Just got off the scale, weigh-in tally: lost 9.5 pounds so far the morning of the 11 day.

Feeling good, eating plenty of the "right foods", and added a lot of baked cod and haddock (no bread ctrumbs) to my dinner choices.

Also have been experimenting with some sugar free popsicles, and some are quite good. I can't recall the name offhand, but I like most of the ones sweetened with Splenda.

I finish Phase one end-of-day thursday. It will be interesting to see how slowly adding some good carbs will affect progress. My primary source of carbs over the last 11 days is my 20 or so peanuts a day... I've also been saving the jogging/running till phase 2, so I'm looking forward to that as well.

So far, SBD gets a huge thumbs up from someone who has never been on any diet before.

DM, that does it, gonna give it a try. I'm actually walking in the AM for 30 minutes to get myself ready. But it's gonna be hard to give up on all these great Thai & Asian restaurants (and waitresses), the temptation and habit of going there will kill me, espec.
when Epi gets back :-)

Ok here's a couple things...

phase 1 (forget about carbs and sugars) last only 2 weeks... plan approp. and you'll be fine. I put off all travel that wasn't critical and am breezing through it and I'm a carb junkie. Next weight in will be the friday morning (conclusion of phase 1)

you can still enjoy eating out, just order the right types of foods and stay away from rice/fried dishes/no rice. Order lightly oiled dishes and request no sugar be added (asian restaurants in the states always add sugar). Fill up on leafy green veggies and then stick to simple protein sources (lean cuts of chicken, steak, turkey, pork). Not too hard in phase 2, in phase 1 your better off cooking for yourself for two weeks. Remember though input = output, so of course if you put in a lot of shit (fast food, eating out, processed/ packaged food) your going to get shit results.


Also, the point of phase 1 is to cleanse out the blood and get the body back on track when it comes to processing carbs (duration 2 weeks)

the point of phase 2 is to get you to your target weight (duration a function of weight)

phase 3, you eat whatever you want basically, as long as you keep you target weight (balance burned calories with consumed). I don't quite agree with the tenets of phase 3, so I will adopt eating habits from phase 1 and 2 into 3, but allow myself to indulge once in a while.

Merlin

You do realize that alcohol is a carbohydrate don't you ?
I put the over and under at 24 hours for you on that diet !!

heheh-- well he could have a glass of red wine per day Merl, that is nuf' ain't it? Come on over to the coke light side!

Ack! the alcohol ban wasn't fully disclosed, or was it? Will need to reassess this situation as the diet may be unworkable for a boozer like me. Been on the diet for 4 hours so far and already feeling hungry :-)

I am fairly certain alcohol is not a carbohydrate. Some alcoholic beverages have relatively high levels of carbohydrates, such as regular beer, but other beers, such as Michelob (sp?) Ultra is very low in carbohydrates. In most instances the sugars undergo a chemical change that turns them from sugars (which are carbohydrates) into alcohol, and therefore they are no longer carbohydrates. For example, one website I checked to confirm my belief states:

1 jigger (1 1/2 ounces) of liquor (gin, rum, vodka and whiskey) contains:


97 calories

0 gm protein

0 gm fat

0 gm carbohydrate

14 grams alcohol



If anyone has any contrary evidence, please correct me.

Technically you are correct but the body metabolizes ethanol exactly like a carbohydrate.
Same same only different. Trust me I'm a doctor :-)

Where do you think the calories come from if it has zero of everything ?

For the purposes of the diet it should be treated as a carbo.

Calories come from protein, fat and carbohydrates. Here are some of the carbs used in the manufacturing of alcohol:

Vodka - Rye or potatoes
Rum - Molasses or sugar cane
Moonshine - Corn
Whiskey - Wheat or rye
Beer - Barley or rice
Wine - Grapes
Hard Cider - Apples
Sake - Rice

Since the ingredients for alcohol normally include things that are classified as carbs (sugar, grains, starches, etc) as opposed to proteins/fats (ever seen pork vodka?) it's kind of a "carbs in/carbs out kinda thing...

E

This is straight from SBD:

Enjoy, in moderation (limit 2 servings daily):
Red and white wine (one serving = 3-4 ounces)
Champagne (one serving = 3-4 ounces)
Vodka (one serving = 1 1/2 ounces)
Gin (one serving = 1 1/2 ounces)
Rum (one serving = 1 1/2 ounces)
Bourbon (one serving = 1 1/2 ounces)


Avoid:
Beer
Brandy
Port wine
Liqueurs (including Kahlua, Bailey's, Amaretto, schnapps, etc.)
Sherry
Wine coolers (often contain a lot of added sugar)


So yes, you aren't going to violate the tenets by indulging in a shot or two, but then again-- it's only A shot or TWO

According to the Atkins center:

"While pure spirits (vodka, gin, Scotch, rum and the like) contain no carbohydrates, many mixed drinks have hefty amounts of carbs, which can foil your efforts to lose weight. Though not a carbohydrate itself, alcohol can interfere with your body’s ability to burn fat. Most of the alcohol you drink gets converted by your liver into a substance called acetate, which replaces fat as a source of fuel. A study published in the November 1999 issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that drinking the equivalent of two shots of vodka reduces the amount of fat your body burns by a whopping 73 percent for several hours afterward.1 You should also be aware that alcohol can make blood sugar more unstable, especially on an empty stomach, and therefore can increase hunger. Alcoholic beverages should be consumed along with some food to slow this response.

"Furthermore, gender plays a role in the way alcohol affects the body, since it is metabolized differently by men and women. Because women tend to weigh less than men, it’s generally easier for them to become intoxicated. But even in women and men of the same body weight, alcohol can be more potent for women and more toxic to their livers. One possible reason is that women have lower levels of alcohol dehydrogenase, an enzyme that helps to break down alcohol in the stomach before it reaches the liver. Thus, more alcohol reaches the liver and eventually winds up in the bloodstream. Indeed, many women can easily push themselves over the legal limit after only one or two drinks.

"On the brighter side, according to new research, alcohol temporarily boosts your metabolism.2 What’s more, unlike carbohydrates, alcohol doesn’t get stored as glycogen, so you’ll resume fat burning as soon as your body uses up the alcohol."

For the complete article, go to http://atkins.com/Archive/2003/12/8-440390.html.

Thanks LAG for expounding on KM comments...

I'm done with Phase 1 tomorrow morning-- YAHOO!!

Great results-- stay tuned.

LA guy
Did you read the useless study they use for their opinion ?
They feed either protein, fat, carbohydrates, or alcohol in egual caloric amounts to subjects for BREAKFAST then measure subjective appetite levels for 5 hours. What a surprise !! The dudes who get drunk for breakfast are less hungry for the next 5 hours. WTF does that prove ??

Just another example of junk science that gets latched onto and is used to promote whatever is needed at the time.

BTW the first sign of alcohlic cirrhosis is a fatty liver. ETOH may not be deposited as glycogen but that is a bad thing as glygogen is a readily availble energy source and used preferentially for the bodies energy needs as opposed to fat stores.

I think the important point to remember is that a drink or two a day is fine, more is problematic for a variety of reasons.

Personally, I'm happy with mineral water and coke light.

Khun Mor: I read only the abstracts of both studies, not just the one you rightly are skeptical of. My only reason for posting the Atkins center's blurb was to support, at least in a limited way, my original statement that carbohydrates and alcohol are metabolized differently and therefore have different consequences for a diet. You more or less acknowledge this when you state "ETOH may not be deposited as glycogen [as are carbohydrates] but that is a bad thing . . . "

DonMarco,

"I've also been saving the jogging/running till phase 2, so I'm looking forward to that as well."

That is officially the most perverted thing I have ever read on this forum.

I am similar to you, other than that I am 10 years younger, and all my numbers were 10 pound higher. South beach does work, and after Phase 2 just avoiding the white bread and rice in large amounts is enough to hold your weight. Good luck.

I like jogging-- just haven't dont it in 4 or so years, so it really ain't all that perverted

thanks! I'm only into day 3 of phase 2, but still going strong although loss has slowed down a bit.

Well, you can't keep up a pound a day unless you are 50 pounds overweight, or unless you have a hyperactive thyroid.