# South Beach diet



## honeybee (Nov 16, 2004)

What are your experiences with the South Beach diet? Is it liveable? Did you lose weight and keep it off?


----------



## Michael in FtW (Nov 16, 2004)

Diet is, technically, what you eat. Some are healthy and some are not. 

"Diets" that promise rapid weight loss usually do so by throwing off the metabolism ... which after a couple of weeks begins to compensate and you reach a plateu. They don't really offer a long-term weight loss solution - unles you keep your metabloism out of balance. And, many have health problems associated with them because of the nutritional imbalance. 

The only diet that works over time, and keeps the weight off, is a very simple formula - and is slow - eat a balanced diet (fat, carbs, proteins) and (a) decrease calories consumed (b) increase calories burned (activity, exercise). If you decrease your calories buy 100 and increase your caloried burned by 100 per day - you'll shed about 10-20 pounds per year.

1 pound = 3,500 calories. For every 3,500 calories you burn off over what you consume, you loose a pound. For every 3,500 calories you consume over what you burn off - you gain a pound.

The body is a very primative machine - and it needs a balance of things to work properly ... for example-  your liver needs fat to function properly, etc. If you want to throw nutriton out the window and just shed some pounds - eat all you want at every meal, then go gag yourself.

But - then .... there is the problem that muscle weighs more than fat - so as you exercise and convert fat to muscle ... you might not see a weight loss eaual to the calories burned - but you should see a loss in inches here and there ....


----------



## wasabi (Nov 16, 2004)

*honeybee, I think you opened a can of worms here like I did awhile back about my diet. Most here seems to watch their weight "sensibly". My brain doesn't compute "sensible" therefore I am a low carber and it works for ME. Good luck......wasabi*


----------



## middie (Nov 17, 2004)

worked for my sister. however it wasn't for me. to many veggies involved
eck


----------



## PA Baker (Nov 17, 2004)

Honeybee, my hubby had some really good success with South Beach.  Like wasabi, he needed assistance with "sensible."  He has found, though that when he goes off it now (holidays, business travel, etc) his weight tends to jump up, seemingly faster than it used to.  He refuses to be on South Beach all the time so it's just his personal struggle to find a happy medium.  But he was really pleased with the results and has recommended it to a lot of people.  I like it because it focuses on veggies and good, lean proteins and fats, unlike some others.  Good luck!


----------



## mudbug (Nov 17, 2004)

_Walking_ to South Beach from where I live is guaranteed to make the pounds melt away, even if it means walking thru the Carolinas and Georgia first, with all those good home cooks down there!


----------



## Leaf Storm (Nov 17, 2004)

*RE: Atkins diet*

Low carbs works but not for the reasons Atkins stated. Low carbs inhibit your appetite and also you are not eating as many calories. It may or not be dangerous. There are some studies that suggest that it is dangerous and it will affect your kidneys and your heart. Don't forget that carbs are the bodies fuel and it needs it.

The ONLY way to loose wait is to eat small healthy meals and burn more calories than you intake. It's not easy and it's not quick. Unfortuantly like most things in life that's the way you gotta do it.

I just wanted to say, be careful. Easy anwsers and quick fixes rarely are  I don't wanna see anybody get hurt.


*Atkins works?*
_The controversial and popular Atkins diet works for reasons that Dr Atkins may not have fully understood. Through a series of scientific experiments they show that although the diet allows people a healty quota of fat and protein, they actually eat as few calories as people on low fat diets. 

And the reason for this, according to recent research is because the quantity of protein the regime encourages, acts like an appetite suppressant. 

The meat, fish and eggs in the Atkins diet control hunger and stop people eating their usual quantity of calories. 

The theory behind Dr Atkins' diet is that by cutting down on starchy foods like potatoes, bread and pasta and eating mainly protein and fats like meat, eggs and cheese you can eat as much as you want and still lose weight. 

Dr Atkins even said there was no need to worry about calories. 

Heresy 

The idea that people do not have to worry about calories and still lose the pounds brought Dr Atkins much criticism and even prompted some scientists to call his diet "scientific heresy". 


Fish is also allowed 
Horizon teamed up with the University of Kansas and commissioned a scientific investigation to test Dr Atkins' most controversial theory. 

This states that on his diet you actually burn more calories than usual - allowing you to lose more weight. 

Dr Atkins had two ideas about where the extra calories were going. Firstly, he believed you burn more calories when your body uses fats and proteins as fuel. 

If this is true, says Dr Mary Vernon, of the Atkins Physician Council, it makes exercise less important than usual. 

"You wouldn't have to increase your exercise at all because your body would be working harder, so that you could literally sit in your armchair and lose weight." 

Dr Atkins also believed that on his diet you lose unused calories by peeing them away, as part of a process known as ketosis, which happens when you stop eating starchy foods and sugar. 

Twins' study 

In Horizon's investigation identical twins were put on different diets, one on the Atkins diet and one on a conventional low fat diet. Each was fed identical amounts of calories for two weeks. 


Potatoes are banned 
The twins were then locked inside a sealed chamber so that Professor Joseph Donnelly could calculate how quickly their bodies were burning calories. 

Over 24 hours the twin on the Atkins diet did lose more calories than the twin on low fat, but only 22. 

Professor Donnelly even checked the twins' urine for calories and found that the Atkins dieter had lost less than a single calorie more than his brother on low fat. 

Donnelly concluded that: "the differences were too small to suggest there's anything significant going on". 

Even though this research is at an early stage, there is little evidence for Dr Atkins' wasted calorie theories. 

Real reason 

Horizon examines other studies that reveal the real reason scientists believe the Atkins diet is effective. 

New results from research conducted 'Diet Trials' offer the first clue. 

The study examined the Atkins diet and three low fat, low calorie diets. 

All four diets worked, but Dr Joe Millward at the University of Surrey who headed up the research, discovered the secret to why Atkins dieters were losing weight. 

"The Atkins dieters were eating less calories, in exactly the same way as those going to the slimming clubs on their low fat diets." 

Without apparently trying, people on the Atkins diet were eating less than they would normally. 

Controlling hunger 

Scientists are now more interested than ever in what makes us eat less. They have concluded that there is something about the Atkins diet that controls hunger. 

Research has shown that fat is the least filling food. But new work in Denmark is showing exactly what kinds of food may control hunger. 

Professor Arne Astrup, from the Royal Veterinary & Agricultural University in Copenhagen, built a supermarket for a special study to find the secret of appetite control. 

Professor Astrup's study focused on being able to eat as much as you want. 

He put one group of shoppers on a high protein diet and one on a high carbohydrate diet. 

He was surprised to find that the people eating more protein lost significantly more weight. 

"The reason they lost more weight was because they consumed fewer calories, despite the fact they had free access to all the food they wanted." 

Increasing the amount of meat, fish and eggs in the diet may not only be the answer to our hunger pangs, but the secret to how the Atkins diet works. 

Perhaps without realising it, Dr Atkins stumbled across the secret of appetite control, by discovering a high protein diet. 

The programme also investigates whether or not the Atkins diet is dangerous. 

With no long term studies on the diet, any possible health risks of the diet are, so far, unproven. _


----------



## Leaf Storm (Nov 17, 2004)

And this about it's dangers including: raised cholesterol,  increase the risk of kidney disease and the PCRM adds osteoporosis and colon cancer to the list of risks. 

_*Atkins diet may be dangerous*

WASHINGTON: A nutrition advocacy group warned on Thursday that the popular Atkins diet may cause heart disease and could have killed a teen-age dieter. 

It urged the U.S. government to monitor the high-fat weight loss approach to see if it indeed causes heart disease. 

The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine stressed it could not prove the diet had hurt or killed anyone. But one dieter said he believed the approach clogged his arteries and the parents of a teen-ager who died while on the diet also blamed her meat-heavy regimen. 

The PCRM called on the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to monitor diets and check for signs that the Atkins and other high-fat, high-protein diets may be harming people’s health. 

“You can never say this diet caused this death,” PCRM director Dr. Neal Barnard cautioned. He said the CDC should monitor large groups over time to see if there was an association. 

The CDC had no immediate comment. Two federal health officials who asked not to be named said it might be possible to incorporate the information into existing surveys on diet, lifestyle and health. 

Atkins Nutritionals, Inc. said its diet was safe. 

“There is no logic and no science to support any association between these individuals and the ANA (Atkins Nutritional Approach),” said Colette Heimowitz, vice president of education and research for the company. 

EAT MEAT: The Atkins diet has made headlines around the world with an approach that flies in the face of most medical advice. It is based on a theory developed by Dr. Robert Atkins, who died in April after a fall, that carbohydrates make people fat. 

It encourages dieters to shun bread, pasta, fruit and many vegetables in favor of meat, butter and other fatty food. 

“What I contend is that the Atkins diet gave me heart disease,” Jody Gorran, a 53-year-old Florida businessman, said at a news conference organized by PCRM. He said his arteries clogged and cholesterol shot up while on the diet. 

Paul and Lisa Huskey of Columbia, Missouri, say their 16-year-old daughter, Rachel, died of a heart arrhythmia in 2000 while on the diet. Dr. Paul Robinson, a pediatrician at the hospital where Rachel died, said the diet could have caused her death by leaching calcium and potassium from her body. 

Many doctors and the American Heart Association have warned that the diet could be dangerous. The Heart Association advocates a diet based on whole grains, fruits and vegetables. 

It warned that over time the Atkins diet and similar approaches could raise cholesterol. Other experts have said the diet might also increase the risk of kidney disease and the PCRM adds osteoporosis and colon cancer to the list of risks. 

More than 60 percent of American adults ore overweight or obese so the need for effective diets is clear. “The skinniest people on the planet are vegetarians and Asians,” Barnard said. —Reuters
_


----------

