The Skinny on the Dr. Bernstein Diet

The diet is pretty simple. You can't eat much, and three times a week they poke you with a Vitamin B injection, and test your pee to see if you're in ketosis (more on that later).

What can you eat? Daily, you're allowed 2 portions of: meat (100 g = 1 portion, with red meat (salmon/steak) only allowed in 7 day intervals); veggies (230 g = 1 portion, not allowed: peas, carrots, corn - all my favourites); bread substitutes (high fibre/protein low carb bread - remember to subtract fibre from total carbs to get net carbs. Aim at around 6 gram net carbs a day in bread); and fruit (low glycemic ones so no pineapples, mangos, bananas, etc.). There are some "miscellaneous" foods you can have like 1 tbs low fat cream cheese, shirataki noodles (amazing for stirfrying), no sugar added jam (1 tbs/day), etc.

The really painful part: no alcohol, one caffeinated drink a day, methodically jotting down every morsel that goes in your mouth on a diet sheet.

The good part: Jello! Weight dropping like dead flies.

You weigh in thrice a week: M, W, and F where they check your urine sample (excreted by you in the am, in a preprovided pee cup, hustled in a nifty not so discrete green Dr. Bernstein pouch).

Supplements: they ask you to take 1 multivitamin/day, 4 Cal-K supplements/day (these are a lifesaver). Buy these from the clinic itself, I tried to be a money ninja and get my own from Wal-mart only to not be providing my body with enough minerals. I also recommend taking Omega 3 (not 3-6-9 as it's useless - google to find out why) supplements to prevent brittle hair and skin. Make sure it's processed from small fish as big fish are mercury monsters.

You get your waist/butt measured once every three weeks, and meet with the Doctor every 2 or 4 weeks (patient specific), and have to do complete blood work to test anything and everything that is testable. Drink water before you go for the blood test as the diet drops BP and it may be hard to find a vein first thing in the morning and you end up drooling and passing out like me.

Exercise is encouraged but not necessary, and it definitely helps prevent sagging skin. Tip: don't work-out in the first week. Afterwards, do low key "fat-burn" aerobic exercise a few times a week with resistance band muscle toning. It's boring as hell, but cardio won't get you results until after you've reached your goal weight. The good thing is you can eat an extra portion of protein on the days you work out!

They guarantee 10 pounds weight loss in the first month if you follow everything to a tee. Usually women lose about 15 pounds a month, men 20. I'm nearing 4 weeks and i've lost 16!