You can lose a little weight with any diet whatsoever and the famed South Beach Diet is no exception, of course. What is more important is whether you lose fat and how much of it. The initial weight loss caused by the South Beach Diet may be of water, and not actual fat. Phase 1 restricts most carbs, and without energy coming into the body in the form of carbs, the body will use energy that's stored with water in the muscles, and as a result, the water loss may make you appear thinner.

The main problem with this diet is all the low-fat dairy snacks. The book doesn't provide options for people who don't like or can't eat dairy products because the eating plan prohibits soy in the first two weeks. Two options that can make this plan work for you, if you have problems with dairy, are substituting those cheese snacks with healthy nuts, or substituting with whey protein shake and flaxseed oil. This way you still get a protein/healthy fat snack.

Some of the meals that are suggested in the book can take a lot of time to prepare and they are not really fit with an active person's lifestyle. Some of the foods that the diet recommends can be quite costly, such as pistachios, mahi mahi, and chocolate-dipped apricots.

The diet is fairly new and doesn't have years of support to back up its claims. Insufficiency of scientific data on the South Beach Diet ? there is only one study that Dr. Agatston conducted with some of his own patients, but it was not a long-term study and the patient-sample was not very large. Dieters should be monitored long term, as high protein intake makes the kidneys work harder and strip the body of calcium.

Phase 1 is the most restrictive and has some inconveniences:

- Ketosis might occur due to the lack of carbs resulting in fat burn. Effects include weakness, gastrointestinal problems, fatigue, dizziness, glucose body depletion, dehydration.

- The lack of fruits results loss of vitamins and minerals.

- Eliminating all carbohydrate-rich foods during this phase will also cut out some other good sources of fiber, vitamins and minerals. Wholegrain breads and cereals are rich in fiber, B vitamins and iron, while milk is an excellent source of calcium and zinc.

Since there are no guidelines as to how much carbohydrates to eat, "carb crash" could also occur, depending upon the individual dieter's food selections. This diet leaves a lot up to the individual, which is good in the long run, but is probably harder to handle by novices. Also, some people just aren't all that tuned in to their bodies' signals and might not be motivated to become so.

And quite a few aspects of the diet don't really fit together well. Why is more saturated fat allowed in Phase Three? Why say that portion size of low carb foods should be left up to the individual, but then recommend counting individual nuts (and it's a different number depending upon the nut). You might want what you can't have. You may find yourself binging on the carbs you couldn't have in Phase 1 by the time Phase 2 rolls around.

And what's the deal with couscous? This is a highly processed, high glycemic form of wheat, and yet Agatston recommends it and has many recipes that include it. Other high glycemic foods are in his menus and recipes, which may send, at the least, a mixed message.

You can obtain results with this diet, no doubt. But a lot depends on your own dieting mentality.

If you already have a healthy lifestyle, you certainly don't need a South Beach Diet to create imbalances in your metabolism by cutting good and bad foods altogether. If you want to achieve a healthy lifestyle, again this diet might not be the best idea after all. People cannot eat plain apples or tomatoes or skinless, boneless chicken breasts. And the theoretic glycemic index of foods is changed by the real-life recipe you use.