Diet and Health FAQ

Tagged As: south beach diet chili recipe

Question:
After months of predicting that I would gain all my weight back quickly, I started cheating. Partially to take a break, partially to prove her wrong. I did stop losing, but haven't gained any weight back. This demonstration somehow convinced my wife to try low carbing again. She did atkins for a week (with much less headache than last time) and hated it because she's not really a meat person. So I went and got her the new south beach book which she read and is now trying to follow. This diet seems to be more her speed, but she still complains that she can't eat anything. She has a very slow metabolism. Doctors generally decide not to put her on thyroid medication though. She lost about 6 pounds in the first week, but then things went haywire. She gained back 2 and got stuck for a few days. I've been at a loss to explain it and she's getting frustrated. I told her to cut out the french dressing which she did starting yesterday, we'll see if that has an effect. She was the same weight this morning. So I guess I have two questions: What is the carb content of chili?in south beach diet ? I know it depends on the recipe, but in general. Do restaurants often put sugar in it or thicken it with flour or corn starch? Can people get an insulin response from splenda? I don't mean by consuming five pounds and carbing out on the filler, I mean if you consume the 0 carb no filler liquid stuff, can some people get an insulin response the way some do from aspirtame? She crashed the other day after breakfast just like in her high carb days, but for breakfast she had that ricotta cheese/cocoa/splenda thing in the south beach book. She hadn't crashed like this before on low carb. I'm wondering now if this is causing her problems.

Answer:
I feel for your wife. I made it thru a year of struggling, blaming myself, my body, wondering if I should quit etc. All because I lose VERY slowly. After my intial quick loss... seems my body slowed to a crawl with the weightloss. It's so frustrating as you watch others who started the same time as you , whip by like you're still eating cakes and cookies every day instead of protiens and veggies. I suggest strongly that your wife stick with it... even though my weight loss was extremely slow.. the inches DID go ! :) I was able to wear clothes that I never dreamed I fit into at the weight the scale still showed . As for the Carb content of Chili... that would vary hugely. Depending on the amounts of beans used, to fillers or sugars that were added. In a restaurant... i think it would be higher than if it were homemade. Now for your second question on Splenda... I don't have any scientific background to give you. Just my own experience. .. When I first started Low Carb.. I was making sweet substitutions for everything and craved alot more on the days I ate them than if I just skipped on by them. Now I haven't used Splenda in 3 months.. my cravings are Non existant and I don't get that feeling of tiredness and irritability that I was getting. So In my own opinion .. it could have been the culprit. But it's definately worth checking out each and every thing that she ate that day as being Suspect.. even too many onions or sweet peppers for some people can cause the crash