It’s the American Dream: “If I could just lose a little bit of weight…” The problem for many Americans is that they fall quickly into the trends. They’ve tried it all: the workout videos, the “as seen on T.V.” gadgets, the low-carb cookbooks, the three-day diet, celery, melons, and green tea.

The problem for many is that without a serious change of lifestyle, “fads” is all there is. Actually, the only means to lose the weight and keep it off is to change your lifestyle.

The South Beach Diet is a different way to not only jump start your weight loss program, but also develop healthy eating habits that will stay on to help you lose weight, and most importantly, keep it off.

The place that a lot of diets and programs fail is with the promise of instant weight loss. Most of these plans can deliver the results that their subscribers expect. The problem is that once they have seen the results that they want, they fall back into their old habits and the weight quickly returns.

With the South Beach Diet, there are three clear stages to help you build a healthy program, whether you are obese, or just a little bit overweight. During the first stage of your weight loss program, all carbohydrates are restricted. This stage lasts for only two weeks, after which (during stage two) restricted items are slowly introduced back into your diet. During the first stage of the South Beach Diet, you can expect to see a weight loss of about eight to fourteen pounds.

During the second stage you will continue to lose weight at a healthy rate of about two pounds a week. The final stage is called maintenance, and is not just a weight loss program, but a way of life.