Jeez, both of you guys have forgotten more about nutrtion than I will ever know!
I guess my own arguments have been similar to Bryan's, albeit not nearly so technical. Simply being this, obviously they work. I have seen the results of this in people in the gym and I even tried it myself once. And guess what? It worked like gangbusters. For me the results were temporary though, because it was sheer torture for me to avoid carbs. I was really strict, even going so far as to test my urine with keto-sticks to make sure that I was going into ketosis. It took me 3-4 days after my weekend "re-feed" to get back into ketosis. It was too stressful to maintain and I eventually dropped it. Only problem is that I had become accustomed to eating fatty foods that I had previously avoided and didn't want to give them up either. End result, I have struggled with my diet ever since, and that was years ago.
I think that the South Beach version looks more maintainable since it seems to focus more on fresh veggies and unsaturated fats. For me it is enough of a challenge just to make sure that I eat enough fresh veggies though. Last night, for example, I was really craving beer, and then later I was craving cookies. Instead I had a diet Mug Rootbeer, and later I had celery with natural peanut butter. So if I am eating more veggies that is good, but I don't want to give up my carbs. It would be too hard to prepare family meals for one thing. We are really working hard to instill good eating habits with our kids, and I am not about to put them on a ketogenic diet.
Adam, do you know about children on diets like this? Do you have suggestions for how I would do this in my circumstances? I guess that my current diet would be more based on the Mediterrenean Food Pyramid. It is a little lower in carbs, but certainly not enough to get into ketosis.
BTW, Adam, I don't think that Bryan is intentionally being nit-picky based on what I know of him. He is an academic (obviously) who has had a lot of background analyzing studies and their methodologies, so he is like a heat seeking missle for strengths and weakenesses in any study. As he put in another post, he doesn't even look at who wrote it so as not to bias himself and his analysis. It does make for some lively debates from time to time though!
Sorry to barrage you with so many questions. I know you won't read this till next Monday and you will probably hit the ground running when you get back, but if you have a chance I would really like to know about some of those things. If you have a better method for maintaining that diet that doesn't over-stress me I am game to try it, because I am on a mission to melt this blubber off my once-lean-and-mean body of mine! Hope you have a great weekend in NYC.