Last week I documented my journey doing the the 1:1 Diet by Cambridge Weight Plan. As a consultant of this diet, I needed to know what my clients will experience, and learn what the pros and cons of the diet are. This blog is about the things I learnt on my journey.
Portion Sizes have a massive impact.
On the diet I was consuming 1 Shake, 1 Bar, 1 Savoury meal and then 1 meal a
day of conventional food. This added up to 1000kcal per day. When you go from a 3000 kcal diet to a 1000kcal diet like this, portion size differences are really noticeable. The thing I learnt though, is it's quality over quantity. The tiny portions of the 1:1 Diet didn't affect me whatsoever. This is because they are crammed full of nutrients and minerals, and so I DID NOT feel hungry at all. So no more heaped bowls of food for this guy.
"Carb Crashes" have been killing my blood sugars
The 1:1 diet promotes having low amounts of carbohydrates, particularly with conventional food. This is because carbs can end up being converted into fat if not used up from movement. In my job, I felt it necessary to have a high carb diet to complete the exercise I wanted to do, HOWEVER this diet has demonstrated to me that this is not the case. I can indeed kick ass without high amounts of carbs. I was also able to not reach for high carb energy drinks which also helped. AND I felt more alert during the week, not crashing after meals.
Finding low calorie but nutrient rich foods is key
So because I could only have 1 conventional meal a day, it needed to count. It needed to be bulky, low carb and low calorie. A hard task? NO actually. Here's a couple of tips:
Find low kcal and low carb herb mixes. With growing healthy eating trends its actually quite easy to find healthy flavouring options for your foods. Including 0 kcal sauces (hot sauce made a regular appearance for me)
Quorn pieces/mince are 1kcal per 1 gram, making it really easy to measure the calories you're consuming.
Vegetables are little to 0 carbs and calories. Things like lettuce, cucumber and courgettes can be consumed to your heart's content due to low calories.
Super foods help with hunger. Broccoli and kale are great additions to your conventional foods as they are high in vitamin so make you feel sated.
Why this diet worked for me
I like this diet as it's flexible for everyone, there's no set rules. Just consume a couple of products a day to help with calorie-controlling nutrient dosing, and then consume some healthy food to go with it. Simple and effective. There's also great choice in the range of products we have available so it means you are not likely to get bored with consuming the same old products day in day out. Overall I lost 4lbs in 7 days. I had one cheat in the week and didn't do that much exercise due to illness so I think I could have lost 6lbs. BUT this is the most weight I've lost on the scales in a while so I'm super proud of my results.
UPDATE**
WOAH 84kg HIT!
The journey continued in 2023. With an obvious blip at Xmas I got straight back on the wagon afterwards and by the 27th January 2023 I had reach my target weight of 84kg, making my overall weight loss 18lbs. Although this was my overall goal, i'm now debating whether to try for the 80kg mark, which I haven't been in over 12 years! To be continued....
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