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Article Series: Weight Loss & Dieting
How Do I Really Lose Weight?
The
South Beach Diet: What is it?
The South Beach Diet, created by cardiologist
Dr. Arthur Agatston, is a safe and effective diet that differs
from other diets in that it advocates not just a new way of
eating but a new way of life.
The South Beach Diet puts an end to counting calories and
it puts an end to portion control. The South Beach Diet also
avoids putting people in a position where they feel like they’re
depriving themselves from eating food that tastes good and
satisfies them.
The
focus of the South Beach Diet is on fats and carbohydrates, more specifically, the right fats and carbohydrates. With the
South Beach Diet, you find that healthy carbohydrates and fats
satisfy your hunger and feed you energy while eating the wrong
carbohydrates and fats can actually make you feel hungrier
than you were before eating them, causing you to eat even more
and, as a result, gain weight.
The South Beach Diet works in 3
phases, dieters going through
phases 1 and 2 sequentially, each for a particular period of
time, then moving to phase 3 where they remain for the rest
of their lives.
South
Beach Diet Phase 1 – For two weeks certain forms of
carbohydrates are restricted, based on their glycemic index
(a measurement of their affect on a person’s blood sugar).
Portion sizes for all other foods are normal. This two week
period is the most intense and restrictive of the three phases.
Foods emphasized in Phase 1 include chicken and turkey, fish
and shellfish, vegetables with a low glycemic index (including
salads with light dressing), low fat cheeses, eggs, and nuts.
This is the period where drastic weight loss is usually noticed
in a short time. This type of weight loss is not sustainable,
however, which is why the South Beach Diet then promptly transitions
you into Phase 2 where you can adjust your dietary patterns
so as to achieve a more sustainable rate of weight loss without
gaining back that initial poundage you just shed.
South
Beach Diet Phase 2 – Here many of the carbohydrates
that were forbidden in Phase 1 are incrementally introduced
back into your diet. The desired effect of Phase 2 is to get
yourself to a place where you lose between1 and 2 pounds each
week, a rate of weight loss than you can easily sustain until
you achieve your body’s individual “healthy weight” (generally
best determined by your Body Mass Index and percentage body
fat to muscle mass). Phase 2 lasts as long as it takes for
you to reach your desired weight.
South
Beach Diet Phase 3 – Now you begin to establish the
balanced diet you aim to maintain for the rest of your life,
so long as weight remains where it is. Should you start to
gain weight again, you can simply go back to one or both of
the earlier phases until you get back to where you need to
be.
The South Beach Diet is not a starvation diet. In it, you
eat 3 satisfying meals per day plus 2 snacks in-between meals.
Your meal plans are not set in stone, so you can still enjoy
variety and spontaneity in your diet.
Studies of the South Beach Diet have shown that it not only
helps people lose weight, but it increases their “good cholesterol”
(HDLs) and decreases their “bad cholesterol” (LDLs) levels,
while also improving their levels of insulin.
Dr. Agatston’s South Beach Diet is outlined in full in his
book: The South Beach Diet: The Delicious, Doctor-Designed,
Foolproof Plan for Fast and Healthy Weight Loss. # # # # #
SolveYourProblem.com
: 2008
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