| IndigoElectron
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This is a very old topic but in case anyone is still interested, I've followed SW several times. I did have success with it - the first time I lost nearly 2 stone but it gradually went back on. The second time was more recently, I lost about 1 stone but struggled to lose any more, and have kind of wavered around the same weight for a while (which is why I tried SB instead). I still go to the meetings too.
Basically you have Red and Green days, and each day has a particular type of 'free food', which you can eat as much as you want. Fruit and most veg, low fat cottage cheese and yogurt, and eggs/tofu are free on both days. On Red you can have as much meat/fish/chicken as you want, but pasta/rice/potatoes etc are limited. On Green you can have as much pasta/rice/potatoes etc as you want, but meat/fish/chicken are limited. You can also have limited quantites of milk, cheese and bread/cereal (your Healthy Extras). Then you get your 'syns' which are your treats like chocolate and crisps.
It sounds complicated but it's basically either a high carb (Green) or high protein (Red) diet which is low in fat. They also do a couple of other plans, one called Mix2Max where you can basically mix the Green and Red days but there are restrictions, and Success Express which focuses much more on eating lots of fresh fruit and veg (which is actually similar to South Beach but lower fat and with more fruit).
It does seem to work, I still attend a local group and people do lose weight on it. The problem I have is that it encourages a 'you should never be hungry' and 'you can eat as much Free Food as you want' mentality, and that doesn't work for me - it means I have a fear of hunger, and often over-eat because the diet allows it. That's ok when the Free Food is vegetables, but not when it's pasta and rice! I also find it more restrictive than SB in terms of what you can eat, for example, you might run out of your Healthy Extras, which means snacks can be rather limited, and there's only so much fruit you can eat!
The groups are excellent though, they have a 'no shame' culture where you are praised for everything you do (even if it's staying to class after a bad week) and supported fully, so you never feel bad about yourself or guilty. I really like that aspect of it. |
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Wed Apr 02, 2008 3:07 pm |
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