South Beach Diet: Hype or a Healthy Plan?

Good Housekeeping

With sales of The South Beach Diet topping one million in the first four months, Good Housekeeping had to find out:

Can someone really lose weight on this plan? Our conclusion: Maybe. After crunching calories and poring over daily meals, we discovered that the diet largely depends on your portion sizes. What to know before heading to The Beach:

Phase One: During the first two weeks, starches and sweets are off-limits. The author, Miami Beach cardiologist Arthur Agatston, says that by cutting out forbidden foods like pasta and cookies, you'll cure your cravings and could shed 8 to 13 pounds.

Reality check: Much of your weight loss will be water. For some people, that's a great motivator; others will find it impossible to avoid baked goods, causing them to binge on these foods. The author also doesn't mention that you're eating about 1,500 calories daily, an amount anyone can lose on, no matter what the diet is.

Phase Two: This lasts as long as it takes you to reach your goal weight, but you can gradually add whole-grain starches to your diet.

Reality check: You're given only a two-week menu plan -- not much variety if you're stuck in this phase for months. Phase Two meals are also fairly light on starches, so you'll still need willpower. (One day, for instance, you're allowed just one starch serving -- a slice of whole-wheat bread.) The book doesn't always give portion sizes either, so it's impossible to know your daily caloric intake. Assuming you eat normal helpings, you'll consume about 1,700 calories a day -- a good diet if you exercise, but if you're sedentary, your weight loss can stall.

Phase Three: This is a maintenance plan, where no foods are forbidden.

Reality check: Again, without specifying portions, you may not know how much to eat. So unless you know that you should limit couscous to one cooked cup or sirloin steak to 4 ounces, you may regain the lost pounds.

Bottom line: I think the South Beach Diet is safer than Atkins because it doesn't encourage you to eat artery-clogging cream, cheese and other saturated fats. You're getting heart-healthy monounsaturated fats instead. And although the first two carb-cutting weeks may be rough, the diet isn't harmful and can help you shed pounds -- if you eat proper portions. Plus, encouraging people to switch to whole grains and to exercise 30 minutes a day, as the author advises, makes this a pretty healthy plan.

The south beach diet is Atkin's diet modified to please Atkin's critics! I don't support it or support any diet of its kind for two reasons:

(1) For three decades, when Dr. Atkins has been critisized by almost every body for his low carb diet, he has been fighting the battle alone. None of these doctors has been saying a word to help him. Now, when Atkins diet started to win, they say that they too believe in low carb dieting and have better ideas.

(2) Dr. Atkin's has used himself and hundreds of his patients to develop his diet while most of these doctors merely rely on theoritical knowledge to develop theirs.

>>"The south beach diet is Atkin's diet modified to please Atkin's critics!"

Amen to that. That's the best way I've heard it explained so far.

It doesn't help that the media STILL insists on believing the myths: no fruits or veggies, bacon and eggs all day, no healthy fats, etc. If they'd compare the REAL Atkins plan to SB, that would have been a totally different article.

I'll stick with my general low=carb. way - I know that if I eat one slice of bread I will want two.

I would rather have a cup of melon per day than eat a peach and then need another.

I could never stop with l/2 cup of pasta - I would need more.

So for me, I think not eating any of them until I hit a weight I feel is right for my body is what I need.
Maybe it makes sence for a maintenance plan - I'll find out when I hit that goal!!!!!!