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CAMBRIDGE -
The Cambridge plan sounded excellent for me - I am an overeater and I am adicted to food - taking food out of the equation seemed a perfect plan to me.
The Cambridge Plan is an Very Low Calorie diet (VLCD) that involves consuming only Cambridge products for breakfast, ... Read review
Advantages: Fast Weight Loss Disadvantages: Will Power Required
...and fast.
CAMBRIDGE -
The Cambridge plan sounded excellent for me - I am an overeater and I am adicted to food - taking food out of the equation seemed a perfect plan to me.
The Cambridge Plan is an Very Low Calorie diet (VLCD) that involves consuming only Cambridge products for breakfast, lunch and dinner. It's very similar to Lighter Life and the Plan you get from the Chemist only Cambridge has more ... ...of research - I googled Cambridge and came up with good and bad stories.
I found the official Cambridge site: http://www.cambridge-diet.com/
and found a councellor in my area - luckily there was a lovely one just a few streets away from me. I gave her a call, made an appointment to see her and we met at her house for the initial meeting. She weighed me, took measurements, checked I was overweight and by how much and ... more
I've never been a massive girl but I've never been a tiny one either.
I've always been around a size 14 and for 5"2' that's big enough for me - Weight isn't all about whose biggest and whose smallest it's about how you feel - I've always had issues with my weight and I agree perhaps its about solving the reasons why aswell as losing the weight.
I've always been one to say if you're not happy with something stop moaning about it and do something about it - I also loose motivation very quickly so I wanted a plan that showed results and fast.
CAMBRIDGE -
The Cambridge plan sounded excellent for me - I am an overeater and I am adicted to food - taking food out of the equation seemed a perfect plan to me.
The Cambridge Plan is an Very Low Calorie diet (VLCD) that involves consuming only Cambridge products for breakfast, lunch and dinner. It's very similar to Lighter Life and the Plan you get from the Chemist only Cambridge has more flavours and variety.
THE FIRST STEP -
My first step was to do a bit of research - I googled Cambridge and came up with good and bad stories.
I found the official Cambridge site: http://www.cambridge-diet.com/
and found a councellor in my area - luckily there was a lovely one just a few streets away from me. I gave her a call, made an appointment to see her and we met at her house for the initial meeting. She weighed me, took measurements, checked I was overweight and by how much and we worked out a plan.
Cambridge isn't just about the product it's about the councellor and if you have excellent concellor you'll definitely do well.
THE PLAN -
Cambridge has several steps you can follow all of which are listed on the website, some involve no food others involve a little food, after each step you build up on a maintenance programme until you finally get back to a normal healthy diet - which does incorporate excercise - the plan comes with helpful booklets to keep your motivated and to explain exactly what is happening to your body, it's meant to be a plan for life not just a quick fix. The idea is to start from basics and work up to a normal healthy lifestyle.
I started on the Sole Source plan - you have to have a certain amount to lose to start here but I was big enough to start there. Sole Source is around 500 calories per day from 3 sachets (4 if your a tall woman or if your a man). Cambridge has a lot of flavours, milkshakes, soups and bars, when I left they were bringing out more flavours still! A good councellor will stock the full range - so you'll never need to be bored.
I had made my decision - I was going to lose weight - my target was 20kgs.
This is not an easy way out or a quick fix - eating just three sachets a day is a lot of hard work - on top of that you've got to put away at least 8 glasses of water - for the first week I was hungry, going to the toilet alot with all the water and craving food badly.
FIRST WEEK OVER! After the first week I was well into Ketosis - Ketosis is the stage where your body starts to break down fat - all your glycogen has been used up and basically you start to starve - you feel engergetic all the time because your burning a lot of energy and your reserves are being used up - as you're not eating much you do start to get cold as your body diverts it's energy elsewhere - wear warm clothes and drink a lot of water to flush the ketones out of your system. If you stick to the plan and you speak to your councellor about anything that's worrying you you'll be fine.
THE WEIGHT DROPPED OFF!! I was on Cambridge for just over 2 months - after 1 months I used an add-a-meal week then went back to Sole Source then after week 8 I moved up to 720 and up the steps - I did stop losing weight when I went onto maintenance but I lost 15kg - yes 15kgs in 8 weeks.
NUTRITION: Cambridge is designed to include all the vitamins, minerals and proteins etc. you need everyday for survival and to keep you healthly - it is low in carbs and fat. The formula is designed to limit muscle wastage (as can happen on non-nutritionally designed very low calorie diets) and to maximise Fat loss.
FRIENDS: While I was doing cambridge my councellor held group sessions where I met a lot of similar ladies in the same position and we did it together - we lost weight and felt great about it - when we felt down we chatted - there are also huge web communities out there for VLCDs, you don't have to go it alone.
THE PUBLIC: It was a bit of a shock to me, my friends, my colleagues and everyone when the weight started to drop off. A lot were worried but I took out my books explained it all to them and they were fine - you know it is OK to go out to dinner with a group and only order black coffees and water all night - when you realise you're making the choice - noone is forcing you to do this - that's when you realise there's no point in cheating or justifying those little chocolates treats - you're only cheating yourself.
NOW: Now II've put on around 3kgs of that 15kg lost - but I'm now a size 12 - very happy - and planning to venture back onto Cambridge for a little while. I'd like to hit the safe weight for my height which is around 59kgs at the moment I've got around 7kgs to go. I took a break for a while - new job, moved house but it's time to hit the target. I'm not worried at all about putting it all back on because now I chose what I eat - taking food away for a while made me realise that everynow and again you can have a treat but there's nothing wrong with saying 'no'.
THE PRICE: For sachets expect to pay around £1.50-£2.00 per sachet - remember your not eating anything else - so this is actually a cheap weeks shopping. For Bars and Tetra briks (pre-mixed milkshakes) you can pay a little more. Usually bars and Tetra Briks won't be allowed until week 2 or 3!
THE TASTE: It really is a personal thing - some of the sachets are horrid to me - others really liked them. I found that I ate a lot of one sachet one week and the next week I couldn't stand it. There are plenty of flavours to find something you like - some people even do the whole thing on one flavour!!
THE BAD - I've heard a lot of horror stories on the net about these VLCDs I can't say if they are true or not - but it didn't do me any harm - I lost weight - I felt great and my hair and skin looked fab from all the water. Some people do find the sachets hard to stomach - all the vitamins at once can make some people feel nausea - but you can split the packs have half and then the other half a couple of hours later. I did get light headed at times but taking it easy and not getting up so quickly helped. On 500 calories a day I'm not surprised I was light headed - but I was fine.
THE CONCLUSION: Cambridge worked for me - it was not overly expensive - infact I saved money on not buying lunch at the office everyday! I've kept the weight off and I'm happy. I still have a few kgs to go to my perfect weight and I'll do it with Cambridge. I did meet a few people doing it that didn't lose weight but this was always because they had cheated - it's much easier if you stick to it the whole way - so there's no point doing it unless you're really ready - it's not easy - but it's not forever - you just have to keep the end in sight.
There is a simple equation in weight loss and as much as we like to deny it - Eating less = losing weight. Cambridge let me do that by taking food away so no temptation and giving me all the nutrition I needed.
Feel free to ask questions - I'm happy to update the review.
Advantages: A low callorie diet Disadvantages: Tastes vile
The Cambridge diet is the type of diet that is known as a VLCD or a Very Low Calorie Diet.
On the Cambridge Diet you consume 415 to 1500 calories per day, on what I described as a flexible weight-loss programme. It is a Sole Source Diet, in that all of your vitamin and mineral requirements are provided by the diet regimen.
You take the diet meals in the form of powdered shakes that you mix yourself, soups, chocolate coated bars and readymade drinks.
... ...2,500 calories per day. The Cambridge Diet relies on the fact that your body will have to rely on fat reserves in order to provide energy.
Unfortunately the first thing to be burnt off will be muscle mass and vital organs, so most experts believe that any VLCD should be taken under the advice of, and perhaps even the supervision, of doctors.
The Cambridge diet material warns that you might, initially, suffer from a range of symptoms such as headaches, ...
Martinscholes 24.02.2007
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Cambridge Diet Drinks/Soups
Advantages: Fast weight loss Disadvantages: MIGHT be bad for your health
I went on the Cambridge diet last summer and lost 3 stones. I was once 12 st 12 & I went down to as light as 9 st 9, which is a really healthy weight for my height (5 ft 5). I'm currently studying at university & since my exams began, I've put on weight again. I put on about a stone!
This diet was really good though, but not the healthiest diet so I wouldn't recommend you go on the sole source of the diet unless you SERIOUSLY need to lose weight. ... ...3 or 4 Cambridge diets depending on your gender and height (I will explain this later once I've explained what you can eat).
One thing that I liked most about this diet is that there are different stages of weight loss. Once you reach your goal, you can go up the stages of maintenance. When I was maintaining my weight, I started losing a lot of hair and it was scaring the hell out of me! I went to see my doctor about it. He said that it was because ...
NCStarS 21.05.2007
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Cambridge Diet Drinks/Soups
Advantages: Fast weight loss, makes you re-evaluate food Disadvantages: Can be hard to stick to for some
The Cambridge Diet is a VLCD (Very Low Calorie Diet), which is very versatile and can be used in a few ways.
'Sole Source' allows you 3 packs of Cambridge Diet, or 2 packs and a bar, which totals about 400 calories a day.. This is with NOTHING ELSE! It provides 100% of all the vitamins and minerals and certain amounts of carbs, fat, protein etc. although very minimal and enough to make you lose on average a stone per month, maybe more if you have ... ...of what's available on the Cambridge Diet:
Milkshakes
Banana
Butterscotch
Cappuccino
Chocolate
Chocolate Mint
Fruits of Forest
Strawberry
Toffee & Walnut
Vanilla
Ready Mades
Chocolate Velvet
Banana Bliss
Soups
Broccoli & Cheese
Chicken & Mushroom
Oriental Chilli
Mushroom
Tomato
Vegetable
Bars
Caramel
Cranberry
Double Chocolate
Malted Toffee
Orange
Peanut
Extras
Fibre89 (to help you 'bulk' up inside to aviod constipation, ...
funkybambino 09.01.2007 (10.01.2007)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Cambridge Diet Drinks/Soups
Advantages: feel better Disadvantages: miss out on fatty food
...the other. I tried the Cambridge Soup diet, although I lost 5 pounds in one week when I went off it I put it back on. And face it you can't eat soup all your life. MY PLAN
Well, I devised my own plan which will help me be fit and healthy and lose weight. First, thing you have to do at least 3 session of 30 minutes of exercise per week, it will burn the calories away. Make sure you eat breakfast, something healthy like museli, bran flakes, but make ...
sid 23.12.2000
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Cambridge Diet Drinks/Soups
Taste
Effectiveness
Price level
Quick review of Cambridge Diet Drinks/Soups
I lost 35lbs using the Cambridge diet products and although I agree with the fact it can become boring it, is was great to see the weight just falling off me! I liked most of the products, the shakes and bars are the best. The banana shake is a bit synthetic tasting though. I have managed to more or less maintain my weight for 18 months now. I still go to see my councellor and always keep a few products at home for if I fall off the wagon! It is really important to stay focused though, persevere and you will not be dissappointed with the end results. I agree with all of you that have managed to achieve what you set out to do, IT FEELS FANTASTIC!!!!!!!!! ...
ginger2pinklady 01.09.2008
Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Cambridge Diet Drinks/Soups
