The South Beach Diet

Out of all the top diet plans available today the one diet plan that seems to be most popular is the South Beach diet. Dr. Arthur Agatston, a cardiologist, created the South Beach diet to promote weight loss while improving health. The South Beach diet is loosely considered a low carb diet but the emphasis of the program is on eating the right kind of carbohydrates and fat and avoiding the wrong kinds.

The South Beach diet does not require you to count calories or weight food portions. Instead the South Beach diet encourages you to eat six smaller portioned meals a day following a meal plan. Recent studies show that eating smaller meals every few hours (typically 3 moderate-sized meals and two to three small snacks) helps burn the fat better than eating two to three large meals a day. The South Beach diet employs this technique.

The South Beach diet has three phases. The first phase is most restrictive and it is designed to start the fat burning process in high gear. This portion of the diet plan is definitely low carb and can be tough for people who like bread and pasta. Fortunately, it is a short phase and is followed by the more moderate and longer phase two.

Phase two of the South Beach diet plan allows more foods than phase one and lasts until you reach your weight loss goal. The fat burning level is typically not as high as phase one but this is due to the tighter restrictions of phase one and the fact that people loss weight quicker at the beginning of a weight loss diet (due partially to the loss of water weight). The phase two meal plans are easy to follow and allow you a wide range of healthy foods.

Phase three of the South Beach diet is a maintenance phase and should only be done when you have reached your weight loss goals. Phase three is intended to last you the rest of your life or until you need to lose weight again then you return to phase one.

So does the South Beach diet work? Millions of people tend to think so. It is based on sound scientific research and good nutrition. The South Beach diet plan also uses the concept of the glycemic index that has plenty of support in the nutrition community. Before deciding if the South Beach diet plan is right for you have a look at the phases. Phase one is the toughest phase. If you can handle the short period of low carbs and the focus on low glycemic good carbs in phase two then the South Beach diet is definitely a diet plan that you want to check out.