Author Archive

When you put yourself on a diet you may be setting yourself up for failure from the start.

What!!?

It’s true. Diets are stressful. Stress causes hormones to be released that start a whole chain reaction of eating issues for a lot of people. This is why weight loss with hypnosis is so
powerful: change your behavior and your weight will begin to melt off you.

Under stress, many people eat for relief, which, unfortunately, lasts only as long as the last bite. The problems will suddenly reappear. The reality is, they never went away. The inevitable feelings of being a failure set in. Not only didn’t you solve your problems, you created a new one, right there around your waist.

The solution?

Find tools besides a fork to attack emotional angst. In the time it takes to forage for your favorite quick-fix food, you can take steps to break the cycle, beat stress, eliminate emotional eating and yes, finally drop that excess weight for good without even trying.

Food cravings, especially for emotional eaters, mean you want something else.  It could be creative stimulation, companionship, or more satisfaction in life. What are your eating triggers? Boredom, frustration, and loneliness? Once you figure out what the real issue is youhave a great chance to change the behavior. Here’s how to figure it out and “feed” your real issue.

1. Keep a food journal.
Every time you reach for food, write down what you eat and how you were feeling. Patterns will emerge. Once you recognize the pattern you are on a path to start to break it.

2. Shop for some new “stimulants.”
Do you eat when you’re bored? Time to make a new “grocery” list: buy inexpensive, accessible things such as books, CDs, and tapes or DVDs of favorite films that provide the emotional lift you’re seeking from food. Keep them handy, and turn to them when you’re down.

3. Call your best friend.
Do you eat to escape painful feelings? Make a human connection instead of eating. Call someonewho makes you feel good. someone who makes you feel good.

4. Create new habits.
Find a hobby. When you’re engrossed in something you love, you forget all about eating, especially if you’re active. Falling in love with an activity like walking or bicycling is even better.

5. Head toward your dreams.
Moving towards goals, one little step at a time is satisfying. With taking a simple, small step forward the feelings of empowerment and accomplishment provide a heady satisfaction that begins a cycle of satisfaction and for many, satisfaction without food.

6. Find new rewards.
Like most people, you probably eat to celebrate happiness too. Find new, affordable rewards such as earrings or tickets to a play or movie.

1. The Weight Loss Patch

Perhaps the most appealing benefit of using a patch is that it is so easy to use. No pills to remember to take, no special diets, no required exercise routine. Naturally, sticking to a healthy diet and exercise program is best for your overall health, but if that is difficult for you to adhere to all of the time, the patch may be a solution that works for you.

A weight loss patch that you place on your body will deliver the active ingredients by transdermal delivery, meaning through the skin. The patch ingredients will go directly into the bloodstream, bypassing the digestive system and liver. Simply apply the patch to a smooth area of your skin and change it every 3 days. That is all of the maintenance that is required.

A patch can even be used occasionally when you are traveling and know you will be eating out a lot, or for those times you are too busy to cook the proper foods. A patch that suppresses your appetite will help you develop good eating habits that will help you maintain your ideal weight in the future ~ no more yo-yo figures.

2. Appetite Suppressant Pills

Curbing your appetite to stop the influx of calories in the first place seems to be the logical way to lose and maintain your weight. However, we are so bombarded by confusing claims everywhere for appetite suppressant pills ~ in print, on the radio, on television, even on billboards when driving, that it is difficult to know which diet pill will really help take off those pounds ~ and keep them off..

Some diet pills will cause your heart to race, your hands to shake, or an overall “wired” feeling. To avoid these problem, stay away from products that contain Ephedra, Ma Huang, and Ephedrine.

One herbal diet pill that has gotten a lot of publicity lately is Hoodia Gordonii The authentic plant comes from the Kalahari desert in South Aftrica. Respectable television shows like 60 Minutes, the Today Show, BBC, and even Oprah’s “O” magazine have given it rave reviews for its fast acting appetite suppressing qualities. While it can take one to two weeks to work fully, many users report a decline in their appetite with the first pill.

In fact, Hoodia has had so many positive reports that there are now a lot of knock-off products being marketed to the uninformed ~ especially on the Internet. The real Hoodia is very rare because it takes up to 7 years for the Hoodia plant to mature to a point where it provides appetite suppressant qualities. In addition, the African government is now limiting the amount of Hoodia it exports, meaning only a few suppliers have the real thing. Because Hoodia is so rare, you can expect it to be a little more expensive than other diet pills.

Another diet pill that helps shed pounds is Herbal Phentermine. This is a non-prescription appetite suppressant that is scientifically designed to produce similar effects of a popular Rx version of phentermine.

The good news is that the Herbal version contains only natural ingredients so you don’t have to be worried about side effects. Plus, you can avoid the time, expense, and embarrassment of a doctor’s visit.

Herbal Phentermine will not only suppress your appetite, but it will also increase your metabolism so you burn more calories and have more energy.

3). Carbohydrate Blockers

Perhaps you prefer not to have your appetite suppressed, but instead would like to eat all of the pasta, bread, rice, and potatoes you want. If this sounds more like your style, then you might want to try a carbohydrate blocker.

Scientists have discovered, and thoroughly tested a method to allow us to eat the foods we love and not gain weight. We can now stop the normal conversion of starchy foods to sugar before it can pass through our digestive system and store as fat on our hips, thighs, buttocks and stomach. Derived from white kidney beans, the resulting carb blockers, (starch neutralizers), are a completely natural product. They work by neutralizing the Alpha amylase enzyme that digests starch.

By neutralizing this digestive enzyme, the starch from our food does not get digested. Instead, it remains intact and does not convert to sugar. It simply passes through the body undigested and acts as a fiber ~ which is a very good thing. We get more fiber going through our intestines while avoiding the conversion to sugar and the resulting fat storage ~ a definite win-win situation.

Over the past several years, there have been many positive studies to determine the effectiveness of carb blockers and their ability to help lose weight. One study was performed at the Northridge Hospital Medical Center in Los Angeles, CA, over an eight week time period.

It reported that participants saw an average weight loss of 200% more than those taking a placebo, and lost an average of 1.5 inches around their waists. This was 43 % more than those taking the placebo. Plus they reported having 13% more energy, even though it is not a stimulant.

Whether you choose patches or pills, prefer to eat starchy foods, or use carb blockers, some things to look for when buying diet products are that they:

1) Contain all natural ingredients
2) Do not have harmful side effects
3) Offer a 100% money back guarantee

There are a number of reliable internet websites that sells reliable and highly effective cialis online and Viagra online generic drugs. The wide choices of products include generic products of this category as well. There are customers who can purchase Viagra online and Cialis online at the cheapest rates possible for their impotence problems. Customers require not the recommendation to purchase these online. The online stores supply their medicines across the world and they can transport to any nation of the customer’s choice. If you are on a hunt for the finest quality Viagra online and cialis online then it is advisable to contact you doctor as well.

You will be proficient to put in your orders in just hardly any of the online clicks. These high quality impotence drugs are just a few steps away if you are ordering them online. You can save a big amount of your hard earned dollar by ordering these drugs online. You will be competent to just reimburse little bit of the price involved in purchasing acknowledged drugs and get similarly effectual generic drugs. There are these companies online that offer you with guarantee of the highest contentment on all their products as well as offer best delivery services at reasonable charges.

However getting these cialis online and Viagra online one must assure to read all the information mentioned on it as there are some which might not suite you. This is the reason why we recommend you to meet your doctor before you get into purchasing some of these drugs online. Make sure that they do not have any caution information stating that there might be any side effects, as the only intention of these drugs is to get hold on the impotence factor and ultimate pleasure to both the partners. Moreover one advantage of it is that the price tag needs to be carefully identify, as these are online you need to recheck as there are no hidden charges to it. So go in for these online drugs and have a fulfilled and satisfied love life with your partner, denying all the tags on you that say you cannot do it.

One way to lose weight is to just stop eating. It sounds simple but in reality you have to know what you are doing to get any long term weight loss benefits from fasting. Let’s look at the weakness and strengths of fasting for weight loss.

Like most forms of dieting, fasting can be used to bring about dramatic but temporary reductions of weight. You can go on a long fast, taking nothing but juice or eating grapes or taking some other low calorie meal substitute for several weeks, and while you are on the fast you will certainly lose weight. However, during the fast you may not be able to carry on your normal social interactions. It’s not so easy to sit around sipping carrot juice while the rest of your family is eating a normal meal.

Another problem with long fasting is that your body requires vital nutrients (vitamins, minerals, protein) and your favorite juice may not contain them. Long fasting without proper medical supervision can be dangerous.

Finally, a major problem with this kind of fasting is that once you stop fasting and resume eating your normal diet, you are likely to gain back all the weight that you have lost during your crash weight loss fast.

So, does fasting have any place in a weight loss plan? Yes it does. Periodic fasting is one of the secrets of a long and healthy life. Our body’s digestive organs require a rest from time to time, just as we require days off from work. One-day fasting done in a methodical and regular manner provides the kind of rest that helps our digestive system, aids in the elimination of toxins from our body, and, yes, also helps us to lose weight in a healthy and sustainable way.

How to Do Proper Fasting

Here is a method of doing one day fasts, taking no food and (if your body is strong) no water in a period from the sunrise of one day to the sunrise of the next day.

Successful fasting has three stages: preparation, the actual fast, and breaking the fast. Each one of these stages is important.

Preparation

If you are not prepared both mentally and physically you will find it difficult to go one day without food. The mental preparation is simple, but very important. The night before the fast you have to take a firm determination that tomorrow you are going to fast, that you are not going to eat any food. If you fix your mind in advance then you will not start deliberating during the fasting day whether you should continue or not to continue. If you are undecided or waffling you can always find a hundred reasons why you should start eating!

Physical preparation is also important. The day before you fast you should eat a normal amount of food and take a good amount of liquids (especially if you are going to be fasting without taking any liquids). If you miss some meals on the day before fasting, then you may start feeling hungry during the fasting period. If you do not take enough liquids, especially during the night before the fast, then you will feel uncomfortable when you are fasting.

If you are physically and mentally prepared you will not feel very hungry while you are fasting. Once you decide to fast, your hunger just “shuts off” for the fasting period. This sounds hard to believe, but if you do it a few times you will see that it is true.

The Fasting Day

It is best to do light physical tasks and concentrate more on intellectual and spiritual work during the fasting period. It is not a good idea to spend your time thinking about what you are going to eat tomorrow! If you have prepared yourself properly this shouldn’t be a problem and you can use the time that you gain by not eating to do some constructive things that you normally don’t get time to do.

Breaking the Fast

One of the benefits of fasting is that it helps to eliminate toxins from the body. However, you can only get this benefit if you break your fast correctly. On the morning following the fasting day, take two glasses of lemon water. Put the juice of have of a lemon in one glass and add a bit of salt. (The drink should taste both lemony and salty). After some time, you can eat your breakfast. The lemon water will help you to flush your digestive system with a strong bowel movement and many toxins will be eliminated.

One day fasts like this can be done twice a month. This kind of fasting will give rest to your digestive organs, help eliminate toxins, build your will power and strength of mind. On top of this, the overall reduction in calories that you get from going two days without food each month, will definitely be one of the elements of a balanced and sustainable weight loss program.

Most of us find diets really exciting since they prove to be the fastest ways of knocking of our extra pounds. We get attracted to diets that claim they can help us lose 6 pounds or more in just a week. Do all of these diets actually work? Can we actually lose weight in just a week’s time? And is that healthy? To answer your questions, not all diets are genuine. There are many diets that will claim to help you lose weight but some of them may not do that.

Some of them are healthy and some of them are not. So you have to be careful about which diet you decide to follow. However diets that work along the lines of the calorie shifting principle are very genuine and effective. They do help you shed your extra pounds and in a way that is not harmful to your body. The most famous of calorie shifting diets is the “fat loss 4 idiots diet”.  This diet proves why other diets are most unhealthy and proves to you a good scientific method of losing your excess fat.

Some of the most common diets work at reducing your calorie or food intake for an extended period of time. This helps you to begin losing weight. But more often than not, you start putting on weight even while still following the diet. The weight lost does not last long enough. This is because our bodies have been designed in such a way that if you give it a considerable amount of time, its metabolism adjusts to whatever your intake is be it less of carbohydrates, fats or proteins or just less intake of the quantity of food.

The fat burnt is proportional to the rate of metabolism. If your metabolism is fast, you will burn calories fast too. If metabolism is slow, naturally the rate of burning calories will be slow too. Lesser the food intake, slower the metabolism. Most of these diets are all about taking in fewer calories and hence lesser calories are burnt up as well. And if you go out on a binge even on one day, you will land up putting on even more weight since your metabolism will be slow and you will not be able to burn much fat.

The calorie shifting diets do not work like other diets. They have a scientific background. They understand that the rotation of eating routine is required in order to keep our metabolism high at all times. Higher the metabolism, more the calories burnt. The diet encourages the rotation of food stuff. It allows you to eat one type this week and to change it next week. So basically you eat new type of food every week. Your diet this week will not be the same as last week. This way your metabolism will be always high, thus burning out more and more calories.

Carbohydrates are the single most important food you can eat.

That statement probably goes against everything you’ve ever heard, so let me explain.

If you don’t believe me, take this little test. Think of a carb!
If you’re like most Americans, bread, pasta, soft drinks, French fries, sugar, and similar foods probably flew into your mind. Yes, these foods are carbs — highly processed and refined ones.

And if these are the kinds of carbs you consume on a regular basis, let me warn you, (unless you regularly run marathons), you’re most likely either overweight or heading down the road to weight gain.

You may like them, you may consider them “comfort foods,” you may think that they couldn’t be so bad since they are so predominant in our current diet. But the biological bottom line is that human beings have not evolved to metabolize these types of carbohydrates.

They slow down your metabolism and contribute to every one of the major diseases associated with aging including diabetes, heart disease, dementia and cancer.

In most, cases they are also “empty” calorie foods-the worst possible combination — high caloric foods, low in nutrients. They deprive you of vital nutrients as well as burden your body with the task of digesting food molecules that aren’t giving you anything you need.

Eating them (especially in excess) is a prescription for weight gain. But they’re not the end of the carb story. If you’re like most people, you may not realize that the wide world of carbs is actually much, much bigger than this limited crowd of processed carbs.

In contrast, natural carbohydrates, which come to your table just like Mother Nature made them, contain many essential nutrients and specialized chemicals that turn up your metabolism via newly discovered plant chemicals call phytonutrients.

So you have a choice: use phytonutrients to spark your metabolism into action, or drown your metabolism with indigestible nutrient-poor carbs.

Our genetic nutritional template goes back 20,000 years. Our ancestors foraged for wild food, like wild berries, grasses, roots, and mushrooms to find life-giving phytonutrients that all humans are designed by nature to eat.

On a recent vacation I found myself in a sea of phytonutrients in the wild islands of Southeast Alaska. I was foraging along with the grizzly bears for bog cranberries, blueberries, nagoonberries, raspberries, and strawberries. These scrumptious berries, bursting with phytonutrients, were smaller, richer in color and taste, (and lower in sugar) than their domestic berry cousins.

Here’s a tip: The greater variety and the deeper the color of plant foods you eat, the higher their concentration of phytonutrients. The key is to learn which phytonutrient-dense foods can prevent disease and promote weight loss.

Want phytonutrient power?

Here ’s a small sample of the many superfoods that contain these powerful phytonutrients: isoflavones in soy foods, lignans in flax seeds, catechins in green tea, polyphenols in cocoa (yes, chocolate!), glucosinolates in broccoli, carnosol in rosemary, and resveratrol in red wine.

And there are hundreds more that can help you unlock the secret to natural weight loss. All of these compounds — and dozens more — will help you fight disease and obesity. These special compounds literally communicate with your genes and turn on messages of health and weight loss. They are key to the success people experience in losing weight on a program I’ve developed during my 20-years practicing medicine, called UltraMetabolism.

Before you reach for that Cinnabon, know that phytonutrients only occur in whole, unrefined, unprocessed plant foods. All vegetables (and many fruits) score high in phytonutrients, while processed carbs, like bread and pasta, have virtually none.

Here’s a shorthand to distinguish between the metabolism boosters and the processed carbs that will only weigh you down:

Anything that has been packaged or put through a machine is processed (like a potato chip). Anything that comes right out of the earth is natural (like a plum).

Don’t let all the terminology — high fat, low-fat, high-carb, low-carb, high glycemic index, low glycemic index, complex carbs and simple carbs — confuse you. The key is eating whole, real, unprocessed, food found as close to nature as possible. Now you know why your grandmother always told you to eat your vegetables!

Folk wisdom passed down the generations showed how to give the body what it needs. In the early twenty-first century, that wisdom is being confirmed in the research of leading edge scientists. So you can follow these recommendations I offer with total confidence that the latest medical science backs them up.

This new science reveals why you should never do what some ill-advised diets suggest: cut out all carbs. Not a good idea-because you also cut out all the phytonutrients (and the fiber) that only comes from whole plant foods.
Along with their obesity fighting chemicals, vitamins, and minerals to accelerate your metabolism, most whole carbohydrates are filled with healthy plant fiber to slow the absorption of sugar into your bloodstream.

And for super fast weight loss, you’ll want to eat some special “super” fiber foods which I use as my secret weapon with many patients who have had difficulty losing weight. Once you incorporate them into your diet, you’ll feel full, experience steady energy, and will never be tempted to overeat.

Here’s a guarantee: If you’ve been consuming highly processed foods such as sodas, chips, and crackers, and you decide to boost your intake of those powerful phytonutrients that I’ve reviewed, you’ll be taking the first step towards re-programming your body for automatic weight loss and health.

My dirty little secret as a doctor is that I never treat anybody specifically to lose weight; I simply help them become healthy using these and other techniques and the weight automatically comes off.

So remember, eat your carbs, but make them the right carbs!

When you are dealing with a phenomenon as diverse as human beings, it is very difficult to create rules which will work equally well for everyone. Nevertheless, there are some characteristics shared by all human beings, and this means that some basic principles can be developed. Here are five proven techniques to help you lose weight.

Best Way 1
The most fundamental strategy of successful weight loss is to burn more calories than you take in. You shouldn’t find it difficult to apply this in some aspect of your life. Adjust your diet by cutting down on high fat food, and take some simple exercise for twenty minutes, three times a week. Going for a brisk walk instead of driving everywhere will have the desired effect, as will gentle jogging or swimming.

Best Way 2
Gym membership is becoming increasingly popular, and, as long the exercise you do is well planned, it can be extremely beneficial. Aerobic exercise has to be the focal point of your plan, otherwise you could do more harm than good. Provided you adhere to this basic rule, some anaerobic weight or resistance training can help tone up your body. This will give you more strength and vitality, and should increase your confidence.

Best Way 3
Going to see a professional nutritionist or dietician can pay off handsomely. If you go it alone, you will need to put in some serious research to make sure you are genuinely eating healthily, and many who try this find themselves discouraged by the lack of variety in their diet. It certainly doesn’t have to be that way, as there are plenty of different healthy meals which help you lose weight. Getting the advice of a professional can make the task of losing weight seem so much more enjoyable!

Best Way 4
Find a friend to train with. If you and a friend are both regularly free at the same time of day, it can make sense to train together. Having someone to help you through the times when you don’t seem to be getting anywhere can keep you in the game until the improvement suddenly appears. Having a social aspect to your exercise will help you look forward to it, and make you more likely to stick to it!

Best Way 5
Eat less food more often. Many medical practitioners now recommend eating more meals a day, with less food at each one. This is a more balanced way to take food into the body, spreading the load on the body over a far wider period of time. The system of eating three meals a day is designed far more to fit in with the working day than it is to fit in with the needs of the human body. When you eat less more often, the body absorbs more of the nutrients in the food, so your body craves fewer calories.

The best and most effective method for weight loss does depend on the individual, but follow these time tested principles and you will see results. Click the links below to discover some effective resources to help you.

The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.
~ Lao Tzu

Are you trying to scam your diet?

Now, be honest with yourself. Do you “forget” to stock diet friendly foods? What about absentmindedly ordering that Grande Mocha Malt Frappuccino at Starbucks last Monday morning? You know, the Monday you were going to start your diet - again?

Maybe you’re the type that figures once the morning diet is shot to hell, you may as well blow the rest of the day? Or, better yet, wait until next month?

What if you just needed a gentle reminder when you first wake up while your brain is still foggy? Try these two simple tricks: Run a piece of masking tape across your bedroom doorway - something you’ll run smack into first thing in the morning. Nothing like being caught in a spider web to enhance the memory! Now run another piece across the bathroom mirror where you shave or apply make-up - another instant reminder.

My last favorite “reminder” trick is just a plain ‘ol mind game. Hide everything! Trying to break the high calorie coffee habit? Stash the coffeemaker; ditch the mucho calorie Coffee-mate.

Wish you could pass on McDonald’s for lunch every day? It’s hard to buy anything if you leave your money at home. Yeah, you could hit up your coworkers, but then you need to ask yourself: “How badly do I want to be thin?”

Could it be that you’re afraid? Scared that you’ll fail again? You feel nervous that it will be too hard or complicated? Leery of not understanding all the “rules” for the newest diet you’re trying?

Well, clearly you’ve been trying the wrong ones! Why not give the Kimkins diet a try?

The basic diet is so simple you could write it on the back of your hand. It’s so easy your 2nd grader will have it down pat in 30 seconds. Complicated? Not even. The purpose of Kimkins is very simple - fast weight loss, no messing around, no coddling.

Our mental attitude and mindset is everything when it comes to mastering weight loss. If you’re not on board consciously, then your subconscious is going to play every trick in the book on you - and win. Don’t let that happen. Be the boss. Outsmart yourself!

Oh, and next time you’re going to “forget” to pass on your favorite Starbucks creation, try to “remember” that Grande Mocha Malt Frappuccino will set you back 600 calories and 95 curbs!

This article is written by Kimkins Diet founder, Kimmer, who struggled with morbid obesity for 25 years before losing 198 lbs in 1 year and developing her quick weight loss diet, Kimkins. The focus of the Kimkins plan is lean low carb, less fat than Atkins, less carbs than South Beach.

The simple answer to this question is NO! However that is probably not going to leave many readers satisfied with this article that is supposed to be about weight loss plans. So in the next few paragraphs I want to tell you more specifically why it is a good idea to lose weight number one, and then why it is essential that you have a strategy number two.

So why do we lose weight? Well actually much of the time it is because we don’t like how we look. The problem with that is it is such a fickle feeling and doesn’t provide enough incentive to buckle down to a weight loss plan and carry it out. We can get through life fairly unscathed socially when we are fat if we avoid certain situations namely anything having to do with a swimming suit or an athletic event. The major thing that allows us to do this is the fact that everyone else around us is fat and so we fit right in. We all, especially those in the northern climes that don’t benefit from good amounts of sun, use food to elevate our mood and the fact is that it works. What we are starting to understand is that our motivation should be our health rather than our looks, and if we truly new how dangerous obesity is it would scare us enough that we would take losing weight seriously.

The fact that obesity is a killer is plain. The big three killers for the obese would be art disease atherosclerotic disease, diabetes, and cancer. That obesity is a MAJOR risk factor for these killers is plain as day. Think with me for a minute about all the things that go wrong with an obese individual that send them spiraling toward and early death. First atherosclerosis from high fat and cholesterol diets combined with large floppy hearts, and hypertension that is caused by obesity. This just sets a person up for a major cardiac event that if it doesn’t kill them the first time will on subsequent tries unless they get their act together. Now think about diabetes mellitus type II which has is main etiology in the insulin insensitivity that comes with obesity. This contributes to heart disease as well as renal failure, blindness, and neuropathies that result in either unbearable pain or in amputations. Pretty bleak picture? Make you want to hear about the importance of having a weight loss plan?

This should be brief because it deals with life truths that are pretty obvious. You must plan carefully in life to succeed, learning in life from mistakes and capitalizing on opportunities. You must also plan to achieve discipline. These things are just not natural to humans who if left to their own devices become fat, lazy, and fail. So you must have a weight loss plan to: 1) lose weight properly, 2) lose enough weight to make a life prolonging change, and 3) to maintain your new lifestyle. Sounds easy right? No way! But worth it? For sure.

The South Beach Diet, created by cardiologist Dr. Arthur Agatston, is a safe and effective diet that differs from other diets in that it advocates not just a new way of eating but a new way of life.

The South Beach Diet puts an end to counting calories and it puts an end to portion control. The South Beach Diet also avoids putting people in a position where they feel like they’re depriving themselves from eating food that tastes good and satisfies them.

The focus of the South Beach Diet is on fats and carbohydrates, more specifically, the right fats and carbohydrates. With the South Beach Diet, you find that healthy carbohydrates and fats satisfy your hunger and feed you energy while eating the wrong carbohydrates and fats can actually make you feel hungrier than you were before eating them, causing you to eat even more and, as a result, gain weight.

The South Beach Diet works in 3 phases, dieters going through phases 1 and 2 sequentially, each for a particular period of time, then moving to phase 3 where they remain for the rest of their lives.

South Beach Diet Phase 1 – For two weeks certain forms of carbohydrates are restricted, based on their glycemic index (a measurement of their affect on a person’s blood sugar). Portion sizes for all other foods are normal. This two week period is the most intense and restrictive of the three phases. Foods emphasized in Phase 1 include chicken and turkey, fish and shellfish, vegetables with a low glycemic index (including salads with light dressing), low fat cheeses, eggs, and nuts. This is the period where drastic weight loss is usually noticed in a short time. This type of weight loss is not sustainable, however, which is why the South Beach Diet then promptly transitions you into Phase 2 where you can adjust your dietary patterns so as to achieve a more sustainable rate of weight loss without gaining back that initial poundage you just shed.

South Beach Diet Phase 2 – Here many of the carbohydrates that were forbidden in Phase 1 are incrementally introduced back into your diet. The desired effect of Phase 2 is to get yourself to a place where you lose between1 and 2 pounds each week, a rate of weight loss than you can easily sustain until you achieve your body’s individual “healthy weight” (generally best determined by your Body Mass Index and percentage body fat to muscle mass). Phase 2 lasts as long as it takes for you to reach your desired weight.

South Beach Diet Phase 3 – Now you begin to establish the balanced diet you aim to maintain for the rest of your life, so long as weight remains where it is. Should you start to gain weight again, you can simply go back to one or both of the earlier phases until you get back to where you need to be.

The South Beach Diet is not a starvation diet. In it, you eat 3 satisfying meals per day plus 2 snacks in-between meals. Your meal plans are not set in stone, so you can still enjoy variety and spontaneity in your diet.

Studies of the South Beach Diet have shown that it not only helps people lose weight, but it increases their “good cholesterol” (HDLs) and decreases their “bad cholesterol” (LDLs) levels, while also improving their levels of insulin.