The South Beach Diet: What Is It?

The South Beach Diet teaches you to rely on the right carbs and the right fats–the good ones–and enables you to live quite happily without the bad carbs and bad fats.

As a result, it promises that you’re going to get healthy and lose weight–somewhere between 8 and 13 pounds in the first two weeks alone.

Here’s how you do it:

For Phase 1:

* You’ll eat normal-size helpings of meat, chicken, turkey, fish, and shell-fish.

* You’ll have plenty of vegetables. Eggs. Cheese. Nuts.

* You’ll have salads with real olive oil in the dressing.

* You’ll have three balanced meals a day, and it will be your job to eat so that your hunger is satisfied.

* You’ll drink water, of course, plus coffee or tea if you wish.

For the next 14 days you won’t be having any bread, rice, potatoes, pasta, or baked goods. No fruit, even. Before you panic: You’ll begin adding those things back into your diet again in 2 weeks.

Read more: Health, Natural Remedies

Adapted from The South Beach Diet, by Arthur Agatston, M.D. (Rodale Press, 2003). Copyright (c) 2003 by Arthur Agatston. Reprinted by permission of Rodale Press.
Adapted from The South Beach Diet, by Arthur Agatston, M.D. (Rodale Press, 2003).

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of
Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

Glenn B.

5:57AM PST on Jan 30, 2012

helped put things into perspective

send a green star

Jennifer C.

5:16PM PDT on Oct 16, 2011

Thanks for the great article.

Shannon B.

8:33AM PDT on May 13, 2011

This diet is a crappy gimic that promotes unhealthy eating habits. If you want to be thin you have to live a "thin" lifestyle.

Control your portions and eat only what you need. (hint: it's WAY less calories then you have been consuming). Secondly choose water and tea over coffee and alcohol. If you aren't willing to do this, you aren't going to loose weight properly. You are just going to yo yo up and down for the rest of your life as you feign not to know why...

Robert O.

1:01AM PDT on May 13, 2011

Thanks. I heard of it but never knew much about it.

Danielle H.

8:21AM PDT on May 11, 2011

THANK YOU

KS G.

12:30AM PST on Dec 26, 2010

Thanks for the article.

David N.

9:20PM PST on Dec 11, 2010

I like this better than the Atkin's Diet. Much easier to follow.