Atkins & South Beach on "The Shopping Bags"

[LoKarb Kay]

I was flipping channels and stumbled across the second half of this program; it looked promising at first, but took a predictable turn at the end.

On the Fine Living Network, "The Shopping Bags" did a 10-month comparison of 6 diet plans using volunteers. The show airs again on April 12th, if you get this station (http://www.fineliving.com/fine/shopping_bags/episode/0,1663,FINE_18243_52152,00.html).
The plans they compared were Atkins, South Beach, Body for Life, Dash, Pritikin, and Dr. Phil.
- The largest weight losses (by far) were on Atkins and South Beach, with an average of 24 and 22 lbs lost, respectively. I wish they had compared percentage of body weight, though, because the Atkins volunteers looked heavier than the rest.
- All participants on the Body For Life plan dropped out; Dash and Pritikin saw drop-outs as well.

I caught a segment where an Atkins volunteer complained about craving sweets; she later admitted that she had added some carbs back in, so perhaps she was following something closer to South Beach, but she had a good result anyway. The hosts described Atkins and SB as requiring the purchase of a lot of "expensive meat".

I certainly wasn't surprised, but in the summary -- despite what they had seen from their volunteers -- the hosts said that they liked the Dash diet best (claiming it was "sensible" and "it reminds me to eat smaller portions of meat"), combined with the psychology of Dr. Phil, the "really great information and research" of Pritikin (Ha!), and the exercise of Body For Life. When they got to South Beach and Atkins, which they clearly were least interested in, they said they wanted, "the fat! The bacon!" from those.

So, even when they "experimented" for ten months and tried the diets themselves, these silly women were able to look past the results, look past the drop-out rates, and remember nothing about SB and Atkins but bacon and fat. Argh!

[Bandito]

I see what you mean.

I had to laugh a bit though as I sit here drinking black tea with a 1 second pour of heavy cream, and chowing down on my cross cut beef ribs marbled full of fat. Has to be my favorite breakfast!

I do eat more than just fat and meat, but I would have to say it is still a huge bonus for me.

I can see where they are coming from though. Yes both plans have copious amounts of fruit and veg that society deems as healthy. I think the reason that all everyone remembers about the LC plans are meat and fat is because they are deprived of them on every other plan. When they get to eat "real food" for once it must be quite a treat. Friuts and vegetables are quite common place and boring on other plans, so nothing worth remembering there.

[Zei]

Anywhere you see the word "sensible" or "balanced" diet-wise they mean a nonsensical way-out-of balance diet full of carbs.