Does anyone know much about the benefits/disadvantages to a low GI diet which includes more foods with more carbs which are lower in the glycemic index?

I used The South Beach Diet to lose all my weight. It's based in using low GI foods. It's worked out really well for me.

I believe a diet of meat, fish, and low GI foods would be both slimming and healthy. The GI index has been criticised, quite rightly, for not taking account of other effects of foods--but I think that if you followed it you would get a lot of things right by default: you'd get more fibre, for a start, and eat less processed food.

I guess I just feel like a life void of beans, fruit and all grains is missing something...and not in the "I'm craving sugar" kind of missing something. I am absolutely a believer that low carb is best for my body, and that high sugar carbs is what's making so many people sick and obese. I'm just trying to find the way that isn't "diet", and is something I can live with for the rest of my life. Also something that isn't so weird, that if I go out, there is next to nothing I can eat, because I didn't cook it.

I agree with you, and if I were you I would give this approach a good shot.

Be positive. Stick with it. Stay patient. If you really hit a total stall, you can always re-visit, and possibly cut back a bit on certain things. But for now, just go for it!

Well, I'm lc and maintaining quite nicely at this point and my life is not void of beans or fruit. (I won't touch wheat again if I can help it!). I was surprised to find that I can eat small amounts of most fruits, beans and even rice, potatoes/french fries and corn tortilla chips and still maintain (and even lose!). The beauty of the OWL phase is that you discover what you can tolerate and still lose or maintain and learn what foods you do need to avoid to keep symptoms or weight gain away.

Even before getting to this point I was able to find something to eat most any place I went - usually without much modification other than, say, replacing the starch with a salad or veggies, or asking for no bun. More often than not there are many choices.

This is most definitely not a "diet" to me. It is the way I eat. Other people find it weird, but I don't at all. I think it would be weird for me to continue to eat things that will make me fat, sick, tired, crabby and depressed.

I agree with Freckles - once you have negotiated OWL and found out how the various foods you add affect you it is possible to craft your own maintenance way of eating including fruits, beans and even grains if your body allows them.

Many people don't realise Atkins is not just induction!!