South Beach Diet

I thought the idea of South Beach is that you could eat as much as you wanted of the items they tell you that you can have. It should explain it in the book. I personally think you should just count calories since South Beach is not teaching you how to eat properly in the long run so you are going to gain it back but your dr would know your health better then me. Go a head and ask him the question and he should tell you.

MFP is generally more about changing the way you eat rather than just about dieting. The thing about South Beach is that it is a temporary solution to a long term problem. If you're going to be eating that way for the rest of your life, then fine. But if you're not, I'd think you'd be better off learning how to eat the right kinds of food in the right portions.

Yes I am... Surprisingly the calories are not going over my daily allotment (but I usually get more than that from exercise).

Good luck!

Hi, I am new to this site, and have been using it 3 weeks. I changed my Eat Clean routine, which did not work for me at all, and went back to low carb, which has been very successful before. I am borderline diabetic and find I do not have the headaches and dizziness experienced when I consume large amounts of carbs, also to your question, I changed my profile to monitor carbs, fat, protein and calories, and just as the other poster stated, I hardly go over the total 1200 calorie limit I set for myself.
Good Luck!! with SB and baby making! :happy:

I love the SBD, because it is a lifestyle, and a very healthy one. Since I restarted (a bad job, and stress made me drop it completely and regain - not a diet failure, a lifestyle failure) I have been using this site.

SBD is naturally low calorie if you are following it correctly and eating your fresh veggies. I struggled the first week when I was still working to eat my calories every day. I am typically still under the goal calories on here, but over the 1200 calorie threshold, which is what I aim for.

I'm amazed at how much misinformation there is around this diet. You can eat fruit, you can eat carbs, you can even eat dessert. What it teaches you to do is look at how you pair foods up and to not eat white sugar, flour etc. You eat healthy lean meats, beans, and plenty of veggies.

A typical day for me, is a bowl of oatmeal for breakfast with splenda. I flavor this however I'd like, I love a little vanilla and 1/4 cup of blueberries.

Snack of yogurt and turkey with swiss cheese and mustard.

Lunch is generally a big salad with some type of protein, I vary on the day.

Another snack, celery stick with almond butter, or a 1/2 cup of fruit, or raw veggies with a little bit of dip.

Dinner - protein and veggies.

I try to keep potatoes and rice out of my diet, because those are huge triggers for me to eat badly. I eat a slice of bread when I want, and if I eat out, I balance what I'd like to eat with what's healthy. Like tonight, I ate at California Pizza Kitchen. I had a salad and 2 slices of garlic chicken pizza. I even had a couple bites of Red Velvet cake for dessert. I follow the 3 bite rule for that, the first 3 bites are the best anyway .

Phase 1, is very restrictive, but it does get you over your cravings if you can work it out. During Ph 1 this time, I felt horrible and was irritable for 2 days. Then all my cravings went away and I knew I'd gotten all the sugar and junk out of my system. Then you get lots of energy and feel great. AFter all, you're feeding your body non-processed food and keeping your blood sugar stable.

Since restarting the SBD Jan 1st, I've lost 15#, 11# since starting this site as a food diary.

I'm also in phase 2 - sort of. I'm on a free lance low carb diet loosely based on a somewhat relaxed version of SBD. Like vzepol, I'm losing about a pound a week and am perfectly content to do so. There's no hurry and the diet isn't a hardship. I began counting calories near the end of phase 1, but only because I wanted to closely monitor my diet as I very carefully moved into phase 2. I wanted records I could study if I ran into any problems.

A typical day for me starts with the recommended portion of steel cut oatmeal. Time was when I would have doubled the recipe. I like it with a cap-full of sugar free Da Vinci Amaretto syrup and 2 or 3 slices of frozen peach, thawed and diced. During the two weeks of phase1 I typically made a single egg spinach and mushroom omelet, and still like to do that occasionally. Fresh spinach has become a staple around here because it's so much more versatile than the other common salad greens - it's good cooked - and it lasts a lot longer than lettuce in the fridge..

I'm usually on my own for lunch and usually opt for something quick to cook. That might be a grilled chicken breast tenderloin or 2, or a 4 oz salmon filet, plus generous servings of at least 2 different non-starch vegetables, and a slice of whole grain bread. Sometimes I'll make a salad as well, but I'm kind of burned out on salads.

Dinner is usually similar to lunch except that I prepare larger volumes and often put a baking potato or rolls in the oven for he-who-isn't-on-a-diet. I do go for at least 4 or 5 different vegetables a day, not counting salads.

Snacks - usually a piece of fruit, often with cheese or peanut butter on the side. Sometimes I like a quarter cup of ricotta cheese with berries or peaches. The Da Vinci syrup is really good in that too - tastes like marzipan. Those are good snacks for early in the day, but if I want something after dinner I usually try to avoid carbs. A reduced fat cheese stick wrapped in a slice of Canadian bacon is good then.

Getting in the vegetables was difficult at first - especially at lunch - until I learned how quick and easy it is to prepare them in the microwave. It takes me like 3 minutes to steam 100 grams of broccoli spears or maybe 5 minutes to prepare and bake a mini summer squash and parmesan cheese casserole. I don't limit my consumption of non-starchy vegetables at all, and didn't even on phase 1.

I personally think you should just count calories since South Beach is not teaching you how to eat properly in the long run so you are going to gain it back...

What's improper about a diet based on high quality protein, healthy fats in moderation, lots and LOTS of all sorts of vegetables, and complex carbohydrates chosen for their relative lack of adulteration? I don't know that I can go the rest of my life without a brownie, or butter cream icing, but I don't know of a diet that would make it any easier. At least I don't crave sugar these days. This doesn't seem to be true of everyone, but a lot of people lose their sweet tooth completely when they go low carb.

You might not like what your Dr. prescribed, but his prescription for weight loss was right on...exercise and eat less calories. If you follow that simple advice on a daily basis for the rest of your life, you will get fit and in shape. Following the South Beach diet for a a month until you can't take it anymore, will not.

Wow! You actually have a doctor who told you what to do about losing weight. Mine just said to exercise and eat less calories. No referral to a nutritionist. Those are for personal coaches, which is big bucks. Every diet approach tells a person to check with your doctor before embarking on it. They don't know...they just know how to treat you once you get a disease. And even then they are hoping you get better somehow. I changed doctors after he patted me on the head and said, "you'll be fine".

I've done SB in the past with great results. The main thing to remember is to not just do "SB diet" but to make the lifestyle changes. Ahhhh......seems so simple doesn't it!! SB is only initially restrictive and yes, I do think it would be a great idea to count calories in addition to doing SB. I also do low-carb -- that seems to work very well for my body type and i have good success wtih low carb eating. My problem is I haven't made it a life style change so I get off, gain weight, get back on, lose, get off, ........ well you get the point!

SB is a good program if you follow it.

I guess I should have put that they have me on a low carb diet (and recommend south beach since I"ve never done a low carb diet) because I'm insilin restitant which is in turn affecting my fertility not because of my weight.

No matter what I do I'm going to have to do a low carb diet. I'm hoping that I can keep a lower carb lifestyle so not to gain back the weight which is why I was wondering if I could also do the calorie counting with it.

I'm not thrilled with the idea because I've always been about lifestyle changes and doing what is healthy for my body and may just use south beach as a way to teach me the difference between good carbs and bad carbs. But we do want to have a baby so I'm willing to try what the doctor has told me to do.

Like I said I'm just now getting into the book as it was just prescribed to me this afternoon. I'd much rather count calories and use SB as a way to guide me to good carbs vs bad carbs. I'm hoping I'll be able to do that and still become healthy.

I remember ages ago, I read a book called the Carb Addicts cook (or something like that). Their theory was that you should consume the brunt of your daily carbs within one hour. So you could eat carbs, but the start and end of the meal had to occur within 60 minutes. You could also pick whichever meal you wanted to be your "carb" meal (so if you were going out for lunch one day, you could do that and then lower your carb intake at dinner) but you could switch it up the following day if you wanted to. It had to do with the insulin production (I haven't heard much about the diet since, but I remember it was fascinating to my 18 year old self who didn't need to lose weight!) I wonder if that would be something that would help in your situation since your body isn't reacting to carbs all day long, just in a 60 minute cycle.

Cluster it with any other diet that can't be followed the rest of your life...such as the people on this thread are testament to.

Following the South Beach diet for a a month until you can't take it anymore, will not.

Just out of curiosity, how do you, personally, define "South Beach diet?"

Yeah, that's what I figured.

I couldn't follow phase 1 for the rest of my life, but fortunately, no one ever asked me to. It was more boring than difficult, and was only for two weeks. The South Beach I'm on now - the phase 2 as outlined in the book - is not so different from the so called balanced, restricted calorie diets I tried to follow in the past, only with much clearer guidelines. I do eat carbs, I've just learned to differentiate between instant oatmeal and the real thing, and between whole wheat bread and whole grain bread. Do it right and South Beach teaches you to eat real food. That's a bad thing?

A lot of folks seem to use phase 1 as a short term crash diet, and are even more restrictive on carbs than the book calls for. The man tells you to eat a minimum of 4.5 cups of vegetables every day. He tells you to never let yourself get hungry. People who ignore that advice and abuse the diet deserve what they get.

Can I follow it for the rest of my life? Well, I fully expect to slip up from time to time and eat something I know isn't good for me. But I can certainly make it the backbone of my diet for the rest of my life.

I've read the book twice, once when it first came out, once just last week. Here are the main points I got out of it - eat lean protein, vegetables, whole grain carbs and good fats. Oh, and eat until your body tells you that you are full. The part I'm not sure about is Phase I. I am really thinking about starting at Phase II. I don't have that many cravings for carbs any more anyway.

I hope you are able to find success in whatever you decide to do!

Check out the videos in here, they talk about a low carb diet and why/how it helps.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/172105-blood-sugar-why-you-can-t-lose-the-weight