So, I have lost 71 pounds to date since October. I have hit a little pothole and I am still needing to lose another 20 pounds. I have read the pros and cons of counting points versus calories. I am just wondering if SB or some kind of lower carb eating is better. I know that when I stay away from the "junk" that I don't crave it.

Suggestions are appreciated!

First 71 pounds is amazing, congratulations!

Okay now, it may help you to do a lower carb eating plan, if thats the push you feel you need. You could combine making sure you are keeping calories in check. You may also need to change things up, change up your calories, if you havent reduced them in a while maybe drop it down a bit, if you havent changed your exercise in a little bit maybe change it up a bit. Plateaus can happen when your body gets used to what you are doing.

Low carb living works fantastic for a lot of people. See Kim (JerseyGyrl) over in the atkins section of the forum.

If you think you can stick with it then it may work for you, however if you only use it to get the extra 17lbs, you may fall away from that kind of eating when you are there and gain it back.

Lady,
Congrats on the loss so far!!

Years ago, I lost 90ish myself and I did it by eating whatever I wanted, just less of it and only when I was physically hungry. That worked.

I have done SB and calorie counting, points, you name it. Bottom line, it's a numbers game and you have to be on the "losing" end of it. I think SB is probably a healthier way of living, but you can eat healthy food and be overweight, and you can eat unhealthy food and be thin! I think these are 2 different issues!

I think it might be misleading to think that there's an easier way to get those last pounds off - you've done a great job so far and my advice would be to keep doing what you're doing. It'll take longer because those last pounds always do! Keep up the good work!

I was on South Beach for years and then about a month ago switched over to Calorie Counting. South Beach really does work...the only problem for me is that I wouldn't stay on plan because of "forbidden foods." When I'm told I can't eat something....I automatically want it. Like potatoes for example. Now that I am on calorie counting and can have potatoes I don't eat them often.

I've done both, and I like calorie counting better. I lost 30lbs on Atkins a few years ago, but it was too restrictive for me. I felt like the second I started incorporating carbs back into my diet, I gained the weight back pronto.

Ditto for me dietcokehead. I missed the forbidden fruit. I do incorporate the healthier whole grain items and other smaller snack items from South Beach. I like BBQ chicken in lettuce wraps. Ditto for other sandwich fillings. Its different and crunchy.

I too found that when I incorporated carbs, even good ones, my weight went back up.

Momofsteel-check out your trip to Onederland! Congrats!.....

I also "miss the forbidden fruit," so I "think" low carb isn't for me, despite all of the evidence to the contrary.

For the past few weeks (who am I kidding, months) I've been yoyo lose-gain-losing the same ten pounds, because I'm deep-down-convinced that I can have carbs "if I count them."

Despite the fact that refined carbs, and even too many high glycemic whole foods wreak havoc on my health, water retention and appetite (and therefore weight), I still try to convince myself that "a calorie is a calorie," despite decades of personal evidence to the contrary.

I tell myself that in the long run, being able to eat "anything" as long as I control the calories is the most logical choice - and if it weren't for ravenous phantom carb hunger, I'd be right. But, I know that since simple and small chain carbohydrates drive my hunger through the roof, and trigger flares of some of my health problems to boot, it makes far more sense to avoid the problem foods forever, and if I make a mistake and eat the food I have to stop as soon as I can, and get back to eating foods that I feel best eating.

I've proven over and over again to myself that there's a carbohydrate threshold I really should never cross - it triggers flares of pain from arthritis and fibromyalgia, my autoimmune disease, and skin and lung allergies. My energy level drops and I gain water weight (and if I keep it up, I gain "real" weight).

So WHY won't I learn that I can't incorporate more than a few very high fiber, low calorie, lower GI carb-rich foods into my diet? At least not on a regular basis? I really think it's that there are too many messages in my head that tell me that low carb dieting "isn't healthy." Well, it's gotta be healthier than the way I'm eating/existing now.

I know that if I ever return to unlimited carbs, I will gain the weight back and then some. I also know that if I want to lose more weight, I've got to reduce my carbohydrate level much more drastically than I have been. If I want to feel decent and have the energy to be active and get in some exercise, I need to cut out the foods that make me sick and sluggish (yeah, carbs).

It's hard to swim upstream. Everyone tells you "eating that way isn't healthy, here have a bite of the cake I made just for you which I will be devastated if you don't eat. Oh, and you really need to lose weight - hey, why did you stop eating the cake?"

Yeah, I'm being facetious, but it sometimes does seem that way. People I know and love (and strangers, often through the tv) are pulling me in directions I know I shouldn't go, but some evil part of me (or a part that's just been battered by societal norms) wants desperately to eat like a "normal" person. The problem is I am not, and may never be normal. Or perhaps it's normal that is the issue. With more than half of Americans being overweight, normal obviously isn't all it's cracked up to be.

Ranting and rambling as usual, and this time mostly at myself. I keep trying to take a "middle of the road," stance, when I know that in the middle of the road, I keep getting hit by trucks. It's time to stand at the edge of the road, and say to myself "I'm glad I'm not out there playing in traffic."

Kaplods what you are describing sounds very familiar to me, I experienced almost all of that when I eat gluten. Not to say that is your problem but I wanted to give you a heads up because many people who have problems with gluten go undiagnosed due to the way doctors go thru the diagnosis.

I personally found it was my food allergies causing the problems not the carbs AND they cause cravings! If I fall off the wagon and give in to eating gluten I crave unreasonably more of it, if I stay 'clean' I lose that craving. Just though I would mention it so that you could be aware that it might be less than all carbs, paying attention to your body and its reactions to foods are the only true way to know!

Great job knowing how you do with so far, I think too many of us in America eat crappy - fuel our bodies poorly - and then expect medicine to fix it.

I do think that gluten (or at least wheat) is a big part of the problem, but not the whole problem. I've considered testing for food allergies and celiac desease, but being on medicare, and up to our eyeballs in medical debt already, I've chosen self-experimentation instead (though I need to be more thorough in documentation, rather than guessing based on hunches).

Even when going grain-free, I still have hunger spikes with fruit and starchy veggies. Not as dramatic a spike, though. And the skin issues seem to be more grain-related. I get a very nasty type of autoimmune seborrheic dermatitis (hubby calls it face-rot, and he's not far off - it's starts as eyebrow or nostril dandruff and progresses to larger and more painful and then hideous patches of scaly, weepy sores --- ewwww), that I am suspecting is directly linked to wheat (and possibly therefore gluten).

We don't usually keep bread in the house at all, but hubby bought a gorgeous crusty baguette to take to a boy's game night with an assortment of cheeses - and he brought home the leftovers. I love crusty breads, so I ate some (and then ate some more), and within a couple days (after having weeks of clear skin) I noticed some scaling in my eyebrows and at the corner of my nose. I haven't had any wheat since, and it does seem to be clearing up.

I know that I need to be more religious about my food choices and my food journal, especially if I'm not going to have the testing done. Even though I suspect gluten to be a trigger, when confronted with bread, I so often think "What are the chances I have celiac desease, it's such a 'rare' condition - I've eaten small amounts of wheat and not had a noticeable problem." Then I have a reaction and think "see, I DO have a reaction to wheat."

I figure I've got to stop beating my head against the wall eventually, and I am learning - it just seems wow I am such an idiot and slow-learner when it comes to food choices, and so smart in other areas of my life, what makes food so drastically different?

I recently read a bio of an italian woman chef with celiac desease (no weight problem). She talks about repeatedly eating french bread despite knowing that she will be very ill the next day. It is fascinating that even knowing "this is about the dumbest thing I could be doing, right now," it can be hard to change habits that offer short-term rewards. It can be real WORK to do what's in our best interest for the long-term.

Sometimes it's such hard work, that giving up seems like the most sensible option (again, in the short term). Somedays I feel like Sisyphus (a king in Greek mythology, cursed in Hades for all eternity to roll a huge boulder up a hill, only to watch it roll back down again).

But, at least I've learned not to let the boulder roll all the way to the bottom, before getting back to pushing.

I realize how fortunate I am that I don't have any food sensitivities. My son can't eat apples and similar fruits...his throat immediately gets itchy and he gets hives. It's just awful.

I listened to a Dr. Weil tape in the car recently, and he said the GI is not a good indicator, and a better indicator is the Glycemic Load of foods. That makes sense to me...I can eat potatoes and not gain weight as long as I don't load them down with butter and full fat sour cream. I tried South Beach and ended up with terrible digestive problems, I assume from lack of fruit and the fiber I was used to (my husband is a vegetarian, so we eat a ton of beans). Calorie counting is working very well for me, and I can incorporate whatever foods I want to eat as long as I stay within my caloric allotment. It does help that my husband and I eat mainly whole foods, and I prepare whatever we eat at home. We rarely eat out, and we never buy such things as prepared frozen entrees or canned spaghetti etc.

I've done both and has success with both. However, and this is just my opinion, I don't see low carb as a sustainable way for me to live the rest of my life where as a can with calorie counting. I think you should stick with calorie counting and try watching your carb intake. Keep it under a certain percentage and make the carbs that you do eat good carbs.

I think this is a really great answer!

I also have a hard time seeing low carb as sustainable - which is why I think I keep trying to fight it (and why I'm losing so slow). Yet, it's the only way that I can lose weight AND not feel so crazy hungry that I can't think of anything but eating - or not eating. So why don't I just admit it, and stick with low carb (because I don't "want to," and I'm not sure that's a justifiable reason).

Keeping it as simple as you can makes the most sense to me, but there's also a time to admit defeat. I'm hoping that I'm finally there - fully acknowledging that I may always have to be keenly aware of GI/GL/carbohydrate levels in foods and my diet overall. I think it's going to be easier for me, in the long run, to work at making lower carb eating sustainable, than to keep trying to include carbs (even "good carbs") and finding myself in a craving/hunger spiral.

I've read that the insulin spikes are shallower, the less weight a person has to lose - so maybe at goal weight I can add in more higher carb choices, but for now I really need to strictly control the carbs - I just wish I could convince myself of that.