Cohen's Lifestyle What exactly is Cohens?

Prefix for Cohen's Lifestyle
For myself and the non-Cohen's programmers on this forum, could you folks help us out and tell us what the cohens program entails.

From basic reading I believe it's based in Australia only (so, not only do you folks havea beautiful country you also have your own diet plan :D and it seems to be low carb as well, and i think there is some blood testing that goes on.

I'd love to know more of your experiences on the plan.
thanks
 
Hey Mal, Cohens is set up by Dr. Cohen. It is a personalized program based on bloodtests which indicate all sorts of things. It is low-carb. It is designed to make our finely tuned bodies become more finely tuned and efficient at burning fat. The amounts and types of food allowed, trigger 3 main hormones - serotonin, insulin and human growth hormone. When these are triggered correctly, the weight starts coming off. My experience in the past was absolutely the best eating plan I've come across. A loss of 40 kgs in 5 months. Loads of energy, etc etc. 2kgs off goal weight we are given what is termed a refeed program which runs for aprox 17days and allows for foods to be brought in gradually, in such a way that once the program is finished and a few guidelines followed the weight doesnt return - ever!! I know it is available in overseas.
England, South Africa, to name a couple and possible more.
I'm sure others can add to this info. I first came across it in 2003.
 
Hi Maleficent,
In the US is is called 1st Personal Diet and I think is is only done via the internet, the website is and in Australia it is
I'm not sure if your allowed to post websites here:confused: :confused: I'm sure it will be ok as it isn't spam, and people who genuinely want to know can check it out for themselves.:)
 
It shouldn't be seen as spam Melly, you aren't promoting your own site, and you are doing it in answer to a question. There's a difference between information dissemination and spam. :D

This plan is amazing. It's the only way I could possibly see I could lose the 90kg I need to without it taking me YEARS and killing me with excercise.

With this plan, there's no excercise required. That's not that you can't DO any, just you don't HAVE to. You increase your activity naturally as you are able to. Some of us, me included, had trouble walking from the car to the house prior to this plan, not quite sure how I was supposed to go walking to lose weight.

I've never felt so zealous about anything in my life. It's like being a born again religious nut. I just see that this is truly the answer.

I've watched friends (see Chelsea on this board for example) loose and STAY lost.

asy :D
 
Hi Maleficent,
Dr Cohen started the plan here in South Africa as part of his research into infertility, he has clinics here, England, Hong kong, US, Australia - maybe even more since I did the plan in 2002. All the info is on the website that was posted by MellyP.
 
Kathy, you would need to contact the internet program for details of the cost etc. Blood tests are 4-8 weekly and the cost depends on the pathology company.

Lauren
 
This plan is amazing. It's the only way I could possibly see I could lose the 90kg I need to without it taking me YEARS and killing me with excercise.

With this plan, there's no excercise required. That's not that you can't DO any, just you don't HAVE to. You increase your activity naturally as you are able to. Some of us, me included, had trouble walking from the car to the house prior to this plan, not quite sure how I was supposed to go walking to lose weight.

So had you actually done the plan when you posted this?

No exercise? How do you fully determine you're healthy then? If the only thing you benefit is weight loss, then you havent actually increased your fitness level. You havent improved your cardiovascular fitness at all. Someone please provide some more details. What are the caloric averages?
 
I would be very surprised if there is one person who is fully committed to this program who will not consider becoming quite active after reaching goal as part of their lifestyle change. Who would want to put all of this weight back on again after all? Being active is much easier when you are not carrying around excessive weight. Personally I won't be pumping weights or going to a gym but am looking forward to bush-walking, yoga, playing with my grand-kids etc. Cheers, Cate.
 
So had you actually done the plan when you posted this?

No exercise? How do you fully determine you're healthy then? If the only thing you benefit is weight loss, then you havent actually increased your fitness level. You havent improved your cardiovascular fitness at all. Someone please provide some more details. What are the caloric averages?


Whilst I cannot speak directly for Asyoz, she has now lost over 85KG (180lbs) and is healther and feeling better than she has in a long time is there to read, she will be starting the refeed stage of the program soon.

I lost 45KG and have maintained < 80KG weight now for 2months . I feel fitter and healthier than ever. As I mentioned a few times the "no gain without pain" or "diet without exercise is dangerous" is plain stupid B.S. How can a woman or man who is morbidly obese exercise safely? IMHO Diet is 99% of the solution to obesity. After you lose weight I can say that you naturally feel more energetic and as a unforced natural consequence of being and feeling heathier being active and exercise just becomes part of your life again. I did Cohen I dont believe I lost muscle mass, my advise for those thinking to do it is just do it.

The Cohen diet is not easy, socially and emotionally, but the results pay for the negatives 100 times over. I was fat for 14 years. Now I am not and with a changed diet (away from starchy foods) I feel very confident that I will stay that way.
 
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What are the caloric averages?

We don't count calories on Cohens, our food plans are weight specific to each individual, everything is weighed within a gram of specification. We are only permitted certain proteins, vegetables, fruits and very limited carbs, again all specified in the plan.

As stated in previous posts, the exercise comes later, health doesn't always equate to fitness. For many of us the priority is getting the excess weight off THEN we get fitter without the stress of lugging the extra kilos around.

Each to their own.

Lonniecee
 
Since this is the "what is Cohens" thread I am going to ask some questions here and hopefully get positive insightful answers.

Everyone seems to get bad headaches, what causes them and is it known ahead of time?

So you dont calories, but you measure the food? I measure my food to know how many calories, how is this different?

Thanks.
 
When we measure, ie weigh, our food, it is because we have been prescribed specific amounts of protein to veg for example, if I have chicken for lunch I will have 120gms to 90gms of veg. If I have beef the weights are different again, ditto for cheese. This was the personalised part of the plan prescribed for me.

As I previously said in my earlier post, we are on the same foods, just the amounts are different. Our food does become our medicine, so therefore it is in prescribed amounts as is any medication ordered by a doctor. I was on the plan for 8 months and wasn't hungry except at the beginning and at the end when approaching the refeed (re-introduction phase) of the plan, I worked full-time and have a family consisting of a hubby and 2 teenagers. I had more energy and get up and go than I had in years.
As with any 'detox' headaches are to be expected and yes we are aware that this may happen. Not everyone has the same reactions though.

I'm not interested in counting calories as the vegetables I used and still use are a mix of the allowed ones, I weigh them as a total, not individually.
I felt and still feel great and have and will continue to promote the plan to anyone that is genuinely interested.

Lonniecee
 
A lot of people experience head-aches or other withdrawal symptoms when they cut down on such things as caffeine at the start of the program. I didn't at all because I had already cut down my caffeine consumption gradually over the past year. I have never felt better physically!
I have not heard of anyone experiencing headaches because of re-feed unless they have over-indulged in the old "fermented" fruit or vegetables. LOL! Bring it on!:rotflmao:
Cohen's is the greatest thing since sliced bread! (or is that Saladas?)
Cheers, Cate
 
So Im guessing you follow the program for 12 months, based off the comments I have seen, then you re-feed yourself to eat normally? Or do you follow for whatever time frame you desire?
 
Hi Tony,
We take as long as we need to.. to lose the weight to get to our Goal. The Goal is generally set with our consultants and we dont get our "Refeed" program till we have reached our goal. For some people this might be 12 weeks, 6 months and for some people either because of a huge amount of weight to lose (i.e 85-90kgs) or because of many "deviations" it might take a year. Our refeed is not something we make up ourselves. It is all "prescribed" by The Cohen Clinic. It is a specific pattern of reintrducing foods into our diet slowly, slowly... so that our bodies get used to them and so that our weight stabilises and so that we do not just stack the weight back on.

This process is Exactly what drew me to Cohens in the first place. I loved the Teaching aspect of it. I have done other programs that didnt really teach me anything. Cohens is teaching me how to eat healthily and at the end will show me how to eat other foods in a healthy way. I am also learning skills that will allow me to always stay on top of my weight. I have been overweight my entire life and although I have lost over 30kgs on my own, doing more exercise and trying to eat right I still felt that I wasn't "getting it". After starting Cohens I finally feel like I do... and I still do a small amount of exercise, but I dont do too much cos otherwise I get really really hungry and as I cant eat any more than I am allowed, I dont want to sabotage myself... so I will just take it easy with a few walks a week and then pick up the pace a bit more towards the end...which for me is likely to be a 6 month process.

Hope this answers some of your questions
Kath
 
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