This initial South Beach Diet phase lasts for two weeks. Most people should see a rapid weight loss during phase 1. Although this phase is the most restrictive of the diet, many people that have tried it have reported that the cravings for many of the prohibited foods disappear within the first few days.

With this second phase of the diet, there are no set time limits as to how long you should remain on it. Dieters are advised to stay on phase 2 until they reach their goal weight. Weight loss during this phase slows down to 1-2 pounds per week. This is because many of the foods that were restricted in phase 1 are now re-introduced into the diet.

This final phase of the diet is one that should last for life. By now you should have changed your eating habits for the better, both in the things you eat and the way you cook. Having trained yourself and your body to make healthier choices, you should now continue to eat healthily and maintain the weight loss. If you do indulge a little and some of the weight creeps back on, the diet recommends that you switch to phase 1 again for a short while until you have shed the extra pounds. The restrictions now are only to avoid highly processed food that contains ‘bad’ carbs and ‘bad’ fats and try and stick to the food that contains the ‘good’ ones. Your daily menus should be based around the healthy food types recommended throughout this diet, and you should continue to eat three well-balanced meals each day.

As you're losing weight and altering how your body responds to food, a third change bas been taken place. This one will significantly alter your blood chemistry, to the long-term benefit of your cardiovascular system. You will improve invisible factors that only cardiologists and heart patients worry about. Thanks to this final change, you will substantially increase your odds of living long and well, meaning you will maintain your health and vitality as you age.

Summary & Opinion

The most popular public opinion appears to be that the South Beach Diet is an advanced version of the popular Atkins Diet. Although the diets can come across as very similar at first, there are some important differences that should be remembered: firstly, the South Beach Diet does not appear to encourage consumption of saturated fats, which the Atkins Diet seems to condone. And secondly, the South Beach Diet is not about cutting out carbs altogether, but changing the types of carbs that we eat. Dr Agatston’s opening words in his book are: ‘This diet is not low carb. Nor is it low fat’.

Below are some of the diet tips that can help in getting a better diet result:

Phase 1: Banishing Your Cravings

What you'll eat: During Phase 1, you'll eat normal-size helpings of meat, chicken, turkey, fish, and shellfish. You'll have plenty of vegetables, eggs, cheese, and 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.

Nothing undermines a weight-loss plan more than the distressing sensation that you need more food. No sane eating program expects you to go through life feeling discomfort. You'll be urged to have snacks in the midmorning and midafternoon, whether you want to or not. You'll have dessert after dinner. You'll drink water, of course, plus coffee or tea if you wish.

What you won't eat: For the first 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 two weeks. But for right now, they're off-limits. No candy, cake, cookies, ice cream, or sugar for two weeks, either. No beer or alcohol of any kind. After this phase, you'll be free to drink wine, which is beneficial for a variety of reasons. Not a drop during the first two weeks, however.

Now, if you're the kind of person who lives for pasta or bread or potatoes, or if you believe that you can't get through a day without feeding your sweet tooth (three or four times), let me tell you something: You're going to be shocked at how painlessly two weeks will pass without these foods. The first day or two may be challenging; but once you weather that, you'll be fine.

It's not that you'll have to fight your urges—the cravings will virtually disappear during the first week. I say this with such confidence only because so many overweight people who have already succeeded on this program tell me so. The South Beach Diet may be new to you, but it has existed for several years—long enough to have helped hundreds of people lose weight easily and keep it off.

Phase 2: Reintroducing Carbs

How you'll change: Beneath the surface even bigger changes are happening. You won't be able to see it, but you'll have also started changing your body chemistry. In these first two weeks you'll have corrected the way your body reacts to the very foods that made you overweight.

There's a switch inside you that had been turned on. Now, simply by modifying your diet, you'll have turned it off. The physical cravings that ruled your eating habits will be gone, and they'll stay away for as long as you stick with the program. The weight loss doesn't happen because you're trying to eat less. It will happen because you'll be eating fewer of the foods that created those old bad urges—fewer of the foods that caused your body to store excessive fat.

What you'll eat now: As a result of that change, you should continue to lose weight after the 14-day period ends; even though you will have started adding some of those banished foods back into your life. You'll still be on a diet, but if it's bread you love, you'll have bread. If it's pasta, you'll reintroduce that. Rice or cereal, too. Potatoes. Fruit will definitely be back. Chocolate? If it makes you feel good, sure.

You will have to pick and choose which of these indulgences you permit yourself. You won't be able to have all of them all the time. You'll learn to enjoy them a little differently than before—maybe a little less enthusiastically. But you will enjoy them again soon.

You'll remain in Phase 2 and continue losing weight until you reach your goal. How long it takes depends on how much you need to lose. Once you hit your target, you'll switch to an even more liberal version of the program, which will help you to maintain your ideal weight.

Phase 3: A Diet For Life

This is the stage that lasts the rest of your life. When you get to this point, you'll notice that this plan feels less like a diet and more like a way of life. You'll be eating normal foods, after all, in normal-size portions. You can then feel free to forget all about the South Beach Diet, as long as you remember to live by its few basic rules.

The final change: As you're losing weight and altering how your body responds to food, a third change will be taking place. This one will significantly alter your blood chemistry, to the long-term benefit of your cardiovascular system. You will improve invisible factors that only cardiologists and heart patients worry about. Thanks to this final change, you will substantially increase your odds of living long and well—meaning you will maintain your health and vitality as you age.

You may start on the South Beach Diet hoping just to lose weight. If you adopt it and stay with it, you will surely accomplish that much—plus all the benefits of a healthy diet and a thinner body. Are you ready to lose weight and get healthy?