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Summary: Lost 55 lbs in 10 weeks - easy to stick to
Review: I am amused by these readers who ask how do you stick to this plan. Obviously, those people haven't tried the plan (correctly) or they would know how to stick to it.I am down 55 lbs in 10 weeks and lost 8 waistline inches. Sticking to this plan was/is easy because it makes you feel full. No hunger pains. I had increased energy, something that never happened with other diets. Typically I felt tired, hungry and irritable. Not so with The South Beach Diet. This programis good for you too. Must less restrictive than Atkins and delivers the same fast results. Also, like Atkins the weight lost is actually fat loss, not muscle and water as is so typical of other diets. And I didn't have to take dangerous ephedrine or other diet aids. The South Beach Diet is the ideal diet program. Sure worked for me.
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Summary: Avoid the bad carbs
Review: 20 years ago I was a puggy teenager but then I read a book by Dr Robert Haas "Eat to Win". I do not think it was the best advice with current data but it gave the best one piece of advice you can have in dieting. Avoid simple sugar especially sucrose( I even avoided ketchup). I am actually tempted to even write my own book on a simple idea. If one part of your body cannot deal well with a certain "food" then what makes you think any other part of your body can? I noticed that I never had plaque on my teeth or bad breath when I cut out sugar for about a year. I also dropped body fat under 10 percent. It seemed as if simple carb foods immediatly caused havoc. If your teeth are not prepared for sugar what makes us think our digestive system can deal with it? So if you eat something and notice plaque or a coating on your tonque you probably are dealing with a food that will cause wieght gain and diabetes as well if it is continued. Does it not bother anyone that we need to use a special chemical just to keep our teeth aka flouride? Is it just too obvious? If you will notice bread does the same thing. I have not always followed my own advice but when I pay attention to that simple concept I go back to a normal wieght. I spend about 5 years being about 25 pounds over until I rembered to cut out simple carbs.These days however I do not have as much pasta but rather some fruit( go light on the bananas etc) and vegetables.This book seems like it is on that track.
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Summary: This didn't work for me. I found THE Pathway to weightloss
Review: This is like the other diets that I stuck to for a while and seemed to work, then I fell off the wagon and was angry at myself for my lack of willpower.
I found the answer in the "The Pathway" by Laurel Mellin. I've lost 15 lbs in 4 months and am still going strong. Not only have I lost weight, I'm also using fewer external solutions such as overspending, watching tv, eating chocolate, and ignoring the clutter in my house. I have more energy, vibrancy, intimacy, and balance. I'm learing the skills to deal with emotional upheaval, everyday trials, and permanently changing my brain to replace powerless negative thoughts with positive and powerful phrases.
The Pathway program is a big commitment, but if I add up all the time spent on diets that did not last - it's worth it for a permanant solution. Most other people using the program have lost even more weight into their second year. Following the "Pathway" is my best Christmas gift and New Year's Resolution.
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Summary: Atkins based ideas
Review: This book is based on the same IDEA that Atkins pioneered (and was maligned for). What Atkin's believed is that instead of focusing on calories which is a measurement of heat energy you should focus on the reduction of carbohydrate grams consumed. Calorie counting is an asinine way to build a diet. Because its too far of an extrapolation to use that measurement as a control for weight loss. Anyone who spends 10 minutes reading chemestry will learn this. The best direct measure of controlling weight gain is the reduction of carbohydrates. And this is the problem that America has - WAY TOO MUCH consumption of carbohydrates. So this book, like the Zone and Sugarbusters are all saying about the same thing - with very minor differences. Reducing carbs is the way to loose weight. And this diet WILL WORK because its the same principle that Atkins had postulated all his life and went against the standard medical and nutrition field with his idea. And now that it is proven to work and has been given recent merit then you have other's copying the idea with fanciful names like SOUTH BEACH. My suggestion, if you are serious about losing weight, this book will surely help. But at the same time, check out Atkin's stuff so you see the origin of the whole idea.
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Summary: A Healthy Diet? Look elsewhere!
Review: With the popularity of low-carb diets reaching a high point recently, it was only a matter of time before someone adjusted it into "nutritional correctness." Enter The South Beach Diet by cardiologist Arthur Agatston, MD, of Miami, Florida. The South Beach Diet is most certainly a low-carb eating regime with the usual carbohydrate foods such as bread (even whole grain), fruit, fruit juices, and rice, potatoes, and pasta excluded (or kept to a bare minimum). The emphasis is on high protein foods, non-starchy vegetables, and skim milk and other non-fat foods. Of course, white sugar is out, as well as the whole gamut of processed carbohydrate snack foods. While there is certainly nothing unhealthful about eliminating or greatly reducing one's intake of carbohydrates and sugar, this book is full of shortcomings and is quite weak on the science which supposedly supports it. In the first place is the content of the book. Of the books 310 pages, only about 100 are devoted to explaining the diet to readers. Sprinkled within those first 100 pages are real-life stories of people who succeeded on the diet. So the actual amount of writing from Dr. Agatston drops considerably. From page 108 on, however, the book's content is meal plans and recipes in line with the Diet's principles. While lots of the recipes look inviting and tasty, they all suffer from the same problem: They are full of low or non-fat ingredients, non-fat sour cream and half-and-half being favorite ingredients. Any recipe for chicken requires it to be skinless, again to get rid of those nasty saturated fats that Dr. Agatston thinks are so lethal. The book makes some bizarre and nonsensical claims about saturated fats. It claims that diets high in saturated fats cause chemical changes in the bloodstream leading to accelerated atherosclerosis and clogged arteries. They also raise the so-called "bad" cholesterol, LDL, which in the author's opinion, elevates one's chanes of a heart attack and heart disease. Dr. Agatston is your basic run-of-the-mill cardiologist who adheres to the usual dietary claptrap taught about diet and heart disease. It does not seem to occur to him to check his theories with actual human history. If he had done this, as Dr. Price had done several decades ago, he would have discovered the embarrassing truth that people who traditionally eat diets high in saturated fats do not suffer from heart attacks or heart disease. It should also be noted here that the book contains no footnotes--not even a bibliography--to support any of the nutritional claims made. Dr. Agatston gives the thumbs-up to politically-correct fats like canola oil and olive oil, but avoids butter like the plagues he thinks it causes. Instead, processed spreads are advocated and show up in a number of recipes. Nuts are OK, as well, due to their preponderance of monounsaturates. Fish oils are also ranked high on this diet. The author rightly gives the thumbs-down to margarine and shortening because of the trans-fatty acids in them. Despite this, margarine shows up in several of the books' recipes later on. Eggs are also viewed favorably, but egg substitutes show up in the recipes as well. He also totally avoids any dairy product with the fat still in it. The recipes are full of no-fat cheeses, skim milk, fat-free sour cream, etc. One wonders how any of the recipes on this diet could leave one feeling satiated or happy with the taste of the meals because fat is what makes food taste good and is also what makes one feel full after a meal. Though there is certainly nothing unhealthful about cutting out white flour, sugar, and processed foods from your diet, in the long run, the South Beach Diet has too many questionable components to make it a recommended form of eating day in and day out. Though people have certainly lost weight on the diet, the absence of animal fats is unhealthy, as well as the use of margarines, artificial sweeteners, egg substitutes, vegetable and canola oils.
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Summary: Good diet but you've got to follow it!
Review: Dr. Agatston makes a lot of sense. What it comes down to is that sugary and starchy foods leave you hungry faster, causing you to crave more sugary and starchy foods which you must eat more often to feel satisified. And thus the cycle of weight gain begins. I'm not seriously overweight but I could stand to lose 10 lbs. So I gave the diet a try. As a sweets lover I'll tell you that the first few days weren't easy, but the results are almost instant if you follow the diet strictly. You will not feel deprived - try the ricotta desserts and sugar free candy to soothe your sweet tooth. I really have lost many of my cravings - the book is right. However, if you cheat, you will see your results go quickly. The fact is, this is not just a diet, it must be a lifestyle. Three criticisms. One, the book really needs a better glycemic index. It's quite limited, but I hear a more detailed one is coming out soon. Two, the recipes are great but realistically speaking you can't cook like that everyday. I hope Dr. Agatston will take a look at some popular prepared foods and meal replacement bars and offer some guidelines. Watch those bars - the high protein bars are often high calorie and high fat! Three, there aren't as many options for those who don't like or don't eat meat as I would like. Unless you eat tofu, eggs, and nuts all the time your proteins seem limited (unless I've missed something). I've lost 6 lbs. in 2 weeks. Less than average but I'm also a small person to begin with. Where else can you lose weight like that and not feel deprived? I highly recommend you give this diet a try.
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Summary: Dieting never tasted this good!
Review: I have been on and off various diets for over 25 years. Of the diets that worked, they were tasteless and usually left me hungry and irritable and I would always regain the weight.Not with The SouthBeach Diet! Meals are tasty. I'm never hungry and my energy level has soared. I love this program and am a lifer.
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Summary: I Can't Believe the Results
Review: I am so thrilled with my results so far. This is only my fourth day into the SBD and I have lost twleve pounds already. Of course, I have a long way to go since I'm trying to lose over eighty pounds. The SBD is very simple to follow. I would recommend this book to anyone who is struggling with a weight issue.
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Summary: diet: yay! book: hmm.......
Review: It's a truly effective diet, though any remarkably controlled eating program is going to work, if you actually follow it. (Is it any improvement over the Scarsdale Diet I followed decades ago, last time my weight got out of control? Not really. And am I never again going to crave--or eat--the bad carbs he proscribes for life? Heck, no. But be that as it may.) As a book, however, it leaves a lot to be desired. One needs to be very clever to figure out how to plug all the holes left behind in the editorial process, to say nothing of figuring one's way through the multiple contradictions. Some foods are peculiarly unmentioned, or mentioned, at best, in passing. (Onions, anyone?) And the fact that the book is virtually silent on the subject of exercise is a disgrace.
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Summary: Shame on you, Dr. Agatston !!!
Review: Not that South Beach is a bad diet. On the contrary, it's a very good diet. However, give credit where credit is due! Phase I is essentially the Atkins Diet; Phases II and III are basically the Zone Diet. However, I'm giving you an extra star for your ingenuity in combining the best parts of the two diets: Atkins for rapid weight loss and Zone for weight maintenance and good health and nutrition. I have been on both diets and know from experience.
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