Love this diet. Like any low-carb diet, it starts out with you eating a low-carb diet, for the first few weeks. This is so your blood sugar will go down. But after that, the similarities diminish.

Once you get past the induction stage, this is a very balanced healthy diet. There are menus for each phase, and recipes. There are lots of inspirational stories at the first of the book to help get you motivated. I needed those to get me going. If fact, except for the menus and recipes, those are my favorite part. I pick out people who I can identify with and read their stories over and over.

I also liked this diet was written by a cardiologist. So you know its healthy. There's also a chapter on how to eat right at a restaurant. Great idea to eat a bite of something before you go, then you start the digestive process and you won't eat so much.

I definitely recommend this book.

South Beach is not for everyone, but if you are dedicated to making a change in your life, it can be incredibly rewarding.

Several years ago I was diagnosed with PCOS, and my doctor suggested I try the South Beach Diet to manage my insulin resistance. The first two weeks were incredibly difficult (though I did lose a great deal of weight) and I thought my husband was about to give up on the recipes - I put us both on the diet! - because they were pretty bland and repetitive.

Phase 2 was much, much easier, and I was able to experiment a bit more with the recipes as I learned from the book what did and didn't work. My insulin was soon under control, without medication, and I was able to get pregnant without fertility drugs. I was sold!

This became a lifestyle for us. Phase 3 is the "forever" phase. You are able to have whole grains and fruits, and it is a very livable, positive lifestyle change that can improve health and prompt weight loss.

Don't get me wrong - I lost a mountain of weight in phase one - 15 pounds, to be exact. I had also lost my energy and ability to concentrate.

First off, the details: This diet seems to be a variation of the Atkins diet. It's low carb, at first. For the first fourteen days of the diet, the dieter has to avoid carb-rich foods. The only carbohydrates allowed in this period are beans, milk and tomatoes. Everything else, including foods with complex carbohydrates, are prohibited. After this phase of two weeks, the dieter is strongly encouraged to add one type of carb food per week to avoid a spike of weight gain and rein in his or her tendency to fall into the low blood sugar syndrome and overeat.

Problems are abound here. First off, even though this diet is easier to handle than Atkin's, it's still very restrictive. There's still not enough variety for foods, and overtime, eating and cooking meals become monotonous. The lack of carbs might cause lethargy. It certainly did so for me.

Don't get me wrong though. This is my experience. I'm not sure if yours will be similar. I would advise this diet for short-term weight loss in preparation for an important event, but long term weight-loss achievers will not appreciate this much.

Needless to say, I went with common sense and just ate in moderation to achieve my weight-loss goals.

I bought this book with the intention of following the diet I had head so much about. !t prescribed very limited food choices for at least the first stage, then more would be added over the next stage. I honestly thought that I would be disciplined enough to meet the challenges the good doctor offered. I was not. As for the book itslef, it was a bit boring and the occasional jokes attempted by the author were not as funny as I'm sure he was aiming for. Also, many of the recipes were far too time consuming for my lifestyle and some of them that I DID attempt were not very tasty at all. In my honest opinion there are far better low-carb diet options out there.

My friend actually purchased this book and we decided to try out the diet as it didn't seem so bad and we had never tried any low or no carb diets before. For one, we stopped after 14 days, which is the first phase where you're not allowed to have ANY TYPE OF CARBS. Okay, I'm a fruit lover and I also love vegetables and bread. Not only did I hate having to eat only certain items every day, but I really regretted the diet because when I introduced foods that should be considered healthy to eat (whole grains), I had the WORST intestinal cramps ever. Painful. This book has great recipes and some of the philosophy is correct, but I wouldn't follow it rigorously. Losing 14 lbs in 2 weeks isn't healthy and it isn't worth it.

I, for one, hate fads. So although I was already predisposed not to like the South Beach Diet, I have to say it seems less like a fad than other plans I have seen. The biggest results were seen in my friend. Though he wasn’t fat by any means, he certainly could be described as chubby. And by implementing the South Beach diet over the course of several months he lost over 50 pounds. The odd thing was that he ate normal meals – and good food, too! He described that the hardest time (especially for his wife cooking) was in the beginning, when the hardest demands are made. But the beginning is also when motivation is highest, so it works out for the best.

I have only a few pounds to lose, so I am not really willing to upset what is generally a moderate lifestyle. But after reading the program, and that after seeing the results in my friend, I can say, as I do above, that South Beach is more than a fad. It can help you lose the weight you desire.

I confess, I bought this book due to the consistent prodding I have received from my friends about this great diet. It felt like the same prodding that I had when all of my friends tried the Atkins diet, and it’s just not for me.

I borrowed this from one of my friends that subscribes to this philosophy and I’ll admit, it’s just too complicated for little old me. The different rules, regulations and restrictions with this one is something that I just can’t stick to. No matter how successful it might have been for others I’ve know, I’ll stick with my Fat Smash Diet plan, and go on my merry way.

I have had higher levels of success in loosing my 20 vanity pounds with simple diet routines combined with exercise. If you’re trying to loose over 30 pounds this might be a good solution, but if you’re just going for vanity weight, save the money on the book and get a gym membership and buy some organic produce. You’ll yield the same results in the same amount of time.

I'm a twenty-one year old mom to two boys and have always had trouble with my weight. I sought this book because of the array of convenience foods available with the south beach diet logo that were available at my local grocery store. This book doesn't really mention any of those products and the meal plans that are provided are far from simple.

Due to the extreme amount of low carbohydrates that are recommended for the first two weeks, I was left lethargic. My energy levels were so low I would nap more often than I had ever in my life. I had no motivation to work out or exercise and I pretty much knew this diet was not going to work for me.

For the first two weeks one of the main desserts that are suggested are ricotta cheese with splenda. This made my stomach turn. It seemed like all of the foods even in phase two were bland.

I did lose quite a bit of weight within the first two weeks (15 pounds), but I ended up gaining it all back within a month.

This book is good for people who do not mind being extremely strict, making a lifestyle change, and spending a lot of money. I am just not one of those people.

The South Beach eating plan is a great compromise between a so called normal diet and a strict low carb eating plan. As someone that had previously tried a very low carb eating plan and done well but really missed whole grains, sweet potato etc South Beach was heaven sent!

The first two weeks are very restrictive but after that you can add a few really yummy items back into your menu. The plan also incorarates healthy fats. By the time you are on the maintence plan the food is incredible!

Besides losing weight this plan really made my skin look terrific!

Thank goodness for Dr. Arthur Agaston, a cardiologist from Mt. Sinai Hospital in Miami, FL. After watching his patients struggle for years and not be successful getting the weight off, he has come up with his own very powerful plan. It is an easy weight loss system that will not make you want to gnaw on the table legs between meals! Dr. Agaston's best selling book, "The South Beach Diet" is broken down into segments. The first two weeks are the hardest because during that time you say goodbye to the carbs. No bread, no sugar and so on. This two week time is used to to stabilize our swings in blood sugar levels -- or in other words, it's a time to get our cravings under control.

My best friend used the South Beach diet and lost 30 pounds WITH EASE. She stayed on the first two week section a bit too long and ended up getting too thin. She was just so thrilled to have the weight flying off that she went a bit overboard! Not to worry, she was able, using the book, to get back to the right weight for her body. She still looks great and it's been two years!

If you're looking for a safe, practical and easy to use plan then "The South Beach Diet" is the one to use. Even if you work and have to eat out a lot, you can still manage without feeling deprived. Go for and look and feel so much better! Here's to your good health!

While I am actually from South Beach and am always looking for a new diet I figured, this would be the perfect book! However as a busy college student, I soon came to realize that the “South Beach Diet” would not be incorporated into my hectic lifestyle. I just didn’t have time to create meals with fresh food and even when I did, it wasn’t any good by the time I got around to eating it. I would maybe recommend this to a stay at home mom or someone who works from home and has time to follow it properly but not for people on the go. Plus, the food really isn’t all that great; you do still feel a bit empty after each meal. I also felt this book was a bit dry and really couldn’t hold my attention for too long. In fact, I just began skimming through and realized there isn’t much besides recipes to read.

I really enjoyed reading this book and putting the South Beach philosophy into play. As soon as I started eating the "South Beach" way, I felt better immediately and saw the weight start to fall off. I found that the recipes are easy to follow and the ingredients are easily accessible, so you don't feel that it is a chore to prepare the meals. My husband and teenage daughter didn't even know they were eating "diet" food! They may have noticed the difference in the vegetables I prepared, but there are so many to choose from that it's easy to find substitutes for the quintessential potato. They, too, are benefitting from the change in the way I prepare meals.

The low-carb craze is everywhere. I’ve never met anyone who has had remarkable weight loss with it. Studies show from what I’ve read that sugar substitutes are worse than sugar because people eat more. It’s not balanced by cutting out a lot of healthy carbs like instead of full fat yogurt (a good fat) the diet requires no-fat yogurt. It’s the same with low-fat cheese like ricotta. Maybe smaller portions and full-fat would be a better choice. Besides low fat milk, yogurt and cheese tastes awful.

I’m not sure how many people would spend that much time in the kitchen cooking when a lot of the food is already processed in the grocery store. Since the amounts aren’t limited on what you can eat, you could eat a lot of high-sodium, artificially sweetened processed food that won’t help you lose weight in the long run. Nuts are allowed and supposed to be portioned out but if I ate salads and wraps all day, I’d probably go over the limit on ‘something’ allowed on the diet. The right portion of pasta (not a whole plate of it) per person is not unhealthy in my opinion. I also want to say I haven’t been on or tried the diet I have tried the frozen food and I have read the book and cookbook. Not to mention everyone I know is either on the low-carb bandwagon. I think the Mediterranean or Sonoma diets are healthier and the food is so much better.

South Beach is definitely about making healthier choices. I cannot say that I really thought this was a diet, just good common sense. The guidelines set forth in South Beach are easily justified, and easy to follow.

The recipes are really good. But I have to warn those that don't enjoy cooking- this diet is NOT for you. You really have to make the time to do the prep work and the cooking. It's not an insta' meal that will come forth from this book. I personally love to cook, and try to eat in this manner naturally, so this really didn't seem like work to me. I will say it was difficult cutting out fruits initially, but it was only for a couple of weeks.

If you're looking to cut down the bad carbs, and want to increase whole grains, have a reasonable amount of protein but not the amount you see in Atkins), and fruit, then South Beach is a worthwhile buy.

I liked the ideas this book gave me for ways of eating. I don't like that it is called a "diet" because it makes me think that this is something I only have to do for a little while, and then I can go back to eating like a hog. It doesn't work that way. You have to be committed to a lifestyle change for this book to work for you. Overall, it gives good options to healthy eating and portion sizes. I would recommend it for somebody who has the discipline to completely change the way they live.

This diet works. It works. You will lose weight, especially if you have a lot to lose as I did. The greatest drawback to this is the first two weeks. I cannot sugar-coat it. This phase is brutal.There can be no bread, no pasta, no potatoes, no fruit. However, snacks are possible by way of hummus, veggies, cheese, and you can still have nice, big salads with protein added. I made the commitment, stuck to it and lost 14 pounds the first two weeks.
At first, I couldn't see how this could be a lifestyle. It just was not practical to believe that you can totally live without carbs, especially while wolfing down steak, blue cheese dressing and the like. It even sounds unhealthy!
However, when you hit phase two, you can start having whole wheat bread, high-fiber cereal, some fruit. You will really enjoy these additions. Weight loss will not be as dramatic, but will be consistent.
By the time you hit phase three, your body has changed the way it responds to food. The diet is more liberal with additions and you will still be losing weight, especially if you add exercise. You don't have to train for a triathlon, but having lost over 40 pounds by this time, I was able to walk! I also got the added benefit of lower blood pressure.
I definitely recommend this book and this diet. The cookbooks are a great tool to use in conjunction with the diet so you are more excited about new and healthy eating.