The South Beach Diet Supercharged: Faster Weight Loss and Better Health for Life by Arthur Agatston and Joseph Signorile

If you have never read The South Beach Diet, buy this book instead: It’s much more helpful due to the exercise section and latest research on healthy eating and physical activity. If you already have a copy of The South Beach Diet, you need to buy this one as well so you can do the exercises.

I’m a big fan of The South Beach Diet. It helped me lose a lot of weight when nothing else worked. I felt comfortable losing the weight and looked great when I was done, rather than like a survivor of starvation. Whenever I gained a bit of weight since then, returning to Phase 1 quickly took it off.

But there was a problem: I clearly wasn’t exercising enough. In the past, I’ve done a lot of walking and weight lifting . . . but I didn’t get much benefit in terms of medical measures like reduced triglycerides. In fact, eating oatmeal and taking omega-3 supplements does more for my cholesterol level than exercise. I know that I need something different.

My eyes opened wide when I got to the section of this book that talked about how moderate amounts of walking (20 minutes every other day) with short intervals of fast movement spaced between moderate walking would do me more good for burning fat than doing all that walking that I used to do at one speed. Now, that sounded great!

Between walking days, you do some moderate body toning. Here is where I had some concerns about the book: The photographs show a lot of stress being put on the back. That’s not a good idea for me: I have back problems. I’m not quite sure what to do, but I’ve ordered the DVD to see how these exercises are to be done and hope there will be detailed instructions there for people with bad backs.

In this book, Dr. Agatston does a good job of describing the various physical ills in joints and feet that baby boomers develop from the wrong kinds of activity and exercise. He even helped me understand how I create vast shoulder pain when I shovel snow the wrong way . . . and now I know what not to do.

If you are under 30, you can probably use this book just as is. If you are older, be careful with the body toning!

The remainder of the book is the same wonderful material on eating good carbs and good fats while avoiding bad carbs and bad fats . . . plus the latest validations of scientific research supporting the assumptions underlying the diet. There are lots of phase 1 and phase 2 recipes, and you can buy separate cookbooks if you want more.

But the best part of the book comes in reading the personal testimonies. They make the book come alive.

The South Beach Heart Program: The 4-Step Plan that Can Save Your Life by Arthur Agatston

Several years ago, my doctor put me on the South Beach Diet after tests showed high cholesterol. Having a roll of fat around my belly didn’t help either. I was hesitant to go on a diet, because everything I heard had led me to believe that they don’t work, and that I’d just end up putting the weight back on, and adding several pounds beyond that. But the diet said that I could eat normal portions, and indeed did not have to limit how much I ate of most things, so long as I stuck with healthful foods. Since getting my blood chemistry right was the issue, not losing weight, I figured I’d give it a try. And I figured that if my love handles went away, so much the better.

As it turned out, following the South Beach Diet book, by the same author, not only got my cholesterol into the normal range, where it has stayed for years, but had a side effect of my waist size dropping by five inches. Although the diet worked well, I thought that the diet book could have been written better.

This new book represents a focus and maturity that his earlier books lacked. It deals with the broader area of heart health, not just diet and exercise. Although it is still repetitive in some places, it does a good job driving home the points that it sets out to make. Just as his earlier book showed me that most of what I learned about diet while growing up was just plain wrong, Agatston shows that what most people knew about heart attacks and related conditions, including what cardiologists knew, was wrong.

What was lacking in the earlier book was a clear path for the dieter whose goal was to improve health more than lose weight. This new book gives a better framework in that respect. Although it’s not a comprehensive diet book, it gives a good enough understanding that a person needs to eat better and how to do it. Buying his diet book would still be helpful, but that’s not a fault with this book, which has diet as only one of its concerns.

Many people have come to view his diet as a fad, a gimmick, or something that sidesteps good eating in order to lose weight. Yet since its publication, the US Government’s “Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2005″ has been released and affirms that his book’s dietary framework is in line with the latest scientific understanding of what constitutes good eating and proper nutrition. Yet Agatston needed not worry about political ramifications and compromises, while the government’s position is a bit softer on its goals to give up some bad habits.

Likewise, would be readers might be skeptical of a book that questions conventional wisdom and wonder if the author will be preaching junk science. Agatston is a renowned cardiologist and the principles presented in this book are in line with the latest generally understood ideas from cutting edge cardiology. These may be ideas that go against prior understanding, but are not ones that are contradicted by myriad recent studies.

To the contrary, Agatston shows by common sense example why the old understandings never made sense. Patients often left their cardiologist’s office with a clean bill of health, only to have a heart attack within a week, showing that past methods were not very good predictors of cardiac problems. Likewise, theories about gradual arterial blockage leading to heart attacks after a certain threshold didn’t make sense either. If the purpose of stress tests was to ascertain the degree to which the body was impaired, then there should have been a correlation between the degree of arterial plaque buildup and the way patients performed on those tests. But there wasn’t.

This book covers the basics of how and why heart attacks and strokes really happen. It covers how diet and exercise affects things, and how medications change the picture. It discusses medical procedures and surgery, and why some surgical procedures often do nothing to enhance the quality or length of life. Diet and exercise advice is realistic, rather than overambitious advice that people will follow for a few weeks and give up on. The book covers the medical tests that are actually helpful in preventing heart problems, and offers sound advice on understanding medications. Rather than targeting arbitrary numeric goals, Agatston explains how specific medical tests can determine whether your blood chemistry levels are appropriate and how to to prevent future problems.

Ultimately, this book is readable, accomplishes its goals of explaining its program in an understandable way, and can arm the reader with the knowledge necessary to avoid heart problems and expensive (and often unnecessary) surgery. Although the medical community at large, not to mention the insurance industry, can be slow to adapt to changing scientific understanding, this book will arm you with the knowledge you need to understand and guide your medical care in an appropriate manner.

The South Beach Diet Quick and Easy Cookbook: 200 Delicious Recipes Ready in 30 Minutes or Less (The South Beach Diet) by Arthur Agatston

I have every one of the South Beach Books. Phase 1 third day of the 2nd week is the hardest to get through. Your body has rid itself of those high glycemic foods, so you crave and want to eat some bread or other processed white flour food item.
I have done every and I mean every diet out there (Atkins, Weight Watchers,Soup diet,Slim for Life, Slim Fast, American Heart Assoc. I also took Redux to lose weight which has caused me some heart trouble. Everytime any of the above was done I would loose then fall off the diet and gain what I lost plus an additional 20+ lbs. This was the only one which made since for me and has allowed me to have that cookie, french fry, or brownie once in a while and still keep on the diet.

I enjoy this cookbook more as it is simple. The first cookbook was too in depth. More for chefs to cook with vs a working person. I hate having to be in the kitchen cooking for hours even when I was not dieting. Very simple recipes that allow short prep times. The fewer the ingredients the better for me. Best part helps with the making of a grocery list and tells you which foods to always keep on hand, so when you need to fix a fast meal you have everything.

The South Beach Diet book is a must and you need to read through it. I skipped over the stories after a couple and went to the heart of what Dr. Agatston states about his diet (Not really a diet for me, just a guide to great healthy eating). Do highlight,write in the margins and use post it notes as you read the first book. This diet(guide to healthy eating) is about making your body work to process the foods which you eat instead of eating processed/high glycemic foods which your body doesn’t have to work much to process. He even gives you a list of acceptable foods to eat in Phase 1. I leave this on my refrigerator even now, to remind myself that even though I am not in Phase 1 I still eat those foods which are best during Phase 1.
What I took from his books: Eat to live with the right vegetables, dairy products,proteins and fruits.

The South Beach Diet Taste of Summer Cookbook (The South Beach Diet) by Arthur Agatston

In a previous book, Dr. Agatston gives a recipe for Shrimp Gazpacho (doesn’t sound as good as it is) that takes less than 5 minutes to prepare and is one of my all time favorites. It’s hard to believe that food which is so easy to prepare can be good for you and taste so good. And, in my quest to lose a few pounds and get ready for summer (and a class reunion!) my cholesterol has dropped from 265 to 189. I have never been able to budge that number, so I am very grateful.While I’m a nurse not a dietitian, I believe that much of Dr. Agatston’s discussion of food and how the body uses it is reliable. This assessment is based primarily on what I’ve learned myself about diets over the course of several years of patient care and of trying to bring my own weight under control.

So, I was glad to see this book come out and it has not disappointed. It is filled with the same kind of recipes as some of the other South Beach books, but with a special section on grilling and grilled foods, and an emphasis on quick to fix, light fare made from ingredients that are fresh and available in the summer. I look for recipes that don’t have too long a list of ingredients, so that it is easy and less expensive. This book is filled with them!

I won’t list a lot of the recipes as I see that other reviewers have already done that, but what’s also nice about this book is that there are recipes given that can be doubled or tripled and fixed for a crowd, taking into account the way we live in the summer, like Easy Summer Chicken Chili. And, each recipe has a paragraph written about it that gives hints like what cuts of meat are less expensive, and what each recipe is providing nutritionally and the ease of preparation. Statements like, “If you don’t have all the fresh herbs called for here, simply double up on the ones you do have.” makes it easy on the ‘becoming ever so much slimmer cook!

A round of applause for the doctor, please. He’s done it again.

The South Beach Diet: The Delicious, Doctor-Designed, Foolproof Plan for Fast and Healthy Weight Loss (The South Beach Diet) by Arthur Agatston

In brief, the South Beach Diet was originally developed by a Cardiologist (DR. Agatson) in conjunction with a Nutritionist as a diet to recommend to his patients who needed a diet to help alleviate their heart problems. It proved successful for many of its target audience. It’s a low carbohydrate diet that differentiates between “good” carbs and “bad” ones. Simplistically speaking, good ones are found in vegetables, some grains, etc., while those that we can categorize as “bad” are most often found in flour based products (bread, cereals, cakes, etc.) and in starchy foods such as potatoes and rice.

The diet itself is broken into three phases which I like to compare to the gears in a car:

Phase one, the two week phase, is comparable to first gear. It gets you off to a start from a stndstill, and lasts for about two weeks. It is the most restrictive phase, and the average dieter loses around ten to twelve pounds during this start-up phase.

Phase two, like second gear in a car, is used to get you up to full speed in automobile terms, or down to your desired weight in diet terms. It is less restrictive than the first phase, and lasts, as I mentioned, until you are up to speed, or in dieting terms, down to goal weight.

Phase three is sort of like cruise control. You use cruise control to maintain a steady speed on the open road, and you use the even less restrictive diet in this phase to maintain your weight loss.

Yes, as mentioned in other reviews there are daily meal plans for each phase, and some of the foods are expensive and some of the recipes are complicated. I personally looked at these meal plans as guidelines to be followed, not as absolute requirements. I stay away from all the forbidden foods, eat a few more of the foods I really like, particularly salads, and avoid those too complex menus, etc, and it works out very well.

A little personal background, I am diabetic, have hypertension, and was considerably overweight. I am also not young and not particularly prone to exercise other than taking daily (or almost daily) brisk walks a half an hour or so in duration.

Last May (2004) some routine blood work indicated that my cholesterol was out of whack, and my physician said I really needed to lose weight. He thought weight loss might handle the cholesterol problems without my taking additional medication. After some discussion, we, together, decided that the South Beach diet was probably the best approach for me.

I got the book, read it, and started on the diet. In the first two weeks I lost the ten pounds that are expected. Over the next four months I lost an additional forty pounds for a total of fifty. I have maintained this weight loss easily by avoiding those foods that are “no-nos,” and I never go hungry or feeling unsatisfied.

Additional benefits are that controlling my diabetes now requires less medication, and my blood pressure has dropped considerably. This is the only diet plan I have ever tried with which I am comfortable enough to believe that I will never return to my old eating habits.

Are there any disadvantages? Yes. I’ve had to buy a whole new wardrobe due to my six inch smaller waistline and proportionately smaller chest size, etc., and have had to have my wedding ring resized. Other than that no complaints.

Based on my own experience, I wholeheartedly recommend __THE SOUTH BEACH DIET__.