Posted by wordwitch on November 3, 2003, at 19:53:02
In reply to Re: I need your advice. Atkins diet « Larry Hoover, posted by Dr. Bob on November 3, 2003, at 3:52:13
Hi,
For what it's worth, check out the South Beach Diet. It's similar to Atkins but much more realistic. The SB diet was developed by a cardiologist for his patients, but apparently he quickly realized that 1) people were losing weight on it; 2) they were able to follow it because it wasn't utterly ridiculous (okay, that's a bit of editorializing--sorry); 3) they were able to keep the weight off because the diet isn't one that you're dying to quit the minute you reach your goal weight.
Even during the initial "strict" phase, you're not only allowed, but expected, to eat reasonable amounts of certain carbs. There's a book out about it (of course) but you can find info on it at the Prevention magazine website.
Something else that seems to work nicely is the relatively recent development of Phase 2 starch blockers, which are derived from white kidney beans. You take two or three right before or with a meal that's high in carbs and they prevent your body from converting all the carbs to sugar.
I've been following a sort of half slow version of it (if you catch my drift) and I'm doing great.
One thing I have definitely noticed...it's really true that once you start cutting back on carbs--even if it's mostly by sticking primarily with "good" carbs (whole grains, brown rice, etc.)--you start to lose the craving for carbs. I always thought that bit about "the more you eat the more you want" was a bunch of hooey. It ain't. I'm 48 years old and for most of my life Chocolate was as a god to me. (Okay, maybe not that bad. But bad.) Now I very rarely want anything sweet. I've also found that my desire for carbs such as bread and pasta is diminishing rapidly. I used to have toast, a bagel, an English muffin, or a roll and butter, almost every day for breakfast. Now I couldn't look bread in the face first thing in the morning if you offered me a million bucks. (There I go, exaggerating again.)
Good luck!
poster:wordwitch
thread:275999
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/alter/20031023/msgs/276254.html