Weight loss Zone Blog

The South Beach Diet works, for most people. Its low fat, low carb approach helps you lose weight quickly and easily. Health benefits are great too.

But there’s some easy mistakes you must avoid.

Gain Weight in Phase 2

Most people do well being strict in Phase 1. But what happens when you switch into Phase 2 ? Often, you put some weight back on again. Why ? Because your body’s starved of carbs for 2 or 3 weeks. At the start of Phase 2 it grabs at every carb you give it, and turns them into fat. I learned this lesson the hard way, gaining 2 lbs in my first Phase 2 week. So reintroduce carbs slowly when you go into Phase 2, and make sure they’re good carbs.

Feel Hungry

Yes, if South Beach makes you hungry, you’re doing it wrong. You don’t need to feel hungry. Eat 3 meals a day, with snacks in between, choosing from the foods allowed in your current phase.

Stay in Phase 1 for too Long

Isn’t Phase 1 great ? You can lose from 8 to 13 lbs in just 2 weeks, without being hungry. So why leave Phase 1 ? Why not keep up your rapid weight loss ? Because you must start adding some carbs back in. A healthy diet includes some good carbs like wholemeal bread, porridge and fruit. A permanent Phase 1 also gets a little boring, and you’ll start to cheat. Yes you will. A few biscuits here, a few biscuits there, and soon you’re cheating rather than dieting. It’s better to switch into Phase 2 after 2-3 weeks, and accept a slower healthier weight loss.

Fall Victim to Bread Craving

How many people list ‘bread’ as an addiction ? Seriously, there’s a lot. Unfortunately, white bread is right near the top of the Glycemic index, and about the worst food you can eat on your diet. When you get into Phase 2 you’re allowed to eat bread, but only slices of wholemeal. Same with rice and pasta. Small amounts, and ideally whole grain versions. Bad carbs add weight.

Ignore the Health Benefits

Most people start a diet to lose weight. I guess that’s what a diet is for. But some diets, particularly South Beach, have major health benefits. In fact, it’s worth going on the South Beach Diet just for the health benefits, even if you don’t lose weight (but you do). My blood pressure was high when I started. After 3 weeks it was back to normal. People with pre-diabetes, or potential heart problems, can much reduce their risk by following this diet. So there’s lots of beneficial internal changes in your blood chemistry happening while you’re losing weight.

So if you follow the South Beach Diet properly, you’ll get great results. You’ll lose weight quickly, keep it off, and get some major health benefits.

Discover easy to follow weight loss secrets with a free mini-series of South Beach Diet Tips. Learn how to get your own ‘virtual personal trainer’ video. Click http://www.south-beach-diet-video.com/ata or send blank email to mailto:southbeachtips@digilectual.com?subject=subscribe

About The Author

Neil Stelling successfully lost weight on the south beach diet.

Tags: atkins, carb diets, dieting, diets, exercise, fitness, health, low carb, south beach diet, weight lossatkins, carb diets, dieting, diets, exercise, fitness, health, low carb, south beach diet, weight loss

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Losing more than a pound or two a week is not healthy. Fast weight loss is bad for two main reasons.

Lose weight fast and you will lose muscle

Firstly, if you lose weight quickly you lose muscle along with fat. This is bad when it comes to weight loss.

Muscle burns more calories than fat. The more muscle you have the more calories you burn and this applies to when you’re not doing anything strenuous. Losing muscle is therefore not a good idea.

Lose weight fast and you slow your metabolism

Secondly, if you lose weight too quickly your body will slow down your metabolism.

When we skip meals or crash diet, our body is programmed to think it’s starving and slows down our metabolism to conserve energy.

What is conserved is our fat stores; our weight loss comes from water and muscle.

A Graphic example

For example, studies show that when dieting, the weight we lose is approximately 75 percent fat and 25 percent muscle.

In addition, a relatively high percentage of this weight loss is likely to be water.

Keep in mind, water accounts for about 70 percent of the total body weight of an average person, with muscle tissue containing approximately 75 percent water and body fat containing about 50 percent water.

Losing weight quickly is therefore very difficult as we are
simply losing water in the sort term.

The dangers of crash dieting

Crash dieting refers is a method in which we lose weight simply by restricting the number of calories consumed.

This method of losing weight fast is considered unhealthy, and it is rare that people who do it keep weight off.

They cannot adjust to these new unhealthy eating habits and then put the weight straight back on.

Your goal should be long term weight loss

Consider this, if you only lost a pound a week that would be 52 pounds a year and that is a lot of weight.

If you lose weight slowly you will remain healthy and also stand a good chance of keeping it off.

The maximum amount of body fat a healthy person can lose is about 1 or 2 pounds per week.

The human body is simply not designed to lose weight quickly and this is a healthy amount of weight loss to aim for.

Reasons why losing weight fast is difficult and unhealthy

Our bodies are programmed to help us survive in times of
starvation.

Our basic body reactions have been set since man first walked the earth and in those days food was not just a phone call, or short walk away.

In times gone by, famine was the biggest threat to mans survival and your body is programmed to protect you.

This is why it won’t ever lose excessive amounts of fat in a short period of time; your body is programmed to conserve fat.

If you drastically reduce your calorie intake, you slow down your metabolism, in order to conserve calories, as we discussed earlier.

This is one reason why we encounter a weight loss quickly is, so difficult as your body actively fights to conserve weight, it’s a survival reflex.

Side Effects of Losing Weight quickly

In addition losing weight quickly has serious side affects that can harm us

Appearance of Loose Skin

If you shed weight too quickly, your skin does not have time to shrink to your new body dimensions.

The only effective treatment for this is to fix the lose skin with surgery.

Gallstones

Studies have shown that people who lose weight quickly, have a greater risk of developing gallstones.

Lack of energy and illness

Depending on the diet there are a host of other complications including lack of energy and nausea for those who cut out carbs and a general feeling of ill health and lack of energy as you deprive your body of food.

Lose weight slowly

Don’t be taken in by quick fix weight loss, its not possible aim for longer term weight loss.

You will lose weight, keep it off and feel both healthier and happier.

For more sensible nitrition and diet tips visit
http://www.net-planet.org/health.html.

Tag: fast weight lossfast weight loss

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