Arthur S. Agatston M.D. - The South Beach Diet: The Delicious, Doctor-Designed, Foolproof Plan for Fast and Healthy Weight Loss Books

Pros: some good nutritional advice; well-organized and detailed
Cons: some bad nutritional advice; you will need chocolate and supplements

Finally after what, five months, have I been able to obtain a copy of this widely-popular diet book, so called The South Beach Diet Book: The Delicious, Doctor-Designed, Foolproof Plan For Fast And Healthy Weight Loss. I agree the doctor is from ...

Pros: Actually lost weight! The large print is nice.
Cons: Two week "cold turkey" approach is tough.

Reportedly losing weight has never been easier. One of the newer diets that has churned out millions of followers is the South Beach Diet. You know a diet has become fashionable when everyone starts bashing carbs. I recently purchased the ...

Pros: Clear Instructions, Nice Balance of Diet Theory & Advice
Cons: The Book is Excellent. The plan is demanding, especially if you like high-carb foods.

Why? During the high school, college, and young married chapters of time, it never occurred to me that there would come a phase in which I would need to look at dietary options. In fact during the high school and early college phase, I was often ...

Pros: Well-reasoned; well-detailed; lack of hype; easy-to-follow plan; some good recipes
Cons: Relies heavily on artificial sugars

As a rule, I'm wary of Diets with a capital 'D'. I believe in eating with moderation, and most diets take their ideas to an unhealthy extreme in the name of losing weight as quickly as possible. I want to lose weight, sure, but I want to do it to be ...

Pros: Very little hard to understand jargon.
Cons: Another "diet" book with nothing new to say.

I couldn’t resist The South Beach Diet by Dr. Arthur Agatston in spite of what I heard about similarities to Atkins. Perhaps spending so much time in that area of the country inspired the purchase! Rodale Press publishes this 320-page book. Abo ...

Pros: A three-stage plan that's easy to follow. Great recipes.
Cons: None that I could find

These days you can usually catch me singing or humming my own version of W. Benton Overstreet and Billy Higgins' song There'll Be Some Changes Made while I make a salad dressed with virgin olive oil, a bit of vinegar, some dry mustard, salt and pep ...

Pros: Easy to read, to follow, and works
Cons: No bread or pasta

I carry around a few (understatement) extra pounds and as I have gotten older the quantity of cloth needed to girdle the center of me has increased. My honey is a few years younger than I and was always thin until that terrible thing called ...

Pros: Daily Menu Plans and Wonderful Recipes Included
Cons: May be a tough plan to stick with in our world of highly-refined carbohydrates.

”Hi, my name is BonzoBean and I am a dieting junky.” This would be your cue to show me the love and support of any twelve-step recovery program and say, “ Hi Bonzo ” because I know, you too share my pain (and my hunger!). ...

Pros: Effective, easy to follow diet program. Book informative.
Cons: Tough to cut carbs at first! With all *diets*, must be a lifestyle change.

I used to be able to maintain my weight without watching my food intake. Unfortunately after gradua ...

Pros: Lose Weight -- 8-13 lbs in the first 2 weeks!
Cons: Cut-out some of the foods you love at first.

I got to the point where I didn't know what to do any more. I grew up with the American Heart Association's low fat diet. A typical day's food for me would be a low-fat muffin, a turkey sandwich on low-fat bread, a bowl of pasta with tomato sauce, and, ...

Pros: America can change their eating habits, low Carbs/Low Fat means healthy life style.
Cons: Hard to find items in this book.

In today’s newspaper October 15, 2003 were two articles on more adults becoming extremely obese and another with a study on Low-carb diets and weight lose. The first article stressed that since the 1980’s American were becoming at least 100 pound ...

Pros: variety, good food, effective
Cons: title somewhat of a misnomer

The South Beach Diet promotes itself as easy, fast and foolproof. It’s not easy (especially if you don’t like to cook), the first pounds come off fairly fast, and it is far from foolproof (what diet is foolproof). The book is written by Dr. ...

Pros: Secret to weight loss; easy to read and apply; healthy heart
Cons: Food exclusion to get started

With the ongoing epidemics of obesity that our nation is going through, it's time that somebody, a renowned cardiologist who has seen the ravages of heart attacks, cholesterol and insulins step up to the plate. Step up, he did! Dr. Arthur Agatston is ...

Pros: Fun and relatively entertaining to read, nice anecdotes
Cons: poorly organized, not thorough

I picked up The South Beach diet last week because a friend recommended it to me - that and I was sick of walking past it on the shelf in all the supermarkets and bookstores. So I began to read it, and it was quite entertaining. The book is written ...

Pros: Explains how and why the diet works. And it does work- at least short-term.
Cons: Diet requires much planning, hard to stick with long-term.

The Book: The Fundamental Theory It will change the way you think about dieting. Fat is not as bad as we thought it was, and sugar, including starches, is worse than we thought it was. More importantly, Dr. Agatston explains why. ...

Pros: Comprehensive plan for losing weight, improving blood chemistry, while eating normal sized meals without hunger.
Cons: Some parts are inadequate or have confused readers; the book could have been better written.

The South Beach Diet book consists of two parts: The first part describes how the diet works, and the second part gives the reader a meal plan and recipes. A person thumbing through the book might come across the meal plan and think that he or she ...

Pros: Feelings of hunger/sweets significantly decreased, foods are edible
Cons: Food is expensive, meals hard to make, Phase 1 may be too radical for some

I am officially on Day 8 of the South Beach Diet and have decided to quit, but not because I need chocolate cake or sweets. This is about my body, and the South Beach Diet has made radical changes...only 3 of them as lost pounds I might add. The ...

Pros: healthy, healthy, healthy
Cons: weight loss takes a long long time after the initial drop

First, the bad news: This audio only comes in abridged editions, and worse, there are no recipes or written diet guidelines to follow. So, this audiobook is good if you are getting diet overviews, and you would like to have a better feel for the doctor ...

Pros: Easy to follow, short time frames for each stage keep boredom from setting in
Cons: Not great for bread, potatoes, ice cream lovers...

I can't say enough about this book. At first, I wondered if I'd REALLY ever get used to something called "ricotta creme." But after seeing the results, I can't knock it! My husband and I tried this before we got married... in the eight weeks it took ...

Pros: Heart healthy, tasty food. You can lose weight.
Cons: Insane preparation and clean-up. Inflexible recipes. Not easily portable.

My wife and I both did the South Beach Diet. The good news is that is does indeed work, and you can lose weight on the program. We also liked the heart healthy aspects of the SBD, which is in contrast to the Atkins diet that stresses high fats. The ...

Pros: Very well written, explanation of how foods work, easy to understand
Cons: Didn't buy it sooner

I had seen advertisements for this diet all over the internet on yahoo and various pop-ups. I figured that any diet that is so overly advertised had to be one of those "fad" diets. Then around Christmas time I was at one of my aunt's houses and she was ...

Pros: Amazing, easy to follow, never hungry
Cons: A lot of 'testimonials' in book

2 years ago, I tried on a bridesmaids dress for my friend's wedding. The rear-view mirror in the dressing room gave me a sight I was not ready for - the state of my butt. I knew I had to do something but was very turned off by the brie and bacon snacks ...

Pros: Excellent for cutting all those carbs and fatty foods away from your diet.
Cons: There are a lot of vegetarian recipes in here!

The South Beach Diet is the trendiest diet of them all. This is not another, "Lose fat forever" lies, this is a true and involving book with all the truth you'd look for. It does compare itself to Atkin's, but this book is fully based on recipes and ...

Pros: Easy to read and understand, the recipes are good, and they are easy to follow.
Cons: The book is long and the diet is hard to follow.

I bought the book because my mother found out about the diet and wanted to know more. I was a little daunted at the beginning when I saw that the book looked much more like a huge novel than a diet book, but when I opened the book I realized that it was ...

Pros: Easy to understand Written by noted cardiologist
Cons: None that I can think of

I bought this book after deciding I had to do something about my weight for health reasons (family history of heart and blood pressure problems and adult-onset diabetes), and went looking for a healthy way of doing that I felt like I could follow. While ...

Pros: Useful, intelligent, thorough, informative (incl. the perceived cons).
Cons: ABSOLUTELY NONE

After many comments: The book is an excellent digest of the South Beach Diet (which I strongly advocate). The first section of the book contains the "how-to" and explanation along with many FAQs that are extremely helpful. The second section is where ...

Pros: Great if you like eggs, veggies, chicken and fish. Great recipes for these foods, too!
Cons: Not a lot to work with if you don't like them. Prepare to be tempted!

I have jut started the South Beach diet and feel pretty good on it. My mother also just started and is pretty miserable about it. This diet is great for some people and has no chance with others. I love seafood, eggs, cheese (light or otherwise), and ...

Pros: It works- weight is lost from the belly first, which is so encouraging!
Cons: The low- carb phase made me grouchy, but it's worth it for the weight loss!

I love this book and the diet. Last August, I went on the diet and lost 12 pounds, and have kept it off ever since. It's really easy to follow, and the amazing thing is how quickly I lost weight- in only 2 weeks of the very low-carb phase, I lost all the 12 pounds I wanted to lose, also losing four inches off of my waist, and 7 inches off of the lower ab area. Since then, I've been sticking to phase 3 most of the time, eating a normal diet, with whole grain breads and splenda instead of sugar every day. Then, if my weight creeps up a little, I just do one or two days of phase one, and can lose 3-5 pounds in just those two days. It's great for weight control, since it's so easy to lose the weight if you take a break from the diet for a few days.

Pros: 3 phases help motivation, recipes taste good, can lose weight quickly, good advice and explanations
Cons: Phase one is rough and demanding, lack of convenience, high level of preparation of food

If you are looking for a lifestyle change that can have visible results, the South Beach Diet may be the way to go. After purchasing the book almost a year ago, I followed the South Beach plan. Honestly, the first few days were some of the hardest. Just as the book said, the cravings were rough and they were also combined with the chore of having to put together meals when you might normally go a more convenient route. But after the first week, life got much easier and I found the second week of the first phase to be more of a settling in experience. In my first attempt at the South Beach diet, I lost 30lbs based on my change in diet only and have kept 90% of it off. This year, I have started the diet again in an attempt to get closer to my overall weight loss goal. This program can work if you are serious about a lifestyle change.

Pros: Easy to do, easy to get back on track, healthy
Cons: lots of diary (but easy to replace), no others

This is the most amazing book. I've never dieted in my life, never had to, but my husband did need one, so I went on it with him. I'm back to my college weight and feel like a teenager again... with a one year old! The facts are great information, I had no idea! Good sense, great meal plans and easy to do. Can fall off and go back on, not hard to get back on track and we'll use it annually as a monitor throughout life! Phase one is that easy! And we love our wine! I'd vote for everyone to give it a try!!

Pros: Simple, reasonable, fits with your existing lifestyle.
Cons: The diet takes some planning and your food bills will probably go up.

My wife and I have been on the South Beach Diet for over one year, and there is almost 100 pounds lost between the two of us. The diet is about working with your body to avoid hunger and to eat well.

It's not a fad diet; most everything you'll read will fit with what you know is a good diet: fresh fruits, fiber, low sugar, low fat, etc.

It's not a low-carb diet per se either. Instead, I think of it as more a diabetic's diet: avoid processed foods and simple sugars, including those found in processed flour.

The book is a quick read, contains recipies that will get you through several months, and the approach to the diet is one that you can stick with for years without feeling deprived.

We love it, and I'm amazed by the other negative reviewer's bad experience.

Pros: Detailed menus, Variety of Foods, Easy to Understand & Easy Reading
Cons: Hard to eliminate one food group, Book is long.

This book was very well written and is easy to follow. The menu's for the first two weeks are very detailed and differ from the traditional standby carb restricted diet foods. They even include desserts which is fantastic! Overall, its a diet that you can actually incorporate into your life, rather than a diet that you do, then quit. Its a lifestyle change that you can live with.

Pros: YOU WONT GO HUNGRY WITH THESE RECIPE AND YOU WILL LOSE WEIGHT IF YOU COMMIT!!
Cons: NONE THAT I HAVE FOUND SO FAR!

I PURCHASED THE SOUTH BEACH DIET FOR $11.33 AT OVERSTOCK.COM WHICH WAS THE CHEAPEST PRICE. THE RECIPE ARE VERY EASY TO FOLLOW. I VERY MUCH HATE FISH SO WHAT I DO IS SUBSTITUTE THE FISH FOR SIRLOIN STEAK OR BONELESS CHICKEN BREAST AND FOLLOW EVERYTHING ELSE. I HAVE NOT GOTTEN HUNGRY. I HAVE NO CRITICIZING ABOUT THIS BOOK AND WOULD HIGHLY RECOMMEND. BEFORE YOU START THE DIET BROWSE AROUND THE BOOK AND MAKE A LIST OF ITMES YOU NEED,GO GROCERY SHOPPING TO MAKE SURE YOU HAVE GOT EVERYTHING YOU NEED. I WENT GROCERY SHOPPING AND GOT ALL THE ITEMS I NEEDED FOR ABOUT $65. I WILL LET READERS KNOW IN TWO WEEKS HOW MUCH WEIGHT I HAVE LOST. I HAVE LOST 2 POUNDS IN TWO DAYS.

Pros: Good Recipes, easy to follow
Cons: Same as Atkins, No carbs for first 2 weeks

I purchased this book because of all the publicity it was getting and I was disappointed to see it is very similar to the Atkins plan especially the first 2 weeks, no cabs of any kind are permitted. It does offer plenty of Recipes and I have tried a few and they are very good. I feel like the book was misrepresented in what the plan was REALLY about. I have been doing the plan for a few days and I have to say , I fell tired, Headache and nauseous so its probably the fact that you are going through withdrawal of carbs.

If you already have the Atkins book, Do not waste your money on this book.

You will lose weight on the first 2 weeks, it will mostly be water as with the Atkins plan....

Pros: You can lose weight quickly.
Cons: The recipes are expensive and time consuming to prepare.

My husband started the diet almost 2 weeks ago. He has lost 7 pounds and is thrilled to see the weight come off.
I do need to say thank goodness I was layed off from my job, because it has taken lots of time to shop, prepare, cook and combine the foods for each meal (and that is with my husband and I doing it together) I get a kick out of the recipes that talk about salads that you make and serve on chilled plates. My husband works outside the home and takes his salad/lunch in a container and eats it at his desk from a paper bowl! Sometimes the ingredients are hard to find. You cannot shop too far ahead because of spoilage either. So plan on making lots of trips to the store.
The bottom line is you need to LOVE to cook and prepare meals. If you do not....don't do this diet.
On the other hand the foods are healthy and I have learned some good recipes.
I see this as an easy diet for a stay at home wealthy person with no children and no life.

Pros: Fast and dramatic weight loss with a healthy diet
Cons: Complete lifestyle change forever. Pounds come back fast!

After several failed attempts at other programs I started the South Beach diet. After the initial 2 weeks the pounds started dropping at 2 pounds per week! I was amazed and ever so happy. I then started getting symptoms of hypoglycemia and it's all downhill from there. After all my hard work and my 20 pound weight loss, I had to add sugar and other carbs back into my diet and even though I was careful and still stayed on the plan, I gained all but 5 pounds back.
If you are able to accept that this IS a lifelong change and that you will have to stay on phase 3 forever without deviation then you will keep off the weight but unfortunately, if you go back to your old habits or mix it up the pounds come back pretty quickly.