Sommersizing

[tamarian]

Not covered by anyone yet. Any volunteers?

[LowCarbKel]

Suzanne Somers
Level One - this is where you lose the pounds
Level Two - Maintain weight

The plan involves food combining AND low carb intake. Certain foods are not allowed at all; such as bananas, potatoes,white flour.

Basically, the plan in Level One is as follows:

1. Eat fruit alone on a empty stomach (and at least 30 mins before carbo meal and 1 hour before protein meal)
2. Eat meats/fish (proteins) with vegatables (asparagus, green beans etc)
3. Eat complex carbohydrates only (whole grains, no white flour, pasta etc) with vegatables. Do NOT mix with protein.

Eat until you are FULL. It's not necessary to count carbs but the lower your carb intake the greater the results. No sugar, or white flour.

On Level Two (you should have reached your desired weight) this is the maintainance part of the plan. Here is where you add a treat here and there, maybe a piece of bread with your eggs and bacon once in a while. Pay close attention to your body, it's easy to fall into a stall here... believing you can get away with more than your body can handle. I personally stick very close to level one.

A typical day for me includes:

Fruit in the morning on a empty stomach...strawberries or peaches. 30 minutes later whole grain/rye toast with tomatoes and basil spinkled over top.

Lunch is a huge ceasar salad with chicken breast.

Supper may be a couple pork chops, steamed broccoli with cheddar cheese and some red peppers fried in olive oil.

Dessert is generally sugar free jello with heavy cream whipped.

My treats range from...butter or peanut butter on my toast. A piece of bread with my eggs and bacon (maybe once a month), a glass of wine with dinner twice a week and ketchup with my eggs. However, please remember while these cheats have not affected my weight loss everyone is different so pay close attention to your body.

Started Somersizing April 15th, 2001
Start weight 155lbs
Current weight 130lbs
Goal 125 lbs

Height 5'4"

[jomil]

Here is a report on another book by Suzanne Somers entitiled:

Get Skinny on Fabulous Foods
(published in 1999)

It is a followup to her "Eat Great, Lose Weight".

She devotes only 76 pages to her low carb. diet WOE and the rest of the book totalling 268 pages is mainly about how to make a lot of delicious sounding low carb meals.

She gives a lot of credit for this diet to Dr.Diana Schwarzbein, who wrote the 'Forward', to this book.

Most of what 'Lowcarbkel' has reported above is repeated in this book as well.

Suzanne gives a list of foods to eat and another list not to eat.

She does not advocate counting any carbs, calories, protein or fat grams, which I find is very interesting. She maintains that if you stick to her do's and dont's, you will accomplish your desire to lose weight on Level 1 and live on Level 2 the rest of your life.

Based on her Recipes in the book, I would guess that Level 2 could be very enjoyable as a WOL.

Regards
Joe

[LowCarbKel]

I'm absolutely loving this WOL. :D

[bluugirl]

Can you add a little bit of the science behind the diet? why it works, how it works etc..

[LowCarbKel]

:( Sorry, I'm not able to tell you about the science of it right now, I don't remember and I've lent my book to a friend. When I get it back I'll look into it and post a message.

[jomil]

Bluugirl, I believe that this is another "modified" Atkins LC Diet, (if I may use Atkins as the basis for all LC WOE plans).

If you stick to Suzanne's 'can eat' list of foods, you will find that they contain the lowest quantity of carb grams.

Her 'forbidden to eat' list has obviously the highest glycemic index type of foods.

If you stick with her formula in Level 1, you would only eat the minimum of low carb grams per day.

Her success, appears to be her recommended "gourmet style" recipes for LC eating.

I would suggest that you try and get Dr. Schwarzbeins book from your library, to learn more about the science part.

Regards
Joe

[bluugirl]

thank you. I will get Schwarzbeins book . At the moment i'm following Atkins and don't plan to change.

[IslandGirl]

Actually, Sommersizing is classic Food Combining with (almost accidental) features of low-carb... Dr. Schwarzbein does the foreword(s) and explains the science; it's VERY similar to Montignac AND to Schwarzbein in the underlying theory.

Three books out now; I've just borrowed the current one from the Library...

[Homegirl]

I have only read bits and pieces of one of Suzanne's books but I have read Michel Montignac's book Eat Yourself Slim.

I know that Suzanne gives a lot of credit to Schwarzbein but it sounds to me like Sommersizing (or the Schwarzbein version) has been taken directly from Montignac--eating proteins and complex carbs separately, the two levels, etc. In his book, Montignac explains how he came up with the diet to deal with his own weight gain (1987), and also goes into some of the science behind it. I found it very interesting as it explains the glycemic index (how different foods affect how the quantity of glucose your body produces).

[Amanda-lou]

Recently went back to the Locarb WOL. Having problems with my stomach that eating carbs seemed to help... does anyone have any suggestions

[BostonLou]

hello

someone i work with had the somersizing book and as I was flipping through it i noticed a chart that had carrots ranked worse than potatoes?? I didn't get a chance to read up on it but does anyone familiar with the plan know what I was reading??

thanks

[Glad]

It's the glycemic index. Carrots either have more sugar than potatoes, or just sugar that is metabolized quicker. (Or maybe both.)

I know, I couldn't believe it either. What, no carrots!!! I always thought carrots were healthy! They are, but they are sweet. You can eat them in moderation on Level Two, but not to lose weight. Or if you want to cheat a little you can eat them on Level One, but expect to lose faster if you don't.

I decided I could give up carrots for awhile. There are plenty of other sources of vitamin A - like spinach.