For those dieters who have been on a low carb diet, your start on the South Beach diet is different from the dieter who has not been low carbing.

The purpose of Phase 1 on South Beach is to rid your body of sugars and starches and to eliminate cravings. Sound familiar? This is the same logic that is applied to low carb dieting. This strategy ONLY pertains to Phase one though.

So for low carb dieters who want to try South Beach, you do not have to begin with Phase One. You can go directly to Phase 2. However.....

On Phase 1 South Beach, you are allowed to have legumes and dairy. So if you have not been eating legumes or dairy on your low carb diet, you may want to do a week or even two at Phase one, just to acclimate your body to these new foods.


But if you have been eating these foods, there is no reason that you must start with Phase One. When you do start Phase 2, be sure and read the sticky that advises you on how do transition into this phase.

You do not start immediately eating starches/grains and fruit with every meal. You begin slowly by adding one grain or fruit to one meal per day and wait to see how your body reacts to the new food before continuing to add more to your diet.

Not everybody can eat two fruit servings and two grain servings in one day and continue to lose. You will need to see how your body reacts to the new foods and find the foods that work best with your chemistry.

Sound familiar to low carbing? The priciple of climbing the ladder is still the same!!

When you are nearing maintenance on this diet (Phase 3), you will be eating three servings of grains and three servings of fruit per day.

Also keep in mind that low carbers who switch to SB will not drop 8-13 pounds in the first two weeks of the diet. Just like you no longer lose that amount when you go back to induction or Phase one of your low carb diet. You have already dropped that water weight. But you will experience weight loss.

In Phase One most of us have seen a few pounds of water weight dissapear and then in Phase 2, we noticed that some of us see a slight 1-2 pound bump up from the new foods re-introduced. This is only TEMPORARY. It is water weight and it goes away fairly quickly. After this passes, you will lose slow & steady and that is very healthy!

Good luck! Any questions?

I think I am going to start with phase one. Like you said, I need to find out how dairy is going to affect me before I move on.

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We want to know what happens every step of the way so keep us posted!

I did this as well lynne, I started to eat alot more dairy (yogurt) than my body was used to so I figured that would be a safe way to start. I did it for a week before I moved on. I didn't find any gain from it. Now i'm carefully treading into the world of grains. Boy is this a hard step after low carbing!

Treading grains is a lot like being on OWL. You have to find out what your body can tolerate and still lose weight. I've been eating 2 grains and 1-2 fruits per day now, and I think my weightloss is slowing - though I am losing inches faster now. But I'm going to try dropping back down to 2 grains and one fruit per day. If that doesn't make the scale drop quicker, I'll switch to 2 fruits and one grain per day. The magic combination will be there.

One thing is for certain - eating grains in the proper serving sizes and from the proper sources is NOT causing me to gain weight. WOO HOO!!!:happy: