Atkins, Fit for Life, Jenny Craig – there are almost as many weight loss programs as people who want to lose weight! Sharing our experiences here will help us all get a handle on the wealth of information — and misinformation — out there.
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You hear lately a lot about the south beach diet.
The diet is pretty good, eat the right carbs and fats.
Basically you learn good nutrition. The diet has 3 steps and when you reach step 3 you should have stopped eating all that junk food and learned to eat healthy. I live alot by this diet and it helps me keep my weight in check. Give it a try. Check out there webside www.southbeach-diet-plan.com
I just glanced briefly at the introduction. It sounds pretty good, but I would have a really hard time in Phase I - don't think I can do it - no fruit, yoghurt and oatmeal...that would be the worst, as I eat that on a daily basis and love it...I guess this one is not for me
I heard that Bill Gates & his better half are into this...
here's a little something about SOuth Beach....
The South Beach Diet is not low-carb. Nor is it low-fat. The South Beach Diet teaches you to rely on the right carbs and the right fats and enables you to live quite happily without the bad carbs and bad fats. Here's how you'll do it:
Phase 1: Banishing Your Cravings
Phase 2: Reintroducing Carbs
Phase 3: A Diet for Life
Phase 1: Banishing Your Cravings Back to Top
What you'll eat: During Phase 1, you'll eat normal-size helpings of meat, chicken, turkey, fish, and shellfish. You'll have plenty of vegetables, eggs, cheese, and nuts. You'll have salads with real olive oil in the dressing. You'll have three balanced meals a day, and it will be your job to eat so that your hunger is satisfied.
Nothing undermines a weight-loss plan more than the distressing sensation that you need more food. No sane eating program expects you to go through life feeling discomfort. You'll be urged to have snacks in the midmorning and midafternoon, whether you want to or not. You'll have dessert after dinner. You'll drink water, of course, plus coffee or tea if you wish.
What you won't eat: For the first 14 days you won't be having any bread, rice, potatoes, pasta, or baked goods. No fruit, even. Before you panic: You'll begin adding those things back into your diet again in two weeks. But for right now, they're off-limits. No candy, cake, cookies, ice cream, or sugar for two weeks, either. No beer or alcohol of any kind. After this phase, you'll be free to drink wine, which is beneficial for a variety of reasons. Not a drop during the first two weeks, however.
Now, if you're the kind of person who lives for pasta or bread or potatoes, or if you believe that you can't get through a day without feeding your sweet tooth (three or four times), let me tell you something: You're going to be shocked at how painlessly two weeks will pass without these foods. The first day or two may be challenging; but once you weather that, you'll be fine.
It's not that you'll have to fight your urges—the cravings will virtually disappear during the first week. I say this with such confidence only because so many overweight people who have already succeeded on this program tell me so. The South Beach Diet may be new to you, but it has existed for several years—long enough to have helped hundreds of people lose weight easily and keep it off.
Phase 2: Reintroducing Carbs Back to Top
How you'll change: Beneath the surface even bigger changes are happening. You won't be able to see it, but you'll have also started changing your body chemistry. In these first two weeks you'll have corrected the way your body reacts to the very foods that made you overweight.
There's a switch inside you that had been turned on. Now, simply by modifying your diet, you'll have turned it off. The physical cravings that ruled your eating habits will be gone, and they'll stay away for as long as you stick with the program. The weight loss doesn't happen because you're trying to eat less. It will happen because you'll be eating fewer of the foods that created those old bad urges—fewer of the foods that caused your body to store excessive fat.
What you'll eat now: As a result of that change, you should continue to lose weight after the 14-day period ends; even though you will have started adding some of those banished foods back into your life. You'll still be on a diet, but if it's bread you love, you'll have bread. If it's pasta, you'll reintroduce that. Rice or cereal, too. Potatoes. Fruit will definitely be back. Chocolate? If it makes you feel good, sure.
You will have to pick and choose which of these indulgences you permit yourself. You won't be able to have all of them all the time. You'll learn to enjoy them a little differently than before—maybe a little less enthusiastically. But you will enjoy them again soon.
You'll remain in Phase 2 and continue losing weight until you reach your goal. How long it takes depends on how much you need to lose. Once you hit your target, you'll switch to an even more liberal version of the program, which will help you to maintain your ideal weight.
This is the stage that lasts the rest of your life. When you get to this point, you'll notice that this plan feels less like a diet and more like a way of life. You'll be eating normal foods, after all, in normal-size portions. You can then feel free to forget all about the South Beach Diet, as long as you remember to live by its few basic rules.
The final change: As you're losing weight and altering how your body responds to food, a third change will be taking place. This one will significantly alter your blood chemistry, to the long-term benefit of your cardiovascular system. You will improve invisible factors that only cardiologists and heart patients worry about. Thanks to this final change, you will substantially increase your odds of living long and well—meaning you will maintain your health and vitality as you age.
You may start on the South Beach Diet hoping just to lose weight. If you adopt it and stay with it, you will surely accomplish that much—plus all the benefits of a healthy diet and a thinner body. Are you ready to lose weight and get heathly?
I am thinking of Trying this diet. I have about 18lbs i want to lose. I am muscular female and plan on working out 5 times a week( 4 cardio sessions and 2 wieght lifting). I was wondering how this diet will affect my workouts and how much wieght can I expect to loose?
Thanks
mblake8
My aunt has been on the South Beach and she has lost a considerable amount of weight and she looks look. I wanted to try it but I didn't know if it was suitable for me. Do you think that the South Beach, or any diet like that (Atkis and such) are appropriate for teens? I am a 6'2 15 year old teen, and i weigh 220 lbs. My doctor told me i need to loose 30 lbs.
You are lucky you have youth on your side, which means your metabolism can allow you to loose weight with being active and eating healthy. Considering that I dont know your current diet or excersize, but I am betting that a few little changes would allow you to take off that weight fairly easily. IE Monitor the fast foods, sodas, the snacks and make sure you get regualr excersize. A growing body needs balanced nutrition and cutting anything out in extreme in my opinion is not the heathiest choice for a person of your age.
I did the South Beach diet for 3 months and lost 15 lbs..Ive kept it off and then I got pregnant. I havent had the ability to say NO to sugars for 2 weeks again..but Im thinking of doing it again to boost my metabolism..is that a good idea? I still however do the whole grains and there is no such thing as a carb in this house w/ out at least 3 grams of fiber :-D
I may give it a try, though there were quite a few items on the menu I don't care for. Some items are quite expensive (tomatoes, mixed greens, red and yellow peppers, asparagus, boneless skinless chicken breasts, steak, mahi mahi, tuna, swordfish). Since it's all cooking with fresh food from scratch, it also seems time consuming.
The diet has you drinking tomato juice or V8 each morning. I get why, but I can't stand the stuff. Don't know what to substitute.
Checked out the website. They give you almost zero helpful information unless you sign up and pay $5 per week. Yikes! That's $260 per year. I'd much rather use the free Weight Loss Forum site!
Hey all you South Beachers =) I just got the book and have read it and have been doing this for 2 days ... I just don't know if i'm doing it RIGHT! For one thing, how are stuffed crab for phase 1?
Also- this is a sample of my diet every day:
B- 9 a.m. egg whites/ peppers/ canadian bacon or 1 veggie sausage
L- 1:00 p.m. chicken breast w/ broccoli & cauliflower
S - 3 p.m. pickles, low carb yogurt or some cottage cheese
D - grilled peppers, salad w/ oil dressing & part skim cheese, chicken breast
S- pickles, or veggie sausage patty for a snack
I don't know if i'm eating right, i eat until I am full but I feel like I am eating alot? I don't know ... I guess I just need some confidence in this. I drink a lot of water, but sometimes I will grab a few picklec throughout the day or whatnot ... I don't eat o a same schedule everyday. You are supposed to be full right? I feel like I'm overeating ... maybe I will see some loss and that will kick me up and make me more confident in this =) Also, am I eating too many veggies? Is it basicaly cutting the carbs that helps us lose?
Checked out the website. They give you almost zero helpful information unless you sign up and pay $5 per week. Yikes! That's $260 per year. I'd much rather use the free Weight Loss Forum site!
I saw that yesterday! I have the book and thought I would look at the website and visit any message boards they may have and I couldn't even get in without paying the $5 a week! I said forget it. I will just read my book and then search around on the web to see what other people were saying. It looks like it would be fairly easy though, except the first two weeks.
I was on south beach for about two months last year, and I had a lot of success with it. I extended the first phase to four weeks rather than two, and ended up losing nearly 20 lbs in that time. It was great results, but I just couldn't maintain it because I wasn't allowed to have any of the foods I really wanted like pasta. Even with fast food, it was relatively okay to stay on it... if you enjoy salad for lunch every day.
That was my other problem with it; because I didn't have time to make my own meals I was eating basically the same five meals all the time and just got sick of it. If it weren't for the lack of variety, I probably could have stayed on it for my full 50 lbs of intended weightloss.
I have began eating based on the glycemic index. It is pretty similar to the South Beach Diet. It is all about eating the good carbs and avoiding the bad. However, there isn't an introductory phase where you have to give up so many things. Most of the books about it even say that if there is something you really like that is on the high glycemic list, go ahead and have it in moderation. So far I really like it and I haven't even been following it strictly. I don't feel hungry as often and it even seems to help me to get headaches less.
I started South Beach Today 
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