South Beach Diet-An Overview

The South Beach weight loss program became very popular in the 1990’s, as a successor to the stringency of the Atkins diet. It was seen by many, as a more healthy and less obsessive alternative to the low carb regime of Atkins. Although it still encouraged the participant to avoid many cooked and processed carbohydrates. This included many bread pastries and cakes, and also refined carbohydrates such as sugar as in soft drinks and chocolate.

The diet was originated by Dr. Arthur Agatston, an American cardiologist. The system

does not follow other diets in a single interpretation of itself as “Low fat” or “low carb”. It seeks to help the dieter to understand how to eat what is good for them, from both groups of foods so that weight loss can be achieved by eating both “good carbs” and “good fats”.

The diet is in three very distinct sections, and each one has it’s own particular function’s, first part is the stricter of the two and is designed both to give a quick start to the weight loss and also to develop the pattern of eating a healthier, more stable diet.

In the first part the dieter is encouraged to eat three proper meals a day. But foods such as many cooked carbohydrates are excluded from this, although good portions of lean meat and fish and plenty of fresh vegetables are recommended. This provides a good start to the diet and also eliminates the problem faced by many weight loss systems, hunger.

The South Beach Diet ensures that you are not plagued by the hunger pangs that ruin so many weight loss aspirations, by making sure that you have three good meals a day. This is one of the reasons that many people succeed on this diet, where they have failed on others. By making sure that you are not hungry in the early phase of the diet, The south Beach Diet gives you a head start and lessens the chance of a failure due to just being too hungry and all the associated lack of enthusiasm that goes with other dieting or diet regimens.

The first part of the South Beach weight loss plan is very limited. Although you will be able to eat three meals a day, the foods that those meals may contain, such as limited carbohydrates reduce the choices available. Part of the thinking behind this is that when the weight loss starts, you will use carbohydrates more efficiently and as such, the need for then will be at a much lower level.

We will discuss about the second and third parts of the South Beach Diet in the subsequent posts.