Frequently Asked Questions

Many people have got really confused about ketosis and Ketoacidosis.  Unfortunately even dieticians and nutritionists find the two states confusing.

Ketosis simply refers to a metabolic state where the concentration of ketones in the blood builds to higher than normal levels. This occurs when people consume a low carbohydrate diet and are breaking down their body fat for fuel.

Unlike Ketosis which is perfectly natural and harmless, Ketoacidosis is a condition which arises when there is a build up of glucose in the blood due to a lack of insulin. In other words you need to be an insulin dependant diabetic who is eating a diet rich in carbs and not managing your insulin intake properly.  Without insulin the glucose can not be taken into the cells and

Whilst there is no evidence that being in ketosis is unsuitable for unborn or breast fed babies it would seem sensible to wait until either after the baby is born, or when breast feeding is over.

We know that being pregnant and breast feeding can be stressful and the last thing that we want to do is to make your special time any more complex.

If you want to discuss this with one of the team do phone us and ask to speak to one of the nutritionists.

We are pleased to say that the Go Lower Programme is absolutely fine for both type one and type two diabetics.  Whether you are insulin dependant or not, this diet should help you manage your diabetes easily and reduce any medication you are taking.  Do feel free to call one of the team at Go Lower if you would like to discuss this matter in further detail.

The GoLower diet is designed to help keep control on cholesterol. Diets high in fibre have been shown to lower cholesterol and GoLower is very high in fibre. Just one of our nut bars will give you over half your daily requirement of fibre and when you add in all the green vegetables and fruit that we recommend you will find that you have a diet rich in both pre biotic and pro biotic fibre. To read more on fibre and cholesterol go to http://www.eatwell.gov.uk/healthissues/healthyheart/cholesterol/

At Go Lower we believe that if you are overweight you do not have an addiction, and we believe you shouldn’t have to starve yourself thin. We believe in three proper meals a day and that you have a healthy approach to eating and dieting.

The Go Lower nutritionally balanced meals work because they are:

• Real food that tastes great.
• Calorie controlled - you are limiting your daily intake of calories to between 1200 to 1500 a day, which is enough to help you lose weight, but not enough to slow your metabolism down.
• Protein rich - protein makes you feel full and is crammed with essential nutrients to help build strong healthy bodies. It stimulates your body to create and expel energy; in turn helping you burn more calories even when you seem to be doing nothing!
• Low in sugar and starch - this means your body needs to use its fat as energy - a state called Ketosis.
• Low GI and low GL - your blood sugar levels remain constant, avoiding the fat gain caused by insulin release. This is excellent for managing diabetes.
• Rich in vitamins, minerals and fibre.

Clinical studies show that after several weeks on the Go Lower diet you will improve your cholesterol profile, improving overall health and wellbeing. Go Lower has its most immediate and visible impact on people with a lot of weight to lose (more than 2 stone).

Ketones are a good indication that you are burning fat and therefore can be used to help monitor your progress.

When you eat less processed carbohydrate (like sugar and starch) your body turns to fat for energy, so more ketones are generated. Some of those ketones (acetoacetate and β-hydroxybutyrate) are used for energy; the heart muscle and kidneys, for example, prefer ketones to glucose.

Most cells, including the brain cells, are able to use ketones for at least part of their energy. But there is one type of ketone molecule (called acetone) that cannot be used by the body and is excreted as waste, mostly in the urine.

If enough acetone is in our urine, it can be detected using Ketone Test Strips. Even though everyone is generating ketones continually, this detection in the urine is what is what is commonly called “ketosis”.

The higher the concentration of ketones in the urine, the more purple the sticks will turn.

 Certain foods (in particular carbohydrates) turn into a form of sugar called glucose when digested. The glucose then enters your blood stream to provide energy.

If you have too much glucose in your blood stream your body will release a hormone called insulin from the pancreas to remove the excess glucose. This process turns excess glucose into fat to store energy for later.

If you do lots of exercise, or you have a naturally high metabolic rate, or you are young with an active human growth hormone, you can eat lots of foods that turn into glucose, without any problems.

If not, an over-production of insulin trying to control the glucose in your blood will lead to diabetes or simply excess fat.

Over the past few years many tests have been carried out on different foods to see how quickly the human body can convert food into glucose. This has resulted in a list of foods known as the glycaemic index.

Foods that covert to glucose slowly are known as Low GI (i.e. they have low Glycaemic Index) and those foods that convert fast are known as High GI.

This has become the basis of many diets in the UK, however there are some drawbacks with this simplistic approach to food and digestion.

Firstly the tests themselves are fairly random, as they are done on 12 people over a 2-hour period over 2 days. The problem with this is the variation in the people doing the test: their metabolic rates, state of health, wellbeing, age and lifestyle.

Did they exercise before the test? Or starve the night before? These are just two factors could affect the outcome of the test. With such small numbers doing the test and without the rigour of a truly controlled environment, the tests are unreliable.

Secondly some foods do not give rise to a high GI index but do cause a massive release of insulin for various complex biological reasons. Fructose is one such example.

Ultimately the only reason we are interested in the glycaemic index of foods is because it is likely that food with a high or medium GI will cause a massive release of insulin and that is the problem that we need to deal with.

Finally something may be low GI but still not good for you. For example a Topic chocolate bar is low GI but it’s certainly not good for you!

All Go Lower foods have a low GI but we go many steps beyond this to give you a complete diet.

Glycaemic Index in itself is not actually very helpful until we understand how much of the food we are eating is turning into Glucose. We need to know how fast and how much.

Eating a lot of low GI foods may seem OK but - combined with a lack of exercise - you are still going to get too much glucose in the blood, albeit slowly.

Glycaemic Load measures the GI and the amount of carbohydrate in the food. Low GL foods ensure not only a slow release of glucose into the blood stream but also a control over the amount.

Low GL foods tend to be low carb but high in fibre and essential vitamins and minerals.

As an example if you eat a Mars bar it is technically a medium GI food (which is considered to be good) but the danger sign is that it’s High GL.

In contrast, watermelon is High GI but it has very little sugar in it, so it is low GL.

All Go Lower foods are Low GL and Low GI and we go one step further.

We then think about the real intensity of the food from a nutrient position. So if it doesn’t give you anything other than sugar slow or fast, it won’t be in the Go Lower diet.

There are numerous clinical studies which show the huge benefits of high protein low carb diets. These are just some of the highlights

Brehm, BJ Seeley RJ Daniels SR et al

A Randomised Trial Comparing a very low carbohydrate Diet and a calorie restricted low fat diet. The journal of clinical endocrinology and metabolism 88(4) 2003 pages 1617-1623

Foster GD Wyatt HR Hill JO et al

A Randomised Trial of low carbohydrate diet for obesity

The New England Journal of Medicine 348 (21) 2003

Brian KD Brehm BJ Seeley RJ

Greater Reduction in Inflammatory Markets with a low carbohydrate diet

American Heart Associations Scientific Sessions 2002

Samaha FF Iqbal N

A low Carbohydrate as compared with a low fat diet in severe obesity

The New England Journal of Medicine 348(21) 2003

Westman EC Yancy WS Edman JS et al

Effect of 6-month adherence to a very low carbohydrate diet program

The American Journal of Medicine 113 (1)

Hussein M Dashti Thazhumpas et al

Beneficial effects of ketogenic diet in obese diabetic subjects

Molecular Cell Biochemistry Dec 2006

Christopher D Gardner PHD Alexandre Kiazand MD Sofiya Alhassan et al

Comparison of the low carb low fat and LEARN diets for change in weight and related risk factors in Premenopausal Woman

Journal of American Medical Association Jan 2007

Thomas L Halton ScD Walter Willet MD et al

Low Carbohydrate Diet Score and the Risk of Coronary Heart Disease in Woman

The New England Journal of Medicine March 2007-10-24

Dariush Mozaffarian et al

Dietary fats carbohydrate and progression of coronary atherosclerosis in postmenopausal woman

American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 2004

At Go Lower we think exercise is good for you but we know that when you are overweight it is hard to feel good about doing it. This program does not require exercise to get the results, but we believe that if you can’t do it during the program you should try and find the time when you have reached your goal.

Getting fit makes you both look and feel better. To find out more about recommended exercise please phone one of our counselors and we will make sure you get in touch with an expert.

If you think that the price of The Go Lower Programme is expensive then read on: -

The Food
Go Lower is not just another low calorie low fat diet - we do more

Our food actually makes your body burn fat. We have worked with the very best nutritionists and biochemists to develop these fat-burning meals so while you eat food you lose inches.

We have used chefs to take these clever recipes and turn them into great tasting meals so dieting does not have to leave a bad taste in your mouth.

We use local produce and farm assured ingredients wherever possible.

We don’t use any artificial ingredients or sweeteners.

We use a lot of protein, which is expensive whereas most diet foods use cheap bulking agents such as pasta and potatoes.

Our meals are virtually free of sugar which is cheap but fattening.

Our meals are high in fibre and protein to keep you full for longer but the best protein and fibre are expensive.

Delivery
Go Lower then delivers the meals to your home or work for free

The Support
Included in the daily cost is the dedicated support team that are there to help you every day with your worries, questions, issues and concerns. This is not about weekly weigh-ins or lectures but real help when you want it.

The Real Cost of Food
When we think of our weekly cost of food we probably think of our last supermarket shop. The average spend per person per week on groceries is £40. But when you add in all those lunches at the office and all the snacks and coffees along the way, the actual weekly food spend by the average person in the UK is significantly more than this. Then add all the takeaways and you are looking at nearer £80 per week.

On Go Lower you don’t buy your normal weekly shop and you don’t buy all the snacks or lunches. We provide these for you. Your weekly shop for vegetables and fruit will be down below £10 and no more expensive takeouts.

The Value of Health

What is the real value of great health and a slimmer waistline that lasts for life? For the first time you can do this without compromise. What is the value of not being stressed about food and diet or losing a stone in a month? 
 

• Quality ingredients specially sourced for great taste
• Prepared by a chef using a pressure cooking method to lock the taste in
• Individual portion sizes, for ease
• Ready for you to heat, garnish and serve with your favourite accompaniment in minutes
• No added colours, flavours, preservatives, or GMOs
• Minimal salt, if present at all
• No artificial sweeteners

One of the many ways that Go Lower differs from other diet companies is that we use a real kitchen, and prepare and cook small batches of each recipe.

One of our chefs prepares the protein element of the meal (the meat, fowl, fish etc). Simultaneously, a second chef prepares the sauce.

All the ingredients, which are uncooked at this point, go into individual portion pouches. The pouch is sealed and put into a steam pressure cooker.

The result is tender food, and because it is sealed in the pouches, the aromas are retained, not lost in the steam.

The pressure-cooking process also ensures that the food is totally cleared of any bacteria, which makes the food safe for long periods.

This has many advantages:

• Convenience - you can keep our products in the store cupboard until needed, with no need to refrigerate.
• No waste - Go Lower helps prevents food wastage, which is costly to the environment as well as to you.
• Lightweight - easy to carry and providing perfect protection for the nutrients, flavour and food quality of Go Lower dishes.

With each main evening meal we strongly recommend that you eat a portion of green vegetables or salad from the list provided when you join the Programme or buy our food.

At Go Lower we don’t think in terms of points, calories or grams. We believe that all the measuring and counting hasn’t helped us to understand food the way we should do. So at Go Lower we want you to think like a Hunter Gatherer and feel the weight of the food in your hand. However for those of you that find this a step too far we will also give you the metric measurements to help you along.

When you join the Go Lower Programme we provide you with recipes.  We have developed recipes for the vegetables to accompany the main meals and also recipes to help you develop your own cooking skills. These recipes will ensure that once you have finished the programme you can continue to keep your new shape.

You can eat out!  We offer a handy eating out guide as part of your delivery to give you suggestions of things to avoid during your diet. Don’t worry, you will still be able to eat most of the same dishes that your friends and family are eating, just with some small caveats.

The major difference is that Go Lower products are real food, not packet shakes or powders. We believe that the key to a good diet is eating good quality, nutritious food.

Go Lower makes it easy with the total convenience of delivery, portion control and great recipe development to give you a diet you can stick to and tastes great!

You also don’t have to be subjected to diet classes and public weigh-ins.

No, at present due to the number of products in the range the total diet box is only available to order online or by phone 0800 862 0099.

Once you have achieved your target weight you can still enjoy the Go Lower snack products as we will supply them to any one who has completed at least 28 days on the Programme.
 

Orders placed by 12 noon ( Monday to Thursday ) will be shipped the same day for next day delivery.

If you order after 12 noon (Monday to Wednesday)  we will ship the following day and that means it will arrive two days later.

If you order after 12 noon on a Thursday or before 12 noon on Friday we will ship on Friday and it will arrive on Monday.

If you order after 12 noon on a Friday or on the weekend we will ship on a Monday with delivery on Tuesday in the following week.

We do not ship or deliver on a bank holiday.


If you are unlikely to be in when we deliver, we require written authority of the customer to leave it without a signature.

Goods can be delivered to a home or work address.

The Go Lower Programme is based on the same principals as the Hunter Gatherer Diet or the Caveman Diet. The Go Lower diet is a diet based on protein, ( meat and chicken) , good fats ( nuts and seeds ) and some specific carbohydrates ( leafy vegetables and low GI fruit). This is the same diet that we have been evolved to eat over thousands of years. In fact we have only had a diet rich in sugar and starch for a relatively short time in our history and whilst we may have accommodated these foods into our diet, our bodies are not evolved to eat pasta or rice or glucose syrup.

Dr John Briffa is a leading advocate of the Hunter Gatherer or Caveman diet and is a firm supporter of GoLower as we comply with the same eating rules.  

The Maintenance Plan is a combination of advice and products.  Each is designed around the individual to ensure that it works for you. When you get near to the end of your Programme please email us and we will set up a call to ensure that the right plan is designed for you.

We have carried out numerous trials and we expect that the average person following the programme carefully is likely to lose about a dress size or a stone in just 28 days. However none of us are average and therefore the weight loss and inch loss can vary. Some people will find that due to age or lifestyle their progress is slower than others. If you take any type of medication this may affect the progress of the diet.  Naturally we can not guarantee that you will will lose a stone or a dress size in a month.