The South Beach Diet is, without a doubt, one of the most popular diets in recent years. The primary reason for this is that it has been proven beyond question to work. It was created by renowned cardiologist Arthur Agaston along with dietitian Marie Almon. The reason they created it was due to the growing need for an alternative to all of the low-fat diets being heavily promoted by the American Heart Society around the time. There was no question that the low-fat diets worked, however they were far too hard to manage and maintain on a long-term basis. Agaston and Almon created a diet where the basic concept is centered around recognizing the distinction between good carbohydrates and bad carbohydrates. They also wanted people to be able to differentiate between good fat and bad fat. The common sense approach taken is the reason why this diet works so well, plus the fact that it is based around real nutrition and scientific facts.
A big difference with the South Beach diet lies in the fact that it not only tells people the usual what they should eat and why, but it goes further teaching a way of life that people can easily fit into their daily lives. The ability to incorporate the diet so easily is also one of the big reasons why this diet is so sustainable. People are not just treating it as a weight loss diet, but as a totally new way of living with the bonus of losing any excess weight and keeping it off as well.
As previously mentioned, the South Beach diet is based around recognizing what are good and bad fat and carbs. There are three different phases in this diet. With each phase there are specific types of foods you can eat. Phase 1 is undoubtedly the hardest of all three, lasting for the initial two weeks of the diet. In this phase all processed carbs, sugars, fruits and certain vegetables with high glycemic indexes are strictly prohibited. Due to this phase of the program being the most restrictive, this is where people generally find the most weight loss occurring.
Phase 2 sees the dieter being able to reintroduce most fruits back into his or her diet, plus most vegetables and some whole grains. The duration of the second phase is determined by how much excess weight the dieter still wishes to shed. The third phase of this diet is commonly referred to as the maintenance phase. Those who are in phase 3 have reached their desired weight and are creating a lifestyle which will enable them to maintain their chosen weight level. By this phase, the dieter is an expert on determining which are bad fats and carbs. The dieter now finds that they can quite happily live without them in their lives after completing the initial phases of the South Beach diet which are comparatively restrictive.
If you are keen to be like the hundreds of other people who have already changed their lives with the help of the South Beach diet, then there is nothing stopping you from starting today!
