The South Beach Diet Super Charged

by Joseph Signorile PhD

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  living THE SOUTH BEACH DIET

  Louisa O., age 38: Lost 50 Pounds of Pregnancy Weight

  I’ve been struggling with my weight problem since I was young. I’d tried all kinds of diets: the string bean diet, the cabbage diet, the soup diet. You name it, I’d tried it. They all worked for a while, but I always gained the weight back.

  I gained 50 pounds during my pregnancy, and I couldn’t seem to take it off. After 3 years of breastfeeding, I was still 40 pounds overweight. I was wearing size 14 and couldn’t fit into anything smaller than an XL. I love fashionable clothes and looking good, and I wasn’t able to find anything I liked in my size. I looked years older than I was.

  I was miserable about my weight. I had been invited to a wedding and told a friend of mine that I didn’t even want to go because I was so depressed about how I looked. She gave me a copy of The South Beach Diet for Mother’s Day. She had been on the diet herself and told me how great it was. I told her that diets didn’t work for me and that I didn’t want to bother with it. She encouraged me to read the book so I would understand why this diet was different and healthier than the ones I had been on before.

  I read the book and I finally learned what I had been doing wrong. I was eating too many starchy carbs—white rice, white pasta, white potatoes, and white bread—and very little protein. I decided to try the diet and see if I could lose the weight before the wedding. I found the diet easy to follow. I started eating lots of vegetables and lean protein, like white meat chicken and lean pork, as well as whole grains, including brown rice, whole-wheat bread, and whole-wheat pasta. I found I wasn’t always starving like I was on other diets. That was the best part for me.

  It was pretty easy to lose the 40 pounds. I was not only eating tasty food, but it was healthy. I now weigh 140 pounds and I’m wearing a size 8 dress! And I haven’t regained the weight.

  Today I follow Phase 3. On the South Beach Diet, you acquire new habits and you learn which foods are healthier for you. I’ve learned to make better choices. I even enjoy some dessert now and then because I can. But I still eat lots of vegetables and lean protein.

  I love myself again. Everyone comments about how great I look and how much weight I’ve lost. I am happy, I have energy for my daughter, and I have regained my self-confidence.

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  4

  Supercharge Your Metabolism

  My patient Susan, who was prediabetic, had lost more than 20 pounds on the South Beach Diet. Although she looked and felt a lot better, she wasn’t happy. She still wanted to lose another 5 to 10 pounds but was having difficulty doing so. No matter what she did, she couldn’t seem to lose more weight. She asked me, “Couldn’t I just go back to Phase 1? I had no trouble losing weight back then!”

  I strongly advised against it. Phase 1 is designed for people with cravings and substantial weight to lose, not for someone like Susan, who had only a few pounds left to shed. More important, Susan’s cravings were gone, and her blood chemistries were normal. In cases like hers, cutting back on calories and once again limiting nutritious food choices like fruits and whole grains could be counterproductive and potentially lead to yo-yoing (see Chapter 4).

  If Susan wanted further safe weight loss while continuing to follow the healthy eating principles of the South Beach Diet, she had only one option: She had to burn more calories. And the most efficient way to accomplish this was by engaging in the most efficient form of regular exercise. That meant more or better exercise, and that was exactly what Susan didn’t want to hear. She was already getting up at 6:00 a.m. to spend, as she put it, “one long, tedious hour” walking on her treadmill before getting her kids off to school and going to work.

  “Don’t tell me I have to spend more time on the treadmill,” Susan complained. “I just can’t get up any earlier!”

  Susan was pleasantly surprised when I explained that she didn’t have to spend more time exercising to burn more calories. She could actually jump-start her metabolism and burn more calories in less time by making some changes in her exercise routine.

  I told Susan that doing more of the same wasn’t going to work. Her body had become accustomed to operating at her new weight and her current activity level, as often happens after a period of successful dieting. In fact, the most common complaint of dieters is what they call hitting a plateau. I’m sure many of you have experienced it.

  Depending on our intrinsic metabolism, we all have different set points where our weight will plateau, even though we may be doing exactly the same thing we’ve been doing all along to lose weight. There are, of course, those lucky people who are born with a naturally high metabolic rate and who never have to diet or worry about hitting plateaus—they’re the people we all love to hate because they seem to be able to eat anything and not gain weight. It simply doesn’t seem fair!

  Susan, like most of us, wasn’t so lucky. Her problem was that her metabolism was stuck in neutral. Her body had adjusted to her need for fewer calories, so she was neither gaining nor losing.

  Her only healthy and sustainable solution was to change her exercise routine and shift her metabolism into a higher gear. In other words, since Susan did not inherit a fast metabolism, she would have to rev it up herself.

  Do More with Less

  I advised Susan to switch to an interval training program. In interval training, you alternate between short bursts of intensive effort and easier recovery periods, as opposed to working at a steady, continuous, and potentially monotonous pace. While this book focuses on walking, just about any form of exercise can be done in an interval training mode, including swimming, running, biking, elliptical training, and even strength training.

  Here’s the advantage: When you work at a higher intensity for part of the time, you end up burning far more calories and fat in less time than you would if you were working out at a steady pace. And there’s a bonus: With interval training, the higher the intensity of the exercise, the longer the afterburn; that is, you will continue to burn more fat and calories after you’ve completed your exercise session. As you become more fit and develop more lean muscle mass, you increase your basal metabolic rate even further. This means you’ll burn more fat and calories while you’re going through your daily activities, and even while you’re resting.

  Don’t let the term higher intensity scare you. It’s true that you may be working harder than you’re used to for short periods of time, but you will have plenty of time to recharge during the easier recovery periods. Interval training is not just for the very fit. It works just as well for people who are not as fit and is even being used to help cardiac patients and people with lung disease get back in shape. That said, I do recommend that you talk with your doctor before embarking on this or any exercise program, especially if you haven’t been exercising.

  Susan was also missing another important component of fitness—a core-strengthening program to develop the muscles in her back and abdomen and increase her overall strength and flexibility. Susan’s treadmill workout focused on her cardiovascular system, but she needed to do something more to further improve her muscle tone and bone density.

  Due to a natural decrease in hormones and to reduced physical activity, both men and women tend to lose muscle and bone as they age. For women, this drop in hormones occurs fairly abruptly during menopause and typically causes a drop in metabolic rate. Consequently, postmenopausal women invariably find it much tougher to maintain their weight.

  For men, the drop in hormones—what is called andropause—is more gradual, but it too results in a slower metabolism and weight gain with age.

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  living THE SOUTH BEACH DIET

  Barbara P., age 58: Making Giant Leaps One Small Step at a Time

  I had always been a yo-yo dieter, but I had reached a point where I finally had my weight under control. I was slim, I looked good, and I felt good about myself. Then about 4 years ago, I broke up with my boyfriend, and I lost it. I began eating e
verything fattening I could get my hands on. I’m over 5-foot-8, so it took a while for the weight to become noticeable. But 50 pounds later, when I weighed 195, I looked terrible. I had a beautiful wardrobe but didn’t fit into any of my favorite clothes. I was six sizes larger than I had been, and the worst part was that I had to buy clothes I didn’t like at stores I didn’t enjoy shopping in. The funny thing is, I never stepped on a scale. I didn’t want to know what I weighed. I pretended it wasn’t happening.

  Friends don’t tell you you’re getting fat; they don’t know what to say. But a close friend of mine who had lost weight gave me a copy of The South Beach Diet. I didn’t open it. I was seeing a therapist, and he kept after me about my weight. He became my conscience. We talked about control issues. I now realize that I had just given up—for me, weighing 195 pounds was basically throwing in the towel.

  You can’t imagine how devastating it is not to feel good about how you look. How you feel about yourself, your sense of attractiveness—or lack of attractiveness—spills over into all aspects of your life.

  It took a while for me to deal with my weight. I took it one step at a time, and sometimes they were pretty small steps. About 3 years ago, I was visiting some friends in Naples, Florida, and it was bathing-suit time. I think that’s where it finally dawned on me how my life was really being controlled by my weight. I saw and felt what I had done to myself and where it was all going. There wasn’t a remote possibility that I was going to put on a bathing suit. I thought, Here I am, I’m not that old, I’m a pretty attractive woman, and I can’t wear a bathing suit. And I’m not talking about a bikini; I mean a plain old one-piece. I realized that I was really messing myself up big time. I took that first step—literally. I went to the hotel gym and walked on the treadmill for a short time. I felt pretty good afterward, and when I got back to New York, I joined a health club, hired a trainer, and began working out regularly. I had a coupon for the health club hanging on my refrigerator for about a year but never did anything about it. I took it off the refrigerator and used it.

  I finally reached the point where I was ready to read The South Beach Diet, which had been lying around my house for about a year. Once I started it, I couldn’t put it down. With every page, I gained new insight about food and eating. Like, what’s a good carbohydrate? I learned what foods I could eat and what I should avoid. I used to think that I shouldn’t eat bread, but I learned that you can eat bread as long as it’s 100% whole wheat, whole grain, or another high-fiber type, which digests more slowly than white bread. The glycemic index was a new concept for me. I learned how nutrition affects how the body works. I learned about my metabolism, like how to speed it up. I used to think that if you don’t eat, you lose weight. I was completely wrong. I learned that if you don’t eat, your body thinks it’s being starved, and your metabolism slows down. I didn’t know any of this before.

  I started making changes in how I ate, a little at a time. I learned not to let myself get hungry, because when you get too hungry, you tend to want to eat more. I learned that you have to keep your blood sugar levels even to prevent cravings. To this day, I always walk around with healthy snacks. I carry small bags of nuts such as almonds or walnuts and little cherry tomatoes or low-fat cheese wedges because I don’t want to get hungry.

  I didn’t actually go on the diet right away; I just incorporated a few things. I wasn’t ready to give up sugar yet, so when I went to Starbucks and ordered my usual cappuccino, I asked for fat-free milk instead of whole. That was my big concession when I weighed 195! I realized that that was okay; I didn’t feel deprived. I was ready for the next step. I remember thinking, I don’t need to eat a sandwich for lunch. Maybe I can have just the meat and a salad, Or instead of eating white bread, I ordered whole-grain bread. When I started taking off a little weight just by doing these simple things, I was motivated to keep going. I saw that this was very doable, and it wasn’t making me unhappy. That’s when I decided to go on Phase 1 and really do the diet as written.

  It took 2 years, but I took off all the weight I’d gained. I fit into my old clothes again. I wear tight, sexy jeans and can still wear sleeveless tops. I feel like my old self. I’ve just made another big step—I posted my profile on Match.com. I feel good about myself, and I’m ready to start a new relationship.

  I walked into a friend’s office recently, and she said, “You look better than you’ve looked in your entire life.”

  She’s a straight-shooting woman. It was a very exciting moment.

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  In both men and women, decreased hormone levels and decreased physical activity also diminish the quantity of muscle (and bone). Since muscle requires more calories to maintain than fat, less muscle means fewer calories burned, which further slows metabolism. By maintaining your muscle mass with exercise, you can help overcome the natural decrease in metabolic rate.

  That’s why, as you age, it’s so important to keep your metabolism revved up. If you want those muscles to be metabolically active—if you want to burn more fat and calories—you must use them. I therefore recommended that Susan follow the South Beach Supercharged Fitness Program, described in Part II. Before she could protest that she was already pressed for time, I showed her how she could do an even more effective cardio and calorie-burning program in half the time she was already spending on the treadmill (and achieve core fitness and greater overall muscle tone on alternate days).

  The Pounds Melted Away

  Here’s how we transformed Susan’s 1-hour treadmill program into a fat-busting, calorie-devouring interval training program. I instructed Susan to cut her treadmill time back to about 20 minutes every other day. Instead of walking at a constant pace for her entire workout, as she had been doing, she should mix it up. That is, after a warmup, she should alternate short bursts of walking very fast with recovery periods of slower walking. (See “PHASE 1: Supercharged Fitness Program” Section to get started on Phase 1 Interval Walking.)

  Depending on the workout goal for the day, Susan could do several fast-slow intervals within 20 minutes. As her endurance improved, she would be able to spend more time doing fast spurts and less time in the slower recovery periods, gradually adding more repetitions if time permitted. In addition, she wouldn’t be bored: When you do interval training, your workouts vary so they’re more interesting, and the time seems to fly by.

  Another benefit of the program was that on alternate days, Susan would strengthen her core muscles, which she had been neglecting by doing only cardio.

  Susan was skeptical but agreed to give it a try.

  When I saw Susan about a month later, I didn’t have to ask how she was doing. I could see the good results with my own eyes. Those last 10 unwanted pounds were fading away. And, thanks to the core component of the program, Susan was standing straighter and looking stronger and better toned.

  The Conventional Wisdom Is Wrong

  At this point, many of you may be thinking, This contradicts nearly everything I’ve been told about exercise. And you’re right, it does. In the past, we believed that the best way to burn fat was to work at your training heart rate, which is about 60 percent of your maximum heart rate. Once you knew your training heart rate, you were told to take your pulse or wear a heart-rate monitor during exercise to make sure you maintained that level. You were also told that you needed to work for at least 20 minutes before you started burning fat. We now know that this simply is not true.

  Interval training is not new. Endurance athletes like marathoners and professional cyclists have used this technique for years to help them perform at higher levels. But now there is growing evidence that interval training can also be a huge boon to nonathletes who are trying to lose weight and improve their fitness. An abundance of good science supports interval training as a great way to burn fat and calories, and research also shows that it provides better results than working at a constant moderate pace for longer periods of time.

  In a 2007 study conducted at the University of Gu
elph in Ontario, researchers had women in their early twenties do an interval training program consisting of 10 sets of 4 minutes of hard cycling with 2 minutes of rest between each set. After seven 1-hour sessions over 2 weeks, all eight women in the study showed a 36 percent increase in fat burning. This finding held true for women who were fit, as well as for those who were less fit. So much for the myth that you can’t burn fat working at a high intensity! The women also showed a 13 percent improvement in cardiovascular fitness, which means their hearts and lungs were better able to send oxygen to working muscles, which is important whether you are working out or simply going about your daily activities.

  Burning calories is critical to shedding pounds and maintaining a healthy weight. And on the calorie-burning front, interval training is the clear winner. A landmark study conducted by Darlene Sedlock, PhD, and her colleagues at Purdue University found that it took only 19 minutes for a high-intensity exercise group to burn the same 300 calories that it took a low-intensity group 30 minutes to burn. Even more interesting, the high-intensity group continued to burn more calories long after the exercise period ended, compared with the low-intensity group.

  In another study, conducted jointly by Baylor University and the University of Alabama, researchers compared continuous low-intensity exercise performed for 60 minutes to a high-intensity interval training program alternating between 2-minute periods of work and recovery, also for 60 minutes. The participants were eight women between ages 23 and 35. Researchers found that the interval training protocol burned 160 more calories per day than the low-intensity training method, or about 800 calories more per week when the exercises were performed five times a week.