I've gained weight the few times I've tried SBD because it's not as structured as counting calories. I always either overeat sugar free chocolates or nuts because I miss carbs. I really would like to follow SBD as my lifestyle because I have insulin resistance and the diet I typically follow is high carb. Any advice on how to do it right so I can maintain or lose weight?

both sugar free chocolate and nuts are restricted to a certain amount on this plan.

Eat until you're full. It's a good way to eat! Eat small portions!

A few of us follow South Beach and count calories. I love South Beach but need the added layer of accountability.

I'm with Cyndi. I combine South Beach and Weight Watchers for added accountability.

I don't count calories but I do count servings.

I make sure I don't have more than 1 serving of nuts/day.

I do 1 sweet treat/day because that's just easiest for me - 1 SF jello, or 1 SF pudding or 1 SF fudgicle, etc and most days I skip that because my fruit or yogurt satisfies me. My only exception to that is SF chewing gum - that's my life saver when I'm going to be around tempting off plan snacks.

I count my servings of vegetables. Maybe it's just me but when I get my full 4 and 1/2 - 5 cups of vegetables every day I'm too full to overeat anything else.

Also, when I'm hungry or just really want a snack I always have a large drink of water first. It turns out that for most of my life I was confusing being thirsty with being hungry.

Good luck to you. I feel better and look better than I have in decades thanks to SBD. I hope you'll find the same success that I have!

Very smart ladies here! Great ideas!

That is a great idea. I used to do Spark People also. Maybe I'll combine again. Years ago I lost 40 lbs with WW, I didn't gain it all back, but developed a bad, unhealthy processed food habit. This woul;d be a good combination.

I eat at least 5 cups of veggies too. Not enough room to overeat the other stuff!

Thanks ladies. I overdo it mostly around TOM and am unsure how to get through that week doing SBD. I should probably start counting calories with SBD. I really liked having not to count with SBD but I guess I'm just the type that has to.

Everyone is right about limiting the portions of the fun foods like nuts and sf chocolates. As long as you make sure you get the following each day, you won't have much room for junk:
2 cups lf dairy (cheese is not included in this)
1/2 cup beans
4.5 cups veggies
64 oz. water

Limit the following:
fats about 2 tbsp. per day
nuts 15 per day
sf treat 1 per day
cheese lf 2 oz. per day

You can have unlimited lean protein...if you want a snack, have a hb egg or slices of turkey or low fat ham wrapped around a pickle.