Even though...
 

This diet is not supposed to be specifically low carb, how many carbs did you all try to stay within in phase 1?

We don't count carbs at all. In Phase 1 you can have all the beans, lf or ff dairy, and allowed veggies you need, though it's good to watch portion sizes on cheese.

I still log all my calories/carbs/fat/protein for the day and I noticed my carbs while on phase 1 were close to like 60-70 grams of carbs a day. I did eat beans and stuff and didn't feel deprived at all. Now that I'm on phase 2 my carbs tend to fall around 85-110 grams a day.

It's to not aim for a number, but try to aim to eat only what's allowed on phase 1- good luck!

Don' t know if this helps you or not, but...

I calorie-count, too but I haven't really done Phase 1 as a calorie counter. I did have a pretty much Phase 1 day recently (except for 1/2 cup raw blueberries, which adds 10 g carbs) and the total carbs for the day was 73 g.

That also ended up being a really low-cal day (less than 1000!) and honestly, I don't think I got enough veggies in. My fiber total for that day was only 18 g. So I don't think it's a stellar example of doing South Beach well.

My Phase 2 days have been between 100 and 150 g carbs and usually around 30 g fiber. That includes beans every day, berries and citrus fruits, and one (sometimes two, at different meals) serving(s) of oatmeal, Uncle Sam cereal, brown rice or quinoa.

Maybe I sound like a broken record, but anyway: when I focus on getting in the minimum of 4.5 cups veggies, 2 servings dairy and work on getting enough lean protein, everything falls into place without having to count anything. I'll probably stop counting calories someday when I can trust myself to make good choices :)

Katy, if you're concerned about how many carbs you're eating, I'm getting the feeling you either didn't read the book or you didn't understand it if you read it. You can have 1,000,000g of carbs a day on this diet, or more, as long as they are GOOD carbs and don't cause you to have cravings.

You need to pay attention to what kind of carbs you're eating, that you stick to portion sizes, and notice how your own body responds. There's no need to ever worry about grams of carbs on this diet.