paleo vs south beach

NewTnme
NewTnme Posts: 258 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Does anyone have any info on the paleo or south beach diet. And which lifestyle change do you believe is healthier?

Replies

  • samammay
    samammay Posts: 468
    I dont believe either of them are lifestyle changes. They are both diets that restrict your intake from/to specific things. I dont believe that is ultimately sustainable, where reduced calorie intake is because the only think you are restricting yourself from is making bad food decisions. Can you have that ice cream? Sure, as long as it fits into your calories. Pulled pork? Yup - had it for lunch. Bread? What did I put my pulled pork on?

    I call my diet the ELC diet. Eat less crap. And that doesnt mean eat no crap... cause I wanna be like this forever and im not giving up bread, or carbs or bad carbs or whatever some diet tells me to. I can eat LESS crap though. Forever.
  • init2fitit
    init2fitit Posts: 168 Member
    I think paleo is stupid and I can only imagine what South Beach is.

    It's really just a matter of in vs out and it has to be most sustainable for your life and health needs. Don't fall for gimmicks.
  • QuietBloom
    QuietBloom Posts: 5,413 Member
    There are many people who go paleo/primal as a lifestyle, so it can't really be called a 'diet' per se. I don't know much about the South Beach Diet, so I can't comment.
  • angelb1983
    angelb1983 Posts: 160 Member
    I dont believe either of them are lifestyle changes. They are both diets that restrict your intake from/to specific things. I dont believe that is ultimately sustainable, where reduced calorie intake is because the only think you are restricting yourself from is making bad food decisions. Can you have that ice cream? Sure, as long as it fits into your calories. Pulled pork? Yup - had it for lunch. Bread? What did I put my pulled pork on?

    I call my diet the ELC diet. Eat less crap. And that doesnt mean eat no crap... cause I wanna be like this forever and im not giving up bread, or carbs or bad carbs or whatever some diet tells me to. I can eat LESS crap though. Forever.

    Agree!! As a person who has tried nearly everything out there. I lost on almost all of them, and gained back sometimes even more. The only thing I have found that really works is calories in vs calories out. I have whatever I want, in moderation. I sometimes have periods of time where I fall off track, but I have yet to regain because I have been making little changes that last a lifetime and dont restrict any one food item or group. With that a little common sense goes a long way. I know I can not eat ice cream and chips all day, but I also know it will not harm me once in a while.
  • enchantedgardener
    enchantedgardener Posts: 214 Member
    I don't believe in following strict diet plans that completely eliminate certain kinds of foods.

    The healthiest diet is the one that you know you can follow for the rest of your life. I've just cut down on refined carbohydrates (bread, pasta, etc), fewer sweets, less processed foods. I now eat more vegetables, whole grains, and low-fat dairy products. The absolute best thing you can do is eat more raw and cooked vegetables.
  • NewTnme
    NewTnme Posts: 258 Member
    Wow. Thank you all very much! I just get so frustrated and look fie easy ways out I guess. I love bread...lol
  • dynamitegalxo
    dynamitegalxo Posts: 299 Member
    people on this site are going to naysay both of these "diets" but you can 100% live on either south beach or paleo. i've been eating phase 3 south beach for like, 2 years. of course you can't live on phase one (where you don't eat any carbs outside of vegetables) forever, but it's NOT designed that way for a reason! everyone knows you can't do that. it just depends on what YOUR body needs and how YOUR body responds to certain macronutrients.

    there is a buttload of information available online for both plans. yes for free, no no one will try to sell you anything. the entire south beach diet is laid out online. of course both south beach and paleo have to market their approaches, so you can buy as many south beach snack bars or paleo recipe books as you want, but it's not at all necessary to purchase fancy things to follow either plan. do some googling, see if they're right for you. i personally prefer a south beach-ier approach right now because i'm super busy with school and work, but after i graduate i'm going to back to paleo. i love it.

    good luck! feel free to message me if you want, i'm more than happy to give you my opinions on either approach, but i'm not going to waste my breath in the forums haha
  • NewTnme
    NewTnme Posts: 258 Member
    Wow. Thank you all very much! I just get so frustrated and look for easy ways out I guess. I love bread...lol
  • Mr_Knight
    Mr_Knight Posts: 9,532 Member
    South Beach is at least somewhat defined - it's just another diet, with all the good and bad that comes with it. But "paleo" means a million different things to a million different people (it's not actually possible to eat "paleo" by literal definition of the word) so you'll have to be more specific about what you mean by that.
  • jessad215
    jessad215 Posts: 14 Member
    I don't know much about paleo, but I've read the South Beach book and it is exactly the lifestyle change that people are talking about. The first phase is pretty restrictive, its true, but you are specifically not supposed to be on it for more than 2 weeks. He also suggests that some people don't need to start there. By the second phase, you are supposed to eat exactly what everything else tells you to eat--whole grain carbs, vegetables, fruit, lean protein. He doesn't say no treats, he says in limited amounts. And by phase 3, the maintenance part, its part 2 with as much flexibility as your metabolism can stand. He encourages you to cut almost all added sugar, and doesn't prohibit the use of artificial sweeteners, which some people don't like, but it was designed for heart patients and diebetics first. And most healthy eating recommendations encourage you to seriously watch, if not cut out entirely, added sugars. Not as restriction, just as part of building a healthy eating style. Whether or not his way of thinking about food works for you, is up to you, but it isn't a crash diet or a fad diet---its just a different way to talk about the same things every single other healthy eating source will tell you. He offers specific meal plans, if that helps, and a plan for getting sugar and carb cravings under control, if that is a problem for you. Otherwise, its the same advice you'll get a lot of places, except without the emphasis on counting calories.
  • joshdann
    joshdann Posts: 618 Member
    fad diet 1 versus fad diet 2... versus every other fad diet that has ever been. meh.

    every reputable study has shown that it doesn't matter which diet you choose. It only matters that you stick to your diet. For me, it's the simplest sensible diet: eat less, move more.
  • Cindyinpg
    Cindyinpg Posts: 3,902 Member
    fad diet 1 versus fad diet 2... versus every other fad diet that has ever been. meh.

    every reputable study has shown that it doesn't matter which diet you choose. It only matters that you stick to your diet. For me, it's the simplest sensible diet: eat less, move more.
    This ^. Keep it simple. Keep it sustainable. This is an excellent read:
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/819925-the-basics-don-t-complicate-it
  • personaltrainerMomma
    personaltrainerMomma Posts: 1 Member
    Both diets are great, especially for athletes. I am a personal trainer and feel the need to give EVERY kind of diet a test-drive so I can help guide my clients better. All diets work as long as you follow them--so you have to look at your own eating habits and lifestyle. That doesn't mean you should enable bad food addictions--like "I need a diet where I can drink diet soda all day long." KWIM? If you are seriously working in the gym (I mean lifting HEAVY, sprints, and long heart rate work) paleo or south beach is the best. If you work like that in the gym, you will know you can't restrict calories. You will end up burning muscle and slowing your metabolism and getting "skinny fat." These diets allow you to eat more calories, but they have to be the right kind of calories. They will feed and nourish your working muscles so you can shed extra fat but hold onto pretty muscles! My favorite quote about these diets is something like "counting calories becomes unnecessary when none of the food you eat come in boxes"

    If you have any questions about what kind of diet might work best for you feel free to message me :)

    Good luck!

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