Re: Help Me! Talk to Me......

February 28, 2004

,

I'm new to this and still feeling my way around with this diet. My

concern is health. I do not want to do anything which would

ultimately jeoparidize the long term health of my body, so I still

feel like I'm in an experimental phase. I'm adherring to the plan,

but I'm also trying to be very aware of how my body responds and what

I am hearing of others' progress.

I have succesfully done Weight Watchers in the past, and I really did

like it. I simply became tired of counting points. It allowed you

to eat anything as long as you kept your daily intake within a

certain point range. If you ate a 5 point candy bar, you pretty much

gave up your 5 point lunch. Each day had a point range, say between

20 and 25 points. If you only ate 20 points you could bank the 5 you

didn't eat, and sometime during that week you could use the

accumulation of your banked points and eat more than the 25 points

you were alloted during the day. Your bank cleared and started over

one day each week (you chose the day). Basically it taught you

portion control as well as healthier eating. Points were based on

fat and fiber content as well as calories, so higher fiber foods had

a lower point value.

Something I have learned through the years of studying nutrition and

health is that our bodies can reach a set point. Our metabolisms can

level off. Part of the reason the Weight Watchers point range worked

so well was because you could eat at the top of the range one day and

the bottom of the range the next and in-between on another day and

one day you could use your banked points and eat above your range.

This would keep your metabolism from reaching a set point. For some

who still seemed to reach a plateau, there was the Plan which

utilized the Weight Watcher's point plan, but took a look at the

WEEKLY range and modified it so that there would be 2 really low

days, one really high day, a high day, and 2 moderate days. The

bigger variant seemed to help those who had reached a plateau.

There is also another plan out there called Biogenesis which works

along similar principles. They focus a great deal on lifting

weights, but their 2 week set diet plan (rather dull to repeat it

again and again) works off this same theory of fooling your

metabolism.

Now, with the South Beach diet plan, I wonder if you could do

something similar. Just recently, on another board, an individual

shared with me that she had reached a plateau and someone told her to

up her protiens. When she did this she began to loose again. By

uping her protiens a bit, she would have been increasing her

calories, and, it seems to me, this would be similar to fooling your

body so that it would not reach a set point. I wonder if you ate a

higher amount of protien a couple of days a week, a lower amount a

couple of days a week, and a moderate amount a couple of days a week

if it would help you, or you could try a combination of altering the

carbs and the protiens so that you had a couple of high calorie days,

a couple of low calorie days, and a couple of moderate days. Of

course these would not be right next to each other. It would look

something like this - a moderate day, a low day, a high day, a low

day, a moderate day, a low day, a high day, etc. It's certainly

worth a try, and you wouldn't be breaking from the plan and altering

the benefits of working with the glycemic index and the consumption

of good carbs.

If you decide to give this a try, I would be very interested in

hearing how it works for you. I am only finishing up week 3, but I

thought this would be my next step if I quit loosing. Honestly, if

this diet plan doesn't work for me, I will return to the Weight

Watchers plan, but I believe there have got to be benefits to the

healthier eating of whole grains, limited sugar, etc. I also like

the fact that, as long as I eat food on the plan, I don't have to

count calories, carbs., points, etc. ) I have even thought of

utilizing the Weight Watchers point system with the food choices of

South Beach if it became necessary.

Good-luck!

Vie

> I really, really need some guidance here! I'm getting to the point

where I just don't know what to do!?!?

> I must be doing something very wrong, I'm not losing any more...in

fact, I've gained just recently! I started this diet on July 7th, of

last summer, and of course...the weight just started sliding off.

After the first couple of months, it slowed down to about 4 pounds a

month...then it stopped! I've stayed the course...and I mean stayed

the course! Still nothing, I've increased my exercise, still

nothing. What is happening? Why is this happening? I've searched

all other South Beach articles I can find, the only thing I've really

found that even refers to this type of stall out or plateau, was

something that said my body believes it has reached it's ideal

weight. Blah Bela Bela I started this diet at 205, when it stopped,

I was down to 165 which would fluctuate to 168 and some times to 170,

then go back down, go back up, go back down....get the picture? So,

I've tried to take out some things that I thought might be causing

this, nuts, oatmeal and really increased the

> veggies...I mean I'm eating raw broccoli and radishes like crazy.

I weighed this morning, I haven't weighed in about 3 weeks, I weighed

173! I've been thinking of trying the Atkins, The Zone, or even

Weight Watchers because this just isn't working anymore. I've been

at this point for 5 months, this just can't be right! Is there

anyone else out there that has been doing this diet for as long as I

have and have you had this problem? Tell me what I'm doing wrong,

please!

> One other thing...during the spring or summer months I drink very

little coffee...a couple of cups in the morning. When it starts

getting cold, it's a different story...I absolutely crave coffee

every afternoon. I've tried to drink hot tea, herbal and green but

didn't satisfy me, so I now also have coffee in the afternoons too.

Can my couple of cups of coffee be doing this? I've tried

decaffeinated, but it didn't seem to make a difference, so I went

back to regular.

> I feel like I'm at the end of my rope here, I really need some good

sound advice.

> Waiting patiently....

February 28, 2004