I'm following this now
It starts out low carb for the first 2 weeks, but then you gradually add carbs back to your diet each day. It ends up not being a low carb diet at all, but we still put it in the low carb section, lol.
The focus of the diet is to eat the good carbs and good fats, and avoid the bad carbs and bad fats. You don't have anything to count, like calories or points, and you can eat as much as you want as long as you avoid the above. Very few foods have specified portion sizes.
Unlike Atkins or some other low carb diets, the SBD diet doesn't encourage all the sat fats and unlimited meats, etc. You eat chicken breast, fish, and limit meat to lean cuts. Egg whites and egg substitutes are preferred over whole eggs. There are a lot of differences such as that which make it a much healthier option than many of the popular low carb diets, or even some low fat diets. But then again, since you get to add carbs back, it isn't a low carb diet. It really reminds me of the mediterranean diet in a way.
I hate the title of the book because it brings to mind various fad diets such as the Hollywood diet. It was really developed by the Mount Sinai Cardiac Prevention Center and they've been using it for years on heart patients.
If anyone is interested, we've created a whole South Beach forum called Fat Chicks on the Beach and you'll find it in the Low Carb category (even if it's not low carb
)
You may lose a lot of weight in the first 2 weeks because the diet is very restrictive during this "Phase 1" period. Much of that weight loss will be water.
South Beach Diet
South Beach Diet
