Hi gang:

I'm curious to know if any of you have done an Atkins-esque version of SB. Have you gone ahead and used your heavy cream instead of dairy substitute in your coffee, or used real cheese instead of low fat?

Have you noticed if it makes a difference one way or another? I imagine it changes the caloric scale, of course, but I'd still like to avoid some of those extra carbs if I can help it (and I *love* my real cream!).

Do you think the restrictions on fats in SB is based on the "common wisdom" that saturated fats are bad? Or is there really a bona-fide difference in results?

I'm going to start tomorrow (picked up the book and went grocery shopping today), and I did get some lower fat options in cottage cheese and meats. But I do enjoy bacon and cream and good cheese and chicken thighs (with skin!). I'll avoid them if I have to, in order to get good results, but it'd be nice to know if it's really necessary.

Thanks!

Hi delilah!

I find that moderation is the key! I was just on another thread talking about going from Atkins to SB, and I like to call what I'm doing... Atkins Beach! It's sat. fats and whole grains in moderation. Like-one a day kind of moderation! Pick your grain for the day the night before (making sure it's a whole grain) and enjoy it! Whether it be a whole grain waffle for breakfast with sugar free syrup, or a slice of pita bread with your tuna salad at lunch, or an oat bluegerry muffin at night with your evening coffee, the key is to JUST PICK ONE! Same with a serving of Lower GI fruit. If you don't get results you may want to have the fruit one day and the grain the next..etc...The rest of my day is filled with the lower carb meat, veggies, eggs, salad, ham, cheese ( I use full fat), sunflower kernels, lc yogurt (Dannon Carb Control) and recipes from low carb websites like this! I do use cream in my coffee, and it even says in the SB book, that if it's cream in your coffee you love, have it! Just don't have 4 cups! Anyway, I have to eat like this forever so I needed to make it work for me. I do take a 1/2 hour walk after dinner about 3-4 times a week, and that helps too. I needed it to feel normal if I'm going to do this long term! Good luck to you! I think there's more people doing Atkins Beach than we realize!

I have used full fat cheese for the taste. Since I believe calories matter I tend to get lite versions of some other things, milk, sour cream, ricotta, etc. I think the SB Diet overestimates the danger of saturated fat. For sure, try to get most of your fats from nuts and olive oil. But it is OK to get some saturated. Remember, the true dangers of saturated in combination with trans fat and HI carb. On both Atkins and South Beach, the risk of saturated fat is low, imho.

thank you very much! I love some aspects of both diets and hate some others. It's nice to know that I can combine them to do it all. Makes it *much* easier to last through the induction-like phase 1 if I know that I might actually be able to have a bit of a sandwich! I'm not expecting that I'll lose as quickly as Atkins my first time around, but just so long as I can stick to it and lose something... well, that means a lot.

In the end, I think most diet plans are about balance. Except for Slim-fast. They're just plain evil. (MSN just ran a story about how low-carbers are in "denial" about calorie consumption... except that Slim-Fast did the research. So I'm a bit disgusted with SF and MSN right now)

Aaanyway, off my soapbox. Balance and healthy, non-processed foods are my goal!

Wish me luck!

~Perian

P.S. Ok, loving the vanilla ricotta cream dessert. MMMM!