ADVICE PLEASE!!! What's better - South Beach, Atkins or India's idiot proof diet?

[BitTiredNow]

Health wise I mean. Have read up about all of them, and am going to start this weekend with DH, but not sure which is healthiest - south beach seems OK, but has low fat stuff in too (bleeurrch), India seems OK, but am V put off by the truck load of supplements she insists on - all together they seem way in excess of the RDA, and she insists they be taken forever, which is flipping expensive-can anyone with a nutritional background shed any light? Would love to hear anyone's opinion on this.

[BitTiredNow]

fat girl bumping!!!

[SugarBird]

I read up on these and chose Atkins to start with, then after a week of the induction phase have pretty much done my own thing - Atkins mainly, but with more veggies and low-carb fruits. It seems to be a healthy option and although he recommends supplements, I only had them at the very beginning (magnesium and potassium) while I was getting used to the new way of eating. You do feel a bit crap for the first few days as your body adjusts to no sugar, wheat, caffeine etc, but it passes pretty quickly. For lots of different opinions of several different low-carb plans try this site - I found the forums a big help in deciding which plan to follow and there's loads of good information.
Good luck with it!

[BitTiredNow]

thanks Sugarbird. How much weight have you lost and how long have you been doing it?

[BecauseImWorthIt]

Which is 'healthiest' depends very much on your definition of 'health'.

Conventional wisdom has it that a low fat diet is best, but Atkins (and many other low carb afficionados) will tell you that it should be low carb and high fat.

If you really want to eat low carb, then you have to accept that fruit (mostly) will not be on your agenda - again, something that runs counter to much contemporary advice. Low carb fruits include rhubarb and most berries.

The other thing with low carbing is that it really is a way of eating rather than a diet - if you lose weight and then revert to eating a high level of carbs you will put the weight back on again.

The good thing about India/Nery's plan is that it does work up to including some carbs back in your diet - I think very much on the same principles as South Beach (although I haven't read South Beach).

I have been low carbing on and off for the last 5 or so years. The great advantage of it is that you are rarely hungry and you can enjoy lovely food - no calorie counting or eating ersatz low fat (high sugar/loads of additives) stuff. But you do have to get used to life without bread, pasta, rice and potatoes - and it can be tough if you're out and about as the world survives on carbs - any eating place in any station, airport, high street revolves around bread/pastry/sugar.

The other site I can recommend is

low carb diet

Lots of help and information there, although it is relatively quiet compared with MN!

[SugarBird]

Bittirednow - I started on Jan 1st and have lost just over a stone. The weight fell off at first (water weight) and now it's slowed right down but I feel much better than I did when I was eating lots of carbs. If you're missing bread etc, there are low carb alternatives such as flaxmeal muffins (ground flaxseed, egg, butter, baking powder) that are a good substitute (and keep you regular )

Becauseimworthit - I agree that it is definitely a way of eating, rather than a short-term diet. The thing with the South Beach diet is that it apparently (I haven't read it either!) recommends low-fat products, which as you say are often full of additives. Atkins also works up to including whole grains, pulses and fruit into your diet as you go through his stages but it's stricter than I wanted to be.

It is hard (well, nigh on impossible) getting low-carb snacks out and about so I usually carry small portions of nuts, seeds, berries, flax muffins etc with me when I'm going to be out for a long time or at work. Eating out is fine as you can have omelettes or steak/burger/chicken/fish etc and salad.

[BecauseImWorthIt]

Agree SB - eating out is usually easy. The only restaurants where it's impossible are those which only serve pizza/pasta, and Thai restaurants, where they tend to use a lot of sugar in their dressings and sauces.

But I have found that it's much, much easier to eat out when you're low carbing than if you're trying to calorie count or avoid the fat.

[satine]

I know I'm stating the bleeding obvious, but what about just trying sensible eating rather than A Diet? Grilled chicken and salad, fish, porridge for breakfast, tuna and brown bread sandwiches, lots of fruit and veg, pulses - and smaller portions. That way you might stand a better chance of keeping the weight off long term, if it's a shift in lifestyle rather than a prescriptive Diet which, IME, just makes me crave the foods that are forbidden. And is there any way you can take a bit more exercise together? Even a tiny improvement in fitness level just has a magical effect on your well-being and happiness.

And Atkins just seems like a crazy diet in terms of long term health. It's so counter-intuitive.

[KatyMac]

I have lost 62lbs without any great effort by changing the way I eat

It is not a diet by any stretch of the imagination

I eat lots of lean protein - grilled fish, grilled chicken, stirfried chicken
I eat as much fruit & veg as my IBS will allow
I cut out practically all processed food (except baked beans/tomato soup & some sauces - tho' I read the labels on the sauces very carefully)
I make my own bread with the most expensive flour I can afford - stoneground in a watermill (well it appeals to my ego
I have very little dairy (again my IBS)
Only fat I have is a little butter and olive oil

The weight took a while to lose (maybe 1 or 2 lbs a month) but I never yo-yo-ed once I past the wieght going down it never came on again & occasionally I plateau-ed but it always started up again

I have gone from a size 22 to practically a size 12 (bottom......top is still a 14 )

[satine]

Katymac - excellent cross-posting!

[PortAndLemon]

Why not just low GI? It's actually recommended by mainstream doctors and nutritionists (it's the diet recommended when you're diabetic and to prevent you developing diabetes, for example) as well as having celebrity devotees, so it's not just another "fad" diet.

[BecauseImWorthIt]

Satine - there are lots of papers to support the view that low carbing is a healthy way to eat. Don't believe everything you read in the press about Atkins!

[KatyMac]

I eat biscuits & cakes and have done since I hit the size 18
I drink sweet drinks
I never worry about eating out because I eat so well the rest of the time

I lost 6 inches off my waist the month after getting a bread maker - & boy do I eat more bread than I did before

[satine]

The avoidance of too many processed carbohydrates is definately sensible - I try to avoid white bread, rice etc - but the high fat content is not good. And to restrict the consumption of many vegetables and fruit, for example, is also not very sensible.

[satine]

Let's face it, if there was a magic diet that worked without fail, every doctor would prescribe it and far fewer of us would be fat. The truth is watching what you eat and excercising is not fun and bloody hard work, but it works. Sadly.

[ivykaty44]

Katymac - do you think that homemade bread helped with your weight lose?

Is this due to the fact you are in contol of the sugar, salt and butter etc rather than shop brought bread with loads stuffed into it?

[KatyMac]

salt sugar & olive oil - but yes

also I don't really know what flour improvers are - but when ever I have them my weight goes up (briefly you know after a week away, at Christmas) I never cut down the amount I eat afterwards - just what I eat

[piratecat]

katymac, the bread thing, is very interesting.

What bread maker did you get and would you share your recipe for the bread.

I am very down with my weight , but determined to change my eating habits. I am going to see my mum in Spain end of June and would love to lose about 2 dress sizes.

[KatyMac]

Kenwood
900ml of flour 3/4 white 1/4 wholemeal
200ml of F/F milk
100ml boiling water
2 tabsp olive oil
1 teasp salt
2 teasp sugar
2 sachet of yeast

It's a 1 hour programme

But that could be due to my IBS - I think the expensive flour really makes a difference

That's 18 weeks to loose, what about a stone or 21lbs?

I can't remember how much a dress size is?

[KatyMac]

I would only have lost 4-8lbs in the same time period

[ivykaty44]

Katymac - thanks, I thought it was perhaps me just thinking my homemade bread made a difference!

I use an old LG bread maker and have a french bread recipy that I use, water, flour, sugar, salt and yeast - that is it the bread is lovely and I mix the flour some white and some wholemeal in the same loaf. It takes 4 hours to make and usually I put it on overnight so that the smell permiates the house at 6am and my dd has fresh bread for pack up.

[MoreSpamThanGlam]

Katymac - 62lbs at 1 - 2 lbs a month???

That has taken you years then??

[KatyMac]

Yep - I started Spring 2001 at 14st 7lbs
I am now 10st 1lb

There were 2 periods when I lost nothing for about 6 months & one time I lost nothing for a year

Nothing I did ever started the weight loss again it just sort of started automatically

[piratecat]

thanks katy mac!!

It just goes to show, if we put it on slowly over the yrs, we can lose it long trem too, and keep it up with a sustianed eating plan.

I am 11st 10 today. Have put on half a stone since starting to drive about 7 months ago. I looked so much better with a stone off.

At 5 ft 3, its way too much and I have always been about two dress sizes bigger than I should. I have been looking at my eating, and realsie that I am a product of the 70's sweet addiction/ easy food syndrome!!

Unfortunately i have been getting really slack with my dd too. So if she has my genetics ( and my mums) she is going to err always on the heavy side. So i have decided to cut downon the easy crap, ie Penguins, to much sugar, and too much processed stuff.

[BitTiredNow]

wow! This thread has taken off. I have done plenty of other diets in the past - low GI just didn't work for me, weight watchers I took too far and became obsessed with portion control etc etc slimming world worked, but I could never look at cottage cheese again.... both India and South Beach do heavily restrict carbs in the first 2 weeks, but them add in fruit etc gradually from week 3 onwards, and then steadily everything else, so that by the end you are eating practically what KatyMac does - eg stoneground bread, fruit, veg etc. I want to do it this was to give myself a jump start, but fully intend to use it as a step in the journey towards a full change of eating habits. I am prepared to do this restricted stage for 2 weeks - and it is also really good discipline not to drink for that length of time too. Today I ate scrambled eggs for breakfast, lunch was a tuna salad, and supper was stuffed baked avocado with slad, and I have eated 7 portions of different veg today, so I am quite happy I am getting my vitamins - my original doubt about India was the really high level of supplements she insists on - it seems a bit superfluous and very expensive.

[SugarBird]

Agree about the supplements. I read somewhere that if you're eating a decent diet, supplements just mean that you end up with very expensive wee, as your body just gets rid of most of the excess!
If you're tired and have aching limbs at the start, though, potassium and magnesium may help just for the induction stage. See how you feel.