What do people think of meal replacement diets such as Lighter Life? They claim to be low enough in carbs to be suitable for diabetics. I was thinking it could be a short term answer to drop a few stone quickly. I read that the NHS are running trials in some areas and there is good evidence they can be useful for getting diabetes into remission. Just wondered if anyone has experience of this - good or bad.
Meal Replacement Diets
- Thread starter Suffolklad
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Greetings from Ixworth @Suffolklad ! My wife blames Lighter Life for causing gallstones, which have made a LCHF diet not advisable for her. I can't prove this, but maybe exercise caution. It causes you to go into Ketosis, but then so does the LCHF diet, which works for so many on this Forum.
Good luck!
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Hi @Suffolklad and welcome
Personally I don’t think I’d be able to stick to one of those diets - they’re low in carbs only because they’re very low in calories and that’d leave me hungry, which in turn would make it a constant battle with willpower.
That may be less of an issue for you, in which case, yes, you may shed some weight quickly. However I’d urge you to weigh up the following first:
1) The single most important thing with type 2 is managing your blood glucose. Getting that in check wins over weight loss every time.
2) There’s no ‘quick fix’ for type 2. You’ll need to find a way of eating that you can sustain for life and which keeps your blood glucose within range. If you go down the ‘crash diet’ route, you’ll need to give careful thought to what comes next. That’ll likely be a low carb way of eating. I’d suggest starting with that, getting your blood glucose under control and learning which foods are ‘safe’ for you would be far more sustainable. And weight loss very often follows, sometimes rapidly.
3) Eating, fresh, ‘real’ low carb foods would be far more satiating and easier to sustain than pretty processed, meal replacements. Likely a lot more cost effective too.
Personally I don’t think I’d be able to stick to one of those diets - they’re low in carbs only because they’re very low in calories and that’d leave me hungry, which in turn would make it a constant battle with willpower.
That may be less of an issue for you, in which case, yes, you may shed some weight quickly. However I’d urge you to weigh up the following first:
1) The single most important thing with type 2 is managing your blood glucose. Getting that in check wins over weight loss every time.
2) There’s no ‘quick fix’ for type 2. You’ll need to find a way of eating that you can sustain for life and which keeps your blood glucose within range. If you go down the ‘crash diet’ route, you’ll need to give careful thought to what comes next. That’ll likely be a low carb way of eating. I’d suggest starting with that, getting your blood glucose under control and learning which foods are ‘safe’ for you would be far more sustainable. And weight loss very often follows, sometimes rapidly.
3) Eating, fresh, ‘real’ low carb foods would be far more satiating and easier to sustain than pretty processed, meal replacements. Likely a lot more cost effective too.
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Welcome to the forum.
Personally, I have avoided anything like this. Someone is selling something. The NHS can't bring itself to admit that it has got "healthy eating" advice terribly wrong as far as T2 diabetes and carbohydrates is concerned. Low calorie approaches are much less threatening for them. Thing is, low calorie diets never worked in the medium or long-term for me. Low carb has worked.
The great benefit of low carb is that in over two years I have never been hungry, even after 24 hour fasts. I have no idea whatsoever how many calories I take in, I suspect it's quite a lot. I would guess that most of my daily calories come from fat. However, my BG is stable in the low normal range and I continue to lose weight. FWIW (not much), my total serum cholesterol is falling as well.
Oldvatr
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In one diabetes study (Newcastle Diet) they used this type of nutrition and found that a weight loss of 15kg or more in 8 weeks was associated with diabetes remission. But follow up on the trial showed that eating a normal diet after the VLC diet bought back both the weight and the diabetes for many of the 'responders'. They recommend that a starting BMI should be around 40 (obese)ir more to ensure you do not get underweight. The time limit of 8 weeks can be extended , but it is not advised unless under medical supervision. It is a short sharp shock and like most vlc diets it tends to end up with a revolving door. Many find they have to keep repeating the treatment, so I would not consider it sustainable in the long term.
I have been using the Low Carb approach instead for 8 years solid now, and my sugar and weight are quite well controlled on that diet.
The warning on gallstones is valid. Any ultra low fat diet can lead to gallstone problems because normally our bodies rely on having a reasonable flow of fat and hence bile to lubricate them an help remove them painlessly. Stop the bile, and they stick and cause pain. The converse is true too, a high fat diet such as LCHF can cause gallstones already in the gall bladder at the start of the diet to shift, and thus cause discomfort on their way out. Large ones that have built up over the years can be too big for the bile duct, and cause a log jam. Gall stones is a trial for us whatever, but low fat diet seems to be worse.
Edit to add. I think this has been my problem for the past couple of days - discomfort near the gall bladder position that was noticeable but not painful. Gone now, so presumably all is returning to normal.
I have been using the Low Carb approach instead for 8 years solid now, and my sugar and weight are quite well controlled on that diet.
The warning on gallstones is valid. Any ultra low fat diet can lead to gallstone problems because normally our bodies rely on having a reasonable flow of fat and hence bile to lubricate them an help remove them painlessly. Stop the bile, and they stick and cause pain. The converse is true too, a high fat diet such as LCHF can cause gallstones already in the gall bladder at the start of the diet to shift, and thus cause discomfort on their way out. Large ones that have built up over the years can be too big for the bile duct, and cause a log jam. Gall stones is a trial for us whatever, but low fat diet seems to be worse.
Edit to add. I think this has been my problem for the past couple of days - discomfort near the gall bladder position that was noticeable but not painful. Gone now, so presumably all is returning to normal.
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Hello and welcome,
When I was quite newly diagnoses I tried a meal replacement company and although I'm in Australia I wouldn't recommend it.
So When I started I decided that the first thing to tackle was the blood glucose levels. I went really low carb and my levels came down along with some weight. I have got slack recently and enjoyed a little (ok a lot) of low carb treats and the weight and the levels have come back up a bit- still ahead of where I started. So my suggestions is to try low carb for a couple of weeks and see what happens. The thing I found about it is that you eat enough to be satisfied rather than feeling hungry. So things like eggs, meat, chicken, fish, cheese, cream- these are all naturally low carb. So some meals like bacon and eggs (no bread) crispy skin salmon (yummy) cream in coffee rather than milk, full fat yoghurt (with a couple of strawberries maybe)
Anyway the point I was trying rather hamfistidly to make was that there are some really easy meals you can have that are low carb. I agree with @Goonergal that you need to find a way of eating that you can sustain.
I have tried low calorie diets but as soon as I ate anywhere near a 'normal' level the weight came back bringing friends. So I have found low carbs works for me and is sustainable.
Good luck and welcome
When I was quite newly diagnoses I tried a meal replacement company and although I'm in Australia I wouldn't recommend it.
So When I started I decided that the first thing to tackle was the blood glucose levels. I went really low carb and my levels came down along with some weight. I have got slack recently and enjoyed a little (ok a lot) of low carb treats and the weight and the levels have come back up a bit- still ahead of where I started. So my suggestions is to try low carb for a couple of weeks and see what happens. The thing I found about it is that you eat enough to be satisfied rather than feeling hungry. So things like eggs, meat, chicken, fish, cheese, cream- these are all naturally low carb. So some meals like bacon and eggs (no bread) crispy skin salmon (yummy) cream in coffee rather than milk, full fat yoghurt (with a couple of strawberries maybe)
Anyway the point I was trying rather hamfistidly to make was that there are some really easy meals you can have that are low carb. I agree with @Goonergal that you need to find a way of eating that you can sustain.
I have tried low calorie diets but as soon as I ate anywhere near a 'normal' level the weight came back bringing friends. So I have found low carbs works for me and is sustainable.
Good luck and welcome
I would just go with a low-carb diet based on your own selected ingredients. Brand-based diets will normally cost more and not add anything you can't do yourself. Lighter Life are plant-based foods which is OK if you lean towards that way. They still stress Calories rather than Carbs in their ingredients.
