South Beach Diet Side Effects

Since most people think of the south beach diet as a low carb diet, they worry about potential side effects. The south beach diet is not technically a low carb diet though. Instead, it's more of a moderate carb diet, or even a smart carb diet. The south beach diet doesn't encourage you to eat foods high in saturated fat either, and it doesn't restrict vegetable intake much at all. Because of this, the south beach diet side effects aren't quite what many people expect them to be.

South beach diet side effects include losing weight of course, but dieters often experience better health checkups with their doctors too. Blood pressure goes down and becomes more stable as a side effect of the south beach diet for instance, and cholesterol levels go down too. The ratio between good and bad cholesterol is often greatly improved, and triglyceride levels improve too. Another south beach diet side effect is improved blood sugar control.

Now when most people ask about south beach diet side effects, they're usually wondering if there are bad side effects to worry about. And technically the answer is yes. The south beach diet is divided into three phases. The first phase is the most restrictive, and it's the one where people have a few unpleasant side effects.

Phase one of the south beach diet is designed to help you cut your cravings for sugar and starches. It helps normalize your blood sugar levels and start losing weight too, but for many people there are some side effects to cutting out sugar. In fact, there are withdrawel symptoms.

When you're used to eating a lot of sugar and simple starches in your diet, cutting these out cold turkey can often make your body go through withdrawel symptoms. These can include having headaches, being slightly dizzy or light headed, and sometimes you may feel nauseous or just generally "under the weather" like you have a light cold. These side effects are all caused by your body cleansing itself of the build up of sugars you've been feeding it for so many years.

Many people also cut out cola's and caffeine drinks when they first start the south beach diet too, and removing these things from your diet will usually cause headaches because of the caffeine withdrawel.

The good news though, is that these side effects of the south beach diet are actually good for you, and they don't last long either. In most cases, the general complaints caused by withdrawel only last about three days, though sometimes they can last as long as five. You can help counter these small side effects too. By simply getting some extra rest, drinking plenty of water, and not letting yourself go hungry during the day, you'll find yourself feeling much better very quickly, and you'll notice you've already started losing some weight too.

Most people on the south beach diet actually start losing weight within the first three to five days, but it could take as long as seven days to see real, noticiable results. The changes to your cholesterol blood work and heart test results may take several weeks to start showing improvements, but you will notice changes in your blood sugar levels almost immediately.