LA Weight loss is Really WORKING FOR ME!
Written: Aug 31 '05 (Updated Sep 03 '05)
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Pros: flexibility, healthy food, and the biggie - I am losing weight!
Cons: cost and for some the 3 weighs a week could be too much.
The Bottom Line: Eat healthy, live your life and lose weight. BUT make sure you set the rules on what you can spend. Pick a reasonable goal weight and skip their supplements.
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| spodgorski's Full Review: L. A. Weight Loss |
After trying to diet on my own for many years, trying Jenny Craig, checking into Lindora, doing Atkins, etc. I feel I am basically becoming an expert in the dieting world. Knowing that eating right and exercising regularly will be the best way to go. The problem I have is actually losing weight while doing those things.
I needed to lose 50 pounds. Not a small number... not an easy task. Last spring I watched a person at my children's elementary school get smaller. I asked how she was doing it and she said LA Weight Loss and then told me about the program.
In her description it involved weighing and measuring servings, lots of visits to the center for weigh in's and to be truthful, didn't sound like my cup of tea. But I watched her another couple of months and she lost more weight. So I took the plunge. Figured I would just go talk to them and see what the scoop would be for me.
I went in on a Monday morning - walk-in's welcome. I spoke to 2 women waiting for their weigh-ins and they both raved about the program. When my turn came I spoke to a very energetic young woman named Melissa. I told Melissa about my trials and tribulations, spending a fortune at Jenny Craig and losing nothing worth mentioning. I told her about my visit to the Lindora office and how that didn't go well (would have had to sell my house to cover a 20 pound loss -- okay, a bit of an exaggeration). I told her that I spent years walking and joined a gym 6 months ago, but still have the weight to lose.
She told me about the program and I told her that I would not weigh and measure my food. Not a huge problem, but she said I would probably lose more if I did. Here is what I heard at that appointment -- LA Weight Loss puts their money where their mouth is. They guarantee a 2 pound per week weight loss. After you reach your goal weight they will help monitor you to keep you at that weight. If after 6 months you are within 5 pounds of the goal weight they give you 25% of your original money to start the program back. After an additional 6 months you if you are still within that 5 pound mark you get an additional 25% back.
I am bribe-able. I liked what I was hearing. She told me the program cost $9.99 per week - so for 50 pounds, that is 25 weeks. Plus the 6 weeks of stabilization and 1 year of maintenance. A grand total of 83 weeks. Bringing the grand total to $829.17 minus $50 for giving a referral name (she also got $50 for referring me - or $75 in goods) and additional $6. off that I can't quite figure out, but it brought my bill to $785.25. It was an awful lot of money (but I had spent more than that on Jenny Craig with no guarantee and no weight loss!)
I signed up. First 2 days gets you ready for the program. They have you start with their "Take Off" juice, proteins and raw green veggies. I lost a couple of pounds.
I went in after my 2 days of Take Off and they dropped the bomb. I need to buy their LA Weight Loss bars. They are mandatory for them to guarantee the weight loss. They are expensive and you will take 2 a day during the weight loss time and then 1 a day for the stabilization and maintenance time! To buy them for my whole program was going to be about $1000!!!!!!!!! The girl I was dealing with was pretty rude and I walked out of the office furious!! (The sales deal they go through, says the bars are optional - turns out they are not if you want the guarantee of weight loss) I was going to quit. When I got home my phone rang. It was Melissa, the girl that signed me up. She apologized for the person I spoke to. Told me that I didn't have to buy them all at once. They often have "sales" or "deals" on them. She talked me into buying 40 boxes for $299 (there are 7 bars per box) to get started and at least see if the program was going to work for me.
Okay, she calmed me down and I went back in. Best decision I ever made. They require 3 weigh-ins a week (when you are in town - I took a couple of summer vacations this year and they put me on hold for that time). The weigh-ins just take a few minutes unless you have something you need to discuss. At first, I thought that would be a huge inconvenience. But happily their office is in the same parking lot as my gym so I weigh in and then work out.
The program started. For me (and this changes depending on what program they feel you need to be on), some of what I needed to have each day were 2 servings of protein, 3 fruits, 4 veggies, 1 fat, 1 dairy, 2 starches, 8 eight oz. glasses of water, 2 of their LA Lite bars and some Morton Lite salt. I have a diary that I have to mark off what I eat each day. At each appointment they look at my diary to see if there are any areas that might be causing me trouble. I take the same One-a-Day vitamins I have always taken - not their vitamins and so even though there are places to mark off the supplements each day I leave them blank.
They are flexible, too. Wine is what my friends and I now refer to as a Fruit Substitute as in "Hey want to go out for a fruit substitute Friday night?" -- this program helps you know what to order when you go out to dinner. They have lists of restaurants and what you can order there. They have a lists of what to do at a barbeque, or a night out at the ball game. They teach you how to live your life, eat food and be healthy. It is a lifestyle, not a diet. This teaches you the right decisions to make. I went with my family to Las Vegas for 4 days and lost 2 pounds while I was there.. We went back east for 8 days and I gained 1 pound -- unheard of for me... I can easily gain 5 pounds on a vacation where we are eating out every meal.
To date I am down 22 pounds - in 11 weeks, on the money for the 2 pounds per week they say I will lose. I eat out with my family, I eat in with my family. With Jenny Craig I had to eat my own food, separate from what I was feeding my family. Not now. This program teaches me what to eat and when. The people at the office are wonderful (the rude girl that I met on my second visit no longer works at that office... big surprise!). I don't mind my 3 visits a week, they don't take much time and I like to watch the progress I am making at each visit on their scale which I trust more than mine. As I said, it helps that my gym is across the parking lot... I can imagine this being a pain for many people.
I don't need the accountability that many people need. I am accountable to myself - but I do like to see the numbers on their scale drop. They measured me on day 1 and again a couple of weeks ago -- I am down 3.5 inches in my waist! I am down 1" in my thighs and inches in other areas also...
They do sell supplements (as I pointed out were in the diary for people to check off) -- many different ones and I do not buy a single one. I cannot say if they work or not because I refuse to give them any more money than I have to! They offer meal replacements, snacks, condiments, lots of other things to spend money on. I buy none of it, which I can imagine they are not thrilled about. But I tell them I am on a budget and the money to join plus the LA Lites is way more than I wanted to spend anyway. They don't fight with me over it. I spent the (less than) $785.25 to join and I have now paid in advance for 80 boxes of LA Lite Bars which will see me through the whole program with some left over (and they came to about $600).
The LA Lite bars come in several different flavors and I only like 2 of them. I like the Cookie Dough and the Peanut butter ones. They are very filling and taste pretty good. There are several other flavors (fruit and nut, lemon, chocolate chocolate etc.) but I didn't like them.
Overall, the way I do math is this -- ($785 to join plus $600 for the bars) $1385 for 50 pounds weight loss. Comes to about $27.70 a pound. Sounds like a lot until you hear that Lindora was going to be $1600 for 20 pounds (or $80 a pound) and I did Jenny Craig for 9 weeks to the tune of over $900 and lost 7 pounds (or more than $128 per pound -- although to be fair that does include the food I was eating for that time... which I really truly hated). And I tried on my own for years to take this weight off and I would go down 5, up 5, down 10, up 10. But with this program I am going down consistently and this is the lowest weight I have been since my fourth child was born!
What I like most about this program is that it teaches me long term. I eat with my family and friends, I am not limited to eating certain foods and I am still doing all the things I like to do. They do not require that you exercise to be guaranteed weight loss - but it is recommended.
They take your blood pressure at many weigh ins to keep tabs on your health, but they are not nurses or doctors. Many of the people working at our local office have done the program and were so impressed with it, they took jobs there.
I heard the other day that the price per week has gone up to $10.99 a week. When someone signs up and gives your name you do get a referral fee or can trade the credit in for merchandise. I know 2 people that have signed up and given my name as a referral so that money can be subtracted from what the program cost me.
I highly recommend this program. If you need to lose weight - pop into your local office and see what they have to say. It can't hurt anything to talk to them. But go in knowing what you want to do, what you want to spend (they let you pick your goal weight) and if you are not interested in spending the family fortune tell them so! Do not buy their supplements or other goodies. I do recommend getting the LA Lites - whether they are optional or mandatory... they are filling and a good snack in the middle of the morning and afternoon. When I enter the stabilization phase I will drop to 1 a day.
I am looking forward to Thanksgiving when I should be very close to my goal! And then I am looking forward to the following Thanksgiving when I will have been sent the 50% of my money-to-join back (in the 2 - 25% increments which minus the fees that are included in the refund comes to $393.62 total) to be still at my goal weight! Hard to fight with that! AND if I am able to pull it off and I am really thinking I will be able to, that brings my costs down to just over $992 or only $19.80 a pound including their bars which are food I have eaten every day.
Some key info - I am 44 years old, so I don't lose weight like I did when I was younger. I have delivered 4 children in the last 18 years. Losing weight for me has been a battle for many, many years!
Good luck and feel free to email me any questions you have.
Recommended:
Yes
Approximate Monthly Cost (US$) 70.
Food Variety Restrictions A wide variety of allowed foods
Restrictiveness of Portions Satisfying
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Epinions.com ID:
spodgorski
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 - Top 1000 |
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Member: Susan P.
Location: San Diego Area, CA
Reviews written: 54
Trusted by: 53 members
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