The Cambridge Diet

The Cambridge Diet (CD) has been going since the early 80's. It is a programme of very low calorie diets(VLCD) which consisits of all the vitamins, nutrients and protein required on a daily basis. Carbohydrates and fat are severly restricted.

I am embarking on what is know as the CD Sole Source (SS) programm. This consists of a daily calorific intake of between 415-554KCal depending on sex and height. (All men have the higher amount). These calories are consumed in the form of mikshakes, soups or chocolate bars. All are highly concentrated in vitamins and nutrients. Each soup/shake consists of about 137Kcal (the bars are 172Kcal - only one allowed per day)

Black tea/coffee is allowed and a minimum of 4 pints of water should be drunk each day.
I drink around 6 litres a day (12 pints) given my size and find water is key on this diet to good weight loss. Following the diet according to the CD manual you will lose a stone a month, although many lose considerably more. In my experience and from what I have read, the heavier you are the more you tend to lose. There also seems a correlation between the amount of fluid you drink and weight loss. I'm not sure if this has been proved, however I believe as do many others, by drinking large quantities of water you help the body to perform efficiently and help to flush the body of ketones.

Ketones are a by product of Ketosis. When on the CD a process known as Ketosis starts to occur after 3-4 days. When Carbohydrate levels are depleted the body starts to burn its own fat store for energy. This prevents the body from using precious muscle and lean body tissue and helps protect the vital organs. Further information on Ketosis can be found on the CD website or simply by Googling the word 'Ketosis'.

Unless you have permission from your G.P the SS programme can only be followed for a period of 4 weeks, at which time a very small meal is added to the diet in what is known as Add A Meal (AAM). This lasts for a period of one week before you can then return to SSing again.

Once you have reached your target weight the CD has a series of stages to return you to eating 'normally'. This involves slowly increasing calories over a period of weeks, intorducing various food groups as you go. This has the effect of replenishing your Carbohydrate store and getting the body using to eating once again. The ultimate goal of this stage of the diet is to lead you to maintenance. A stage where you maintain your weight without loss or gain. Obviously deopending on the individual and their activity levels, maintenance will occur at different levels of calorific intake.