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There was a class action suit against LA Weight Loss in Washington State related to the fat blocker supplement they were pushing.
I was on LA Weight Loss several years ago, and I too lost some weight - about 25 pounds. However, the counselors only have enough training to be dangerous. One told me that I could replace my blood pressure medication with one of their supplements (which happened to be a laxative tea)!
It seemed to me that this program was just a big marketing scheme. The counselors pushed hard to get you to buy supplements, more protein bars, snacks, shakes, etc. at every visit. For the first two days of the program, you are told to eat only protein with unlimited vegetables and drink their juice supplement. Anytime you hit a plateau, they again have you drink the juice supplement for two days. These items are expensive and if you choose not to buy them, the counselors and managers can become downright rude.
Most of the LA Weight Loss centers in Washington are now out of business. While the diet itself may be nutritionally sound, I would never recommend this program to anyone because of the counselors.
Haven't you heard but f/k/a LA Weightloss n/k/a Pure Weight Loss went bankrupt. They filed Chapter 7? What a shame. I used their products in 2001 and lost approx. 25 pounds thru their At home program. When they opened a chapter near my hometown in CT I used to dropped in once in awhile to get weighed and buy their products.
I was surprised to see an A rating for the LA Weightloss Program on your website. I would never recommend them, unless you plan on paying a lot of money for "weightloss bars" ie candy bars and other treats. I was very disappointed with the program and my experience was a disappointing one. The "diet councelors" are not professionally trained, do not offer time with you without an appointment...and were more interested in making sure to sell as much product as possible (they had a sales chart on the office wall with $$s sold by each "sales person"... The products are a very expensive part of the program.
When I joined they required I pay for the entire program upfront, and insisted I sign before I left the building to get the "best rate"...which was more than $500 and included all phases of the program through maintenance with the promise of 50% back if I met all the goals....this was in addition to all the LA WL products they suggest you purchase for success. Of friends that joined LA WL ...few were able to meet goal....so I would rank them disappointing with a C....or cilly me for thinking this was a REAL weightloss program.
La is a rip-off and unhealthy!!!It's all about making money!!
They first have you get bloodwork which can only be done at their own lab(God knows where)You have to pay up front and can't use insurance for it.
The supplements they have you buy are expensive,if I remember $11 a box of 5 bars or 6 hot chocolates,not to mention the overwhelming soy taste.
I got sick(dehydrated) and had to go to the ER via amulance from my home.I had gotten down to 145lbs ( 5 lbs away from my goal.)
I wanted to change my goal weight to 145 to start the maintenence phase and they wouldn't let me.I wasted ove $2000 in about 18 months!
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I can't speak for all the different locations or the different counselors, but when I worked there the counselors (we NEVER called ourselves dietitians- and were very upfront with customers when they asked what our training was) tried to do their best in helping their clients and truly cared about them. No, there wasn't a lot of training- but enough to help clients through the program. It was 80 hours in two weeks I believe, and I felt that we had enough information and knowledge about the program to help a client through it. Anything we were unsure of, any nutrition questions a client had that weren't clearly outlined in the information we were given or anything beyond our knowledge was supposed to be referred to a company dietitian- and we did that often. If a counselor had followed what they had been told, no one would have been told to take a supplement instead of their medication- that is ridiculous. Other than Nutrisystem (which requires a bachelors degree- although I dont' think it has to be in Nutrition and Dietetics) LA had some of the most trained people running their program compared to other similar programs. (From what I understand to run a Weight Watchers group all you have to do is have been through the program). The bloodwork was done offsite and there were trained phlebotomists drawing it and sending it in to be tested.
Now that I've said all the positive things, as a program they were mainly there for sales. As a counselor you were pushed to have an increasingly higher amount of sales dollars, if you were below your quota you were brought in to speak with the manager. You were also told to push different supplements and insist that a client use the bars (which, whether or not anyone else told their clients weren't absolutely necessary to use the plan, there were plans that you could give a client that would allow them to follow it without the bars- and I always mentioned this to clients when they said they could not afford the bars and many did it this way). I think that it is a very healthy way to lose weight, as I had done it before I even worked for the company and had great results. I think that in the goal of making money they overlooked what I'm sure the original idea was, to help people and I think it has helped many, but possibly swindled more. Because of the push to make sales, the limits on time spent with clients, and their way of breaking clients down to make them feel awful about their weight to get them to buy their program, I left. But, I have to say that as a result of working for LA and seeing what good I was able to do even with the restraints they put on me, I'm currently pursuing a degree in Nutrition and Dietetics. So, as with everything else, there was a lot of good with the bad.
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I was on LA Wgt Loss a while back - I did lose some weight but have several reservations about the plan
1. the "counselors" are off the street - know NOTHING about diet until they are hired - then only what they are told. No dietitians on staff.
2. when I was there they were also pushing "suppliments" which the "counselors" knew NOTHING about as far as the ingredients. At that time they had one with ephedra and one with Guarana. When I refused to use the ephedra one, they told me the other had no "stimulants". I told them the caffeine would cause palpatations - they said there is no caffeine in it - she had NO IDEA that Guarana breaks down to caffeine.
3. They also said that if you are sick and need to come off the program for a while, if you call in and let them know they will "credit" the time you are off the program and add it to the end of your contract. I was sick twice during the time I was on the program and neither time was credited to my contract.