special K diet

Has anyone tried the Special K challenge diet?? Ive been counting calories and exercising when i find time, and i was loosing weight, but now i have gained 3pounds back in the past week and i havent changed anything!! I have special get together coming up this month and the special K diets say can* loose up to 6 pounds in 2 weeks....any suggestions??  the diet plan is :

to eat special k cearal with skim milk and fruit for breakfast

a special K snack (cereal bar, protein water) with fruit

Special K cereal with skim milk and fruit for lunch

another special k snack with fruit as above

and a sensible dinner.

Tried it when it first "came out", and at first was miserable because I was hungry all the time, and eventually dropped it simply out of boredom. 

In the end, it's just a marketing gimmick to sell more Special K products.  Special K is not some magical diet food - you'd be better off doing this with a cereal that will actually fill you up and has some amount of fiber.  Or, even better, just eating a sensible varied diet plan with real food. For more comments here's a more recent thread on it:

http://caloriecount.about.com/forums/post/952 79.html

A lady at my work did this and said it worked for her... for exercise she went swimming everyday and she said her snacks were mainly fruits on top of what the diet allowed.

As for myself.... haven't tried it, but that's what I heard.

ehh, thats what i thought.  i did it for not even 2days, yesturday and the day before, already bored of it. Today I had a turkey and cheese sandwich for lunch, and then cottage cheese for a snack instead of cereal and fruit. I was just kinda hoping it worked, in a hurry to drop some quick pounds, and I cant just give up food, i LOVE food too much!! maybe ill just do my best to get more than 3 workouts a wk in. wish me luck! thanks for your input!

I did it once.  Lost about 7 lbs in 2 weeks.  I don't follow it anymore but I do eat Special K about once a day to keep my calories down.

I was going to do this a few weeks ago. I thought, "OMG! 6 pounds in 2 weeks?" Eventually it got rather boring and kind of disgusting. I love Special K but I don't like eating it all the time.

But I mean - come on. Of course you are going to lose weight eating basically just cereal for 2 weeks.

I'm pretty sure it's just a trick to sell more Special K products.

If I were you, I wouldn't do it, simply because eating just cereal and one balanced meal isn't really good for you. It may seem like a quick way to lose weight, but depending on how many calories you should be eating and how many you'll be eating with just cereal and one balanced meal, you might end up losing weight and gaining it right back. That has also happened to me. T_T

Whatever you chose to do, good luck. (:

I think the problem is that if you are used to taste-it will fail you.

I'm used to bland food, since i (and my mom) don't use salt in cooking and i never add anything. I just stay bland. So, it's very easy for me to eat 2 or more bowls a day.

My problem came when i finally lost all my weight (last winter/spring) and then get so comfy i forget to follow Special K AND my started eating out more. So, i gained it back (oops!lol) But now im back on it and for someone like me, it works. 

For snacks i eat apples,bannas and grapes. Sometimes i'll have something that isn't healthy but it's pretty small and doesn't add many calories.

But again, im used to bland foods. I've been that way since 2004. So, it doesn't really doesn't taste bad to me. I actually love the taste. But that's just me.

No, the problem with the Special K diet isn't that it's bland - it's that it's a marketing device that has suckered in hundreds and thousands of women into believing that Special K is magic for weight loss. And it's not. It's just a way to cut calories, in most cases too much, and not get enough nutrition.

Well, it's a good restriciton tool for me. I gain weight pretty easily and need to stay between 150-160 for health reasons. But, im not most people, i suppose.

 I'd probably be better off as a Vegetarian, but getting others in my family to agree is another story.

I never got bored of this diet i always liked having there cereals but it did NOT work for me. i ran a few miles 5 days a week. maybe i had to many calories? probably not i didn't eat very much at all besides what it said and my dinner was usually a peice of meat. well if you decide to try it good luck

I'm currently on the Special K diet. doing it for the first time.  It's easy as would any diet that consists of planned meals.  Yes i got headaches and the first week was awful.  I feel a change in my clothes (not unrealistic weight loss) but the bloated puffy feeling that comes with weight gain seems less .

I am getting tired of the cereal but will stick it out.  We shall see.  I also tried nutrisystem in which i lost quite a bit of weight but i got tired of the food which i'm sure i will of this cereal.  I think all these diets as many have posted is all about portion control.  Those that see drastic results quickly must have really bad eating habits like myself.  I get discouraged when i dont' see quick results then of course the minute i eat regular food i blow up again.  UGGHHHH...

The headaches are due to severe calorie restriction. 

B: cereal with 2/3 cup skim milk and a fruit about 250 calories tops

S: about 90 for the bar and 60-90 for the fruit ~150 calories total

L: ~protein bar or more cereal and a fruit about 250 calories again

S: ~150 calories

D: sensible dinner...i think they have a salad with chicken breast on it so about 300-400 calories

1100-1200 calories is going to make anyone lose weight but it's not the best way to promote LASTING results. If you ate 2 oreos and drank a glass of milk for all of your meals you'd lose weight but that doesn't make it healthy. I would recommend downsizing your portions of regular meals and not becoming too reliant on a fad diet like this one.

shoegal - So if you've tried these kinds of diets before and haven't had any luck, why are you trying another one? I'm not trying to be snarky. It's just that like you say - once you go off the special meals/bowls of cereal/bars and back to 'regular food' you have only your old habits to fall back on, so you gain weight.

Why not just work on changing your habits? It's harder, yes, but the results are much more likely to be permanent. CC is a great place to get you started, and there are lots of people willing to offer ideas, support and commiseration.

I know you probably don't want to hear this, but your best bet is to stay away from all those marketed dieting plans.  Virtually all will be gimmick diets that don't have lasting results.  Try to get to a stage where you eat wholesome foods without buying any one brand of product or follow some extremely strict plan.  It might take a little longer to get to that point, but it will cost less, give longer lasting results, and make you happier altogether.