Hi everyone! I was wondering what your thoughts are on this particular plan. It seems like I buy every diet book known to man and I'm tired of wasting $ trying to find something I can stick to for life. So, I'd like to know some of your thoughts/opinions on the IR diet before I head out to Borders and buy the book!

1) Is this plan really as easy as it sounds? 2) If you are doing this plan, is it something you can see yourself doing as a lifestyle change? 3) Are you seeing any success with it? 4) Do you feel limited or that you are missing out on everthing? 5) Is it still possible to go out to eat?

I'm not looking for an easy way out or anything. I know that any plan I do will require effort, some sacrifice, and for me to actually stick to it. My family loves to go out to eat on the weekends and of course I want to join, no one has as big of a weight problem like I do and it's SO hard to always be 'good' .

Anyway, thank you all for your help!

I read the book years ago so I can't remember it exactly. I do know, however, that some of the concepts (like "linking" carbs with protein) carry over into the program I'm following now. I seem to remember it being a good read on learning what insulin resistance was and how it affects your body and all that...

Maybe someone else has read it more recently and could offer you a little more insight...

I have the book and have read it twice and still don't understand the linking thing. I need someone to explain it to me as if I were a 3 year old. lol

Hahaha. It's my understanding that the idea is that at every meal/snack carbs are always paired with proteins. I believe the ratio they give in the book is 15g carbs : 7g protein. So, for every 15g of carbohydrate you eat, you must eat 7g of protein. I think the book also gives an upper limit of how many carbs total you can have in one meal regardless of whether you link them with protein. The idea here is something that's actually quite common in a lot of eating plans. Carbohydrates turn into sugar very quickly in the body and this sudden rise in blood sugar causes a spike in insulin. By ingesting carbs with sufficient protein you help slow down the digestion of the carbs (protein is digested much more slowly) so instead of getting the blood sugar spike you get a more gradual, level increase and thus a more gradual release of insulin.

Hope that at least sort of helped

Hi Rockstar,

How many carbs can you then eat on one day with the insuline resistance diet?

Many thanks for your answer,
Cytherea

Ahhhh ummm... I believe you're limited to 30 carbs per meal. I can't remember what the limit was on snacks though. I'd say around 100 carbs/day on average. The focus of the diet isn't so much overall carb intake but on making sure you get sufficient protein with the carbs. I eat around 100 (maybe slightly over) carbs on average a day and my diet is by no means low carb. The focus is also on the quality of the carbohydrates - low glycemic, complex carbs that are high in fiber and breakdown slower in the bloodstream.

But again, if someone has a better recollection of the book than me they could probably confirm. I've read wayyyy too many diet books in my life, haha.

Right now I'm doing low calories (1,100 per day) and linking carbs with protein, AND being 90% vegan. I feel awesome... so much energy. The IR book was the easiest plan for me to start following, and I realized why my body acts the way it does. I just got it a few weeks ago and it all makes sense. When I go out to eat I can either have some fries OR a bun with my burger (obviously a cheat meal). It is very very simple and I think addresses our PCOS bodies' needs.

Another good alternative to these plans is Sugar Busters. It's like an easier to understand version of South Beach. Not that South Beach is really difficult, but the rules are more cut and dry with Sugar Busters. It isn't actively marketed by the publishers like South Beach is, so it doesn't get a lot of press that it deserves. We have a Sugar Busters forum if you are interested in reading up on it.

Thank you everyone for your input! I remember hearing of Sugar Busters, but never really looked into it. I think that I'm someone that needs structure in a plan, but maybe a cheat meal thrown in every so often. If that makes any sense. I've tried Cheat Days, but I never recover from those and it becomes Cheat WEEKS and so on. Maybe a Cheat Meal once every week or every 2 weeks would be okay?

Cheat meals are controversial. If you can do a cheat meal and then get back on track at the next meal, then they are doable. If that triggers you and makes the next day miserable eating on plan again, it might not be worth it. If the meal is reasonable (you don't want to eat a 4000 calorie dinner and pack a pound back on) and you can handle it, then do what ever you need to do to keep at it.

Weight Watchers works that in with flex points (still earned by exercise?) and also the Core plan with WW gives a few extra points for non core foods. That might be a good plan for you. It is a vague combination of WW with whole grain, low glycemic foods.