Yes, and no. Arora is a low-cost alternative to the overpriced and extremist weight loss centres which guarantee dramatic weight loss by serving juice only, water fasts, or extreme low-calorie food. We offer a taste of what life is like, and all you’d be able to eat (or rather not eat), if you were to undergo bariatric surgery. Yes, weight loss, and sometimes extreme weight loss, is a result, but that’s not all we’re about.

One of Arora’s main goals is to give those considering bariatric surgery a taste of what life will become. A living of example of what can, or more appropriately can’t, be eaten in the first three months after weight loss surgery. You’ll lose weight during your stay while you experience your own virtual bariatric surgery, but more importantly, you’ll be introduced to a way of falling back in love with yourself, beginning a healthy association with food, and possibly continuing the journey to massive weight loss without the need for such an evasive risky operation.

We are a service not a business. We want our guests to leave with a new sense of love for themselves and a healthy association with food. Our goal is that our guests won’t want to visit us again but instead leave renewed with a sense of purpose and continue their weight loss journey without needing either a return visit, or the bariatric surgery they’re contemplating.

Arora’s founder underwent gastric bypass surgery and ultimately lost over half her bodyweight. Bariatric surgery can bring about its own unique problems and drawbacks and isn’t a permanent solution for those who’ve reached a certain level of obesity through the challenges and difficulties of life. Most bariatric patients will regain the weight they lose. Arora’s founder set up the retreat as the caring, supportive nurturing place she would have liked to have found when looking for answers and considering bariatric surgery.

No, we also offer a ‘Bariatric Diet’ which is more solid whole food but restrictive enough to give dramatic weight loss results.
And a ‘Your Life Beyond’ programme which provides delicious food with good weight loss results, designed to encourage you to follow its principles on your return home.

We try to travel all over the country. We stay in comfortable air bnbs or other holiday rentals.

It hopefully will. Lose skin often cannot be avoided, particularly if you are a certain age or have reached a certain level of obesity. But things can help. The Founder has been through 8 skin surgeries, each one with complications, and can help you understand the process and how to maximise your chances of avoiding severe loose, sagging skin.

No. Arora focuses on the fundamental, the emotional, the complex relationship we can develop with food and how interconnected that is with our self-worth and self-care. It is more about nurturement and freedom than punishment and rules. It is more about the joy of food rather than the denial of it. It is more about ‘feeling well’ rather than the obsession with a number on a scale.

Yes, you could look at it that way. Each ‘Core’ retreat is broken into three parts. Phase 1) The liquid diet you’d be living on your first month post-surgery. Phase 2) the pureed food of your second month. Phase 3) the tiny portions you’d be able to manage in your third month and beyond. Whether you’re with us 3 days or longer, if you choose to follow the core programme, your retreat will be broken down accordingly and upon leaving, you’ll have a taste of and introduction to a way of making, eating and loving healthy food which will result in weight loss just as surgery would.

Definitely not. The founder reclaimed her life through bariatric surgery. However, she also suffered crippling health problems because of it. Arora is neither pro nor anti bariatric surgery it is simply the programme the founder would have loved to have had available to her before she embarked on surgery. Arora aims to be an alternate which can be just as powerful and life changing, but far less damaging.

This will all very much depend on various factors such as your starting weight and the length of the retreat. If you were in the obese range and spent a month at Arora on the Phase 1 only programme – consuming only the liquid shakes applicable to your first month post-surgery, you would most likely lose approximately thirty pounds or more. However, Arora is about more than just the number on the scales, it is about your first step on a much larger journey where you wouldn’t need to rely on either bariatric surgery or any weight loss retreat. Arora’s aim is for you to fall back in love with life, with yourself, with the joy of healthy food so you can complete the journey to your weight loss goal without such evasive measures.

We plan gentle walks each day, but these are not enforced. Guests may want to do little more than curl up in bed and spend their free time thinking or settling down with a book or good movie. There are no severe boot camp activities.

Yes, it’s the foundation of Arora. It was set up so that the founder could give others her personal help and attention and answer any questions they may have about potential weight loss surgery or weight loss in general.

Yes, you’re welcome to work there remotely if you’re on a week’s retreat or longer. We would recommend staying away from work and only working remotely if that‘s possible. You need this time away from the real world to go through an extreme process and come out a new you the other side. The stresses and strains of real life can sometimes complicate that process.