Whoa Whoa Whoa!!!!! Hold on everybody, I think there are a lot of people on this thread that are either confused about this program or are very misinformed, or both. I have have been a personal trainer and nutritionist for the past 7 years and I am a take shape for life health coach myself. My wife is also a nutritionist and health coach and my father who has been a physician for the past 20 years is a health coach as well. We have all helped many people from all over the country lose weight safey and keep it off for years.
I would like to explain this program for everyone so you all have the correct information, as well as answer any questions or concerns anyone may have.
First off I would like to address the commentfrom Shawnnam that says that this program is not healthy or recommended. Take Shape For Life is actually the #1 medically recommend weight loss program in the country and has been recommended by over 20,000 doctors.
Another very important bit of information is that take shape for life is not a weight loss program, it is a health program. Weight loss is just the first part of the overall health program. The purpose and goal of the program is not only to help people lose weight, but to help create life long health.
Basically what we do as health coaches with this program is use portion controlled meal replacements to help you lose weight, which has actually been proven to be the best way to lose weight. Every meal is perfectly balanced with the correct ratios of protein, fats, carbs, and calories. There are over 75 different foods to choose from like soups, puddings, shakes, bars, pretzels, cheeto puffs, oatmeal, fruit drinks, iced tes, hot chocolate, cappaccinos, scrambled eggs, and even brownies! Each food has the exact same nutritional make up so you can choose any of them to eat. By having each meal perfectly balanced like this, it keeps your blood sugar and insulin levels stable which prevents cravings so it's really easy to stick to the program, plus all the food actually tastes really good too which helps a lot!! You eat every 2-3 hours, 5 of these meal replacements and 1 what we call "lean and green" meal that you prepare yourself. By eating portion contolled meals every couple hours, it will put your body in a constant state of fat burning. When people eat the typical 3 meals a day spaced 5-6 hours apart, your body goes into more of a storage mode and holds on to fat.
As far as the concern about the number of calories on this plan, allow me to explain. The 800-1000 calories is just the basic plan or starting point. That's part of what we do as coaches, we will start you out in the 800-1000 calorie range and then we will work with you to adjust that if we need to. To be honest though, that's about the perfect range for most people beause with the meals being balanced correctly with protein, fats, and carbs, you're giving your body exactly what it needs of each nutrient, no more no less. With something like weight watchers or another diet plan where you're not balancing your nutrients, you could be consuming too much protein and not enough carbs, or too many carbs and not enough protein, either of which is not as beneficial for losing weight. The thing I do like about this type of diet is that it does control calories, the only problem is it's up to you to portion out your meals to stay in the correct calorie zone, which a lot of people end up not doing. The other problem is that it gives people a little too much freedom. You can eat anything you want as long as you stay in your calorie range or "points" limit, but there can be a few issues with that. Simply choosing a certain sized portion of anything that is not balanced in protein, carbs, and fats can cause very different effects. For example, if you eat 150 calories all from protein, or 150 calories all from carbs, or 150 calories all from fat, your're going to have 3 totally different effects which can drastically change how much or how little weight you are losing. The other big issue with weight watchers is that by not having balanced ratios of protein, fats, and carbs your blood sugar and insulin levels will be going up and down which can cause hunger and cravings which makes it difficult to stick to the plan. That's what we really like about what we do is that all the food is balanced in the correct ratios so your blood sugar and insulin levels will stay stable all day so you're not hungry and don't have those cravings which makes it much easier to stick to the plan. Plus, with all the meals being portioned out for you, it is very convenient and much less time consuming which also makes it easier to stick to it. The reason why some other diets allow more around the range of 1,200-1,500 calories a day, or 12-15 points, is because that gives you a better chance of getting enough nutrients because you are consuming more food. By limiting your calories to 800-1,000 you can lose weight more quickly while still giving your body exctly what it needs because all your meals are balanced for you. By the way, these ratios and numbers of nutrients I am talking about have been determined by physicians. However, some people that are more active than others or have a very physical job or something of that sort may require a few more calories, which is where we come in as coaches to recognize and make that adjustment. Also, that is just during the weight loss phase, once you get down to the weight you want to be at, we move into the transition phase and start adding more calories and regular meals back in as we move into the maintenace phase to help you keep the weight off for good.
So that's the basics of the diet part but that's just a small part of the overall program. Another big aspect of what we do as health coaches is work with you personally either face to face or over the phone a couple times a week or more to help you stick with your program and help you learn the basics of how the body works to lose weight and how our bodies are actually naturally set up to store fat, and why that is the reason why many people gain weight in the first place and have trouble losing it and more importantly have trouble keeping the weight off after they do lose it. We also help you learn little lifestyle changes that make it easier to stick with a program and live a healthy life. We help you learn that breaking bad habits is not the way to go, and that creating new healthy habits is much easier and a better way to make changes. We teach you that there is a big differance between will power and disapline and how that works. We also work with people on how to set goals based on what they DO want instead of goals based on what they DON'T want. Then once you get down to the weight you want to be at we help you transition off of these meal replacements and back to a normal healthy diet, then we will continue to help you maintain your healthy weight and healthy lifestyle so that your results are permanent and you keep the weight off for good.
I hope this answered some of the concerns some of you have and gives you a good basic overview of the program. If anyone has any questions or other concerns they would like me to address feel free to ask away!
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-Ben Corliss
