I mentioned in my last post that I was starting a new diet (I started yesterday). It is called the Cambridge Diet. It’s been around for like 20 years or so.
There are two versions of this diet one UK based and one US based. The co-founders of the specific “original” Cambridge formula developed at Cambridge University had a falling out or something and the US one took over selling to the US and the UK guy took over the rest of the world. The main difference in the plans is that the UK version gives you a consultant where the US has something called distributors. The UK also seems to have more products and flavors.
The only purpose of the distributor seems to be to sell you things. Perhaps without shipping since they are local. The shipping on the US website is ridiculous! It’s $13.00 no matter what you buy and then goes up as you add more products to your cart. Ugh!
I wish I could have a consultant >.>. The consultant, as far as I can tell, is a person in your area who has done the diet and lost weight on it. They weigh you every week and give you advice. Some are even more encouraging and will check up on how your doing apart from your weekly weigh ins. I think you may get products from them too?
The US version is way behind the UK version. Their website hasn’t been updated in 10 years and that’s when their latest success story is from as well. It was definitely not the most reassuring. There are also no US success stories online beside the old ones posted on their site. I wasn’t even sure they were still in business. Either way, I read up on all the UK success stories. There are recent blogs and such like this one that are very inspiring.
On to the actual plan. There is also one thing that the US version has that is odd. It took me a while to figure this out. They have a Food For Life line and an Original formula line. Apparently sometime after the Original formula came out the recommended daily amount of protein was raised in the US by 30 g or so. As the Cambridge diet is supposed to be an all inclusive meal replacement, the US Cambridge added more protein to their powder and called it the food for life line. Originally you were to take 3 servings of the original formula. Now to make up for the lack of protein you can take 4 servings of the original formula or you can take 3 servings of the food for life formula.
I purchased the original formula because it was cheaper. Beware, one pouch does not cover a whole week if you use the product as recommended. They only give you enough for about 5 days. Anyway, I am poor so I am making the original formula last me a whole week by only having it 3 times a day. If it was okay to do 10 years ago before they upped the requirement, then I’m okay with it now. I only expect to be on this for a month or two anyway.
I don’t want to explain all of their programs because it would take forever so here’s the link to the US site. I am following the fast start program. So I will be drinking my Cambridge shakes 3 times a day for at least two weeks, maybe more. The only other thing I’ll be consuming is water. I’ve read on other blogs that drinking more water helps you lose faster so I am aiming for about 4 to 5 liters of water a day. Plus the water will help you not feel hungry. This is the program that gives the fastest results. It is not uncommon for people to have a ten pound loss in the first week and 2 to 5 pound losses in the following weeks.
Curious how it works? Basically, it’s a very low calorie diet (VLCD). You only get about 420 – 440 calories a day. (330 in my case because I’m cheating to save money). The formula gives you all the vitamins and minerals your body needs for the day. The carbs are low and so this will put your body into ketosis after about 3 days (or so I’ve read). This means that your body will switch gears and start burning only your fat for fuel. It does have some side affects. I’ve read about nausea, light headed, intense hunger, headaches, dry mouth, and a fruity breath. The worst of these are supposed to subside after the 3 day switch. Some have symptoms the whole time though. At the very least the hunger should go away. After my first day I experienced most of these in very mild “waves”. That’s the best I can describe it. They’d come randomly and leave after 5 minutes or so. Some people don’t experience any symptoms, they are lucky -_-.
My starting weight for this diet is 210.6 lbs. I peeked at the scale this morning and I was already 5 lbs down! That’s probably mostly water, but I’m still happy to be rid of it. That’s all I have to say about this diet for now. If you have any questions let me know, i’ll try to answer them in my next post if possible.
Happy losing!
Hopefully Bikiniskinni 