Weight Loss

Here I am, jumping on  the low-carb bandwagon years after its heyday.  I eat bagels and pasta and all sorts of simple carb crap as well as a lot of cheese (no wonder I got fat in college) so I think although extremely challenging, South Beach would work for me.  I weigh 148 pounds at 5'5 and my face tells me my ideal weight is somewhere around 120.  With Phase I of the South Beach diet (no carbs ever), how much could I expect to lose if I kept it up for 2-3 weeks? 

Hey meelynn,

If you keep to phase 1 - I say fair dues to you.  I did try it and only lasted a day!!  It is so low in carbs that by the end of the day I really felt unwell and had to eat some carbs and ended up over indulging!!

Phase 1 is only to last 2 weeks and its not recommended that you do it for longer than that period.  It say that you can lose 8 to 13 lbs and most of it from your belly!!

Let me know how you get on, because I would be interested in trying it again!! 

Best of luck!!

Not to be a negative Nelly, but just to tell you something I wish someone had told me one of the 10 times I did Atkins..... BE careful and be smart. Be willing to commit to a low carb lifestyle forever because if you quit it or slack off, it can be a very unhealthy way of eating (i.e. you get used to having as much fat and meat and cheese and full fat dressing as you want PLUS you cheat and have carbs too = UGLY) and whenever I stopped doing the low carb thing, each and every time, I gained back all the wieght I had lost (up to 60+ lbs) and I swear it all came back in my belly --- which was never a problem in the first place! I have no idea why, but it did. I was always a pear, and now I am a ----mango? What fruit has a big butt and a apple like middle?

Just take good care of yourself while you do the low carb thing. Take vitamins!!!!! + extra calcium and potassium. I felt CRAPPY at first, but after analyzing my diet, I was seriously lacking in vitamins etc, so listen to your body and good luck! ( :

(seriously sorry for the downer of my own experience)

edited to add: I thought of a good example of the eating thing. I got very used to having a delicious Atkins friendly salad---lettuce, (maybe tuna), full fat Hidden Valley dressing as much as I wanted, a bunch of cheese and bacon bits. YUM! When I started calorie counted, I realized my "diet" salad was probably 350 cals with the dressing! OMG -- I spent a long time the next day in the dressing aisle, searching for a replacement and found fat free Italian which I love for only 10 cals for 2 tbsp and I eat just that on my lettuce and dig it. 25 cals vs. 350..... I look at everything differently after learning the cal count of everything---it makes it WAY easier for me to skip the junk my bf eats sometimes, just knowing how long I would have to work out to make up for it. ( :

I love South Beach! I usually do phase one to jump start a diet, or to move past a plateau. I don't know that olivia77 knows a lot of the background of South Beach because it's not just low carb and full fat protein its low fat and low carb but you still get to eat as many vegetables and healthy fats and proteins. I think South Beach is sooo much better than Atkins because it's healthy! I was just thinking earlier today that I wanted to start South Beach again but I figured I would try when I hit a plateau because I'm losing pretty steadily right now (only been back on the wagon for a week or so haha)

I am 5'7" and was 143 for the longest time and did South Beach to kick start my diet and was as low as 126 but shot back up to 134 in the past couple months. I'm down to 130 and have dreams to see 120-124 as my steady weight. Once I plateau I will for sure be starting South Beach phase one again for a week or two. Let me know if you have any questions about it because I'm a pro! I've read the book and done the diet enough I should be able to answer any questions. Good luck!!

you're right, hed---forgive me, I don't. Didn't mean to stick my nose in ( ; All I've ever done is Atkins....when my doctor said south beach, that was her definition, low carb, so I misunderstood I guess.

sorry...

I lost 40 pounds in 6 month on SB. I loved it, and I recommend it.  SB is lower carb, but you can still have whole grain bread/pasta/sweet potatoes/corn/brown rice/pita  etc when you are on phase 3. Please don't stay to long on phase 1, or you will burn out.  Stick to the plan, and good luck.

hey, i did SB phase 1 a few years back, cause i needed to lose a lot of weight fast and it worked. in those two weeks i lost 10 lbs, the next day i went to Germany as an interpretor and was treated very well by the person who hired me -- meaning restaurant meals three times a day and dessserts, i knew i will gain it all back i knew it i knew it i knew but i DIDN'T! i don't know exactly how that happened. i remember keeping phase one was tough to me at first casue i felt really really hungry, but since there is no calorie counting i had plenty of food (like two heads of cauliflower on day 1...) and becasue of cutting out diary and i binged on cottage cheese once or twice...otherwise i was ok and the hunger passed. i regained the 10 lbs over next two years, but i wouldn't call it a yo-yo effect, so personally i do recommend it for jump starting your diet. good luck and let us know how it worked. aha, i never got the phase 2 or 3, so don't know what happens then but i would assume it is still succesful :)

I want to try it but i find impossible to cut diary, specially milk. I love it!!!! I cant live without my coffee, is there a way to get around that?

If you look at the updated version online, you can have dairy.  He made a change after the book came out.  Ithink you can also have corn and onions earlier.

I find it interesting that so many people report feeling bad on this diet. I am hypoglycemic (low blood sugar), so I have to follow a very low carb lifestyle in general in order to keep my sugar levels steady. I find that south beach is wonderful as a guide. The trick is to eat very often, like 6 times/day. If you do this, the protein, fiber, etc. does get converted to glucose (sugar) but very slowly. Thus, there are no large changes after a meal, but you must eat often.

When I do cheat & eat carbs, I feel so bad. I have headaches from eating too many carbs.

I would suggest south beach, which is meant to be a maintenance lifestyle, whereas atkins, etc. is a little harder to follow. Also, if you look at recent studies on low carb diets, they actually found lower blood pressure/cholesterol than low fat diets. This was initally a concern with these diets, especially atkins, because they have so much protein and fat. But, research showed they actually result in better blood pressure/cholesterol than just low fat diets.

I found south beach pretty easy to stick to... I lost 16 lbs in the 2 first weeks I did it.. but it ALLLLLLLL came back! too hard to stick to long term for me. I would probably use some of the tips to jumpstart some loss... but it didn't work as a long term thing for me.

good luck! :)

I Lost 7 pounds before the 2 weeks were up. i love it

id also like to add that i found it very easy, except the v8 juice in the morning. GROSS. and because i dont have time to cook eggs in the morning i was just pre boiling hard boiled eggs and taking 2 with me to work.

the first 2 weeks though do get a little hard trying to find variety in meals. its hard to have alot of variety when you can only have cretin foods. but its well worth it

 

and once you start introducing carbs back in it just gets better and better

i am trying it too...

am totally freaked, as i LOVE my carbs, but here's to trying.

feel free to message me to harass me to keep on it.  :)

The first time I did it I lost 65 pounds.

I quit and gained it all back plus some.

I'm back on it again after two years of counting calories and NOT losing weight.

I did phase 1 and lost 10 pounds in two weeks, and haven't weighed this week, but my clothes fit better and my stomach is visibly smaller and flatter.

I absolutely love it. I never feel hungry and my mood has improved, most likely because I'm not crashing from sugar all the time. I slipped up and had some sugar Sunday afternoon and had the worst headache Sunday night. That was all it took for me to realize just how good this lifestyle is. And how much it actually works.

does any one have any suggestions on the v8 juice in the morning? i just CANNOT stomach it.

Don't drink it. You don't have to. So don't.

My problem is they recommend you to drink two glasses of milk a day. I can't. So I drink one, with whey protein mixed in, and then make sure I have some yogurt or some light cheese to make up for the other.

SB Diet recommends at least 1/2 cup vegetables in the morning. Thismeans you can have a glass of V8, or, say, a tomato with your egg, or maybe some chopped peppers, onion and spinach in your omelette. I was on SB diet last year, and I never as much as tasted V8.

While SB Diet is low-carb, it is not nearly as low carb as Atkins. Even during Phase 1 (which should not last any longer than two weeks) you are recommended to eat some beans or pulses with lunch and dinner, as well as to have two cups' worth of skimmed milk or yogurt.

I tried Atkins in the past and I felt sick after day 1, with headaches and general nausea. I never felt sick at all on South Beach, and it helped me lose 25 pounds last year. I couldn't recomment it more.

do you need to follow the meal plan or can you just follow the guide lines.

Just follow the guidelines. I haven't ever followed the meal plans.