The South Beach Diet book became seriously successful as soon as the diet book with the fitting name was finally published and grew with rapid succession among a grassroots following. Armed with dieting successes to tell everyone about, the South Beach Diet book, authored by Doctor Arthur Agatston, The South Beach Diet: The Delicious, Doctor-Designed, Foolproof Plan for Fast and Healthy Weight Loss, is still growing in popularity, but the South Beach Diet Phase 1 keeps confusing readers.

The South Beach Diet Phase 1 is designed to be the shortest of phases 1, 2 and 3 of the diet, lasting for a 14 day period. It was designed to be intense, kick-start your body and how you think about how you diet from that now on. Contrary to popular thinking and one of the more difficult to grasp parts to Phase 1 of the South Beach Diet, you don't have to hold yourself back only eating low carb foods.

In a nut-shell, Phase 1 force feeds you the thinking to: get rid of bad carbs that are not doing anything nutritionally for your body, replace the bad carbs that are abundant in the American diet with large amounts of protein, good fats and low glycemic index (G.I.) carbs that entertain your hunger and regulate your blood sugar balance.

Foods that do more harm than benefit: fruit, candy, cereal, potatoes, grains, etc. all are to be eliminated, or the dieter must wean themselves off of during the South Beach Diet Phase 1. A safe bet, if you should have any difficulty, just consume as much salad, greens, and (most) vegetables you want, as they are right in line for dietary benefit.

It's during this South Beach Diet Phase that Doctor Agatston believes that one's body resistance to insulin will decrease, thus depending on your current weight and condition, you may lose 2 to 14 pounds initially, just in the first two weeks right off the bat, as your body begins to eliminate excess body weight.

The major purpose of the South Beach Diet Phase 1 two fold: to throw you into a routine that you can manage that keeps you free from hunger and to lay the groundwork for a frame of mind that ensures you rid yourself of the bad foods and gravitate towards the food that will shed pounds, guarantee more energy and better your quality of life.