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Summary: If you want the weight off quick...
Review: ...then this may be the book for you. The South Beach Diet includes suggestions for a low carb diet, which means if you cut a lot of the carbs out, then you can get a lot of weight off in a short amount of time. I did this plan at first to get a lot of my inital weight loss off--wanted to lose about 50 lbs.-- and then found another book about how to keep it off--called "Fatass No More". Combined, these two books have worked wonders and now I am a mere twenty pounds from my goal.
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Summary: Fits Like A Glove
Review: If you are going through a complete health, mind, body change, as I am, then this book will fit right in. If you are looking to improve yourself I would recommend three books. For your body, The South Beach Diet. For your inner peace, The Little Guide To Happiness. For making friends on the outside, How To Win Friends And Influence People. These 3 books will give you that boost you need to succeed.
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Summary: great principles, flawed meal plans
Review: Of all the so-called low-carb diets this one stands out as the crown jewel. In the first section Dr. Agatston outlines the principles and clinical reasoning behind his diet: eliminating (or at least sharply reducing) the over-processed carbohydrates that affect your belly fat, your blood sugar, and your cardiac health. He focuses on not merely cutting the simple carbs like white flour or sugar, but learning how your body reacts to, processes, and absorbs carbs depending on how you eat them. He also puts emphasis on how combining carb-heavy foods with fats and/or proteins can slow down your body's carb absorbtion. His writing style is straightforward, and he is realistic enough to make his diet easy both to follow and to return to should you fall off the wagon. He's emphatic but not preachy (as the late Dr. Atkins could be).The major problem I have with this book is the gulf between the first section and the second, the meal plans and recipes. After detailing the glycemic dangers of certain foods, he goes and put them on the Phase One menu, right when he says you are supposed to strictly limit your carbs. Even within the 2nd section he contradicts himself: on Phase 1's "Foods to Avoid" list he banishes dairy products for two weeks, yet they appear on the menu every day. (And what's with the ricotta cheese for dessert EVERY NIGHT? If you hate ricotta as my wife does you're SOL.) Most recipes here are great for warm or hot weather, but some of them fall flat on a northeastern winter evening. I also take issue with his defense of statin drugs. Despite his assertions that their dangers have been overblown, there are safety concerns he doesn't address, and to recommend them as preventitive medicine is irresponsible. Still. SBD is rock solid in its principles. I'd recommend reading the first section and the food lists, and taking the menu plans and recipes with a grain of salt.
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Summary: It Works, It Works, It Works!!!
Review: I never ever review diet books, said I never would. Now I am breaking my own rule, because I bought this book, started Phase I of the diet on January 5, and I am melting before my very eyes. I even read the entire text of the book, which I never do, and it made sense to me. I have more energy, more get-up-and-go, a feelings of general overall health, and best of all, with very few exceptions, I AM NOT HUNGRY. I am now on Phase II, and losing steadily, although only a pound or so a week, which Dr. Agatston says is best. I believe him. What I do NOT know is if his diet lowers cholesterol or blood sugar levels. They must lower sugar levels, because until the maintenance phase, all sugar is verboten. I have never been off sugar in my entire life, and I find that, surprise, surprise, I am OK without it. The drawback to the book is the many discrepancies, which might have been corrected in later editions, as they have been on the South Beach Web site. For instance, the text might say that is is OK to have a certain food in Phase I, but it won't be listed on the foods that are OK list. Or vice versa. But the recipes I've tried are great (I've made many variations to suit my own tastes) and my mirror and my well-being tell me it's working. The only person I know who is unhappy with this diet is a coworker who is regularly sneaking pizza and chocolate--and is angry that she has not lost as much as she should. I say, give it a try. It is not as drastic as Atkins, and seems to me to be a much healthier way to lose weight.
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Summary: Nutritionally sound + Quick Results
Review: The innovative aspect of the South Beach Diet is the 3 phase approach. Otherwise, it is extremely similar to the Zone diet but is more manageable in that it requires less precision and has more enticing recipes. I refuse to try many trendy diets because I believe they are nutritionally unsound. The South Beach and the Zone diets are very inclusive diets that differentiate between favorable and unfavorable fats, carbohydrates and proteins. I have founds many diets to be intimidating because the changes are drastic and it takes too long to see results. The combined effect is demoralizing; you constantly crave things you can't have and the end point is usually weeks away. The first phase lasts two weeks; it is well thought out and relatively easy to follow. Although it sounds radical to eliminate fruit from the diet, even for two weeks, I did find it easier to stick to an eating plan which strictly controls sugar intake. I am amazed at how much sugar I was consuming before. I did not step on the scale until the end of Phase 1 (two weeks) and was happy to note that I lost 7 pounds and 1 inch from my waist! After such a success it has been much easier to stay motivated. The book could be improved by having a laminated card for the wallet or purse to remind you of restricted foods, having summarized shopping lists, and of course recipe pictures are always nice. Additional downsides that have been mentioned are higher grocery bills and longer meal preparation times, but I think the results are worth the additional investment of time and money. I am looking forward to the new cookbook due out this spring.
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Summary: This diet actually works
Review: To my amazement, it really helped me lose weight at a steady pace. It is really a healthy, sensible diet. There is alot of preparation involved that is time consuming. But if your willing to make the effort you will lose weight. It gets easier once it becomes habit, you find shortcuts along the way. Although fish is really good for you, there's alot of fish I don't eat so I would substitute chicken recipes for some fish meals and still lost weight. I buy the prepared salad blends to make life easy and lots of frozen vegetables that can be sauted, steam cooked in the microwave or oven roasted, just open the bag and pour out the veggies... simple.
Its easy to follow. Just cut out or substitute bad carb choices for healthier ones. Just cut out pasta, white bread, starchy foods such as potatoes, and eat more fiber and protein.
No sugary snacks, sodas or fruit juices, having instead water, diet soda, sugar substitues, sugar free jello and so on.
Its all about chosing... good carbs, foods low in saturated fat, and green vegetables..lots of them. I thought I would be tired on this diet after cutting out sugar and caffine, but I actually have more energy, and I feel better.
The book explains everything, how the diet works and, and inlcudes really good recipes. I really miss sweets, pizza and pasta (which is allowed occasionally) but I'd rather be thin and healthy.
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Summary: If you can't exercise, try this . . .
Review: When I was laid up with the first of three surgeries on my foot (unable to even put my foot on the ground for six weeks for each surgery) I was panicked because it caught me in the midst of a highly successful weight loss program. That program, however, required exercise in addition to restricting calories and carbs. Someone told me that the South Beach diet would work even if I couldn't exercise. That didn't sound plausible to me but what the heck, it's not as if I had any choice. So I tried it. It works. I continued to lose weight even though I couldn't do more than hop on one foot, using walker or crutches, and I spent most of my time in a wheelchair or in bed. Kudos to the South Beach Diet! The nutrition is sound and some of the recipes are utterly scrumptious -- notably the Shrimp Louis, the Gazpacho, and the Balsamic Chicken. I can't stand fish (other than shellfish) so it was a bit of a challenge to avoid those recipes but I did it and enjoyed the chicken and beef recipes immensely. I also discovered that toasted, unsalted almonds or a low-fat cheese stick make a great snack and there's a lot to be said for an apple and a tablespoon of peanut butter (neither of which do I like separately). Once you learn to eat this way, it's really easy (although the first three days would have been challenging if I wasn't flat on my back). I wholeheartedly recommend South Beach Diet to those who can't, for one reason or another, exercise.
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Summary: Expensive and Time-Consuming
Review: I haven't even started the diet and I'm already disenchanted. The shopping list alone is 3 columns long. It includes a variety of expensive fish and shellfish. Maybe fresh Mahi Mahi is readily available if you actually live in South Beach, but it's not always easy to find in other places. (And if you don't like fish or are allergic to shellfish you're out of luck.) I'm going to have to go to a gourmet grocery store to find some of the ingredients. (I've never even heard of "baby green beans".) I realize you can make substitutions if you can't find certain foods, but the amount of preparation is still daunting. I also realize that a variety of foods makes this diet more palatable, but we're going to have to take out a loan just to pay for the 10 different types of greens and lettuces used in the first two weeks, and I may have to plant my own herb garden to afford all the fresh herbs you're supposed to use. I'm also going to have to spend a lot of time chopping and dicing. I'm going to have to get up at 4:30 every morning just to get fix breakfast since my dh leaves for work at 5:30, then spend the majority of the afternoon and evening preparing dinner and next day's lunch (not sure yet how I'm going to do it with a 1-year-old whose a light sleeper.) If I was a working mom there's no way I could do this much prep and cooking. All that aside, the plan looks sound healthwise. The low-carb phase only lasts two weeks. (Despite what other diets say, you do need carbohydrates to live. Bread is the staff of life.) It incorporates principles you pretty much already knew - refined foods and sugars are bad, saturated fat is bad, fruits and veggies are good. I have no doubt you can lose weight on this diet as your overall caloric intake will be reduced. I also have no doubt that it's healthy, but I doubt I could eat this way forever. I don't think I want to eat this way forever. I think I'd rather exercise more, cut down on the amount of food I eat, and have some rice and potatoes now and then.
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Summary: Everything you thought was good, isnt. And vice versa
Review: Now I know why my wife and I weren't losing weight while exercizing. We thought shredded-wheat-and-bannana breakfast and fruits were slimming. NOT!.
After one week on this diet, and virtually NO exercize (with one nice birthday lapse last week) I'm STILL down seven pounds. Tonight's dinner? roast beef with spinach/walnut and BLue Cheese salad. Non ce male.
If you don't buy this book and go on this diet, you deserve to be fat. Not nice, but true.
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Summary: Avoiding Bad Carbs/Bad Fats forevermore -- MELT pounds
Review: First, I've been on countless diets only to have the yo-yo effect add more to my problem weight. I was a vegetarian for 9 years (lacto-ovo) and learned to love wholesome breads, rice, pastas and such and became a quite good cook. While I again started being a carnivore when I married, we still ate often from what I thought were the good carbs. Over the next 30 years I slowly became morbidly obese and my husband of 24 years slightly so.
During this diet neither my husband nor I did any exercise (that's normal for us as we are both suffers of various ailments)In every diet I ever tried previous to this one, I had hunger pangs and thought of food often. This one truly satisfies. After the first two weeks --- I lost 16 pounds and my husband lost 11 pounds. We are believers and will continue on it.
This book isn't perfect (too many testimonials and chef recipes and not enough glycemic index info) but if you simply follow the logic and guidelines you will lose and understand why you either gained in the first place or couldn't shed it on the high carb diets. This book's premise is truly lifestyle changing and positive. You can easily lose weight if you follow these guidelines, just stay on course for life. Aloha pumehana!
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