How to shed festive pounds

Jan 12 2007

Want to lose that Christmas weight? Reporter KATIE ARCHER sinks her teeth in to a healthier way to diet.

JANUARY is the time of year you're most likely to start a diet, but the main reason most people give up on them is that they are unrealistic. After all, who is really going to drink milkshakes instead of eating forevermore, or never eat carbs again?

So if you want to keep the weight off in the new year, you need a sensible eating plan that won't be torture.

This is where the South Beach Diet steps in - it may be a celebrity diet but it's usable in real life too.

The diet, designed by cardiologist Dr Arthur Agatston, came about as a backlash to eating plans other heart experts were recommending.

Dr Agatston thought eating low fat and carbs wasn't helping people keep the weight off in the long run, so he put together a plan that involved still eating carbs to give you energy, but only eating good types.

The South Beach Diet is based around eating foods people in the Mediterranean, who have a naturally healthy diet, usually have.

It involves a lot of oily fish, vegetables and olive oil, as well as carbs such as brown rice and fruit. The diet works in three phases designed to make you lose weight and then maintain your goal weight.

In phase one, you only eat lean meat and fish, reduced fat cheese, no fat yoghurt and lots and lots of vegetables.

This phase contains no carbs, so the weight should start to drop off after a few days and will also flatten your stomach noticeably.

Moving into phase two, you will still lose weight but at a steadier pace and while restarting a more normal diet.

This involves adding fruit and brown rice to the other foods from phase one in limited portions to help fill you up and give you energy.

Then in phase three, Dr Agatston has designed a plan that will let you maintain the weight you have dropped to while eating healthily and reasonably.

The massive advantage of the South Beach Diet over many others is that you are still able to eat out or buy lunch without constant weighing of random diet foods only available at shops in Timbuktu.

Obviously you always have to make some sacrifices, but this is actually based around how many people in the Mediterranean eat anyway, so your goals should be achievable.

Plus it has the benefit of making you healthier for the new year by eating vitamin-packed food rather than flavoured cardboard like many other diets.

Good luck!