The South Beach Diet: What's Right And What's Wrong?

The South Beach Diet promises to help you lose weight, lower your cholesterol, reduce your risk of heart disease and diabetes, and get rid of cravings without feeling hungry.

"The South Beach Diet is not low-carb," writes author Dr. Arthur Agatston. "The South Beach Diet teaches you to rely on the right carbs and the right fats — the good ones — and enables you to live quite happily without the bad carbs and bad fats."

"As a result, you're going to get healthy and lose weight — somewhere between 8 and 13 pounds in the next 2 weeks alone."

Does it work?

Let's take a closer look at what the South Beach Diet has to offer...

South Beach Diet

The diet is divided into three different phases.

During Phase I, you're not allowed to eat foods such as bread, rice, potatoes, pasta or baked goods. No fruit, even. Not surprisingly, candy, cake, cookies, ice cream and alcohol are also off the menu. This is the strictest part of the diet and lasts for two weeks only.

In Phase II of the South Beach Diet, you gradually introduce more carbohydrates — including some types of fruit, sweet potatoes, whole grain bread, whole grain rice, and whole wheat pasta — into your diet

You remain in Phase II and continue losing weight until you reach your goal. How long it takes depends on how much weight you need to lose.

By Phase III, you should be at your ideal weight. At this point, the South Beach Diet is supposed to have become a way of living and eating that you can sustain for the rest of your life.

Rapid weight loss: Right or wrong?

The idea behind the stepped approach of the South Beach diet is that you lose weight rapidly in the early stages of the diet. This motivates you to proceed to the later stages.

Although a lot of people caution against this approach, research shows both short- and long-term advantages to fast initial weight loss [4, 5].

Contary to popular belief, initial weight loss is positively, not negatively, linked to long-term weight maintenance. And people who lose weight more quickly in the early stages of a diet are no more likely to gain the weight back again than gradual weight losers.

A typical day on the South Beach Diet might start with a two-egg omelet with asparagus, broccoli, mushrooms, or peppers, cooked in a spray of olive oil.

When lunch rolls around, you may have a salad — lettuce and tomato mixed with grilled chicken or fish, dressed in a vinaigrette made with olive oil.

A snack might consist of plain almonds, cashews or pistachios, while dinner is based on fresh vegetables, fish, and lean meats. Phase I, for example, features dishes such as grilled salmon with lemon, roasted eggplant and a salad, or chicken made with balsamic vinegar.

It's rare for a study to put a popular diet to the test exactly as it's described in the book. The Atkins Diet, for example, has four phases. But most research has only looked at the early phases of the diet, where carbohydrate intake is restricted to 100 grams or less per day.

However, research published in the Archives of Internal Medicine has tested the South Beach Diet against the U.S. National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP) diet using the three-phases described in the book [3].

Here's what nutrient intake for the South Beach Diet group looked like.

In the NCEP diet, the percentages from fat (30%), carbohydrate (55%) and protein (15%) were unchanged throughout the trial. The diet was tailored to provide approximately 1300 calories for women and 1600 calories for men.

In the maintenance phase (Phase III) of the South Beach Diet, subjects consumed roughly 1300 calories for women and 1600 calories for men.

Unfortunately, no diet records were maintained, so we have no idea if subjects ate what they were supposed to, or how many calories they ate during the early stages of the South Beach Diet.

Foods recommended in the South Beach Diet included those high in protein (e.g. lean meats), monounsaturated fats (e.g. olive oil as well as almonds, pecans and avocado), and carbohydrate with a low glycemic index.

Participants assigned to the South Beach Diet were told to avoid refined and highly processed foods, and were encouraged to snack on foods containing protein (e.g. yogurt) and/or with a low glycemic index (e.g. peanuts). Vegetables were allowed in unlimited quantities and participants

Additional fiber in the form of psyllium (1 teaspoon in a half glass of water before lunch and dinner) was also recommended.

The table below summarizes the results.

After 12 weeks, weight loss was greater in the group following the South Beach Diet (13.6 pounds) group than in subjects on the NCEP diet (7.5 pounds). Of the six participants who failed to complete the study, five were in the NCEP group and one in the South Beach Diet group.

Hunger

One of the main attractions of The South Beach Diet is the claim that it will help you beat your cravings without feeling hungry.

"Nothing undermines a weight-loss plan more," says Agatston, "than the distressing sensation that you need more food."

That's why the South Beach Diet includes ample amounts of fat and protein, which help control your appetite to a greater extent than refined carbohydrates.

In one trial that compared calorie-restricted diets of varying protein content (15 or 30% of total calories), both groups lost weight [1]. But the high-protein group reported more satisfaction and less hunger than the high-carbohydrate group.

In fact, two subjects in the high-carbohydrate group dropped out because they were fed up feeling hungry all the time.

Diet myths

That said, the book does perpetuate a few popular nutrition myths. In Phase I, for example, author Dr. Agatston recommends that you should "only choose foods with a low glycemic index."

Even in Phase II, foods like carrots and bananas are classed as Foods to Avoid or Eat Rarely because of their glycemic index. That's despite the fact that the GI is a bit of a "dud" as far as weight loss is concerned.

You're also supposed to lose 8-13 pounds during Phase I of the diet. However, much of this will come from stored carbohydrate and water, rather than fat. And the study shows an average weight loss of 13.6 pounds in 12 weeks, and not the first two weeks as the book claims.

It's also worth pointing out that several of the study authors were affiliated with the Agatston Research Institute (founded by Arthur Agatston, creator of the South Beach Diet).

So, what's the bottom line?

The South Beach Diet is one of the better weight loss diets around at the moment. It's relatively simple, and doesn't rely on complex meal plans, supplements taken at certain times of day, or foods eaten in precise combinations.

Personally, I have no attachment to any one diet. While there are a few important principles to keep in mind when it comes to nutrition and weight loss, the secret to success is still to consume fewer calories than you burn.

Don't make things more complicated than they need to be by worrying about insulin, the glycemic index, meal frequency, not eating carbs after a certain time of day, or any of the other things that don't matter even half as much as some people say they do.

Truth is, you can lose weight on ANY diet — be it Eat Stop Eat, the Paleo Diet, the Atkins Diet or whatever — just as long as it's something you can stick to.

About the Author

Christian Finn holds a master's degree in exercise science, is a certified personal trainer and has been featured on BBC TV and radio, as well as in Men's Health, Men's Fitness, Muscle & Fitness, Fit Pro, Zest and other popular fitness magazines.

If you want better, faster results from the time you spend in the gym, click here now for instant access to his step-by-step muscle-building and fat-burning workout routines.

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References
1. Johnston, C.S., Tjonn, S.L., & Swan, P.D. (2004). High-protein, low-fat diets are effective for weight loss and favorably alter biomarkers in healthy adults. Journal of Nutrition, 134, 586-591
2. McManus, K., Antinoro, L., & Sacks, F. (2001). A randomized controlled trial of a moderate-fat, low-energy diet compared with a low fat, low-energy diet for weight loss in overweight adults. International Journal of Obesity and Related Metabolic Disorders, 25, 1503-1511
3. Aude, Y.W., Agatston, A.S., Lopez-Jimenez, F., Lieberman, E.H., Almon, M., Hansen, M., Rojas, G., Lamas, G.A., & Hennekens, C.H. (2004). The national cholesterol education program diet vs a diet lower in carbohydrates and higher in protein and monounsaturated fat: a randomized trial. Archives of Internal Medicine, 164, 2141-2146
4. Nackers LM, Ross KM, Perri MG. (2010). The association between rate of initial weight loss and long-term success in obesity treatment: does slow and steady win the race? International Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 17, 161-167
5. Astrup A, Rössner S. (2000). Lessons from obesity management programmes: greater initial weight loss improves long-term maintenance. Obesity Reviews, 1, 17-19