LighterLife Diet

The LighterLife weight loss plans combine a very low-calorie meal-replacement diet with weekly counselling. With LighterLife Total, for people with a BMI of 30 or more, you eat four 'food packs' a day, consisting of shakes, soups, mousses or bars, and no conventional food. 

LighterLife Lite, for those with a BMI of 25-30, involves eating three food packs a day plus one meal from a list of approved foods. You stay on the plans until you reach your target weight. The meal plans can lead to very rapid weight loss and you’re advised to see your GP before starting. How long you stay on the diet depends on how much weight you have to lose

It's a very low calorie diet where, depending on how much you weigh, you consume between 570 and 1,200 calories a day. An average man needs about 2,500 calories a day and an average woman about 2,000 calories to stay the same weight. 

In the LighterLife diet, meals are replaced with shakes, soups and bars and the diet is aimed at people who have one stone or more to lose. There are weekly counselling sessions in small, same-sex, groups to help you identify why you overeat and change your behaviour.

Rapid weight loss can be motivating but it is unsustainable. LighterLife’s VLCD and its counselling component may work for some, particularly people who have struggled to lose weight for years, have health problems as a result of their weight and are clinically obese with a BMI of more than 30. A VLCD that involves eating 1,000 calories a day or fewer should not be followed for more than 12 continuous weeks. If you are eating fewer than 600 calories a day, you should have medical supervision.