Seeing if anyone has tried it, is on it and what luck you may have had.
A friend of the wife and mine tried it...said it was really difficult to start, because it was such a drastic departure from his normal diet. He said he would start dozing off at work, all he could think about on lunch was going out to the car for a little shuteye, etc.
Why do people join these diet fades? Losing weight is pretty simple in concept. First, cut out your grease and sweets as fats are 9 calories per gram. Second, no more snacking between meals. Third, reduce your portions. Fourth, get some excercise. People become disillusioned with dieting. If you are heavy it is easy to lose the first ten pounds. As your mass decreases, so does your caloric need to maintain that new weight. If you were 300 lbs, you need 3600 calories a day to maintain that weight. When you get down to 250 lbs, your maintence intake goes down to 3000. So you can see how the 300lb person can get down to 250 by reducing their daily caloric intake to 3000. Once they hit 250 they need to cut their intake to below 3000 to continue to keep losing. To get to and maintain 200 lbs would require the daily caloric average be below 2400. You never hear people explaining the caloric curve to people letting them know that struggle becomes harder the more they lose and that it never ends from a maintence stand point.
It's not a fad diet...but a way of eating. I've lost 50 pounds PeterS and kept it off for almost 3 years now.
PeterS....... You generally cannot really plan to eat after 8pm if you are ever going to lose any weight and keep it off on South Beach. I sympathize with you.......it's been a long time since I've had a midnight pizza.........mmmmmmm....... Having said that, the toughest part of it all was for me was changing from beer (too many fast carbs) to Jack Daniels (no carbs at all)........heh. I found that I got drunker faster on Jack (dangerous eh ?) and on much less quantity than I did if I drank beer......there's a learning curve for everything. Seriously though (and the above was true BTW) the hardest part for me was that I had to look at food no longer as "entertainment" (as in lets go out for dinner entertainment) and something to be enjoyed like a cigar and glass of merlot......but rather I had to modify my view of food to that of a commodity used to fuel my body. It was a very tough mental stance to take since the last time I was that hardcore about eating was 20 years ago when I was a bodybuilder. If you can do that mental adaption and stick with it, you can use the South Beach diet and be successfull over the first two weeks of phase one (the hardest when you lose 10-15 pounds) and the next 3 months while on phase two (2-3 pounds a week)....... After you get used to it and see that it really works wonders you can start to experiment with food variety again.......but for the first little while it's like being on an airline....chicken or beef.......chicken or beef......etc..... I lost 50 pounds in 3 months over 3 years ago and have kept it off.......and if I go crazy for a week or so (like on a cruise or during a holiday season) and gain 15 pounds in two weeks.......I just go back to phase one for a 2-3 week period and drop the weight again. This happened to me this year over the Christmas holidays......I've now lost 12 of my 15 pounds I gained in the last 2 weeks since I have stopped eating garbage. Sugar is a drug...........
Right on! I've lost a TON of weight (embarassing, actually!) from only taking in low GI carbs, lean protein, and healthy fats! It's the healthiest and BEST BEST BEST way to lose weight. I did try the South Beach diet, but I realized that I could do this half-assed or do it right and not look back. 6 balanced meals a day including protein always. Taper your carbs towards the end of the day, and get fats here and there. Figure out your maintenance calories (google), cut 500-600, start doing some cardio (keep working up to the point where you can go for 40 minutes straight. It doesn't take that long, TRUST me. Elliptical will be the best as it works more of all your body and doesn't kill your legs! Once you get to that point keep increasing resistance. I think cardio was the best thing for me as I am not only getting really skinny, I am getting in great shape! Balanced diet: 40/40/20 (%) protein, carbs, fat. fish, lean beef, grilled/baked chicken, tuna, WHEY (! This is awesome for when you can't get anything else. The protein in it is excellent and easy to eat on the run!) rolled oats, multigrain bread, FIBER ONE .. the list goes on forever. For fats, get some flax seed oil and incorporate it in your diet somehow. Just get it in your system! Peanut butter is great, fish is great for fats as well. Just don't cheat yourself! You will start to notice results immediatly with this and you won't lose muscle. All of your numbers turn for the better and you will just feel GREAT. The same cannot be said about any diet. This isn't a secret it just takes a lot of willpower. If it's easy, it ain't workin'! Take care and good luck!
I use it about once per year to drop weight if I get a little big in the waist. Usually dropping 10 pounds in 2 weeks is no problem. I lost twenty pounds in a month on it once. The first time I did it you would have thought carbs were crack...I developed a sympathy for addicts. It gets easier though.
Pete, It is possible that I am the last one to be offering counsel on the issue of diet, but I have noticed that diet is only a portion of the picture. Steady, regular exercise is critical to weight management. I am editing to add that increased exercise will help offset those indulgent moments that tend to occur during 'nights out' or over the holidays/birthdays, etc.
Peter, Peter, Peter, Peter... Eat Less. Excercise. It's that simple. At the beginning of Sept, 2005, I was 185lbs (I'm only 5'5"), and my cholesterol was sky high. I adopted a plan of eat less and excercise. The key is to reduce your caloric intake to less than 2000 calories/day. More veggies, less meat. My current weight is 155, and dropping. My cholesterol also dropped 48 points. I did it. So can you. See my cholesterol thread, esp. post #31 http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=73173&highlight=cholesterol Dom
Basically, I am just answering the question: I have tried the S.B.D. Twice. It worked for me (16 pounds lost 1st try, 9 lbs 2nd). Simple as that. I think all of the above post's are correct in their own way, but lets just cut to the chase. The format that the S.B.D. gives you is simple to follow, and it gives you a plan to adhere to. That "plan" helps many people stay the course. That alone makes it worth doing. Sure you could formulate your own working plan, as we all seem to know what we "have to do, or have to eat," but... if you dont want to have to make your own plan, then just follow the instructions already printed out for you with this diet. Bottom line is that this style of food intake worked for me. At one point I was actually surprised with how much darn food I had to make time to eat within the day for this diet. I ate more than I did when I was NOT on a diet.
Peter, Rather funny, as I was riding today I was wondering if I'd ever post to F-chat my progress on losing weight. I recollected your thread some time ago about being determined to lose weight....I was actually considering dropping you a pm to see how you were doing. Let me add an emphasis on another angle: EXERCISE. I've heard experts say that they'd rather eat junk food and be able to exercise then to eat perfectly and not be able to exercise. The benefits of exercise span far beyond weight-loss....it's great for circulation, lower blood pressure, better cholesterol numbers, stimulates metabolism, releases happy-happy endorphons that you'd otherwise have to smoke crack to enjoy, lowers stress, increases circulation, prevents heart-disease, diabetes and ON AND ON AND ON AND ON. Pete: you've got to dial yourself in for some major cardio. Now...here's the kicker: I'm most hungry when I don't exercise. When I do exercise I feel less hungry. Exercise essentially can give you the same anti-hunger sensation as (reportedly) cocaine does. The more you exercise, the more calories you'll burn AND the easier it will be to lose weight by having naturally less hunger. AND once you do all that exercise, you'll want to eat right and not stuff more greasy foods down your throat. For me, it's mountain biking. I now ride 2-3x per week, from my home up into the hills and back...22 miles taking 2.4 hours. I can ride for that long easier then 10 minutes on a freakin' Life-Cycle at the gym....given your sporting background, you may really enjoy the off-roading nature of this sport!!! Also, just figure you've spent some 40 years of your life enjoying eating what you wanted...now it's time to re-evaluate and come to terms with the fact that people can die young, especially with our American diet. Time to think of your body like your car....treat it right and put in only the best. Every now and then you can go hog-wild and pig-out...you'll enjoy those times more intensely and after a while you won't miss your previous high-consumptive life-style. Oh, about your question: all these fad diets are essentially the same...they merely disguise a low-calorie diet with some ground-shaking new-found science that promises some wild results based on a specialized program. In the end, it's all the same...eat less, exercise more and don't be afriad to bring multiple woman into your sex life. I may have improvised something with that last sentence?????
Oh...one last thing. Rumor has it that all the money in the world, all the cars, wealth and success become instantly worthless once wer'e gone. You may want to get real serious and spend some money on a personal trainer...it'll set ya back some $50 to $85 a pop, but like I wrote above: what good is your money if you're six-feet under? The thing about a trainer is that it forces you to keep a schedule and not lax-up. Wish you the best pete!
South Beach Diet... Hmmm 2 grams of blow a day + vigourous strippers and hookers. You'll look like a skeleton in two months.
i've found beer to be pretty alright, i'm a mesomorph (gain or lose weight/muscle easily) and generally eat out 95% of the time, usually with beer. then 2-3 times a week i get hammered, with something like a yiros (marinated lamb with lettuce onion tomato garlic sauce in a pita bread) or pizza before going home. for me it's never been what i eat that matters, it's just when you eat and what you do. for about 4 of the last 8 years (alone since 2004.5) i've lived with a gf, and we'd always have late and big dinners, then i'd just sit on my arse and have a few drinks till i went to bed. doing this i eventually went from being a super-fit 78kg (170lbs) to someone who'd puff n pant going up a flight of stairs at 103kg (225lbs). since becoming a more going-out for food drinks and fun rather than eat-in and go to bed type, i've felt a lot healthier. haven't weighed myself for a few months, but reckon i fluctuate between 85-90kg (185-200lbs) which is fine by me. that 78kg super-fitness was just too much maintenance, when you get bored holding two scuba diving weights around your head doing 500 situps it's just too much! plus i never really drank or had nice meals. now i'm happy to do a bit of exercise here and there (and sex is great too!) but still have a lifestyle that's not culinarily boring. there's only a few things in life i really like doing, eating and drinking are right up there so it's just a question of balance.
