South Beach Diet Review: The Most In-depth Beginners Guide

By - Katelyn Yarnell

Chump, chump, chump- Wouldn’t it be awesome if we could eat without any worries?

Sorry to say, but that’s barely possible when you’re grown up. According to WHO(World Health Organization), in 2016 around 2 Billion people were overweight. Many of them might be in a danger zone of Type 2 diabetes, heart diseases, high blood pressure, etc. And that quite shows how uncontrolled food habits can invite dangerous health threats. That number is actually tremendous when you think of it.

Here’s the thing-

We all know that being overweight is unhealthy and it could lead to many harmful diseases.

Yes. There are ways to save yourself from this self-destruction. You either follow a diet or exercise.

Those who lean on the dieting option, find it difficult to choose a plan. For those people, we’re here with the most elaborate South Beach Diet review. It’s so detailed that we’re calling it a south beach diet review and beginners guide.

Here we’ll get to know this diet along with its benefits, drawbacks and sustainability issues.

So, let’s stop wasting any more time, and hop onto the South Beach diet review train.

What in the World is this South Beach Diet?

The South Beach diet is a 3-phase diet plan that is focused on lowering body mass.

Dr. Arthur Agatston revealed this plan in the mid-1990s. This remarkable cardiologist is also famous for developing the Agatston score. This score measures the calcium amount in coronary arteries.

After going through some published interviews, we came to know his reason behind creating the South Beach Diet plan.

Back then, the Atkins diet was pretty popular among cardiac patients. It was popular because patients on this diet were actually losing weight and belly fat. On the other hand, low-fat high carb diets were not so effective.

But the Atkins diet was high in saturated fats. And this bothered Dr. Agatston constantly.

His dream was creating an ultimate diet for overweight, diabetic and pre-diabetic patients. A diet that would prevent these individuals to lose weight and ultimately reduce heart diseases.

As a solution, he created the South Beach Diet. This diet allows high amounts of low-glycemic-index carbohydrates, unsaturated fats (the good one) and lean proteins.

At first, he tried out this diet by himself. Once he saw success through this, he began prescribing this to others.

And in 2003 he published a book on this topic. It was named The South Beach Diet. Soon after publishing it became a bestseller.

Later on, in 2009 he published an updated version named The South Beach Diet Supercharged. This too became a bestseller.

To sum up everything, in short, The South Beach Diet is a diet plan developed by Dr. Agatston. This low carb diet is high in unsaturated fats, lean proteins, and low glycemic index carbohydrates.

The South Beach Diet Method

Now that we know what the South Beach Diet is, it’s time that we go deeper into this South Beach Diet review.

The South Beach Diet consists of 3 phases.  Among these 3, two are designed for weight loss and one is for weight maintenance. Once, started you can see a new you within a month. Here there 3 South Beach Diet Phases:

South Beach Diet Phase 1

The first phase lasts 14 days in this diet. If followed properly, then you can expect to shed somewhere in the range of 8 to 13 pounds. However, don’t get excited too soon. All this weight loss comes at a cost too.

Most of the people stop following this plan during South Beach Diet Phase 1. That’s because this is the strictest phase. This phase limits eating high carb foods like fruits, grains, etc.

As a result, your blood sugar level decreases, hunger gets stabilized and cravings get reduced.

In South Beach Diet Phase 1, you have to get 3 main meals every day. South Beach Diet recipes phase 1 meal plan will be comprised of-

That’s not all-

Your snack time gets reduced to 2-3. So, you’ll have to say bye to midnight snacks completely. These snacks should be a nice combination of vegetables and lean proteins.

South Beach Diet Phase 1 food list

Here we have included a list of foods that are allowed in South Beach Diet Phase 1. We have categorized these foods based on their elements. So, let’s explore the list-

Legumes

In this phase, you can take items from this list at the best half cup per day. Try to eat these cooked.

Lean Protein

The South Beach diet plan assumes a lot on the common sense of people. Although this protein is lean and the diet hasn’t talked anything about limits, you should consider some limits.

Don’t shove down every chicken piece of your house at once. If you’re super hungry, slowly take a small portion. If you’re hungry even after the slow consumption, return for seconds.

So, your allowed food items here are-

To be More Specific-

Non-Starchy Vegetables

Vegetables are a bit hated by some. Many consider it as a non-favorite item. And in this phase, you have to take 4.5 cups of vegetables daily.

Moreover, some of your favorite vegetables are not on this list. Basically, you can eat all vegetables except for beets, carrots, yams, white potatoes, corn, peas, turnips and most types of winter squash.

However, we will still list up all the allowed vegetables for this South Beach Diet Phase 1. By this way, there’ll be no confusion-

Now you know why people quit.

Nuts and Seeds

Don’t get happy yet. You can take only 1oz or 28 grams of nuts daily.

To be more specific-

Oils, Fats and Alternative Fat Choices

It’s hard to be without oils. The South Beach Diet keeps this in mind. And so, in this diet, you can take 2 tbsp of oils per day. However, try to get monosaturated oils. These are encouraged in the South Beach Diet book.

However, you can also opt for alternative fat choices. Here, we have tailored the amounts so that you get 2 tbsp equivalent healthy oils.

Go with whatever option your heart wishes for. Just don’t mess up the limits.

Sweet Treats

Yeah, this diet allows you to have sweet treats. Just don’t cross the 100-calorie daily boundary in this sector. So, what are the allowed items here? Let’s take a peek-

Beverages

In this area, we’ll leave you alone. You can have all the caffeine in the world. But it has to be sugar-free. Let’s look at the list of the allowed beverages in this stage-

By the way, Irish coffee isn’t allowed in this phase.

Foods to Ignore at South Diet Phase 1

You’ll find some of your favorite food items in this list. We know this is heartbreaking. But no worries. Some of those might get allowed in the next phases. So, let’s go through the list-

South Beach Diet Phase 2 and South Beach Diet Phase 3

South Beach Diet Phase 2 goes into action on day 15. But there’s no specific end date for this phase. You should maintain it for as long as you don’t meet your goal weight.

In South Beach Diet Phase 2 you can lose up to 2 pounds per week on average. So, how long to continue phase 2?

Let’s clear this out with an example-

Let’s say that your initial weight was 250 pounds. And your target weight is 220 Pounds. So, after South Beach Diet phase 1, your weight is now at 240 pounds. Now let’s say your average weight loss during South Beach Diet phase 2 is 1.5 pounds per week.

So, you have to be in phase 2 for 20/1.5 = 13.33 week. Rounding up, it can be said that, you’ll need 13-14 week more to reach your target weight.

During this phase, you’re free to take all the foods from phase 1. As a bonus, you’ll get to test some degree of fruits and grains and a certain type of alcohol.

After reaching your target weight, you can move on to South Beach Diet Phase 3.

South Beach Diet Phase 3 is all about keeping that weight reduced. For this, you have to be build up a South Beach Diet phase 2 lifestyle. So, what’s the difference between phase 2 and phase 3?

Well, here you can have an occasional treat. Moreover, no food is actually off-limits in this phase. Now, you have to keep your weight in check all the time. If your weight sees an upward curve, then you have to go back to phase 1 for 1-2 weeks.

After that, you can get back to phase 3 again.

South Beach Diet Phase 2 Food List

After 14 days of controlled eating here you’ll get some relief. Many of your favorite foods will be available again. However, that doesn’t mean that you’ll horde into a pile of food.

So, keep your eating habits in the first phase. Eat a little at first and then head back to your pile of food if you’re still hungry.

Now, let’s look at the list of the foods allowed-

Fruits

Yeah. We’re allowing fruits and you’re not dreaming.

But there’s a catch-

You’re allowed to take at best 3 servings per day.

So, what should be this serving size?

Well, each serving can be-

Now, most of the fruits are allowed at this point. However, some fruits like dates, figs, watermelons, etc. are not allowed.

To be more specific, the allowed fruits are-

Starchy Vegetables

When you leap onto the kingdom of starchy vegetables for the first time after phase 1 there are some things that you should keep in mind.

For the first few days don’t try to take more than 1 serving per day. After a week or two, you can gradually increase your serving intake. However, some vegetables e.g. Pumpkins should always be limited within 1 serving.

Now, let’s look at the list of allowed starchy vegetables-

Whole grains or Good Carbs

You can eat up 1-4 servings per day in this category at this phase.

One serving can be usually half a cup of cooked carbs or 1 slice of bread. Let’s look at the options that count as 1 serving-

Alcohol

To be honest, once people are done with the first phase, they pretty much keep on continuing.

Even alcohol becomes legal in the 2^nd and 3^rd phases. However, here too you have to limit yourself. You can’t expect to lose weight and get drunk at the same time.

So, let’s go through the alcohol consumption details in South Beach Diet phase 2 and 3-

Abide by these your weight reduction curve will be the same.

Foods to Ignore

Although in this stage a lot of the foods get allowed, still there are some culprits out of this list.

Mostly fatty meats and more specifically, foods that are high in saturated fat, natural sugar, and refined sugar are in the ignore list. Some food items of this category are-

You can try a pinch of some items here but stay away from whole servings made out of these.

A day in the Life of a Follower (Food Perspective)

Now you know what food items you might have during the South Beach Diet. But that doesn’t clear out what your meals are going to be.

As we have promised you before that this will be a complete guide to your South Beach Diet plan, it’s time that we show our integrity.

We have observed some dieters and have taken sample meals from the South Beach Diet delivery system. With all those ‘meal data’ we have prepared 2 model days.

We’ve assumed that a typical dieter will get 5 meals every day including snacks. And by assuming that we’ve prepared our model days. Now, let’s take peek into the life of a sample dieter.

Any Day among Day 1-14

Phase 1 plans are a bit harsh. But remember that this is just a sample day. You can create your own meal combo with the allowed food items.

Breakfast: Our dieter says Good Morning with 3 Eggs and 1 cup kale cooked by 1tsp Olive oil. He pours down some coffee without cream and sugar sometimes.

Snack: Bell pepper slices with string cheese is a nice combo for phase 1 snacks. By the way, our dieter is allowed to eat only 1 oz cheese daily.

Lunch: Mr. Dieter roasts some salmon and prepares asparagus salad for lunch. To spice things up, he uses mustard vinaigrette.

Snack: Peanut butter is such a nice option for snacks. But here our dieter has to eat it with celery sticks. Oh, and only 2 tsp peanut butter is allowed daily.

Dinner: Our dieter can eat lean steak at dinner, but he has to eat Broccoli too.

Any Day afterward Day 14

So, our dieter went through 14 days of phase 1. After seeing drastic changes in his weight, he’s now super excited about the next phase. So, here’s what he ate in day 15 of South Beach Diet.

Breakfast: As he got access to carbs in this stage, he gulped down some peanut butter oatmeal.

Snack: For mid-day snacks, he ate up cucumber slices with hummus. By the way, in this stage, only a quarter cup hummus is allowed.

Lunch: During lunch after many days, he tried out some relatively heavy lunches. This time, it’s a bowl of apple walnut salad with chicken.

Snack: For evening snacks, some cherry tomatoes with cottage cheese was his savior.

Dinner: He always liked a bit heavy dinner. So, he prepared some pork fajitas with guacamole. Even in this stage guacamole is allowed only 1/3 cup daily.

During phase 3 your meals would be somewhat like phase 2. As a bonus, you can try out some fast food once in a while. But if you see a weight increase you have to move back to phase 1 remember that.

Sample South Beach Diet Recipe

In the previous section of this South Beach Diet review, we only peeked a bit into the life of a dieter. Now, we’re here to help you out with actual south beach diet recipes.

As it’s not possible to give out 9 recipes for 3 stages, we are only giving out 1 recipe. One breakfast recipe.

There’s one thing that we must say. Which is, this recipe here is both healthy and tasty. So, let’s head out to the recipe.

Collard Green Wrap with Turkey Bacon Filler

This is a classy, healthy and super tasty dish. Moreover, this recipe is approved by Hannibal Lecter (No worries, we won’t tell you to kill people).

However, even if you’re a lazy person just by thinking about this item would break your morning sleep. That’s not all-

This recipe is perfect for busy office days. That’s because this item gets ready just in a snap.

Enough of luring, let’s get going with the main stuff.

Ingredients

Most of the ingredients here are green making it a perfect dish for phase 1. Necessary ingredients are-

Process

The process isn’t too complicated and everything. Just go through the steps properly and your breakfast will be ready in no time.

Step 1

Be careful about using your knife. Don’t end up cutting or tearing the leaf portion. Also, don’t think that this shaving down is unnecessary. If you skip this step, then the wrap won’t roll perfectly. This might result in collard snapping while rolling.

Step 2

Step 3

Step 4

Wrap up the collard green just like a burrito.

Cut the wrap in half and start enjoying.

South Beach Diet Delivery

South Beach Diet meal delivery is an online platform that delivers diet items straight to your door.

Features

Here you can enjoy a wide variety of items for every type of meal.

That’s not all-

You can opt-in for any of the 4-week plans based on your budget.

There are 4 plans available. Simple, silver, gold and platinum. You can vary your menu. Moreover, you can order up extra receive snacks and protein snacks with your delivery. But it all depends upon how deep you’re going in your pocket.

There is a la carte ordering option in South Beach Diet meal delivery. Here you can order more readymade food or supplements while being on the program. Also, in la carte, you can create your menu based on your preferences. Through this option, you can:

But there’s a catch-

La carte order costs more than meal plans.

There’s a great feature in the meal delivery option. You can decide between one-off purchase and auto-delivery here. In auto-delivery, you can enjoy major savings. Moreover, you can delay, cancel or even modify your deliveries according to your needs.

If you want to cancel, then you have to go through a simple process. Just reach out to the company’s customer support. You can do that through phone or any other means. Just make sure that you reach out no later than 6 pm ET on the day before you want to cancel.

Note: While subscribing for the auto-delivery you get a $125 discount on the first shipment. So, it only allows order cancelation on the second delivery. If you cancel before paying for the second delivery, they charge you $125 for the primary discount.

The Way it Works

In the South Beach Diet meal delivery, you get a promise of losing 9 pounds in 2 weeks.

Once you sign up you get to choose from 4 plans. We have mentioned the plan names already. Once you choose the plan that you need, it’s time for the delivery. South Beach Diet meal delivery uses FedEx to deliver all items to your house. Moreover, delivery charges are included in the plan prices. Also, we don’t found anything wrong when we checked the south beach diet meal delivery review.

Now, let’s get some elaborate details about South Beach Diet Products.

Simple

This is the latest addition to the company offerings. As the name suggests, this is super budget-friendly. Here the idea is that you want to prepare your main meals by yourself. All you need is some healthy snacks to support your meals.

This plan consists of South Beach Diet’s keto-friendly bars and shakes worth of 4 weeks. These can be your snack or meal on the go. From this plan you get:

Although in this plan you cannot get any extras, you’ll get some useful tools and resources. However, this plan isn’t available all the time. So, we suggest that you choose the next plan if you have budget constraints.

Silver

Welcome to second-most pocket-friendly plan. Here you can choose from a slightly smaller range of meals compared to the other 2 plans. For choosing the meals you get two options here.

You can either choose by yourself or you can allow the South Beach Diet Experts to do that for you. However, ladies have to purchase snacks as add-ons. On the other hand, the silver plan for men comes with snacks. This plan too gives out food for 4 weeks.

Gold

Here you get to choose from 101+ items. Moreover, it brings in snacks. Besides these benefits, there’s one more.

The gold plan cares for diabetic patients. And so, it has designed 2 more variations for men and women with type 2 diabetes. These versions can help with blood sugar and AC1 level controlling.

Platinum

This plan is basically the Gold Plan + added benefits.

Now, what are the benefits?

Well, it offers you 20 South Beach Complete Shakes. These shakes contain 20 grams of protein each. Moreover, these shakes have only 3 grams of net carbs in each serving and have zero added sugar.

South Beach Diet Cost

With everything said, you must think that these plans are pretty costly. But to be honest all the South Beach Diet meal delivery plans are pretty affordable. You can buy the South Beach Diet Online easily.

The diet plans have a price range of $10.36 to $12.86. And if you’re up for la carte then your expected cost will be in the range of $2.49 to $6.99 per serving. it all depends upon your ordered products.

The south beach diet cost also differs from the male and female versions. Normally, males pay $1 to $1.5 extra per day than females. This happens because of the additional snacks in the male diet kits. However, auto-delivery gives out a discount of 35% compared to one-off purchases.

You have to bear the shipping costs in la carte. But if you order a la carte of $150 or more then you’ll get free shipping.

Our Rating

After analyzing the whole process and everything related to this south beach diet review, we have prepared a rating that will help you to choose. So here goes the rating-

Is the South Beach Diet Good? Our Verdict

Now the question remains, does it really work?

Our answer: Yes. It works. Although there are some new diet plans out there this works too.

You can lose weight in any diet out there. But losing 1 to 2 pounds every week is pretty great. Losing weight too fast doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re losing fat.

South Beach Diet pros and cons

Pros of South Beach Diet

Pros of the South Beach Diet Plan

Pros of the Delivery Company

Cons of South Beach Diet

Cons of the South Beach Diet Plan

Cons of the Delivery Company

Ok. Decided to have a try of South Beach Diet plan?   

South Beach Diet Customer Reviews

Before we conclude the keto friendly south beach diet review here we like to state south beach diet consumer reviews so that you can make more concrete decisions before making the purchase.

Most popular Singer Jessie James Decker lost 25lbs, and she said: “Now I feel healthier and happier than ever!”- Jessie James Decker.

“People notice our weight loss, I love getting compliments from my friends on how I look”.- Aimee & Dantonio

“I’m amazed by my transformation—my hips are smaller, my stomach is flatter and my legs are slimmer and look longer.” -Anh 

“I feel more confident and bold. Now I wear the clothes that I’d been hiding in the back of my closet!” – Tyler

“Not only am I practicing yoga and hiking on my spare time, I’m much more active in my everyday life!”-Nicole

“I feel great! Now I’d rather be doing something physical than sitting on the couch at night, snacking.” –Krista

Also, we have checked many south beach diet reviews by doctors and they said South beach diet is only a diet plan they can suggest to use and they also remind us must consult your doctor before starting any new diet plan.

Final words

We’re here at the bottom of this South Beach Diet review. It’s been a long one. But we believe that now you all about the South Beach Diet Plan.

With all the information here we believe that you can choose whether you will try it or not.

No matter what your decision is Good Luck to you.

Thanks for reading!