Should i bother attempting the Dr Bernstein diet?

October 4, 2010 6:57 PM

Have you done the Dr Bernstein diet?

I am not looking for advice that eating right and exercise is the answer, or that quick weight loss is doomed to fail, or that you read an article that said blah blah blah. I'm hoping to get feedback from people who have actually done the diet.

I have a friend who did the diet in the past, and has given me the info about it, and so i can do the diet without paying for it or getting random injections of who knows what. So, while there is really nothing stopping me from trying it, what i'd like to know is...

- When you did the diet, did you lose weight? How much? Did you keep it off?
- What were your strategies for feeling full and energized (as much as possible)?
- What are your tips for managing the really specific food requirements?
- Any tips for sticking with it?
- Would you do it again or recommend it to others?

posted by Kololo to health & fitness (9 answers total)

Looking at the website, it's plainly a scam.
posted by Electrius at 11:05 PM on October 4, 2010

I'm sorry this isn't directly answering your question (I have not done the diet), but I hope the information here will help:

From their website:
"On our program, you can safely lose up to 20 lbs each month."

No, not safely you can't. This is not a healthy rate to lose weight, and chances are your body will go into starvation mode. So even if you manage to lose 20 lbs the first month, you'd have to really damage your body to pull it off during the second month.

From this link:

"The daily calorie intake could be anywhere between 800 — 1350 calories per day" which is completely at odd with this: "The diet claims that only fat tissue is lost during this rapid weight loss phase, and all other tissue (muscle, electrolytes, fluid) is retained."

There's just no way that's happening.
posted by spiderskull at 11:50 PM on October 4, 2010

They've also got some other wacky ideas. A friend did this, and the Bernstein folks were trying to sell him special (spendy) soap because they claimed that regular soap was metabolized by the skin and could cause weight gain.
posted by scruss at 4:23 AM on October 5, 2010

"On our program, you can safely lose up to 20 lbs each month."

Wikipedia uses the term "up to" as the first example in the introduction to the article on weasel words.
posted by iviken at 5:32 AM on October 5, 2010

I have a friend on it right now, and so far she's lost 47+ pounds since July 1. It seems to be a very low calorie (700-900 calories per day) diet, designed to keep her in "ketosis" at all times. She says she's adapted to the diet, and doesn't feel hungry between her very small meals.

She was also told no lotion or soap with fat in it as it would affect her results.

She is sticking to their plan rigorously, but I think that the weight loss is too fast, and it will hard (as it always is) to keep it off after the diet ends.

Me, I'm just going for weight training and reducing calories, but not to that level.

Good luck. Losing fat is a tough job, and as you probably well know, it's a struggle shared by many others.
posted by Savannah at 7:04 AM on October 5, 2010

A work associate of mine did the Dr. B "thing" and lost lots of weight on it.

He's gained pretty much all of it back again.
posted by clicking the 'Post Comment' button at 7:27 AM on October 5, 2010

I've done it and works really well. The first two days are the hardest, once you get past that, it's a breeze. You don't need the injections, they are just a combination of B vitamins. The other hard part is being around people that can sabotage your diet. "Oh come on, just one [fill in the blank] can't ruin everything can it?" The nice thing about the diet is how fast it works.

Lastly, be prepared for lots of...

"You know, it really can't be healthy to lose weight that fast."
"You' know you're just going to gain it all back."
"OMG, you've lost so much weight, are you sick?"

BTW, I never gained the weight back. You just can't expect to keep the weight off if you go back to eating crap. That applies to all diets.
posted by jmmpangaea at 7:43 AM on October 5, 2010

One relative tried it with success, and a few others followed suit. The original lost about 60lbs, but gained 40 of it back. She went back on it, and probably lost 20lbs (so 40 in total), and has managed to keep it off. But she's watching what she eats a lot more now.

A few of the others have lost weight and kept it off. The ones who went back to their old eating habits gained it back. Not surprising.
posted by backwards guitar at 8:57 AM on October 5, 2010

If you do a diet with this level of calorie restriction, you will mess up your metabolism. It will work, but you might gain weight when you come off the diet, and if you do, it will be that much harder to lose it again.
posted by chelseagirl at 1:09 PM on October 5, 2010