Hello! I am a former South Beacher. I lost 30 lbs that go round, but quit and gained it all back plus the typical 10. This time around I decided to count calories. All was going well and I lost 40 lbs just calorie counting and exercising, but then I experienced a crazy stall where I lost 4 pounds one month, 3 the next and then I only lost 2.5 pounds in an entire month.

I am sensitive to carbs, so I pulled myself up and decided to fall back on old faithful. My eating was already pretty clean, pretty typical of a phase II, but it wasn't working. I didn't need Phase I because I have no cravings, so I just dialed it back and for the past week and a half have been eating one carb (aside from veggies) a day.

Would you believe, having already lost 40 lbs mind you, I still lost the typical 8-14 lbs promised with Phase I at the start of this diet. I dropped 5.5 lbs last week and am still dropping. That's incredible to me!!

What I am taking from this is that even with South Beach, I still need to calorie count and my body is so carb sensitive, I have to stick with an early phase II style plan. I can't just keep adding carbs.

So hello to all of you! I guess I just felt like sharing. If anyone finds themselves struggling, try dialing back the carbs.

Eliana, that is amazing! That is great news that tweaking the diet can make such an impact, even after "dieting" for a while.

Actually, I came to the same conclusion as you. I was calorie-counting without much luck, and struggled with some carb-y grazing. I could manage to fit a lot of useless calories into my total. Then I went back to my South Beach ways -- but with only 1 serving of grains/day. While I have not seen dramatic losses, my belly has definitely shrunk and I have been losing weight, even if super slowly. And in general, I just feel better eating this way!

I think that processed grains -- sadly, even whole wheat -- may be causing more problems for many people than they realize until they reduce or eliminate them. I'm trying to stick more with the oats or quinoa and less with the wheat.

I've been thinking a lot about grains recently

Nice to meet you Eliana! I am on my third time with SB. And last

I think I need to agree with you and Emma. I had been doing great but started wanting those carbs again, bread and crackers for me. And I have now overeaten them more than once. I am going to take a few days to cut those out again and then work towards slowly adding them back. I think I need to decide on a number of servings I allow myself eventually, maybe one or two.

Just curious, you guys that calorie count, how many calories do you allow yourself? Eliana, you progress is amazing! Keep up the good work!

For me, I do 1200 calories for no other reason than because my cousin lost 100 lbs doing so and she is the one who got me going this time.

Also, it's interesting how calorie counting affected me this time. With SBD, it took three days to curb the cravings. What I did not expect was that though it took three WEEKS, the cravings went away calorie counting as well. Of course I was already using some basic practices from SBD, like no white carbs. But still, I did not expect that.

It isn't that grains bring on cravings or anything like that. They just seem to make my weight stall. I store fat really well. I don't really seem to gain it easily, I just find it really difficult to shed it. And for me, sadly it's not just the grains. It's fruit too!! Whoa-is-me! LOL! I'm coming to terms with this. Calorie counting was really easy and being this strict about the carbs is hard for me. It's not that I crave them...it's that I want them. And they're good for you for goodness sakes.

I am insulin resistant though, so if you know this to be true of yourself, you may find being really strict about the carbs works better for you.

Without really trying -- just planning my menus around South Beach principles -- I end up around 1,400 calories most days, which is what I aimed for when just calorie-counting, anyway. I often go higher when I include an ounce of walnuts (~ 185 calories!). When I was doing Phase 1/1.5, sometimes it was hard to break 1,000 -- and that is with NOT being hungry for more. That really surprised me.

Eliana, question - how did you find out you were insulin resistant? Was there a specific test? You sound a lot like me - I think fruit is my issue. When I was on WW I was eating a lot of fruit and losing NO weight.

When we were trying to conceive our third child, I was not ovulating and had not had a TOM for nine months. My first doctor told me I was in menopause at the ripe old age 30. The second doctor diagnosed me with PCOS. A fasting glucose test showed that my blood glucose level was 103. Therefore one of my symptoms of PCOS is insulin resistance.

If you think fruit is an issue for you, I don't think there's any harm in cutting it out for a week to see what the scale does. Eventually I'll add a little back in, but my "five a day" needs to be four veggies (and hopefully more) and only one fruit I think even in maintenance.

I think I may have the same problem. I believe that I was eating too many carbs and for ten days, I lost nothing. It was pretty discouraging because I wasn't even cheating! But, I think I'm going to go back to Ph 1 for a few days and see if the weight drops and slowly add carbs back in, which i didn't really do before. I hope I don't have that reaction to fruit as that is the thing that I miss the most on Ph 1. But, I'm just going to play around with what I'm eating and see how the scale reacts and make adjustments accordingly.