South Beach Diet – Keto Edition has seen the light in early 2019. To put it simply, it’s the ketogenic-friendly version of the famous South Beach diet.
The original South Beach diet, created by Arthur Agatston, is among the most popular diets in the whole USA. It is famous for encouraging people to eat foods that are low in carbs and high in fat. However, what differs it from keto, is that it doesn’t try to eliminate carbohydrates from your diet completely. The South Beach diet focuses mainly on distinguishing good carbs form the bad carbs and focusing on eating only the good ones.
What is South Beach Diet?
Back in 2003, Arthur Agatston – a famous cardiologist created the South Beach Diet. The diet was named after Miami coasts. It is a popular weight loss program that first appeared in his best-selling book called “The South Beach Diet: The Delicious, Doctor-Designed, Foolproof Plan for Fast and Healthy Weight Loss.” The South Beach Diet is often referred to as a modified version of a low carb diet also known as the keto diet.
What makes the South Beach Diet Keto-similar, is that the diet focuses on lower intake of carbohydrates and higher intake of healthy fats and protein. The biggest difference in South Beach Diet vs Keto is that it is not as strict in counting the carbohydrate intake as keto is.
The main focus of the South Beach Diet is actually changing your lifestyle. It doesn’t matter if you want to lose weight or not, it is designed for a balanced and nutritious diet. The primary focus of the South Beach Diet is giving you the balance in the food you eat. Such type of eating promotes healthy weight loss and a healthier lifestyle.
However, just like with any other diet or food plan, be sure to check with your doctor or health care provider before starting to follow this or any weight-loss program. If you have any health concerns, consulting a specialist is a must.
How it Works?
In general, the South Beach Diet claims that it is a healthy lifestyle that you can follow for a lifetime. It is a balance of lean proteins, good carbs and healthy fats. This makes it a nutritious and fiber rich diet that can be followed for a lifetime in order to remain healthy, youthful and full of energy.
Good vs Bad Fats
You can also consider the South Beach Diet as an education program about leading a healthy lifestyle. The diet promises to tech you all about the various kinds of fats: good and bad ones. It focuses on helping you understand how the fats work as well as being able to distinct the good fats from the bad ones. That should result in you being able to eliminate the fats that are bad for you form your diet menu.
As you can see, one of the main goals of the diet is to help you to understand the types of fat, how they work and which ones are good for you. The desired outcome is for you to be cautious about your food choices and focus solely on eating the good fats. If you choose the South Beach Diet Keto edition – you will be eating a lot of good fats.
Good vs Bad Carbohydrates
Another important thing the South Beach Diet promises to teach you, is the distinction of good vs bad carbohydrates. The South Beach Diet uses the glycemic index and glycemic load to determine which carbs you should eat and which ones you should avoid.
To help you understand the concept better, here’s a short explanation of the glycemic index. The glycemix index of a specific food determines how it will affect your blood sugar. Foods that have a high glycemic index tend to increase your overall blood sugar faster and keep it that way for a longer period of time. On the contrary, foods with a lower glycemic index work the opposite way.
Why should this be important for you? Some studies have shown that increased blood sugar results in increased appetite. As you know, increased appetite usually leads to eating more, and eating more can result in weight gain and other health conditions, such as diabetes and cardiovascular diseases.
To prevent that, the South Beach Diet focuses on promoting the benefits of healthy eating. The diet encourages you to eat foods that are rich in fiber, whole-grain foods and include high amounts of vegetables and fruit into your diet plan.
Another important thing the South Beach Diet focuses on, is encouraging you to lead not only a healthier lifestyle but also a more active one. The South Beach Diet philosophy believes that being active is an important part of your life. Regular exercising will help you increase your metabolism as well as prevent the unwanted weight gain.
South Beach Diet vs Keto – Carbohydrates
The classic South Beach Diet version is lower in carbs than a regular eating plan. However, compared to Keto, it has a lot higher amount of carbohydrates you can eat per day. A regular low-carb diet will allow you to eat a maximum of 100 g of carbohydrates a day. Some versions of Keto are even stricter.
The South Beach Diet allows you to eat 225 – 325 g of carboydrates per day During the 1st phase. That is 2-3 times more compared to a low carb diet! In the later phases of the South Beach Diet your carbohydrate intake will be limited to 140 g per day, however it still exceeds the Keto limits of 20 – 100 g per day.
Recently a South Beach Diet Keto Version was released. This version of the South Beach Diet limits your daily carbohydrate intake to 40 g. This makes the diet keto-friendly. So, if you’re following the ketogenic diet for a while and wish to change your menu a bit, the South Beach Diet Keto Edition could be a great new meal plan.
South Beach Diet Keto Edition
Due to growing popularity of the ketogenic eating principles, the South Beach Diet released their own version of the Keto diet in 2019.
The principles of the diet remain the same and works as described above. The diet aims to transform make lifestyle healthier by educating you about the good vs bad carbs and fats.
The main difference between the classic South Beach Diet and South Beach Diet Keto Edition is the amount of carbohydrates you are allowed to eat in a day.
During the first phase of the Classic South Beach Diet, you can eat 225 – 325 g of carbohydrates per day. On the first phase of the South Beach Diet Keto Edition your carbohydrate intake is limited to 40 g per day.
When you’re on the second phase of the Classic South Beach Diet your carbohydrate intake will be limited to 140 g per day. On the second phase of the South Beach Diet Keto Edition your carbohydrate intake will increase by 10 g and will be limited to 50 g per day.
South Beach Diet Phases
The South Beach Diet, classic version and keto edition has three main phases, designed for you to completely change your lifestyle.
South Beach Diet Phase 1
The South Beach Diet Phase 1 takes 2 weeks. The goal of Phase 1 is to eliminate the cravings of sweet and starchy foods. This way your body will start losing weight.
The principles of the South Beach Diet Phase 1 are very similar to keto principles. You start by eliminating nearly all bad carbohydrates from your meals. This means you no longer eat starchy foods like rice, pasta, fruit and bread. Since eating fruit is off the table, you can no longer drink juice. Juices are high in sugar. You will also have to stop drinking alcohol.
When you’re on the South Beach Diet Phase 1, you will have to focus on eating high-fiber vegetables, mostly the greens that grow above ground and lean protein, such as chicken, beef, seafood and soy products. You can also eat natural fats, such as avocados and nuts along with low-fat dairy foods.
South Beach Diet vs Keto – Phase 1
The main difference between the Classic South Beach Diet Phase 1 and Keto edition is the lower amount of carbohydrates. However, choosing the Keto edition means that more fatty foods will be allowed on your diet. Also, Keto Phase 1 only lasts for a week.
South Beach Diet Phase 2
The South Beach Diet Phase 2 is the long phase. This phase takes as long as it needs, until you reach your weight goal.
What differs it from South Beach Diet Phase 1, is that you start eating some foods that you couldn’t eat during the first phase. However, since the goal of the diet is to change your mindset and turn this diet into a lifestyle, you should choose whole grain products, such as whole-grain pasta, whole-grain rice, etc. In short – you should go for the healthier options.
Even though you can eat more foods that contain carbohydrates, the total amount of carbohydrates will be reduced. You can eat only 140 g per day. So, this means eating even more lean proteins, healthy fats and fr-rich products.
South Beach Diet vs Keto – Phase 2
The main difference between the Classic South Beach Diet Phase 2 and Keto edition is once again the daily carbohydrate intake. For the classic version the carbohydrate intake is 140 g. For the keto edition, it is a total of 50 g per day.
The increase of carbohydrates happens because of the inclusion of the ‘good’ carbohydrates into the diet plan. As mentioned above, such food include whole-grain pasta, whole-grain rice, etc.
South Beach Diet Phase 3
This phase is the same for both: Classic South Beach Diet and the Keto Edition. Reaching this phase means that you have already reached your weight goal and chose South Beach Diet as a lifestyle.
Congratulations!
South Beach Diet Recipes and Meals
The South Beach Diet comes in 3 plan options. Each of the plans comes with a meal plan for four weeks. Each plan includes a variety of different recipes.
For each of the plans you can choose the Chef’s Pics option or you can compose your own menu, based on your preferences.
Here you can find some examples of:
- South Beach Diet recipes for breakfast
- Lunch recipes for South Beach Diet
- South Beach Diet recipes for dinner
- Snacks for South Beach Diet
As you can see, there is a variety of foods for you to choose from when following the diet. You can even test some of the South Beach Diet recipes before you order a diet plan.
South Beach Diet recipes are healthy and nutritious. In general, following the diet means that you can eat 6 times per day. Eating 6 times per day makes it quite easy to turn the South Beach Diet into a lifestyle.
As mentioned, each 4 week meal plan comes with a variety of South Beach Diet recipes. The amount of recipes you will get depends on the plan you choose.
South Beach Diet Cost and Plans
The South Beach Diet cost varies from $10.36 to $12.86, based on the plan you choose. Below you will find an overview of each plan. Each of them have a keto friendly menu.
| South Beach Diet Prices and Plans | |||
| SILVER | GOLD | PLATINUM | |
| From $10.36/day | From $11.79/day | From $12.86/day | |
| 4-week meal plan: recipes for breakfast, lunch and dinner + Body Reboot Kit | |||
| Chef Inspired Menu | |||
| Free Shipping | |||
| Bigger Menu + Junk-Free Snacks | |||
| 20 Keto-Friendly South Beach Simply Fit Shakes | |||
| View Plan | View Plan | View Plan | |
The variety of the recipes included is what differs one plan from another. Since the price differs only by $1-2, picking a Gold or Silver plan will result in having more variety in food selections.
However, if you’re just trying out the diet to whether it’s a good fit for you, the Silver plan will be enough for jump-starting your weight loss journey.
South Beach Diet Reviews
When it comes to south beach diet reviews, you can read plenty of them straight from their website.
On the day of writing, the diet has 297 reviews of which:
- 112 rate the diet with 5/5 stars
- 67 rate the diet with 4/5 stars
- 44 rate the diet with 3/5 stars
- 36 rate the diet with 2/5 stars
- 38 rate the diet with 1/5 stars
Based on the South Beach Diet reviews from customers, around 2/3 are perfectly satisfied with the diet and experienced real results.
Less than 1/6 of the South Beach Diet reviews were of 1 star, which means that a very little amount of people were not happy with the diet.
As you probably know, when evaluating the reviews from the customers, it is very important to keep in mind that unhappy customers are more likely to write reviews than the happy ones.
That is why it is important to evaluate the reviews, especially the negative ones, based on the reasons the person gives.
Best and Worst South Beach Diet Reviews
Here is the most liked positive South Beach Diet review:
Great Taste and Convinience!!
NOTE: the spelling and grammar of the review is not edited.
I really love the variety of foods available on South Beach Diet! Except for 1 or 2 items, I find the food very tasty and it’s an easy program to follow! This is THE eating program I have been looking for and plan to continue to purchase from SBD for a long time to come!!! I am at my goal weight and I use the plan to maintain my weight. As a single person who doesn’t like to cook for just myself, the taste, variety and convenience cannot be beat!
Here is the most liked negative South Beach Diet review:
Never Again!!!!!!!!!
NOTE: the spelling and grammar of the review is not edited.
I give this zero rating, I had to throw out 4 breakfast meals because the package was open in the box and food was loose. I received 9 Turkey dinners because they were out of pork and something else. That was ridiculous, especially when there was only 1 of other meals with the exception garlic flatbread. What a waste of money while The Turkey was edible but It Was not good Enough To Eat constantly. Also the diet relies On to many shakes, Liquid Meals Are not acceptable. Never Again, Will Not Accept further Deliveriess Thanks and have a nice dayy Bonnie Tg
The Bottom Line
In short, Classic South Beach Diet as well as the South Beach Diet Keto edition promotes healthy eating and active lifestyle.
The diet promotes proven weight loss tactics, such as cutting down the carbohydrate intake and focusing on eating lean proteins, healthy fats and vegetables.
Most of the people who tried the diet were perfectly satisfied with the results and left mostly positive reviews. As you probably know, there is no better source for the quality of the product than the client himself.
It is one of those diets that gives you a variety of food options and don’t require you to starve. Since the goal of the South Beach Diet Keto Edition and Classic ones are not based on short-term weight loss and rather transforming your whole lifestyle, it could be a good choice for those who want to have big changes in their lives.
