The South Beach Diet Plan
The South Beach Diet Plan stresses eating the right carbs, and eating good fats like olive oil and you stay away from saturated fat like beef, bacon and butter. During the first part of the diet, you eliminate all alcohol and carbohydrates for the first 2 weeks. In the second phase, you start eating the right kind of carbohydrates and fruit.
The South Beach Diet Plan recommends watching your sugar intake and eat low GI food. Plums, apples and oranges are low glycemic fruit, sweet potatoes, lentils and chickpeas are low gi as well. Avoid high glycemic food like watermelon, baked potatoes and French fries.
The South Beach Diet Plan is broken into three parts:
Phase 1: This phase lasts for 2 weeks and is the toughest phase of the diet. No carbohydrates are allowed, nor is alcohol. No bread, rice, potatoes, pasta, fruit or sugar is allowed. Most of the weight loss as you begin is water weight.
Phase 2: You remain in this phase until your weight loss target is reached. Carbs are allowed in moderation – vegetables, fruit and whole grain products. A list of approved carbohydrates and food is provided in the book and on the website.
Phase 3: The third phase is the maintenance stage of the South Beach Diet Plan. You’re allowed to add additional food, lean protein and fat are introduced. You stay with this phase for the long haul and it is more flexible. Should you start to gain weight, you go back to the first phase.
The South Beach Diet Plan Weight Loss Tools
The South Beach weight loss tools will give you a chance to stay on the right track and use the info to help you continue on your diet. As well, the recipe database is huge, giving you a nice variety to select from. You can take a quiz which will help you decide whether the South Beach Diet Plan is the diet for you.
The South Beach Diet Plan isn’t a traditional low carbohydrate diet. Its premise is to teach you to change your eating habits by removing your intake of bad carbohydrates and increasing the good complex carbs, fruits and vegetables. The diet is a good diet for those people with cardiovascular issues, along with being a general overall healthy diet.