South Beach or Calorie Cycling?

Hi guys and girls,

new to this forum but def not new to dieting.

I know what you're gonna think from the title - here is someone yet that wants a quick fix, which ok, is actually what I want.

I've been through the whole proper eating and excercise thing last year and lost around 15-20 pounds in three months by eating healthily (but not cutting anything out) Was able to maintain the weight I'd reached til Feb of this year...unfortunately I haven't been able to work out at all (last year at uni),eating habits have been horrible due to stress/no time to cook properly and stopped taking thyroid medication for a month (I have an underfuntion) I have gained around 6 - 8 pounds and I am feeling awful.

I have 2 weeks until I go on holiday and just wanted to get to the weight I was 3 months ago i.e. drop at least 6pounds. I was thinking about trying south beach for two weeks and/or calorie cycling i.e. up day down day diet or whatever it is called and was wondering if anyone had good experiences with either one of those diets? Is there any other diet you could recommend?

I'm planning on restarting my diet and fitness regime from last year when I go back home over the summer as I still want to lose another 10 pounds, so I am not planning on being overly unhealthy and going crazy with some deprivation diet. I just need sth to get me back on track and make me shed those silly pounds I put on.

Thanks for your help!

RARA
 
I might not be the best person to give advice but I have tried a lot of different guides, diets, plans, magic pills (not surgery though)

I think the most important thing is to count calories and have a good workout program.
For calorie counting there are dozens of good, free databases to count calories online you can google and pick from. I also do the which also gives good free tips at their website.

For workout I use free aerobic videos from the web (even youtube has lots) and Jillian Michaels' for my wii (not easy!).


For only six pounds stick to the free stuff I think, just count calories and do some workout and you will lose them in a couple of weeks max :)
 
Before saying anything else at all, let me say, as another person with an underactive thryoid, take your thyroid medication. You'll feel 1000% better (no, that wasn't a typo, I meant to say a thousand percent) and at the very least it'll stop you putting on more weight even without making any other changes. You really need to take those pills, depending on how underactive your thyroid is they could be doing as much as keeping you alive.

I'm usually full of diet advice and such (although I go "healthy" rather than fast/ fad), but I don't think there's anything else that needs to be said to you. Take your meds. If you don't have any more, get some more. If you're having trouble getting more, find a way. It's good for your weight loss, but more importantly, it's essential to your health.
 
Yo need t count calories. And for that you need a calories calculator. If you have an iphone there are applications available, and very good :)
But if dont there are many online calories calculators available.
 
South Beach doesn't seem too bad - and a lot of their recent updates improve on complaints I had with them early on. I've also done calorie cycling, and I like it - although it hightly depends on what exactly you do with it. I was using more of the leangains approach to calorie cycling, however if you're not careful you can end up feeling miserable on the low days.

Really it seems like in addition to what Amy said - Take your thyroid meds!! - you could flip a coin, pick one, and go with it. The better choice is the one that works better for you, and the only way to find out which you prefer is to try them.
 
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