The SouthBeach Diet

The SouthBeach Diet is a very popular weight loss program that, for the most part, is also very healthy. It's based on the same principle as most effective diets: carbohydrates, especially simple carbs, must be avoided in order to control blood sugar, stabilize insulin levels, and end cravings. This basic principle is why diets like The Zone and Atkins work for so many people.

Despite the title, The SouthBeach Diet was not created by some fitness guru from Miami. In fact, it was designed by a doctor from Mt. Sinai Medical Center in Miami Beach. It was originally an eating plan that would improve the cholesterol and insulin levels of his patients with heart disease. He was frustrated with his patients' lack of progress on the popular diet plans so, with the help of a nutritionist, he decided to create his own. The idea is to avoid all starchy carbs and fruit at first and then, once significant weight loss begins, to reintroduce healthy carbs in small amounts.

Here is an overview of The SouthBeach Diet:

The first 2 weeks of the diet involve avoiding all breads, pastas, cereals, rice, fruits, etc. During this first phase your diet mainly includes lean proteins, low-fat cheese, vegetables, nuts, and healthy fats. This phase of the southbeach diet actually helps to cleanse you body,and you will notice that your cravings for starchy and sugary food has disappeared. After 2 weeks you should lose between 8 and 13 pounds

The second phase of The SouthBeachDiet allows small amounts of whole-grain breads, fruits, and other low-glycemic carbs. By the Second Phase you should have much fewer cravings for sweets and starchy carbs. Weight loss is slower during the second phase, about 1-2 pounds per week. You will stay on phase two until you reach your goal weight.

The Third Phase, which is the long-term phase of the diet, involves more starches, fruits, and even occasional white flour/sugar treats. The Third Phase is designed for weight maintenance but, if you begin to gain weight again, it's recommended that you repeat the first 2 phases. By the way, the SouthBeach Diet book contains many recipes and practical diet tips. While some people feel this diet, like all low-carb diets, restricts healthy (ie whole grain) breads and rice too much, it's actually much more balanced than Atkins and its low/no-carb variations. The SouthBeach Diet plan is very effective at helping people get their cravings under control while losing a good amount of body fat and learning to eat healthily for the rest of their lives.

The SouthBeach Diet is a delicious,doctor designed, foolproof plan to improve your blood chemistry, by correcting your cholesterol and insulin levels, which has a side effect of fast healthy weight loss.

All about Abs Diet

Going through diet after diet, sooner or later everybody ends up thinking that there's nothing more to learn. Frankly, it doesn't take long to get exhaustive hands on experience with just about all the major dieting concepts and to learn in which way each of them is supposed to influence the body. And once you're familiar with all the pros and cons of dieting, it's only fair to think that nothing could surprise you anymore. Well, this is where the Abs Diet comes in with a rather strange take on the old concept of losing weight through exercises. And, no, there are no magic pills to swallow.

The basic idea is much simpler than that. It goes something like this: the body has to expend energy in order to keep the muscles and internal organs alive and in shape. This means that every addition to the muscle mass will force the body to spend more energy. Therefore, instead of lowering the daily food intake in order to lose weight, this diet focuses on increasing the "energy bill" above the normal level. The extra muscle mass is supposed to absorb all the calories that would otherwise be stored as fat and also force the body to burn existing fat in order to keep up with the effort.

Every 1 pound of muscle added to the body costs the body 50 calories per day on top of everything else. It's pretty easy to see that 10 pounds of muscle are going to keep busy 500 calories of your daily intake every single day. This is enough to make you lose 1 pound per week, which is not bad at all. It's interesting to notice that the diet is based on achieving a snowball effect: the more you exercise, the more muscle you put on; the more muscle you put on, the faster you lose weight, which allows you to exercise harder and lose even more weight. Once you get the snowball rolling it will turn into an avalanche on its own.

The food users are allowed to eat consists of 12 nutrient-rich power foods. These are supposed to provide all the minerals, vitamins and fiber your body needs to stay healthy over the six weeks of dieting. The 12 foods are: beans and peas, spinach and a couple of other green vegetables, almonds, instant hot oat cereal, wholegrain breads and cereals, berries, eggs, low-fat dairy products, lean meats (such as turkey), peanut butter, olive oil and protein powder. All other foods are to be shunned during the diet.

Sticking to this diet might seem a little hard, especially for as long as six weeks. However, the mandatory exercises should make a big difference. Not only that you lose weight, but you also get to show off a nice set of abs and a far better toned body than before. One extra thing on your side is that part of the fat will be replaced by muscle, so even if it seems that you're not losing much weight, you're actually shifting weight from fat to muscle. Nevertheless, you can expect to get rid of up to 12 pounds in the first two weeks of dieting.