Are You a Carbohydrate Addict?

Though Rachael and Richard Heller, the authors of "The Carbohydrate Addict's Diet: The Lifelong Solution to Yo-Yo Dieting" (Signet) explain the way their diet works in terms of insulin sensitivity and metabolic resistance, not all nutritionists agree. Medical literature fails to support this theory but the diet does work for at least 80% of overweight people. Can it work for you? It can, if you are:

- hungry before lunch after a complete breakfast
- having a difficult time stopping to eat starches or sweets
- not satisfied after you just finished a meal
- ready to start eating even after the thought of food
- feeling sluggish after a meal
- getting tired in the afternoon
- unable to lose weight on any diet you tried

The diet's daily menu roughly consists of two very low carb, low calorie meals and one "reward meal" when you can eat anything you want, in any quantities - but for only one hour. This way, people don't feel deprived, but most importantly, one meal a day, especially the last meal of the day, doesn't ruin the appetite-reducing mode: you just don't have enough time to overeat.

The deprivation (or rather its absence) part is very important and often overlooked by fad diets leading to cheating and quitting. The Hellers' program has quite a few more techniques helping to maintain healthier appetite. for one thing, they advise that in case you haven't any progress for a week, you should not to reduce anything in your diet, but to add a large salad that should be eaten before your reward meal. This decreases the meal's calorie density so portion for portion, you consume less calories.