Linda had posted this coutesy of a SBD board.
My South Beach Myths List
I keep having this perception that there is a lot of misunderstanding about what this thing called "The South Beach Diet" is really all about and that people either come to it with preconceptions or expectations that don't mesh with what I have found from living through it for the past ten months. I freely admit that this may in fact be based on my own perceptions and experiences and may not be entirely accurate in your world view, but at a minimum, at least read through it and test it against your own beliefs and shake your head in one of the two most common directions! And if you have developed any of your own"myths" that I have missed, please feel free to add your own!! So in no particular order of importance or implied relevance...
1. You can eat as much as you want.
Not really. Actual fat burning weight loss is still governed by creating a net calorie deficit between the amount of calories you take in and the amount of calories you expend and it still takes a 3500 calorie deficit to lose a pound, and it always will. The goal of SB ,as I see it, is to maximize the overall nutritional value, in a fairly balanced way between the major food components of carbs, proteins and fats, of the calories we do take in as we reduce the overall level of calories and hopefully at some point also increase the amount of calories we expend.
It really does rely on the basics of "diet and exercise" just like we have heard forever as the basic building blocks of a sound weight management program. I think the beauty of it is that it seems to put it in a relatively easy to follow structure that, while it takes some getting used to at first, doesn't require a lot of counting, weighing, and really active management to make it work for you. However, overall portion control does come into play at some point as eating too much of anything, even the allowed foods, may send you into a net calorie surplus. All things in moderation is a good rule of thumb. You may not be able to eat as much as you want, but you certainly get to eat all that you need! (Cue Rolling Stones' song, "You can't always get what you want" for background emphasis.)
However, and there is always a however, I have found it interesting that I tend to see two schools of comments on the amount of food people consume. Either people can't possibly believe they can eat this much and this well and still lose weight, or they are still always hungry. My wife and I fell into the former category and I still find that kind of an amazing "feature" of this program. As a very general statement, if you find yourself hungry all the time on this program, you may be thinking of it too much like a restrictive diet and you may in fact need to eat more. It is a very counter-intuitive process to keep eating when we are trying to lose weight and we have always been led to believe that eating less of everything is the solution to our problems. It may take some re-programming, but at least consider the possibility that it is true!
2. Phase 1 is designed for rapid weight loss.
Not really. If you read some of the archived chats available on line with Dr. Agatston, he keeps coming back to the point that the primary role of P1 is to stabilize our blood sugar chemistry and to get rid of the cravings that high/low yo-yo-ing of our blood sugars causes. That is really the only purpose of P1!
But dude, the book says "Lose 8-13 lbs. in 2 weeks!". Yes it does and I consider that really unfortunate, but as we say in the computer biz, "Never confuse sell with install!". Please detach the desire of the publisher to sell a lot of books with the intent of the program to provide a lifestyle eating program that is intended to provide you with the tools for lifelong health and weight management. If your only purpose is to lose 8-13 lbs in 2 weeks, then you are either going to be disappointed or put it back on as soon as you complete your mission and return to whatever you were doing before. Some people, maybe even a lot of people, are able to lose that amount in that time frame, but a lot of others don't. It really depends on a whole range of factors you can read about elsewhere here or on the Net somewhere. If you do, Great, if you don't, you haven't failed or are necessarily doing it wrong. There are no guarantees in life and life is not fair. If you got screwed on the whole 8-13 pounds thing, I'm really sorry but get over it and move into Phase 2 anyway.
There are so many other reasons to be doing this program that if that was your only reason for doing this, you are likely not going to be successful in the long term anyway. You are still stuck in the "a diet is something you do" mentality and if all you are going to do is "do South
Beach" then I think your chances of being successful decrease considerably. I would LOVE nothing more than for anyone to disprove my last statement though! Go ahead use it as motivation and SHOW ME you can do it!
3. It's a low-carb diet, so I need to count, be concious and be careful of my carb intake because carbs are what made me fat and if I want to be thinner I need to stop eating all those evil carbs.
Not really. I really don't want to engage in the "Is it a low-carb diet or not" debate as there a bunch of wonderful threads here where we get to debate that on a regular basis! At the very least it is a modified carbohydrate dietary program which is what I believe Dr. Agatston
called it at one time as well and may be a more exact nutritional term for WIITWD (What It Is That We Do). The LEAST relevant line on any nutritional label we look at from a SB perspective is the total carbohydrate line. The number of carbs just doesn't matter if we continue to follow the overall phase specific "Foods to Enjoy" list and work on finding our own balance between 2-3 grains/starches and 2-3 fruits per day and maintaining a slow, but relatively regular weight loss towards our ultimate goals.
What DOES matter is that we consume the right kind of carbs (Low GI/GL whole grains, starches, fruits, vegetables and dairy) that give our bodies and brains sufficient energy to work efficiently, enhance our health and provide good nutritive qualities that support a healthy lifestyle rather than highly processed, high GI foods devoid of little or no other nutritive qualities.
I have a belief, and therefore it may be valid or invalid, that a lot of the problems people have with the "SBD Flu" in P1 is simply because they are so concerned with eating a low carb plan that they don't eat enough carbs from the foods that are allowed to support their minimum needs. I will also freely admit that there aren't a lot of carb rich foods to choose from in P1 to counteract this very easily. It is why I consider legumes to be the SB "secret weapon" and most of us aren't really used to including them in our diet in any regular and meaningful way. I know I wasn't, but once I got used to it and found a way to just include even one serving a day, I was a lot happier on several different levels! Thank you Burdle, our resident Bean Queen! I think that the worse your diet was before SB, that no amount of good carbs in P1 would stave off all of the negative issues with P1, but I think it could mitigate them to some extent. YMMV! (Your Mileage May Vary)
4. It's too complicated to follow. I can't make any of the meals in the book and I don't like fish and eggs and that's all the menus have you eat anyway.
This one actually has a bit of truth in it. However, and there is always a however, it doesn't have to be all that complicated and you don't have to be a great cook/chef to make it work. You will likely need to prepare more of your foods than you did previously if you relied heavily on fast/quick food outlets and pre-packaged meals. While the whole "Carbs are evil" thing is a myth, the whole "burger/fries and frozen dinners are evil" thing is not! You do need to take control of what you put in your body. That usually means reading labels, understanding food terms and ingredients, and buying uncooked and minimally processed foods and completing the process to turn them into healthy meals for you and your family. Those may be things that are entirely foreign to you. If you are not up to the task of learning some very basic nutritional concepts, reading labels to judge their value based on your new knowledge base and engaging in some basic food preparation skills to improve your life and the health of those around you, then bail out NOW. Seriously... I'm not kidding... The fast food and packaged food industry is waiting for you and they will continue to destroy your health and make you fat and control what you get to eat based on the marketing trend of the day/month/year. It's your choice. You get to empower yourself and take control or you get to give that control away to others and let them make decisions about your health for you. Just don't blame "them" for your health/weight when it was your decision to give up that control to start with.
OK, that rant over and back on topic or as on topic as I am likely to stay. (Hey its MY post! You don't like it, get your own post, but I noticed you're still here and reading it!)
Is it too complicated? Not really. We can make it pretty complicated, but the basics of consuming whole grains, fresh fruits and vegetables and lean meats/proteins, while avoiding refined flours, pre-packaged foods, sugars and high GI starches, fruits and vegetables is really not that hard to get across. I just did it in one sentence. OK, one run-on, compound sentence with too many phrases that MS Word would underline for me, but still one sentence!
But I can't make any of the meals in the book? So don't. There is no requirement to make those meals or any meals in the companion cookbook either. Make foods you like to eat in ways you are comfortable cooking them provided they come from the "foods to enjoy" list and you are comfortable with a cooking technique other than deep fat frying. If you can boil water, you can steam vegetables or cook frozen vegetables. Grilling/broiling things doesn't take a lot of skill, just timing. Omelettes may be an advanced skill, but scrambled eggs are pretty easy. Start out in your comfort zone and try a new recipe or skill on a weekend when you may have more time to devote to learning and screwing things up. Humans have this incredible capability of learning new things and developing new skills. Nobody is asking you to play a piano concerto, perform surgery or rebuild a carbeurator. You may however have to learn the difference between a pot and a pan and reintroduce yourself to your stove/oven. You do remember which room in the house you left it in don't you?
But I hate fish and eggs and the book uses those all the time in their menus. See above about the non-requirement to use the menu and meal plans in the book. There is a reason I think he relies on those ingredients so much. They pack a lot of nutritional bang for your food item buck. They are really good for you! You should learn to eat them. Hear me now or believe me later! (Insert SNL image of Hans und Franz) However, and there is always a however, you still don't need to eat fish and eggs on this program to make it work or be successful. It may make it more of a challenge, particularly the egg part, but there are lots of breakfast option ideas on this forum. Find them. Use them. And any lean protein source can be used for your protein needs. This also doesn't mean you have to eat chicken or canned tuna, 24/7. Beef, pork, poultry, shrimp, and even the always challenging tofu all work. Mix it up. Don't get into a rut and lose interest because you are bored with what you are eating.
5. I'm going on a diet called South Beach to lose weight.
Good for you! Congratulations for taking the first step to a hopefully healthier and lighter you! However, and there is always a however, there are two problems here. When you say you are going "on a diet" it kind of implies that at some point you are going to go "off the diet" or that it is a temporary or short term commitment. If you think you can lose weight by eating one way and then go back to your old way of eating that put the weight on in the first place and NOT put the weight on again, you are by Einstein's definition at least, "insane". This is not a "diet" in the short term sense of the word. It is truly a lifestyle change eating program that to be effective over the long term, has to be, well, long term! Use the definition of the word "diet" that means the typical food and drink you regularly consume and you will do a whole lot better than the more normal, but secondary, meaning of a short term plan to lose weight for cosmetic purposes.
The second problem is what do you do when you stop losing weight for awhile and that was your only goal or reason for starting this program? And believe me, sooner or later you are going to stall, sometimes for weeks, maybe even months, at a time and it will be a horribly depressing, emotionally draining and highly stressful time for you as you learn how to deal with it. I mean if your entire goal is wrapped up in losing weight and you stop losing weight then what's the point really? You need to get a big picture view here and think about things like your overall health, blood chemistry, future shopping trips, vacations, weddings, spending time with yet to be born children and/or grandchildren, or whatever it is that you can fall back on and celebrate successes even when the weight loss isn't there. Because if you weren't insane before, you will drive yourself right over the edge on this one. Trust me! (Or hear me now and believe me later! if you still have that Hans und Franz image hanging around in your head.)
6. Weight loss is linear and predictable.
This one is just plain funny!! Of course no one believes this when they read it. But then you lose 10 pounds in a month and you figure you can lose 20 pounds in 2 months. Or based on some level of early success you apply some "windage" and take a worst case projection of so many pounds by such and such a date. Then you "only" lose 14 pounds in 2 months or "only" so many pounds by your projected completion date. When (not if) this happens, you can only reach one or two conclusions, or if you are both a masochist and a sadist, both at the same time. Either you "failed" or the diet "failed". So you're either going to beat yourself up or beat up Dr. A and his stupid program. What you are forgetting is that YOU LOST 14 POUNDS!! Celebrate your successes!! You are doing great things, but don't set up unrealistic expectations where time becomes an important element of your goals. In other words, do yourself a favor and unhook your weight loss goals from any arbitrary timetable. You cannot reasonably predict how much or when you will lose your weight. All that you can control is to keep making more good decisions than bad decisions and to keep doing that consistently over time. Eventually your body will take notice and fall in line. Then of course as soon as it does, it will stop to smell the roses and completely ignore the fact that you are still marching forward. It won't kill ya to stop and smell the roses along the way either. Or as my daughter likes to say, "take a chill pill" if you aren't in an active weight loss period.
7. All I have to do is follow the menus and eat the foods on the "Foods to Enjoy" list and I'll lose weight and be successful.
I don't know. Maybe... But probably not. What do you do when you run out of menus? If all that you do is do what someone tells you to do, what have you learned? How do you apply it in new situations? How do you make good decisions on your own when you don't have the book or a list in front of you? I have this theory that Dr. A made the program somewhat intentionally vague because he wants us to think and learn and actively engage in the process on a mental level so that we fully internalize it within our own individual lifestyle. As an analogy, he didn't want us to simply learn our ABCs, but instead wanted to teach us how to read so we can go forward and use our new skills wherever we need them. I'm not saying you have to become an amatuer nutritionist or dietician, but I do think you have to understand some of the nutritional basics and be active in your own weight loss process. You need to pay attention to your body and how it is reacting to new foods, new times for old foods, and how you feel, both physically and emotionally, as you go through this. To borrow a currently popular phrase, you need to "own" it. You need to make it yours. There is no master template or one way to do this thing. Experiment, Fail, Learn, Move forward. Rinse and repeat.
8. Phase 1 was so successful that I am just going to stay on it and get that much closer to my goals.
No, no, no no no!! Nada! Nein! Nichts! Non! You just skipped to the bottom didn't you?? Go back and read #2 if you did. Not only is this just a bad idea for a whole range of reasons, more importantly it just doesn't work! Phase 1 has one primary, limited, but very critical goal and it isn't rapid weight loss. The program has two Phases labeled 1 and 2 because, you know, it sort of implies a progression. Phase 1 comes first and then we follow it with Phase 2.
Let's review shall we?? As I know I've lost some of you already. What number follows 1? Another 1?? Noooo, that would be 11. Sorry there is no Phase 11 on this program. Please stick to the available choices. As a reminder, those available options are 1, 2 or 3. Three?? Hahaha... you're just trying to annoy me now aren't you?? OK smartypants, you have one guess left and one choice you haven't tried yet. You can do it, I know you can! Two?? DING! DING! DING! No more calls big teens, weeee've got a Winnah!!! Wow, 2 really does follow 1, whoda thunk??
Phase 2 is in fact the weight loss phase of the SB program. If you have any reasonably substantial amount of weight to lose, you will eventually lose more weight in Phase 2 than you did in Phase 1, provided you lost anything in P1. This is how it was designed to work. Phase 1 is not a healthy way to eat and was designed to last for a predetermined and fairly short duration and then we are supposed to transition to Phase 2 to begin the real process of learning how to eat for the rest of our lives and to achieve a slow and steady weight loss that is both healthy and has been shown to be most likely to remain permanent. That is the SB program. If you want to come up with your own lifestyle dietary program, write a book, hook up with a major food manufacturer, spawn numerous websites, and make a gazillion dollars, go ahead. If you want to use the SB program outlined by Dr. Agatston, then use it!
One last time, I can still see a few puzzled expressions out there. We do Phase 1 as outlined in the book (and yes you can note the few exceptions and see if they apply to you) and then we move onto Phase 2. Breathe in... Phase 1... Breathe out... Phase 2... Breathe in... Phase 1... Breathe out... Phase 2... By George, I think they've got it!!!