Fad Diet Series: The South Beach Diet

As far as fad diets go, the South Beach Diet isn’t bad. It’s like Atkins’ less-pushy, less dogmatic, and—unfortunately—less popular cousin. The South Beach Diet is an approach to restrict your diet, reduce your calories, and eat healthier over the long term, and it’s designed to be healthy weight loss for life.

How the South Beach Diet Works

Depending on who you talk to, the South Beach Diet is or is not a low-carb diet. The South Beach Diet tries to get you to reduce your carbs, and when you eat them, to make healthier choices. However, it accomplishes this with a highly restrictive first phase where you virtually cut out carbs altogether. Rice, potatoes, pasta, and even fruits and fruit juices are banned. During this initial phase, you are expected to achieve significant, rapid weight loss.

After 14 days, you transition to phase 2 in which you begin gradually reintroducing fruits, and healthy whole grains. This phase is supposed to help you achieve your weight loss goals. You stay on phase 2 for as long as it takes to get down to your goal weight.

In the third phase, you are allowed to have all the foods you want, but are encouraged to keep in mind the dieting principles you have learned so that you can enjoy healthy food and a healthy lifestyle while maintaining your weight.

Exercise is encouraged as an aid during all phases of the diet.

Does It Work?

Overall, the South Beach Diet seems to be fairly effective. People who try the South Beach Diet and stick with it can lose large amounts of weight over time, and do it in a healthy way. It’s not a rock-star diet, and it won’t produce dramatic results, except during the first phase, but it’s also a diet that you can keep with for a lifetime.

If you can. As with most diets, the limitation of the South Beach Diet is that it can be hard for people to stay on the program. For many people, working with a doctor can make the difference between staying on a diet and straying from it.

If you haven’t been able to achieve weight loss using this or other diet plans, please contact Med-Fit Medical Weight Loss Clinic in Denver.

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Dr. Angela Tran