How To Pick A Dodgy Diet

This is in regard to the link all over this site touting a 9 pound weight loss in 11 days. It's entirely possible. Anyone can lose at least 5 pounds of water overnight. But it comes right back within the next couple days, otherwise we'd have some "dehydration diet craze" going on out there, killing tens of thousands and causing life-threatening physical damage to untold millions before anyone would bother noticing. The statement made on the second page of the site that "Low Carb Diets just DON'T WORK" is false. I've been struggling with a genetic tendency to become or remain obese since about the age of 8 (the past 40 years), and have found that a healthy combination of regular aerobic/strength training exercise combined with a diet that contains reasonable amounts of all three dietary components (fats, proteins, and carbs) in a wide variety of foods eaten in smaller quantities 4 to 7 times daily worked quite well through my twenties and thirties and I believe would still be working well if I had not developed severe fibromyalgia nearly a decade ago. In no time I was a REFINED CARBOHYDRATE addict without realizing it and began to steadily gain weight year by year with no end in sight. I was convinced that I was simply continue to gain weight until I threw a clot or had a major ischemic event or my heart just gave out from the strain and that was to be my lot. Not so!! My very savvy doctor advised me to try the South Beach diet. She was on it, along with her entire family and they were doing famously, even though none of them had started out in any state of real obesity at all. They have just become healthier and their blood chemistries have great improved. My husband decided to be supportive and start with me on August 1, 2004. I was sure as anything that I would be sorely disappointed and be back at her office months later with dour news of failure and intolerable cravings. Nothing could be farther from the truth - my husband has since lost about 60 pounds and is still losing slowly even though he refuses to exercise, and I have lost over 55 pounds even though I CANNOT exercise at all. We had no urge whatsoever to cheat over the holidays and we both continue to lose slowly on the second phase of the program. My cholesterol went from 206 to 180 in 2 months, my LDL dropped 40 points back into normal range, and my predisposition to adult-onset diabetes is GONE! There is no starvation at all, no cravings for virtually anything, I'm not hungry or deprived of a single thing and neither is my husband who came into this entirely new place from a lifetime of junk-food addiction. It's the way we plan to live as long as we can get our hands on unprocessed flours and sweeteners, and products made from them. You couldn't PAY ME ENOUGH to go back to white flour, sugar, the standard "food pyramid" that was a good model to eat by a thousand years ago but is idiotic today in light of the highly-processed EVERYTHING foodstuffs that have overwhelmed our supermarkets and restaurants. I was so afraid of failing, so swollen and uncomfortable, so fat I could hardly sit in a bathtub much less get out when I was finished but that's all different now. Dr. Agatston hit the nail on the head and I don't care what you may be selling here, low carb with moderate fat and relatively high protein-intake WORKS. Thanks for listening. I wouldn't have bothered to write all this if it were a lie. C. Hayes, Denver, CO

I just read your review of WeightLoss4Idiots and found it to be terribly narrow-to be respectful. Sure it makes sweeping statements about weight loss expectations, as does any product that's trying to sell itself. However, there's nothing unhealthy about it. The basis is not untrue that our bodies to adjust to our normal caloric intake and all it suggest is to shake up your routine a bit. To be fair, what it does offer is this: Balanced eating suggestions, fast food and dining out tips, exercise advice and suggestions, and lifetime maintenance tips. Because it does not offer a refund is not enough to say its dodgy or unworthy. Atkins, South Beach, all of them claim more than a 1-2 pd weight loss per week and it does happen. Some people have enough excess fat to actually lose 4 pds of fat in a week. It's not all water weight and muscle. Everyone would deteriorate in a matter of weeks if that was the case.
Low carb and low fat diets do work for some and fail miserably for others. (From what I've watched my co-workers, family and friends go through over the last few years, mostly it fails. I've seen weight loss as great as 70 pds, which is maintained for about a week, then it all comes back again then some. Even if it's kept off, it's a miserable way to eat for life). Unless you plan on never eating a whole slice of bread again, there's no way to stay slim on a plan that cuts out entire food groups. So yes, "losing weight and getting slim is the easy part" is also true. It's keeping the weight off that poses the problem. This plan does not require calorie counting. Its not a contradiction to say that because it does not give a total number of calories to eat each day-it gives you foods to eat throughout the day.
Luckily, there's a forum our there for WL4I that is full of real people with real success with this diet plan. Some lose 4 pds every 11 days (which is great too) and some lose 10 pds; it depends on a lot of variables, such as effort, lifestyles, genetics, etc. The bottom line is that Weight loss is a very personal experience based on each individual. You did not provide one single real reason to dodge this diet.
My opinion is strictly nonbiased as I do not have a weight problem. But I keep up with what's out there and investigate thoroughly just in case there comes a day that I decide to stop eating moderately and healthfully and develop a loathing of regular exercise, I like to know where to go to get the weight off fast.

Toni, you are correct - and I properly purchased this diet and went thru it, and discovered it had a lot of redeeming features. I've just updated the above post to point to the full review that I did.

I too think that weight loss is individualistic.

I've learnt to eat my words after making this post!

I did the WLFI diet and it worked for me, I've gone from a size 12 to a 6 since February. However, the only time I lost 9 pounds in 11 days was the first time I did it, and it fluctuated after that...like losing 5, 6, or 7 pounds every time. And I did gain a couple pounds during the "cheat days" of the diet. And now that I've done the diet for a while, I'm getting really tired of the food too. But I'm near my ideal weight now and very happy!

I too am growing bored with the food choices. My question is can we substitute foods. i.e.,rasberries or blueberries for strawberries? Do all these displayed foods have higher thermogenic qualities? Do they interact in a special way?
What is this about fructose? Research shows that this is a nono.
Instead of wine I amdrinking white rum,less of a glycemic hit. I am having more than one drink but still losing. First 11 days 5 lbs. Probably would have been more if I had followed it more precisely.Comments?