Dave Schafer, 43
IT director, Synovate Inc., Arlington Heights
Dr. Arthur Agatston, 56, cardiologist, “The South Beach Diet” author, Miami Beach
He’s just over 6 feet tall, and Dave Schafer’s weight has hovered around 200 pounds his whole adult life.
He’s an avid golfer and rises religiously every weekday morning for his 5:20 a.m. health club workout. Simply put, Schafer has always been in good shape.
“Then, somehow, this mysterious 10 pounds showed up at the door,” he said.
Then last year his doctor pointed out that “I was getting a little belly” and Schafer realized his weight had crept up to 212. He made up his mind to cut back on his daily caloric and fat intake.
“I tried to attack the diet with conventional wisdom,” he said. “Over the course of a year, I ate low-fat stuff like veggies and tried to reduce my portions and avoid fats.”
He would even split meals with his wife at restaurants.
And over the course of a year, he didn’t lose a single pound.
That’s because “the big reason for the epidemic of obesity in this country is the big intake of processed carbs,” said Miami Beach cardiologist Arthur Agatston, author of the best-selling “The South Beach Diet.”
Indeed, Schafer paid no attention to his carbohydrate intake, not limiting the amount of breads, pastas and potatoes in his diet.
But then he heard about Agatston’s South Beach Diet and purchased the book.
“After reading it,” Schafer said, “it was so intuitive that I found it very difficult not to follow the diet.”
He also utilized the free portion of the SouthBeachDiet.com site, which offers recipes, suggestions and a “Daily Dish” e-mail containing tips and guidelines.
After three weeks on the first phase of the diet, he lost 15 pounds.
Today, after about three months, the diet is a lifestyle and Schafer weighs in at a svelte 180–32 pounds less than when he started.
“I feel sensational,” he said.
That’s no surprise according to Agatston, who still sees 20 patients per day in his cardiology practice. The weight loss, he said, is just the observable tip of the health-improvement iceberg.
“The big intake of carbohydrates makes bad cholesterol particles smaller, and they slip into the vessel walls,” Agatston said.
“The diet can reverse not only this, but it can prevent diabetes and this whole epidemic of obesity that has occurred.”
And to complement the information in the book, Agatston uses the South Beach Web site to give dieters the “recipe and community interaction” tools they need to make the experience easier.
There are chat rooms in which Agatston participates monthly, message boards where he answers dieters’ questions weekly and recipes searchable by food interest, Agatston said.
“You can search for meals for vegetarians, for example, or for busy professionals,” he said.
There are 3.5 million users registered for the free version of the site, and another 150,000 people paying $20 a month to take advantage of the member features Agatston described.
Schafer used the site’s free weight profile calculator to learn his ideal weight, and he particularly appreciates the daily e-mail.
“It has very useful strategies for what to do in terms of structuring your day and not to jump out of the window if you fall off the diet,” Schafer said. “That e-mail augments my offline dieting approach.”
Indeed, one of the major hallmarks of the South Beach Diet’s success has been its simplicity. And, of course, its ability to produce results.
“The first thing I noticed was having to tighten my belt,” Schafer said. “Now I can put on my size 38 pants without unzipping them first. My kids get a kick out of that.”
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E-mail alex@technologytailor .com
