Cambridge Diet Reviewed

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.