Newbie’s Guide To The South Beach Diet

The South Beach Diet is a low carb diet credited with rapid weight loss without causing hunger, all while promoting healthy cardiovascular health. It was created by Arthur Agatston in 2003.

This diet was created to help the overweight, diabetic, and pre-diabetic people to lose weight while reducing the risk of contracting different heart diseases. Besides its nutrition guidelines, South Beach has a fitness aspect, and this makes it a holistic program for those looking to lead a healthy life.

In essence, the South Beach Diet is marketed as more than a habit — rather, a lifestyle.

Why The South Beach Diet?

With plenty of low carb diets in the market, why is the South Beach Diet so popular?

Here are some of the reasons why you might want to choose this diet over others:

• Features and exciting list of foods
• Restricts certain carbs ad fats to help you lose weight fast
• Offers a diet that is easy to stick with
• Promotes healthy lifestyle

Additionally, unlike some of the diets, South Beach is a popular diet and readily available as numerous retailers offer affordable delivery options for this diet. 

Nutrition Principles of the South Beach Diet

As we had mentioned above, South Beach is a low-carb diet, meaning it comprises of a diet rich in low-glycemic carbohydrates.

In addition to reducing carb intake, the South Beach Diet promotes the consumption of fiber, unsaturated fats, and lean proteins.

Similarly, this diet has a high concentration of veggies and healthy fats.

Now, unlike a majority of the weight loss diets that make no distinction about good or bad fats, South Beach Diet does not primarily rely on calories in and calories out. Instead, this diet makes a distinction and designates carbs as either bad or good.

South Beach’s theory of weight loss revolves around the number of calories as well as the type of carbs. To lose weight, South Beach requires you to eat good carbs and fats, and eliminate the bad carbs.

How Does Exercise Figure Into The Diet?

The South Beach Diet emphasizes exercise.

However, there’re several restrictions to the exercises. For instance, if you had previously been on an exercising regime before starting the South Beach Diet, it would be fine to continue. However, if you had not yet started on working out, you might want to wait until you’re through with phase 1 of the program.

It’s recommendable that you wait until the restrictive phase is over, as it will make the entire program a lot easier for you.

Generally, the South Beach Diet recommends exercising daily.

In most cases, the suggested exercises come in two parts.

The first part is simply walking while alternating between slow and rapid walking.

The second part is all about a full-body workout that will greatly help at boosting your core strength.

The 3 Phases of the South Beach Diet

The South Beach dietary program is phased in 3 stages, and this helps to accomplish optimal weight loss without causing hunger.

As the stages progress, they become less restrictive and focus on replacing the bad carbs with good carbs.

Phase 1

Phase 1 is two-week long, and though the shortest duration, it requires the most restriction.

It’s an essential process as it jumpstarts the weight loss procedure, stabilizes the blood sugar, and reduces cravings.

During this stage, it’s required that you cut all the carbs and fruit juices and instead focus on lean protein like chicken and fish.

You’re also encouraged to consume a lot of veggies, salads, eggs, and dairy that is low in fat.

Phase 2

The second phase is where you gradually start introducing the good carbs that you skipped in phase 1.

It’s a longer-term process, and it’s essential for your weight loss.

According to South Beach, some of the good carbs include whole grains, brown rice, fruits, and pasta.

Phase 3

Also known as the plateau phase, phase 3 is all about maintenance and requires you follow the guiding rules from phase 1 and 2.

No food is restricted at this stage, but South Beach recommends that you consume three pieces of fruits daily, 3-4 servings of starch, and two tablespoonfuls of good fat.

Results

According to South Beach, ardent followers of this dietary program usually lose about 8-13 pounds in their first two weeks.

From there, they will lose around 1-2 pounds weekly.

However, understand that the weight loss numbers will be hugely dependent on your current physical condition and the overall weight you’ve to lose.

For instance, if you’re severely obese, you can experience some dramatic figures with South Beach Diet. This is contrary to the lean individual who will experience conservative numbers.

Risks

South Beach Diet is generally safe to use diet, provided you follow the stipulated guidelines outlined by the South Beach Website.

However, severe restriction of carbs can result in issues arising from ketosis. We recommend you consult your physician before using the South Beach diet. This is particularly true if you have any existing medical conditions.