Has anyone done dr. bernstein?

Did you buy him dinner first?

*rim shot*


Thanks, I'll be here all week.


On a serious note, what is the diet about?

I can't speak from personal experience but it works. My friend here in Ottawa followed the diet two years ago and lost 45lb.

Yeah I totally hit that.

He 'hit' me, I couldn't sit for a week!

I did Dr. B before, so I can only tell you my experience. For those not in the know, it's an EXTREMELY low calorie diet with heavily regimented lists and amounts of food that you can eat a day (I think my daily average was 800-1200 calories a day). Before y'all get out the pitchforks, though, hear me out. It's highly supervised; you have to have monthly bloodwork, bi-weekly doctor's appts, and come ot the clinic 3 times a week to get vitamin B shots and turn in food lists for evaluation. You also have to take high doses of potassium and multivitamins to supplement the nutrition you're not getting from food.

The gurantee is that you'll lose 16-20lbs a month if you're faithful to the program, and I will say this - if you are able to stay faithful to the program, it DOES work. You lose fast because you're eating next to nothing and almost completely eliminating starchly sugars like breads and pastas. It's fast and noticeable too. I went on it about 2 months before I got pregnant with my son (Just so you know, ladies, you cannot do Dr. B while pregnant or breastfeeding; the sheer amount of potassium in the program is very dangerous to a baby's health), and I lost 34 lbs in that 2 months.

Those are the facts, now let me tell you why I had to step away from it. While you are on the program, you will lose weight, but the minute you start eating normal - the minute you take a 'cheat day' - you'll see the weight jump back on you. It took me YEARS to walk away from the trap of Bernstein. I love the rapid weight loss, my thought was "I'll justdrop all the weight all at once and get that part of it over with, then I'll start toning up what I'm left with". But it just wasn't maintainable for me. I would be doing fine for a week or two, then life would get in the way and the next thing I knew, I'd gain back crazy amounts of weight. For example, I gained 7 lbs in 5 days one time, and I was yo-yoing on that same 5 lbs for about 2 weeks before I got the point that this wasn't a feasible way for me to do this.

Now, every person is different, and before you get mad, yes - I do understand that what I'm saying is based not so much on the program itself as on my own lack of willpower. But you did ask for peoples' opinions on it so that's what I'm giving you. Since I had my son, the biggest obstacle to my weight loss has been that roughly 1 week of PMS "I need to eat EVERYTHING!" I remember that I very specifically re-started going to the clinic around that time looking for a way to combat this time of the month. That was the most frustrating part of the program, I'd be doing great for the first three weeks, lose 12 lbs, and gain back 5-7 of them just because I suddenly was starving all the time and miserable about the fact that I couldn't stop eating. All I can say is that when I'm paying someone $300 a week and begging for advice on combatting PMS cravings and all they can tell me is "we're cutting your food back even more than normal because you're not meeting your goals right now, oh, and as for your lack of ability to control your cravings SUCK IT UP PRINCESS", I wasn't really interested in continuing.

Basically, it's fast and effective if you can keep up with it, and worth the cost if you have the discipline for it. As for me, a combo of high-intensity workouts alternating strength training and cardiovascular, combined with a reduction of sugary snacks and starches (I dont' have the strength to stop them altogether yet) and focused determination to stay in my calorie range on a daily basis is working wonders for me. Yes I'm losing at a snail's pace, but I don't have the emotional highs and lows that I used to and I also have hte assurance that what I'm taking off is going to stay off.

Hope that helps, hon. ::hugs::