The 10 Best South Beach Diet Tips

You already know the ground rules for this plan, so perhaps a few South Beach diet tips might be in order to help you on your weight loss journey. Here are a few helpful ideas for all phases of the plan:

1. Drink lots of water. This is the first rule of any diet and at the top of our list of South Beach diet tips. At a minimum, you should have at least 8 glasses of water per day.

2. Don’t go hungry. Along with 3 regular meals, you are allowed to have two snacks, one between breakfast and lunch, and one around mid-afternoon. Don’t skip them. A low-carb, low glycemic snack will help you from developing a huge appetite — which will cause to overeat at the next meal.

3. Learn more about the Glycemic Index and find out which carb foods rate high, medium, or low. Low GI foods have less of an effect on your blood sugar level, which is why you will find them on the list of allowed foods: Here’s another South Beach diet tip: most successful diets are a reflection of the GI list. By eating lean protein, fish, whole grains, and low-fat dairy, you will be consuming low GI foods and enjoying a healthy diet without much effort.

Healthy Weight Loss Tips: Get member support, nutritionists' advice, the doctor's tips, results!

5. To avoid a loss of salt with the water-weight your body will lose over the first two weeks, have a cup of bouillon a couple of times a day. It will help prevent hunger as well as give you the salt you need, thus avoiding feeling light-headed.

6. Eat protein and fat at every meal. In reworking your overall diet, you should try to increase your consumption of protein while decreasing the amount of bad carbs. Our tip: even if you have a salad for lunch, make it a chicken salad. The protein in the lean meat helps you feel fuller, longer.

7. Eat the required amounts of vegetables at each meal. That means ½ cup at breakfast and at least 2 cups each at lunch and dinner. The high fiber and water content of veggies fills you up with fewer calories. Fiber is also found in fruits, nuts, seeds, beans, and whole grains.

8. Before going out to eat, have a protein snack to take the edge off your appetite. Then, at the restaurant, select a dish that will be broiled, grilled, roasted, or steamed – anything but battered, breaded, or soaked in fat. Your best bet is to check out Dr. Agatston’s book, the South Beach Diet Dining Guide: Your Reference Guide to Restaurants Across America. In it, you’ll find a number of great South Beach diet tips such as requesting that the bread basket (or chips and salsa) be removed from your table and just do away with temptation all together. It also recommends that you order soup as a starter, have a non-alcoholic beverage, and request extra vegetables in place of the starchy baked potato.

9. For optimum health, exercise every day. Walking is a low-impact way to help you lose weight on the South Beach diet, and resistance training can help anyone tone up, increase strength, and build muscle. Another tip: for best results, lift weights two or three days a week, and go for a walk every day for at least 30 minutes. If you can, also add in a moderate session of cardio exercise (swimming, biking, etc.) a few days each week.

10. Get more recipes from the web. There are hundreds of free recipes online! If you need South Beach diet tips on cooking, there are sites that are always adding new recipes and meal plans, plus ideas for snack and desserts. Another great place for South Beach recipes is from the cookbooks and books written by Dr. Agatston. You can easily alter most recipes with a couple of simple ingredient changes to suite your taste as well as your shopping budget.

Give Yourself a South Beach Diet Jump Start

South Beach Diet Help – Tools You Can Use to Get Results

Return from South Beach Diet Tips to the South Beach Diet Plan Home Page