Open any Women's magazine, Health magazines or Family magazines, and you will see yet another diet fad of some sort mentioned. Some come with great prominence, like Atkins, and others just pop up, and never get a great following.
The South Beach Diet is touted as another "big leap" to the slimming arena when it was first formulated by Dr. Arthur Agatston who found out that some of his patients were having little progress by using the traditional low carb-high fat diet plans.
Generally, the South Beach Diet is such an acclaimed form of diet that is mainly divided into three different phases. There is an introductory period of two weeks, a second build-up phase , and then the third phase is a lifetime diet pattern that you should continue for the rest of your life.
It is considered that the first phase of the South Beach Diet lasts for two weeks. And it is interesting to know that every phase of the South Beach Diet includes particular meal plans and recipes.
For those who have tried the Atkins Diet, ( and I have - the first Phase of Atkins is indeed 'purgatory' in my opinion) you may react that the South Beach Diet with such introduction to its phases really sounds quite similar to that of Atkins, but then try to note that the South Beach Diet is a low-carb diet. The Atkins diet was of course a No-Carb, High Protein diet.
The first phase of the South Beach Diet is the strictest part of this "big thing". Here, the dieter will be totally eliminating fruits, bread, rice, potatoes, pasta, sugar, alcohol, and baked goods for two weeks from the start of your diet.
Such exclusion of these items is the primary reason why some people may assume that the South Beach Diet is a low-carb plan. With such given fact, the dieter therefore will be eliminating many foods that he or she may be accustomed to eating such as a roll with dinner or a banana in the morning, and say babushka to junk foods. But then, after the set two weeks are done, the dieters are now free to add back what is excluded from their diets.
Moving on the the second phase.
Now here, the idea is to slowly re-introduce to your diet, foods that were restricted in Phase 1. There is no time limit in this phase, and you may drip back into Phase 1 if you want to. The idea is to keep on phase two until you reach your target weight.
The second phase of the South Beach Diet involves the discipline of slowly adding the foods that were off-limits before. So the dieters can now begin to add bread, pasta, potatoes, rice, or cereal to their meals. The choice is just up to them. In fact, at this phase of the South Beach Diet, the dieter can add fruit too, if he or she wishes. It is interesting to know that this diet provides the dieters the freedom to choose which of those foods they will add back into their diet. Thus, the key in this phase of the South Beach Diet is to re-introduce those foods in moderation and to not take them as always as before. One again, in contract t the Atkins diet, I just love fruit, and was one of the things that I just could not get to grips with in the Atkins regime.
And finally - Phase three.
Finally, as the third phase of the South Beach Diet enters, the final and the least restrictive phase of the South Beach Diet emerged. It is noted by Dr. Agatston himself that as long as a dieter follows the fundamental rules of the South Beach Diet, he or she will continue to manage his/her own weight until it becomes a way of life.
Like all diets, they are not suitable for everybody. Try it, persevere for several months, but don't just switch from diet to diet until you are really certain whether one works or not for you.