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Originally Posted by funchy  He really liked South Beach. I bought the book and gave it my best shot. It worked for about 3 weeks, then weight-loss plateaued, then I started feeling terrible. It also sucked I couldn't *ever* go out to eat. I suffered through a few more weeks of feeling absolutely yucky and hating my food, then finally gave up. Any weight loss I achieved vanished the moment I ate normal food. |
YMMV (your mileage may vary). I stuck it out for a year and a half, with great results. I only gained back about ten pounds. I never returned to high carb eating, though I ate a far more mainstream diet. I ate and eat more veggies than I ever did before (even when vegetarian) and learned to like them a lot, I like lettuce tacos now way more than I ever liked tacos in a corn tortilla.
I also had a lifestyle change to go with it, became a lot more active and switched to on-the-feet employment from desk work. I am now a fitness buff and eat more carbs to go with that lifestyle.
And I ate out more than on any other diet I've been on. I can see where it'd be impossible to eat out if you are a vegetarian, though. That I'm an omnivore is probably what made it doable. My restaurant breakfast standby was omelette or eggs + breakfast meat with green salad instead of starch sides, and lunch/dinner standbies were either meat/fish entree with salad or veggie side, or salad topped with meat. But if you're a vegetarian, I see no way you'd be able to get the protein from a meal at a mainstream restaurant... you'll get sick of veggie omelets pretty fast.
Again, it's YMMV, but I also had great support (alt.diet.support.low-carb or something like that was the group I was in, plus a diabetic friend who ate low-carb as prescribed by the doctor).
to the guy who said "carbs don't make you fat, calories do" - actually it's not the inherent calories in a carb meal. It's the fact that for some people, carby food causes blood sugar to bounce around, which makes you hungry, which ends up making you eat more and have more cravings.
The reason also that LC may have worked for me is that I was eating only nutrient dense foods. It ends up ruling out most "empty calorie" foods. Anything carby I ate was bundled with high fiber and nutrients. Bread, pasta and rice went bye-bye.