Comments on: Bride-to-be dies after losing 3 stone on her crash diet

By: clare

clare — Mon, 31 May 2010 14:07:59 +0000

If anyone goes to the daily mail article on the woman behind lighterlife, the best rated comment is by a woman singing the praises of the diet:
“I did LighterLife a couple of years ago and it changed my life. I have picked up 2 stone since….”

Picked up two stone?! thats not just a couple of pounds!! I did slim fast for two weeks and its just dismal. How people expect to be able to not eat everything in site after being on one of these stupid starvation/extreme willpower diets is beyond me.

By: Zoë

Zoë — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 13:51:09 +0000

HI EVERYONE
I’ve had a request from a TV company to see if anyone has bad experiences of Lighter Life and would be prepared to share them (on camera). Please can you let me know if you are able to help with this and I can put you in touch with the researcher on the programme. Please contact me at club @ theharcombediet.com and mark it LighterLife
Thanks so much if you can help.
Very best wishes – Zoe

By: Karen

Karen — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 21:10:58 +0000

Firstly; Jamie I completly disagree with you about the article. In my opinion there is not enough media coverage of the dangers of chosing the ‘Wrong Diet’. There are many young people out there who do not understand about diet and nutrition and develop eating disorders in one way or another, be it over eating or under eating, but they pretty much end up with the same result, dead. (harsh I know but honest…there bodies just can’t cope and give in)

As someone who has tried almost every fad diet going I almost opted for the Lighter Life diet. Thankfully due to the costs I decided against it.

So I think it is far from embarrassing to publicise a NATURAL eating plan that uses other diets to compare itself to. Don’t they all do that??? They all claim they are the best and you can succeed but only if you ….. eat crap and feel hungry 5 mins later…etc etc

Zoe I am just about to embark on the journey of your natural eating programme (once I get the book as I currently just have the 1wk version out of Best magazine).
I have every intention to give it my all and try it out.

Its great to have someone who is honest about what we should/shouldn’t eat. Continue the good work.

Cheers
Karen

By: October news for The Harcombe Diet Club

October news for The Harcombe Diet Club — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 09:21:30 +0000

[...] 1. LighterLife was in the news a great deal in the UK in September. First, the tragic story of a 34 year old bride-to-be who died just 11 weeks after starting LighterLife. There is more comment on this terribly sad story on my blog: [...]

By: Zoë

Zoë — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 16:09:48 +0000

Jamie – do you not think the family already think this?! And I don’t understand why talking about someone dying 11 weeks in to a crash diet is “embarrassing” – strange word to use?!

Please see the other entry above on deaths from bariatric surgery – up to 11%. 1 in 5 sufferers of anorexia will die from the illness (I was seriously close to being one of those statistics aged 16). This death was one that made the headlines, but so many others are happening every day and going unnoticed.

For as long as dieticians and public health advisors are telling us to eat less, I will tell people to eat better. It is unforgivable that we are driving people down this low calorie/low energy/wanting to eat more vicious cycle and not offering people a healthy way out.
Best wishes – Zoe

By: Jamie

Jamie — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 12:21:12 +0000

Imagine telling Samantha’s family that she should have taken an alternative diet?

I’d remove this article Zoe, it’s quite embarrassing.

By: Ross

Ross — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 21:21:17 +0000

Thanks for bringing this to our attention Zoe. I’m also from Leeds as it happens. A truly sad story. You are spot on about meal replacement shakes too. I’m forever telling people that diet isn’t difficult. You just have to eat natural, non processed foods. There is nothing complex about it, one certainly doesn’t have to down fancy shakes. I didn’t feel that you were pimping your own diet here so I must disagree with some comments left by other above.

By: Zoë

Zoë — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 20:21:35 +0000

Hi Rosalind – I’m sorry if my blog caused you any offence but all I am promoting is healthy eating. My whole philosophy is that nature knows best and we should be eating real food. The wider tragedy is that the current ‘healthy eating’ advice (as Helena has so wonderfully set out on “Breakfast stubed out”) is the CAUSE of the obesity epidemic, never will it be the cure. This entire calorie obsessed, eat less/do more nonsense leads to the obesity that then leads to drastic measures, as our desperation to be slim knows no bounds.

LighterLife is just one such desperation. There were 4,619 bariatric surgery operations in England last year – a 51% increase on the previous year.

The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) 2005 article found that, from a total of 16 155 patients who underwent bariatric procedures (mean age, 47.7 years; 75.8% women), the rates of 30-day, 90-day, and 1-year mortality were 2.0%, 2.8%, and 4.6%, respectively. Men had higher rates of early death than women (3.7% vs 1.5%, 4.8% vs 2.1%, and 7.5% vs 3.7% at 30 days, 90 days, and 1 year, respectively). Mortality rates were greater for those aged 65 years or older compared with younger patients (4.8% vs 1.7% at 30 days, 6.9% vs 2.3% at 90 days, and 11.1% vs 3.9% at 1 year).

So, up to 11% of patients for ‘stomach’ surgery weight loss operations are dead within a year. And the NHS would rather fund such operations than rethink our public health weight loss advice.

This is criminal, not just tragic.

By: PAT MURPHY

PAT MURPHY — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 19:50:51 +0000

I agree with Rosalind, it’s not the place to be promoting your own diet Zoe. I do however agree with your comments and that this poor girl would still be alive if she hadn’t tried this ludicrous diet!

By: Rosalind Donald

Rosalind Donald — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 17:07:34 +0000

The story is tragic.

I question whether it’s an appropriate platform from which to promote your own diet though.