7 a day, but for 4 meals a day, not 3. There are consultant mentors where you can go for support and weigh ins etc., but i just joined on line and get all the support I need from their on line mentors if I need it. Plus minimins is just fantastic and you will get all the support you need on here regardless which plan you decide to follow.
You could also have a look on the web at Avidlite, which is very similar to AAW but is a bit cheaper. You don't have to become a member of anything and can just order what you want on line - and since there are so many people on here doing vclds we can all give you any advice and support you need.
My advice would be commit for just one week - stick to it for 7 days and I can guarantee you once you see the huge weigh loss at the end of week 1 you will be hooked.
Good luck with whatever you decide to do. The most important thing is you've taken the first step in deciding to lose the weigt
Val x
lass321
Gold Member
I'm doing a mixture between Dietimeal (Avidlite) and AAW8 and it's ok. Meals nicer on DM and soups and shakes nicer on AAW8. Though I seem to be a weirdo and although I'm in ketosis I still feel hungry. I was hungry for 4 months last time, 2 and a half weeks in this time and still hungry. However, I just keep telling myself that until I lose some weight it's worth it. If I give in and eat, at some point in the day I'll be hungry anyway so I just get on with some job I have to do. Also I do add a meal week every 4th week so that week I know I will have real food so it makes it bearable. Having said that I have never met anyone else on a vlcd who has felt hungry after the first few days!
MsJMC
Strong women stay slim
hi Helen , well the trousers told you its working !
Postive thats the right mind , mind over matter .
With going to friends you did well because your friends stuck by you , and not tried to lead you into temptation .
that really helps having friends who understand .
Well done
Postive thats the right mind , mind over matter .
With going to friends you did well because your friends stuck by you , and not tried to lead you into temptation .
that really helps having friends who understand .
Well done
lass321
Gold Member
starry_eyed_girl
Member
Hi all,
I'm brand new to minimims, not so new to dieting
All I do is think about, and eat food, so while looking up vlcd info I came across this site, I'm just gonna order a weeks worth of packs, but wanted some opinion as to which plan is better? I have 7+ to lose, but reading some of the threads on here has given me the boot up the bum I need to do something about it!!
Thanks in advance,
Janette x
Sent from my iPhone using MiniMins
I'm brand new to minimims, not so new to dieting
All I do is think about, and eat food, so while looking up vlcd info I came across this site, I'm just gonna order a weeks worth of packs, but wanted some opinion as to which plan is better? I have 7+ to lose, but reading some of the threads on here has given me the boot up the bum I need to do something about it!!
Thanks in advance,
Janette x
Sent from my iPhone using MiniMins
Val123
Silver Member
I'd recommend All About W8. That's what I'm doing and have lost 23lbs in 5 weeks. You get lots to eat - 4 mealpaks and a snack, plus add a meal every day in your fourth week. It's not really classed as a VLCD but a LCD as you have around 750 calories a day, as opposed to some of the other plans which only give you around 500 in 3 meals a day.
Also, you can have half a pint of semi skimmed milk for your teas and coffees which makes a big difference for me.
I hope you find a plan that suits you. I want to lose 5 stones all together, and, after only 35 days of the plan I am only 5 pounds away from the first two stone off. Can't recommend AAW highly enough.
Val x
Also, you can have half a pint of semi skimmed milk for your teas and coffees which makes a big difference for me.
I hope you find a plan that suits you. I want to lose 5 stones all together, and, after only 35 days of the plan I am only 5 pounds away from the first two stone off. Can't recommend AAW highly enough.
Val x
starry_eyed_girl
Member
Morning val
Thanks for the info and a huge WELL DONE for your weightloss so far, you must be so proud of yourself!!
Have you found it easy? I'm struggling to see how I can go from the binge-like eating I've been doing to the 3/4 small meals on these plans. I'm going to do some more research to make a final decision and order some this morning. Can't wait to start losing!!
Hope you reach your goal soon
Janette x
Sent from my iPhone using MiniMins
Thanks for the info and a huge WELL DONE for your weightloss so far, you must be so proud of yourself!!
Have you found it easy? I'm struggling to see how I can go from the binge-like eating I've been doing to the 3/4 small meals on these plans. I'm going to do some more research to make a final decision and order some this morning. Can't wait to start losing!!
Hope you reach your goal soon
Janette x
Sent from my iPhone using MiniMins
Val123
Silver Member
Hi Janette - YES, I have found it surprisingly easy. Once you get through the first 2-3 days where willpower is required, ketosis kicks in and while you are in ketosis you are just NOT hungry at all. It's very scientific how it all works but it DOES work.
Some days I struggle to eat all 4 mealpaks and double 2 of them up at night for dinner.
Good luck with whatever you decide and you will get all the support you need on here to keep you on track.
Val x
Some days I struggle to eat all 4 mealpaks and double 2 of them up at night for dinner.
Good luck with whatever you decide and you will get all the support you need on here to keep you on track.
Val x
Why am I here? There is not enough space here. Lol. Where should I begin. I have tried everything in the last three yrs. I am almost 45 and lost 85 lbs 5 yrs ago. I realize that my body has changed and I have slowed down a bit but no matter what I do I cannot lose 40 lbs. I realized 20 lbs ago that i was gaining and it just kept coming on. I work out, walk, got a personal trainer, saw a nutritionist, natrualpath, WW, diet pills, b12 shots, you name it. I am frustrated and tired and afraid I will just keep going. I even has every test ran known to man and I am as healthy as a horse. I am tired of everyone telling me that I look great and to stop worrying. Yet I am still gaining weight. So I have decided that this is it! When I lost the 85lbs and kept it off for about 2 yrs it was by eating one meal a day so that will be my maintenance phase when I am done.
Sorry for rambling on. I am just so glad I found this site. I am tired of being judged by friends and even my therapist about having a body image problem. I have always been small.....why is that so wrong to want to get my body back and not to keep gaining weight.
Thanks for listening. I look forward to losing the weight with you and celebrating our progress!
Sorry for rambling on. I am just so glad I found this site. I am tired of being judged by friends and even my therapist about having a body image problem. I have always been small.....why is that so wrong to want to get my body back and not to keep gaining weight.
Thanks for listening. I look forward to losing the weight with you and celebrating our progress!
spangles
Bouncy Castle
I was 19 st 4 when I started CD two months ago. I put on most of the weight during a bad relationship, a spell of depression and a strong dose of Binge Eating disorder... and then spent much of the next seven years trying to diet it away - but nothing worked anymore. I'd been a successful dieter in the past but now any dieting strategies sent me into a binging tailspin. A couple of years ago my doctor even said "I don't think you should try to diet any more".
But - we've been trying to have a baby for a long time and my weight meant I couldn't even have diagnostic tests on the NHS. In the end we paid to have the tests privately, and I discovered that my infertility isn't weight related - but that i will need IVF. but no one will give us IVF at the moment. Even if we pay privately the cutoff is a BMI of 35, and for our local NHS trust I need to be under BMI 30. They'd only give one cycle anyway - then we'll have to pay - but we can't afford to turn that one cycle down.
Anyway, at the back of my mind i knew there was this. a vlcd. About four years ago a friend of mine (an old poster here, gaijingirl) lost about seven stone on Lighter Life... which was impressive, but i really hated the idea of not eating, no restaurants, and no kamaikaze drinking sessions for six months or more. I regularly thought of a vlcd as a punishment i would hold over my head "if you fail at this diet you'll have to do a VLCD"... I really wasn't keen.
And then... well, I did fail at everything else, and my referral date came through for bariatic surgery clinic - and by now i'm 37 and the whole baby thing... well there isn't any more time. this is last chance saloonsville. and then i did some fairly thorough research, and spoke to gajingirl and some others, and decided to do CD and use the money I saved over LL to buy myself some decent 1-2-1 therapy at the end of the process. and by the time i'd done all that I was really excited. I started on 1st august (after some major blowouts, one involving gorgeous rose petal martinis) - and I'm now 2 stone down.
It's one of the best things i've ever done. definitely top 20. and the actual hunger thing is sooo easy.
But - we've been trying to have a baby for a long time and my weight meant I couldn't even have diagnostic tests on the NHS. In the end we paid to have the tests privately, and I discovered that my infertility isn't weight related - but that i will need IVF. but no one will give us IVF at the moment. Even if we pay privately the cutoff is a BMI of 35, and for our local NHS trust I need to be under BMI 30. They'd only give one cycle anyway - then we'll have to pay - but we can't afford to turn that one cycle down.
Anyway, at the back of my mind i knew there was this. a vlcd. About four years ago a friend of mine (an old poster here, gaijingirl) lost about seven stone on Lighter Life... which was impressive, but i really hated the idea of not eating, no restaurants, and no kamaikaze drinking sessions for six months or more. I regularly thought of a vlcd as a punishment i would hold over my head "if you fail at this diet you'll have to do a VLCD"... I really wasn't keen.
And then... well, I did fail at everything else, and my referral date came through for bariatic surgery clinic - and by now i'm 37 and the whole baby thing... well there isn't any more time. this is last chance saloonsville. and then i did some fairly thorough research, and spoke to gajingirl and some others, and decided to do CD and use the money I saved over LL to buy myself some decent 1-2-1 therapy at the end of the process. and by the time i'd done all that I was really excited. I started on 1st august (after some major blowouts, one involving gorgeous rose petal martinis) - and I'm now 2 stone down.
It's one of the best things i've ever done. definitely top 20. and the actual hunger thing is sooo easy.
Thats a very inspiring story! All of them are. I know I don't have as much as some do to lose but I'm hoping by stopping now and losing while I've not got too much it will mean I don't have such a hard struggle in the future. This is my second time, first time I lost 3 stone this time I need to lose 2 I will make sure I work harder to maintain this time as last time I felt happy with my weight and didnt bother with the refeed. x
Cherry-Blossom
I CAN do this
Thought I'd dig this up. Tomorrow I'm starting Slim and Save.
I have been over weight for as long as I can remember. It was never really a problem until I got really bad depression, had to leave uni, and was unemployed. Over 8 months of being by myself with no money to go out I gained about 4 stone. I went back to live with my parents where I got a job, joined Slimming World and lost almost 2 stone. However, I was then laid off and over a month of being unemployed I struggled with food. I got a new job but it meant I had no control over my food often grabbing food from garages and the like making it hard to stick to my diet. I stayed in Slimming World until September this year when I went to uni but other than the occasional good weight loss I never got my head back into it.
So at uni I started putting on more weight. Really not what I needed! So I did some soul searching and realised some major things. The main one was that I was addicted to food. At the time I was a smoker looking at quit. It's hard to quit smoking, any smoker who has tried (successfully or not) will tell you that. But as an ex-smoker you never have to touch a cigarette again. You can get the cravings but as long as you don't give in you need never have another cigarette again. With my addiction to food I couldn't do that. I will always have to eat. But as I had such a bad relationship with food I knew I somehow needed a 'reset'. A way to get rid of food for a bit so I could try and rework my brain.
I started searching the internet and came up with VLCD's. It was something I had never really considered as I will admit I thought it was a quick fix and would never work. I had also thought in the past that I would never be able to cope with a diet where I couldn't eat. But I knew that this time it would be perfect for me. If I went on a VLCD I could lose some weight and work on my relationship with food.
I came up with a plan. I decided to do the VLCD (whilst doing weights to stop loose skin) and once I was near my target I would enter food from the Atkins diet. Once I was fully on food I would go back to Slimming World for those last few pounds and weight maintenance.
So, tomorrow is d-day. I actually can't wait to start.
I have been over weight for as long as I can remember. It was never really a problem until I got really bad depression, had to leave uni, and was unemployed. Over 8 months of being by myself with no money to go out I gained about 4 stone. I went back to live with my parents where I got a job, joined Slimming World and lost almost 2 stone. However, I was then laid off and over a month of being unemployed I struggled with food. I got a new job but it meant I had no control over my food often grabbing food from garages and the like making it hard to stick to my diet. I stayed in Slimming World until September this year when I went to uni but other than the occasional good weight loss I never got my head back into it.
So at uni I started putting on more weight. Really not what I needed! So I did some soul searching and realised some major things. The main one was that I was addicted to food. At the time I was a smoker looking at quit. It's hard to quit smoking, any smoker who has tried (successfully or not) will tell you that. But as an ex-smoker you never have to touch a cigarette again. You can get the cravings but as long as you don't give in you need never have another cigarette again. With my addiction to food I couldn't do that. I will always have to eat. But as I had such a bad relationship with food I knew I somehow needed a 'reset'. A way to get rid of food for a bit so I could try and rework my brain.
I started searching the internet and came up with VLCD's. It was something I had never really considered as I will admit I thought it was a quick fix and would never work. I had also thought in the past that I would never be able to cope with a diet where I couldn't eat. But I knew that this time it would be perfect for me. If I went on a VLCD I could lose some weight and work on my relationship with food.
I came up with a plan. I decided to do the VLCD (whilst doing weights to stop loose skin) and once I was near my target I would enter food from the Atkins diet. Once I was fully on food I would go back to Slimming World for those last few pounds and weight maintenance.
So, tomorrow is d-day. I actually can't wait to start.
For me, it's a way of helping myself break the bingeing habit. The more the psychologist poked at it, the worst I got, until I was having one every day. I decided I wanted my control back and that a VLCD with meal replacements would be a way of helping me get out of the normal situations.
Similar threads
