Incase you have not already seen the trailers, this Sunday the BBC start their Diet Trials programme - Eamonn Holmes and nutritionist Lyndel Costain present a six-month study of 300 people on four popular diets - Weight watchers, Dr Atkins, Slimfast, Rosemary Conley

The programme is on this Sunday at 6 pm for 30 minutes on BBC1 and then on Monday to Friday from 7 to 7 30 pm.

Here is a link to the BBC webpage.

I will be very interested to see the results of this.

Thank you LittleAnne for pointing this out.
I would have been annoyed to miss it. I hope that they give a true picture of the diet. I am sure that past programmes have put people off. We shall have to see. Leigh

Anne - I thought you would have seen the trailers for thisone. Hopefully if the dieters are being followed for 6 months, we should get a fair perspective as opposed to just folowing them on the 2 week induction plan of Atkins and hearing how lousey they feel!

It is all very well doing these trials if everyone is going to stick to the plans they were given.Some of them,like the guy doing Atkins,seem to either have no willpower or haven't read the book properly.All that beer and wine.He is doomed before he starts.I used to drink a lot of beer.When I started the Atkins diet in January I stopped drinking alchohol all together.

Kenny

But not as doomed as the poor man doing Slimfast. He is such a big person, he'll need more than 2 stupid milkshakes a day plus a diddly meal!! He'll always be hungry and I can't blame him for eating extra.

It will be interesting to see what happens. I am very pleased they have done the blood tests too.

I saw the Sunday edition and it looks like they are setting the lowcarber and the slimfaster to fail. This is so annoying, although I do not like slimfast I think its a real shame that they have made this 'study' biased. I think its true that all diets work for different people , some like weightwatchers and do great on it, others prefer low carb, some enjoy slimfast and excel on it, but what is the point of wasting those peoples time?

I set the video for Sunday's programme, but hubby had been messing with it so it didn't record! I did catch about 15 mins or it when I was out on my break at work. Basically the bit where they were introducing the people and what diets they would be following. I missed Monday's because I was at the gym and forgot all about it. Hopefully I'll get to see it tonight! I'll reserve any comments until I've seen an episode in full.

Hi people.
Well aren't these trials fascinating.
What immediately struck me was how quickly some people failed. This is sooo typically the norm. People try a diet and fail within days. Then start again...fail..the cycle goes on.
Others who are determined, such as the Liverpudlian lady with the dog, have really taken their chosen diet to heart and after just a month have lost a significant amount of weight.
It definitely is all about determination and whether you trully are ready to lose the weight.
I also found it interesting that they chose the individuals diets for them. Later, after the 6 month trial is finished, they will ask other individuals to be part of the trial but they can choose for themselves which diet to follow, based on the evidence of the other section of dieters. Won't it be interesting to see which they choose. I suspect WW and RC will come out on top.
I have tried all 4 diets. Slimfast when I was a teenager, I failed on with a day. I lived on coffee and cigarettes in those days and wasn't fat at all...the start of my slide into fatdom.
Both Weightwatchers and RC (which I still go to but only for the exercise class) I was very successful at but I was always hungry.
Atkins I've been doing since last October and now it's just a WOL for me. I have maintained the lowest weight I've been since I was that teenager and I'm never hungry.

Atkins is being concentrated on tomorrow night, so eyes peeled.

Ali

Like Ali I really like the fact that these are real people trying out these diets and many are having the typical problems you have when you have not fully signed up to weightloss and are looking for an easy solution.

Great to see that after 1 month the Atkins group were way ahead on weight loss. Yes, I agree much of it is water weight, but to suggest that if you lose a stone then it all is, is beyond me.

Interesting viewing tomorrow when they concentrate on Atkins. See they got a few negatives in at the end of the programme. Mind you, if he's complaining about salads he won't survive on any healthy eating plan. I note the old chestnut about the shopping bill costing a lot more. Well, if he buys in bulk when its cheap then I'd disagree with that, however, I've seen that complaint raised several times on this site.

Nothing on Rosemary Conoly today, in fact there has been very little about this all round. I'm not surprised that the Slimfast plan has already had a lot of fallout in the first month. Even if you managed to stick with it for several months, it will not help you alter your lifestyle for the future.

Not only is the programme on all this week, but also next week.

For those that haven't seen it:

After the first week of the series (which is shown nightly) I think we are up to the two month stage. Atkins is well in the lead, which wouldn't surprise anyone here ;-)

A great TV programme, although some of the participant are a little irritating. I guess that's down to the program makers. A little more science and practical information would have been better.

I was confused about the added coverage of the Atkins participants over the other 3 diets. Are they building it up ready to knock it down, or is it simply more interesting?

(Does anyone know if the Edinburgh Cafe owner is still single? She's gorgeous!)

Yes Mark I do think that they are building up Atkins just to knock it down. We keep hearing comments like "Atkins is in the lead, but will it last?" etc.

What I find amazing is how difficult most of the ones doing the Atkins are finding it. With the exception of the lady in Edinburgh (yes, she is single and she is looking very hard for a man) the prevailing attitude has been that it is too difficult. Basically it looks like they are only trying the recipes in the book, and we all know that you can adapt almost any meat, fish or poultry recipe to this programme (what could be nicer than a piece of really nice steak, in a lovely rich cream sauce served with loads of roasted veggies?). It really is just a case of lack of imagination or could it be that their eating habits before Atkins veered towards the chips with everything school?

I don't find cutting carbs a problem at all, and the increase in the amount of vegetables I am eating is amazing, which means my vitamin and mineral intake has soared - which is a bonus.

I agree. I found the sacrifices of the diet insignificant compared to the compensation of being able to eat real fresh food and things that I enjoyed such as a cooked breakfast.

I know the TV program is trying to show the pros and cons of Atkins, but

1) I never had bad breathe
2) My shopping was not more expensive, actually it was better and cheaper. I think I ate more fresh veg on the diet than I did before, and that was to compliment fresh meat.

In the age of convenience and take away food, many people don't know how to cook or have little inclination to. A low carb diet more suits those that are prepared to spend a minutes cooking their evening meal instead of waiting for the ping of the microwave.

I found the sight of Jeni the cafe owner spending £30 on those imported Keto products quite ridiculous and misrepresentative of the typical low-carb dieter. Did she really think that a slice of normal bread would destroy her diet? Whatever the diet I feel that that level of deprivation and rigidity can be self defeating.

Hi Mark

I totally agree about the cooking comment. I'm doing the programme with my hubby and we are cooking proper meals every evening and I now make soups for lunches - easy to take to work (Charles Clark's mushroom soup is delicious). I have gone through all of my recipe books and picked out all the recipes which can be called low-carb or adapted to low-carb and I am trying out each and every one, some of which are absolutely divine. To think that these books have been sitting on my shelves for years!

As for the cost thing well I actually find my shopping cost has stayed about the same - despite the fact that I am only buying really good quality food. I find that because I am planning each week in advance then only buying the things on my list I'm not tempted to impulse buy. Once I've got everything on my list I leave.

I found it interesting that they did not try to hide the reaction to the low-carb stuff that she bought - and it was obviously quite vile!!

Remember the Doctor at the start of this trials, who was on Atkins and knocked it big time.
Well I've just read about him in my weekly magazine, he looks great (photo included) and he's lost 4 stone on the plan ....

Just thought you'd like to know !

Ali

YEEEEEESSSSSS!!! (jump up and punch the air, then run around in a small circle)
It is always nice when a doctor comes over to the side of the righteous. I await that programme with interest.

This programme has done a great service for the low carb cause. As long as they don't attack the WOE at the end, because of the imagined 'long term health risks', there should be a lot more understanding and acceptance. I will be interested in the blood results and BP figures.

DO you not feel sorry for that scottish trucker? The dear man is a prime candidate for low carbing and he is wasting his time on Slimfast.

Entirely off the point, I was looking at some photos taken a month ago. Since then I have hardly lost a pound even though I have stuck to the woe and hit purple on them sticks every day. However, I can see my face is much thinner looking now which just goes to show that fat goes in a mysterious way. I am not into measuring rather than scales, but I just may start.