Pros & Cons of the South Beach Diet & Atkins Diet

According to the Federal Trade Commission, over 95 percent of people who go on diets end up gaining back all or more of the weight they initially lost. This news sounds bleak for dieters considering the Atkins or South Beach Diets, but there are definitely some pros and cons to each of these diets that you need to be aware of.

South Beach Diet

• The South Beach diet is a carb-restricted diet that is split into three phases. In the first phase, which lasts two weeks, you are restricted from eating carbs like rice, bread, pasta, potatoes and fruit. The second phase is the "long-term weight-loss," according to the South Beach website, and adds back in some of the carbs that are cut out in phase 1, mainly from healthier whole grain sources. The third phase is the "maintenance" part of the diet, where you are encouraged to eat healthy carbs in moderation.

  The pros of this diet are that it promotes healthy fats and discourages saturated and trans fats; encourages smaller portion sizes; and emphasizes whole grain sources of carbohydrates in the later stages of the diet.

  The cons of the South Beach Diet are the severe carb restrictions in the first phase. This can lead to rapid initial weight loss, mainly due to water weight. People are faced with unrealistic expectations after failing to keep up this rapid weight loss in the next couple stages. Additionally, a healthy diet is a balanced diet and cutting out carbs to this extreme is not in line with current FDA recommendations. People may end up gaining back much of the weight when they are discouraged after not being able to sustain this initial weight loss. Many of the healthy recipes associated with South Beach are expensive and time-consuming and there is not enough of an emphasis on exercise in this diet.

Atkins Diet

• Similar to South Beach, the Atkins Diet has an "induction" phase, where you go on a severe carb-restricted diet for two weeks. There are three additional phases after this, including Ongoing Weight Loss, Pre-Maintenance, and Lifetime Maintenance.

  One of the few pros of the Atkins Diet is that they now emphasize the Lifetime Maintenance of healthy eating. They have also begun to emphasize more healthy carbs in the later stages and less foods high in saturated fats.

  On the other hand, you're not able to maintain a low-carb diet in the long-term and may not be healthy. According to the Mayo Clinic, the long-term health effects of low carb diets are not known at this time. No studies have been conducted to show if these diets may increase your risk of health conditions that may develop over many years, such as heart disease or cancer. Similar to South Beach, the initial induction phase can lead to a loss in water weight, which can set unrealistic expectations in the mind of the dieter and lead to frustration when this weight is eventually gained back. Also, the lack of carbs from healthy sources like whole grains, fruits and vegetables can lead to deficiencies in key nutrients, including dietary fiber, vitamin C, folic acid, and several minerals.