Everyday Systems

Just was wanting to read some of the other ideas folks had tried in managing their food intake and what the results were? Call it a 'diet review' if you will.

For example, I went on a strict 'twigs and berries' diet (aka - nothing you couldn't kill or gather in 100,000 BC). It worked - as most things do - for a while. But man, it got to be a drag long term...and the 'weight loss' was indiscriminate - felt quite crappy by the end of it. Still....it *was* a convenient way to eat and breakfasts were an amusement to my housemates ("he's eating steak for breakfast?")

The 'colors' diet was interesting: Nothing white, some yellow (and some other rules I honestly can't recollect). Felt like this one was at least a little more sustainable...

WW / point counting: kept with that one for a while. Initially a pain in the butt, however once I set WW point counting software up on my PDA, it became a little easier to keep track of 'real foods' vs 'WW approved'. Still. the automation wasn't as ideal as it could be. I stalled out t (ie: stopped losing weight), got discouraged and gave it away. Perhaps too premature in my condemnation - I can certainly appreciate that WW could work for some.

Zone diet: Took a look at the book, marveled at the theory. Took a look at the menus and said "who the hell has that much money/time/that big an petite?"

Potatoes not Prozac: Read the book but didn't get around to the road test. Like the Zone, focused on optimizing endocrine responses, especially as they relate to mood states.

"20 rep squats" diet: (aka - drink a TON of milk, lift very heavy weights, gain a lot of muscle): Worked as advertised but not something I could do long term.

No doubt some of these ideas have worked marvels for some folks. However, they weren't for me. YMMV.

How about you?

kbits, there are some threads here somewhere in which people list their various diet histories. One that made particularly interesting reading was titled something like "what was the weirdest diet you ever tried" (close, not exact).

For me, I lost to goal on WW not once but TWICE... but could not maintain on it. Just took more attention than I could give it on a daily basis.

And I've done straight calorie-counting as well, on my own. I can still list the calories by heart of a lot of foods... if I cared to.

I love not counting stuff anymore.

I've tried the below diets multiple times.

Body for Life - strict 6 meals a day - protein based plus strict weight lifting and cardio. One "free day" a week. Works very well, but hard to maintain and I don't like to lift weights.

South Beach Diet - also tried multiple times. I've only made it past the 2 week phase I twice. You can only have non-starch veggies and protein during this phase. I actually lost almost 20 pounds during this two week phase I. It all came back in a few weeks after I quit.

Weight Watchers - tried twice - once I went to the meetings. It was over $40/month to attend meetings and I felt like I hated how hard it was to determine point values for anything unless it was pre-packaged.

I love No S Diet. I know I need to burn more calories than I take in and No S makes it easy to set this up. Do whatever exercise you like. I'm running and walking and will be buying a mountain bike soon.

http://everydaysystems.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=2623

Click on this link to see many comments on the past diets of some forum members.

Ah. Should have used 'strange' or 'weird' + diet as my search terms. Obvious in hindsight

Most of the ones that appeared in Woman's World Magazine, it was like a drug to me. Quit buying them (except for one slip up) since I found No S.

Lost 90 pounds on TOPS. But gained it all back plus extra.

Where do I start???

Weight Watchers - was my first diet ever when I was in college and desperate. My roommates and I all went together to the meetings and cooked together. It worked great. I dropped 20 lbs, but as soon as we all dropped out it came back fast. Since then I've joined WW roughly about 17 times thinking it would work for me again.

Atkins/SBD/Kimkins - All 3 of these work wonders for me...just too hard to stay on them long term especially when thinking about a lifestyle diet.

Sugar Busters - Again...works great...just couldn't stick to it.

Fiber 35 Diet - Ughh...I was full...I was also full of crap...need I say more...

I have also tried hypnosis CD's...I know, I know...but I was/am desperate.

There's probably been a couple more that didn't last long for me. This has been the only thing I can stick to and really appreciate as a life long journey!!

All of the above

the zone was funny. I ate a lot of vegetarian hotdogs.

ww...I still find little bits of paper around the house with lists and points...I was a prisoner of that for off and on 6 years.

raw food...if you haven't heard of it, its all uncooked fruit, veggies, and nuts. That's pretty much it. I love nuts and dried fruit, so I loved my few days on this, but the scale just went up.

for me, being lacto-vegetarian, any of the protein only/protein heavy diets didn't last. (but seemed to work in the short term.)

this diet is amazing. I can't believe I don't eat after dinner. I really can't!

jena