My husband and I did South Beach–started on day after Labor Day 2007. Lost about 35 pounds each, most of it in the first few months. That’s TOO fast to lose weight!! And I was constantly hungry–stomach-growling hungry. I know some people say they never get hungry on South Beach–well, I was hungry all the time. Couldn’t stop thinking about food, and at times, I was sick to my stomach, I was so hungry.
We stuck with the diet more or less until June 2008. My daughter got married then, so between the showers and dinners and the wedding itself and all the get-togethers, we totally went off South Beach.
South Beach, simplified, is basically meat, cheese, egss, milk, salads, and veges, with some fruit and some whole grain carbs. It’s a good diet, but difficult to follow if this is not your normal diet.
I never stopped craving sweets and starches on South Beach. Never. I agree that you can lose a physical craving for these things, but the psychological craving is awful and I never got over it. Maybe you won’t have this problem, but I did. I constantly thought about cookies, bread, cake, and candy. It was almost sinful how much I lusted after sweets. So South Beach did NOT stop any cravings for me, but just intensified them.
Since going off the diet, I have gained every single bit of the pounds back, plus ten extra. I’m really depressed over it and I’m afraid to try South Beach or any diet again. In case you’re wondering, I weigh 262 and I’m 5’8", so we’re not talking about fashion weight here, we’re talking obesity by any standards.
I’ve talked to several doctors, who said the same thing happened to them–while on South Beach, they did just fine and lost weight, but once they went off it and started eating starches again, the pounds just piled on. It’s almost as if the diet increases the body’s ability to efficiently utilize every calorie from bread, potatoes, and pasta. I wish I could find the explanation for this.
SO make up your mind–if you are going to do South Beach, you are going to do forever.
One of the problems that I have is that I often get sick to my stomach eating salad. The various raw veges cause terrible bloating and burping. So South Beach was really tough for me. I gave up trying to use sugar free salad dressings–I truly hate vinagrettes, and the very smell of them made my stomach turn. So I stuck with my beloved Thousand Island and had a little better luck. Learned to use a lot less salad dressing. But still–I simply could NOT eat salad every day. A few times a week is the best I could do. So no wonder I was hungry so much.
And as for hot veges, I do better with those, but they are pretty bland.
Another problem was eating slabs of meat, especially chicken. You can prepare chicken a lot of ways, but it’s still chicken, and I got super-sick of it. Since going off South Beach, I’ve eaten chicken only a few times, and that was Kentucky Fried!
And I don’t like beef enough to eat it every day.
I did great with the eggs, milk, and cheese. That’s one part of South Beach that I like. Thankfully I’m not lactose-intolerant.
Fish is a mystery to me, and after trying about 20 different ways to cook fish, I never did find one that my husband would eat. He hated “fish nights” on South Beach. The only thing that I cooked fish-wise that we both liked was a recipe for Tuna Patties that used no fillers–just tuna and an egg and some chopped onion, and then fry it. We really liked that. But you can’t eat it several nights a week.
If you are good at cooking fish, you’ll love South Beach.
One more problem with South Beach is eating on the road. We go places, and it’s really hard to eat a bunless burger while driving! But we did have good luck eating out with South Beach. Cracker Barrel has a whole page of low-carb items, and they’re delicious. And Red Robin will do a great South Beach burger wrapped in lettuce, and serve steamed veges as well. Also, we found that a lot of restaurants, even fast-food restaurants, offer steamed veges, which to this day, I always order instead of fries. (I’m not a big “potato” lover.)
Anyway, that’s our experience. I think it’s a good diet, but I honestly think that the best diet is probably moderation in all things. Most of the thin people that I know eat everything, just a whole lot less of it than I do.
I have ten more pounds to lose to be “pre-pregnancy” weight and I know that I can do it on South Beach. I am so glad you posted because you are making me want to do it again. I can do anything for three weeks - right??LOL!!!
