LighterLife Diet Plan Warning – Woman Dies After Dieting

In the news last week was a report of a woman who died after going on the LighterLife diet plan. She died after drinking four litres of water in less than two hours.

LighterLife is a meal replacement plan, not unlike Slimfast. In this case, the customer did not follow the rules correctly, which do state that water should be consumed throughout the day.

The LighterLife customer, Mrs. Jacqueline Henson, was hoping to reduce her 89kg (196 pounds) when she chose the LighterLife meal replacement diet. The diet is aim at very overweight people. It restricts daily calorific intake to 500Kcal for a period of 12 weeks. Meals are replaced with LighterLife products, which include shake, soups and bars. The rest of the time dieters are advised to drink water. Mrs Henson lost 5.5kg (11.5 pounds) during the first week of the diet.

On the day that she died, Mrs Henson consumed almost 4 litres of water while sitting watching television. She noticed that her stomach had become solid, and later vomited. She developed a headache, so went to have a lie down. However, the headache was caused by a swelling of the brain caused by excessive water consumption.After collapsing at home, she was admitted to hospital.

A LighterLife relations manager said: “We are so sorry to hear about Jacqueline and extend our sympathies to her family. Our programme gives clear guidance that water should be consumed regularly over the course of the day, and the coroner confirmed that the events were a tragic accident.”

Her husband, Mr Henson, is now trying to increase awareness of the dangers of consuming too much water.