South Beach Diet

The South Beach Diet I find to be more sensible than the Atkins plan is. It has more room in it for a wider selection of foods and seems more balanced. If I had to choose a lower-carbohydrate diet, it would be this one.

Phase one of the South Beach Diet is much like the Atkins plan in that you are on a jump-start plan to stabilize your blood sugars,

and help to gain some fiber rich foods in your diet. You will eat a lot of leaner proteins which means skinless white-meat chicken, lean cold cuts, and fish for your omega 3's.



Unlike the Atkins plan, the South Beach Diet Plan will allow for snacks of at least 2 per day, which is what I am a strong believer in being an insulin-taking diabetic myself. I need the snacks to balance out my insulin levels so I don't go too low.

When you reach phase 2 of the plan, this is the weight loss phase which is over the long haul. Anyone can start on this phase if they only have a small amount of weight to lose, or don't seem to have a variety of cravings. With this phase, you'll combine it with phase 1, only add more foods such as more starchy vegetables, and you may add some dark chocolate which is actually healthy for you.

In Phase 3, you are ready for maintaining your lost weight. You will need to keep going back to what you have done in the first two phases, but allow for indulgences more often. If you keep on following this stage of the plan, you should maintain your weight for the long term.

Another plus to this program is you can dine out, and include a lot of healthy sides to your meal plan, or small amounts of desserts which are not so healthy. The key word is portion control on this, as in any diet plan.

The big drawbacks to this plan is that there is not enough diet structure for some since it is a lot loss radical then the Atkins Diet. There are also some contradictions to this diet in that more saturated fats are permitted, yet carbohydrate portions are to be for the individual to discern upon? Saturated fat is what you want to avoid more of, and not add more. So this is a puzzling thought.

When the author speaks of the glycemic index being so important, yet he seems to have some very high glycemic foods with his recipes, it doesn't make total sense. This is something else that makes me perplexed about this dieting plan.

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