South Beach Diet

Dearest Trophy: While I think living Trophy is the best way to diet. (Meaning you eat great food in the right amounts, The Trophy Wife Diet is all about calories in vs. calories out). There are other diets out there and I want to give you a little review of a few of them.  One that is pretty popular and actually stresses eating great food is “The South Beach Diet”. A  diet created in 2003 by cardiologist Arthur Agatston and outlined in his best-selling book, "The South Beach Diet: The Delicious, Doctor-Designed, Foolproof Plan for Fast and Healthy Weight Loss." The South Beach Diet is considered a commercial/fad weight-loss diet.

The South Beach Diet, which is named after a glamorous area of Miami, focuses on low car eating but is not as restrictive as many low carb diets.

The purpose of the South Beach Diet is to change the overall balance of the foods you eat to encourage weight loss and a healthy lifestyle. The South Beach Diet says it's a healthy way of eating whether you want to lose weight or not.

More on the South Beach Diet

It's a diet that restricts certain carbs and fats to help you lose weight.  The diet has a lot of the related South Beach Diet products, such as cookbooks and diet foods you can purchase at your local chain grocer.

Check with your doctor or health care provider before starting any weight-loss diet, especially if you have any health concerns.

Diet details

"The South Beach Diet says that its balance of good carbs, lean protein and healthy fats makes it a nutrient-dense, fiber-rich diet that you can follow for a lifetime of healthy eating. The South Beach Diet says that it'll teach you about eliminating so-called "bad" carbs from your diet. It defines bad carbs as those with a high glycemic index. Foods with a high glycemic index tend to increase your blood sugar faster, higher and longer than do foods with a lower index. Some evidence suggests that this increase in blood sugar can boost your appetite, leading to increased eating and weight gain and possibly diabetes, which can all contribute to cardiovascular disease.

The South Beach Diet also teaches you about the different kinds of dietary fats and encourages you to limit unhealthy trans fats and saturated fats, while eating more foods with healthier monounsaturated fats. The South Beach Diet emphasizes the benefits of fiber and whole grains and encourages you to include lots of fruits and vegetables in your eating plan."

Carbohydrates
The South Beach Diet is lower in carbohydrates than is a typical eating plan, but not as low as a true low-carb diet. On a typical eating plan, about 45 to 65 percent of your daily calories come from carbohydrates. Based on a 2,000-calorie-a-day diet, you can get as much as 28 percent of your daily calories from carbohydrates, or about 140 grams of carbohydrates a day. A true low-carb diet might restrict your carb intake to as little as 5% a day.

The South Beach Diet says that regular exercise will boost your metabolism and help prevent weight-loss plateaus.

Phases of the South Beach Diet
The South Beach Diet has three phases:

·         Phase 1. This two-week phase is designed to eliminate food cravings and jump-start weight loss. You cut out almost all carbohydrates from your diet, particularly starches and sugars, including pasta, rice, bread and fruit. You can't drink fruit juice or any alcohol. You focus on eating lean protein, such as seafood, skinless poultry, lean beef and soy products. You also can eat high-fiber vegetables, low-fat dairy, and foods with healthy, unsaturated fats, including avocadoes, nuts and seeds.

·         Phase 2. This is a long-term weight-loss phase. You begin adding back some of the previously banned foods, such as whole-grain breads, whole-wheat pasta, brown rice, fruits and more vegetables. You stay in this phase until you reach your goal weight.

·         Phase 3. This is a maintenance phase meant to be a healthy way to eat for life. You continue to follow the diet and lifestyle principles you learned in the two previous phases. You can eat almost all the foods that you want, including occasional indulgences.

A typical day's menu on the South Beach Diet
Here's a look at what you might eat during a typical day in phase 1 of the South Beach Diet, according to the South Beach Diet website:

·         Breakfast. Breakfast might be artichokes Benedict, an asparagus omelet with goat cheese, or baked eggs with spinach and ham, along with a cup of coffee or tea.

·         Lunch. Lunch might be a shrimp stir-fry or a warm beef salad, along with iced tea or sparkling water.

·         Dinner. Dinner may feature grilled sesame salmon or flank steak paired with a vegetable side dish and a salad.

·         Dessert. The diet encourages you to enjoy a dessert, such as a ricotta cheesecake or chilled espresso custard, even in phase 1.

·         Snacks. You can enjoy snacks during the day, too, such as a Muenster cheese and turkey roll-up or a spicy nut mix.

Results

Weight loss
The South Beach Diet says that you'll lose 8 to 13 pounds in the two-week period that you're in phase 1. It also says that most of the weight will be shed from your midsection. In phase 2, it says that you'll likely lose 1 to 2 pounds a week.

Most people can lose weight on almost any diet, especially in the short term. Most important to weight loss is how many calories you take in and how many calories you burn off. A weight loss of 1 to 2 pounds a week is the typical recommendation. Although it may seem slow, it's a pace that's more likely to help you maintain your weight loss permanently. Losing a large amount of weight rapidly could indicate that you're losing water weight or lean tissue, rather than fat. In some situations, however, faster weight loss can be safe if it's done in a healthy way. For example, doctors may prescribe a medically supervised very low calorie diet for rapid weight loss if you're obese or have serious health problems. In addition, some diets include an initiation phase to help you jump start your weight loss, including the South Beach Diet and the Mayo Clinic Diet.

Health benefits
The South Beach Diet, while mainly directed at weight loss, may promote certain healthy changes. Research shows that following a long-term eating plan that's rich in healthy carbohydrates and dietary fats can improve your health. For example, lower carbohydrate diets with healthy fats may improve your blood cholesterol levels. On the other hand, no long-term, randomized controlled clinical trials have measured the health outcomes of the South Beach Diet. Nor have there been such studies of the overall health or cardiovascular benefits of following a low-glycemic-index diet. But eating such foods as whole grains, unsaturated fats, vegetables and fruits should help to promote good health.

Risks

The South Beach Diet is generally safe if you follow it as outlined in official South Beach Diet books and websites. However, if you severely restrict your carbohydrates, you may experience problems from ketosis. Ketosis, caused by the breakdown of dietary fat, can sometimes lead to weakness, nausea, dehydration and dizziness.

South Beach Diet Information compiled by the Mayo Clinic

More Information at South Beach Diet