Cambridge diet
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Be aware: this is only the goal of this diet, not necessarily its outcome. Results vary from person to person. Consult your doctor or dietician before starting this (or any other) diet.
The Cambridge Diet (or "Cambridge weight plan") was created by Dr. Alan Howard at Cambridge University in 1970 and has since become a well-known diet in England.
On the homepage you can compare this diet with other diets.
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As of January 2020 the Cambridge Diet is officially called the 1 to 1 Diet. This new name stands for the 1 to 1 guidance that is offered by different weight counsellors with this diet. This page is a description of the original Cambridge diet.
The Cambridge Diet is based on meal replacements. Many different products, like soups or bars, were sold under the Cambridge Diet brand as meal replacers. Depending on the version or phase of the Cambridge Diet, you eat 1-3 meal replacers a day.
The Cambridge Diet is a ketosis diet. The idea is to replace the carbohydrates in your diet with proteins and eat (relatively) many fats, to get your body in a state of 'ketosis'. This is a state in which many fats and/or fat reserves are used as source of energy.
How many calories the diet contains depends on which steps of the step-by-step plan are followed. The steps of the Cambridge Diet have between 500 - 1500 kcal per day (you can read how many calories you normally need here). Considering this, the diet can be seen as a crash diet.
It can be dangerous to eat (too) little calories a day. It is therefore important to consult a professional before starting this diet.
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The variants of the Cambridge Diet contain 1 to 7 steps. Your goals and your situation determine how many of the 7 steps (and which ones) you go through and how long you have to stick to each step.
Below an overview of the steps and what you will eat each day.
In this phase you consume (per day):
In this phase you consume (per day):
In this phase you consume (per day):
In this phase you consume (per day):
In this phase you consume (per day):
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In this phase you consume (per day):
In this phase you consume (per day):
It is important to be aware of any potential side effects of this diet. The Cambridge Diet may cause bad breath, dry mouth, fatigue, memory loss, nausea, muscle loss or constipation.
Consult your doctor or dietician before starting this (or any) diet, especially if you have diabetes or a high cholesterol level.
You can find more information on Alan Howard's ‘The Cambridge diet’. A corresponding diary is also available.
Another well-known ketosis diet is the Keto diet.
This page has been checked, and warnings have been added by, Jolande, dietician. Read more here.
Did you notice a mistake on this page? Please let us know.
As you see fit
Cambridge is a crash diet using meal replacements. This allows you to think little about your diet and lose weight quickly. The big disadvantage is that you also gain weight quickly when you stop (and most people do, because the cost of the products becomes too high, or they get tired of the diet). This type of diet always leads to muscle mass loss, and, as can be read, can also cause other symptoms. If there is no medical need to lose a lot of weight in a very short time, I would not opt for this.
At my clinic, I received several clients at intake who had followed this diet, and very much regretted it. They had become much heavier than before. In my opinion, using meal replacements is always a risk in diet counseling. The replacements are temporary in use and you notice temporary weight loss. But after you start eating 'normal' food again, things go wrong. Besides, I wonder how nice and healthy losing weight feels, when at the same time you have dry mouth and foul breath, perform poorly at work and lose muscle mass. If you are one of the rare people who is fine with such a great imbalance and who, after such a diet, never gets tempted to eat unhealthy sweets again, then you, on the contrary, can build a great body with healthy food and sports.
With the professional help of a dietitian it should be easier to reach your goals. Please contact a dietician in your area or talk to a doctor before starting any diet.
Please take note that most diets do not have a scientific basis.
Consult your doctor or dietician before starting a diet, especially if you have a chronic condition like diabetes, cardiovascular disease, lung disease or kidney disease.
If you think you might have an eating disorder (like anorexia or bulimia), it is important to look for professional help. Contact your (house) doctor or find help elsewhere. Here you can find a list of several websites that can provide (online) help. These sites also provide information for people that know someone with an eating disorder.