# South Beach Diet Phase I = Ketosis?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-beach-diet-phase-i-ketosis/388666>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [January 20, 2007, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-beach-diet-phase-i-ketosis/388666 "2007-01-20T01:51:31Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\
**Post date:** [January 20, 2007, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-beach-diet-phase-i-ketosis/388666/1 "2007-01-20T01:51:31Z")

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My girlfriend recently went on the South Beach diet, and we were talking about it the other day. While I think the general idea of the diet is a good one, I’m skeptical about phase I.

I looked thru the book, and the only reference to ketosis is where the author states that it’s a common criticism of the Atkins diet, and that he doesn’t think it’s a problem for normal, healthy people.

So, when he gets to his Phase I description, he says it lasts 2 weeks: “just long enough to resolve the insulin resistance that was brought by eating too many bad (mostly processed) carbs.” What does that mean, if not [Ketosis](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ketosis)? Is there some reason Agatston doesn’t use that word?

Anyway, I don’t mean to slam the diet, because overall it looks quite good to me. I wonder if he just wants to hook people in with some rapid weight loss in Phase I and how effective the diet would be without it. After all, it’s not really a “diet” in the traditional sense, since it’s suppose to change the way we eat all the time-- shifting away from high GI processed carbs, towards lower GI cards from whole vegetables and less processed grains and cereals.