Are you considering a low carb diet? If so you may be confused as to which low carb diet is the best. There is no easy answer for this question. Low carb diets are high in protein and very low in carbohydrates. Two of the more popular low carb diet programs are the Atkins Diet and the South Beach Diet. Deciding which one is right for you can be quite a challenge. A low carb diet is a great way to lose weight now and experience quick results. Here are brief descriptions of both the Atkins Diet and the South Beach Diet to help you in making your decision.
The Atkins Diet is probably the most well known among low carb diets. The plan
begins with a 14-day beginning period in which carbohydrates are limited to
twenty grams per day. This begins the fat-burning process. During the
fourteen-day induction period you should eat at least three cups of non-starchy
vegetables per day. In calculating the number of carbohydrate grams you are
consuming, you can deduct the fiber grams from the total carbohydrate grams. For
example, if a particular food lists 5g carbohydrates and 2g fibers, subtract the
fiber grams from the total carbohydrates, which will leave you with a total net
carb count of 3g. After the induction period, you gradually increase the amount
of carbohydrates you consume. The Atkins Diet allows you to eat almost unlimited
amounts of cheese, meat, butter, nuts, and non-starchy vegetables. There is no
need to count calories on the Atkins Diet.
The South Beach Diet is designed to promote good health, with fast weight loss
as an added bonus. The South Beach Diet is not a low carb plan or a low fat
plan. This diet consists of eating the right carbohydrates and the right types
of fats. You will not be required to counts calories or fat grams. Phase one of
this diet lasts two weeks in which you will eat meat, poultry, fish, eggs and
cheese, and olive oil. You may not consume alcohol, bread, pasta, or sugar.
Phase two of the South Beach diet is designed for continuing weight loss. You
may add moderate amounts of carbohydrates and even enjoy chocolate occasionally.
Phase 3 helps you maintain your new, healthier weight.
You will enjoy the foods you love in moderation and will be well prepared to
adhere to this healthier way of eating.
Low carb diets have produced favorable results for millions of people. You can
lose weight now and keep it off by living a low carb lifestyle.
There are many products available to help you lose weight. There are
supplements, diet plans, programs, systems and online diet monitors that will
help you manage your eating habits and measure your weight loss progress. Some
of these companies provide support and help with your dieting program. We can
help you by providing you with a free list of our recommended best sources for
effective weight loss products and services. To view our list of recommended
sources to help you lose weight or to read
more articles about dieting visit: Recommended Weight Loss & Diet Resources Online.
Carrie Reeder is the owner of eZerk, an informational website about various
topics with articles and the latest news. Visit her website to read
articles from various sources on dieting & weight loss.
Tags: diet, dieting, obesity, weight loss, weight loss plandiet, dieting, obesity, weight loss, weight loss planShare This
June 05 2008 | weightlossprograms.servicesite9.com | No Comments »
There is a low carb version of almost every food on the supermarket shelves nowadays. There is low carb ketchup, salad dressings, and even low carb beer!
Is the carbohydrate content of our diet responsible for our size and our weight? I have two answers… yes and no. Stick with me, it gets crazy here.
The low carb option in weight loss dieting continues to gain popularity. It seems like we are saying that carbohydrates are the reason we become overweight. Far from it.
Carbohydrates are not the cause of our weigh problem
Carbohydrates are a part of all the foods that nature prepares for us - nuts and grains, fruits, and vegetables. If you get the idea that I am saying it was not originally intended for humans to eat meat, you are right.
I’m assuming you can follow my premise that humans came about according to the Creationists’ view of origins. I hope you’re comfortable with this. Grab a cool drink and try to relax in case this gets a bit hot for you. (And by the way, watch the carbohydrate content of the drink!)
According to the Genesis account, there was no sin in the beginning, no animal got hurt, no animal died. So there was no beef, chicken, nor pork on the plates. In fact, the instruction was, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food (Genesis 1 verse 29).”
You and I were designed to eat carbohydrates… and lots of it, too. And since that was perfect for our health then, it should still be great for us today. But that’s only half the story.
But we made smart carbohydrates, and a disaster…
We invented machines and processes that refine our food. We can even extract and preserve the nutrients from these foods, make them into pills and punches that are easy to carry around.
Why eat an orange when we can drink the juice from a bottle of a cute box? Hey, we can even make vitamin C tablets. After all, it’s the vitamins we are after, we don’t need to eat the orange and let the juice run down our cheeks and soil our clothes.
We can make low carbohydrate content foods too. We want to be able to drive all day or sit on our couches. It’s the 21st Century, we don’t need to walk anymore. Drive. Fly. Use the computer - we don’t have to move. So…
Who needs all that carbohydrate in our food? Sugar tastes good anyway, so we add it to peanuts, cakes, even to our meat. You can hardly find anything without sugar.
The no-so-sweet truth
It’s not the carbohydrate that is to blame for our problem of being overweight, it’s our lifestyle. It seems we have decreased our level of physical activity, altered the natural quality of the food prepared for us by nature, and are taking in more calories that we need (or can use.)
It’s not just one factor that is at the root of our problem of being overweight. It is all the habits and practices that constitute our lifestyle.
So don’t blame the carbs. There is no need to switch to low carb diets. We just need to do simple things like, having a good breakfast, avoid snacking (avoid acid reflux problems too), eat complex carbohydrate and high fiber foods, exercise daily, and get enough rest.
We were designed to function a certain way. If we don’t follow the Manufacturer’s recommendations we wreck the machine through improper operating procedures.
Are you overweight or obese? Don’t blame it on the carbs. Change the habits.
Copyright © 2006 by Bentley Thompson
Bentley writes about lifestyle-related conditions such as diabetes, obesity, high cholesterol, and cardiovascular diseases. He advocates the anti-diabetes diet which he describes on his website. You may visit his website and blog using the following URLs:
http://www.anti-diabetes-diet-supplements.com/ and
http://choosehealthtoday.blogspot.com
Tags: carbohydrate, dieting, low carb, weight losscarbohydrate, dieting, low carb, weight lossShare This
May 31 2008 | weightlossprograms.servicesite9.com | No Comments »
My Own Experience
To begin with, I have been on a diet my WHOLE life, and now that I look back on some of my years, I definitely did not necessarily need to lose weight even when I thought I did. Although, I suppose that if I hadn’t been watching my weight and dieting, I very well could possibly be much more overweight than I am today.
I am 51 and I am overweight - with possibly another 60 or so pounds still to lose. With my most recent endeavor with Weight Watchers, I have lost 24.4lbs since I actually started DOING the diet on February 24th of this year. (This is the first time that I have attended the meetings weekly, without missing a week, and have had a consistent weight loss each week.) I signed up AGAIN last November, and was back and forth on the scale and even skipped some weeks when I felt I hadn’t been “good”. So what made me FINALLY start doing the “plan”? I was visiting my sister in Florida and had been at the beach, so when we started taking pictures of me and my two sisters together - I felt OK - (because, unless we’re looking in a mirror or at pictures of ourselves - we look down - and well, we feel that we’re OK I guess). Well, I felt ok, until I saw the pictures floating on my sister’s computer as a screen saver. I immediately told her to PLEASE delete the photo - I thought it looked disgusting! My arm looked like a THIGH! I was on the verge of tears, and decided that when I got home -THAT WAS IT! I AM DOING THIS NOW!
As it was, when I got home, my friend Lisa told me that she wanted to join Weight Watchers too, so it became a motivating factor for me to finally follow the plan. She and I did our weigh in, and talked on the phone during the week. She gave me some ideas for recipes (easy stuff) and I shared with her some of my ideas. I can be very motivating to others, but seem to have trouble (mostly in the past) sticking to a diet myself. I don’t know why I can stick to the program this time and hadn’t been able to in the past. I honestly, have always wanted to be thinner, if not even for appearance sake, then for my health. Adult onset Diabetes runs in my family, my mother got diagnosed with it when she was around my age, and actually passed away at age 60 from a diabetic heart attack. My oldest sister, was also diagnosed with it, and is controlling it mostly with diet and exercise. So, needless to say, I may be destined to get it anyway, but with weight loss and more exercise, my chances of surviving it are greatly increased.
I CAN tell you that I think that part of my current success is due to the fact that I don’t have to lose weight for any upcoming event! Even as I started this diet in November, it was based on the fact that I was going on a 4 day cruise with my “skinny” girlfriends in March. So why didn’t I actually follow the program starting in November?? No matter, I finally did start in February - 2 weeks before I was to go on the cruise. Do you know what the BIG event is on a cruise?? THE FOOD!!! The first week I lost 4.6 pounds (so did Lisa!), and the second week I lost 1.2 pounds - so.. if I went on this cruise and ate and drank to my hearts content, I could possibly come home right back where I started!! I was determined that that would NOT happen! I kept telling myself that this was only one week in my life - I could go and have fun, and make good food choices, and the next thing you know I’d be back at work and back into my REAL life again.
I had the control, and was the one to make the good or bad choices. I was a woman “obsessed”! At dinner I passed up on the rolls - and therefore the butter that I usually like with them. I chose fish or chicken over a beef option, and if I got potatoes with the meal, I only ate half of what they gave me. I did have desert every night with my dinner - but I chose the “sugar free” desert and only ate half. I didn’t have any alcohol drinks until “cocktail hour” (the girls participated daily by the pool) and only had one or two drinks. (This gave me much more control so as to avoid the late night snacking at the hamburger grill.) I also decided that just because I wasn’t “buzzed” like my friends that I would STILL have fun participating in the nightly activities of seeing shows, gambling and dancing in the lounges. I also walked 40 mins for 4 of the six days I was away. Do you know that I just might be the ONLY person to EVER go on a cruise and come back to a 1.5 weight LOSS??? I was SO psyched! But it also got rid of the “urgency” factor for me. No more trips planned, a few holidays, but nothing major to worry about. My sister in Florida has her son’s wedding coming up in October of this year, she is also doing Weight Watchers, (actually started the same week I did and also has a loss of about 20 pounds) and I told her to keep doing what she’s doing - don’t worry about the wedding - it’s only ONE day in her life! If she happens to be slimmer and weigh less when it comes around, then it’s a BONUS! Don’t let the pressure of the “date” cause an eating FRENZY!
I’m feeling better! Some of the clothes I’ve purchased in the past fit until I WASHED them, and then they shrunk! Well, now I’m fitting into those items, and I’ve got lots more “new” clothes to wear in my closet as I continue to lose. Everyone I’m seeing, even friends I see on a weekly basis, are noticing my weight loss. I say “thank you” and secretly PRAY that it won’t just pound itself on again. Even though I feel like I’m in control, and that this will finally be the time that I make it to my goal, I still feel like I’m in a “fragile” state.
Honestly, I feel that Weight Watchers is the ONLY way to go. But before I go any further, I need to tell you something! Years ago, when I was going to Weight Watchers, it was held in a church basement. I used to feel totally disgraced by having to go to that basement every week. I always hoped that I wouldn’t see anyone I knew. But things have changed! Attending Weight Watchers, with their new commercials, showing girlfriends going together and supporting each other and having fun with it, has become a “socially acceptable” thing to do! I recently went to dinner with 10 girlfriends to celebrate one of the girl’s birthday - 8 of the 10 were on Weight Watchers! We all talked about the “point values” of our dinner choices and even “shared” so we’d keep on our weight loss track!
On Weight Watchers, you can actually eat ANYTHING you want, but with limits. There are two plans you can follow, the Core Plan - where you eat from a list of “good” foods with no restrictions except to STOP eating when you feel you’ve had enough. THIS WOULD NEVER WORK FOR ME, although some members do have success following this plan. The other plan, the one I use is the FLEX Plan. Everything you eat has “points” and with an easy way to figure out the point value for all of your foods, you can, again, virtually eat anything your body needs to have.
I’ll share with you some of the RULES that I’ve made up for myself:
1. Avoid the rolls (and therefore the butter)
2. ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS weigh and measure my portions
3. ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS WRITE IT ALL DOWN!
4. I opt for spray butter on all of my veggies - no points - it’s free!
5. DRINK 6-8 GLASSES OF WATER DAILY! (Whenever I’ve eaten too much or had a bad choice of food - I drink extra water - this helps with “flushing” out.
6. Whenever possible, I have “light” breads for my sandwiches for lunch, English muffins for breakfast or hot dog or hamburger rolls.
7. I also get “wheat” instead of “white”, including pasta. (When it’s cooked, it pretty much tastes the same!)
8. PLAN AHEAD - SHOP DAILY if necessary to have the ingredients and foods that you plan on eating that day. (I usually plan my dinner first - including my desert and late night snack, and THEN plan the rest of the day)
9. Try to get in at least a 20-40 minute walk no less than 3 days per week.
My family has been eating pretty much whatever I prepare, and I haven’t had too many complaints. Hubby is losing and so are the kids! As I continue, I hope this has provided some inspiration for you - I know how hard this can be - and I hope you find your inner strength to finally join the “losing” crowd. Good Luck!
Susan Mercer is a Professional Photographer, mother of 3 and now a Weight Watcher for life. She knows that even when she reaches her goal weight, she will still be attending Weight Watchers meetings to help her maintain her weight loss.
http://walkoffyourpounds.com
Tags: dieting, losing weight, Weight Watchersdieting, losing weight, Weight WatchersShare This
March 31 2008 | weightlossprograms.servicesite9.com | No Comments »