The South Beach Diet book became seriously successful as soon as the diet book with the obvious name was published and picked up with rapid succession among friends, families and fellow dieters. Armed with their own dieting successes to brag about, the South Beach Diet book, officially titled as, The South Beach Diet: The Delicious, Doctor-Designed, Foolproof Plan for Fast and Healthy Weight Loss, is still growing in passion, but the South Beach Diet Phase 1 continues to confuse readers.

The South Beach Diet Phase 1 is designed to be the shortest of all phases of the diet, only lasting for a fourteen day period. It was created to be in your face, kick-start your body and your mindset about how you diet from that point on. The myth to popular thinking and one of the harder to understand parts to Phase 1 of the South Beach Diet, you do not 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 overwhelming in quantity in the American diet with substantial amounts of protein, good fats and low glycemic index (G.I.) carbs that solves your hunger and balances your blood sugar.

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

It's during this stage that Doctor Agatston believes that your body's resistance to insulin will decrease, so depending on your body weight and current health, you may lose 4 to 12 pounds initially, even in the first two weeks, as your body begins to shed extra body weight.

The major goal of the South Beach Diet Phase 1 is two fold: to test and discipline you into a routine that you stick with which keeps you free from hunger and to lay the groundwork for a mindset that ensures you get rid of the bad foods and gravitate toward the food that will shed pounds, deliver energy and improve your lifestyle.