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Step 1
Research both eating plans. You can find some information online, but to understand the full scope of both, you should buy the books, hunker down and read them. "South Beach Diet," by Dr. Arthur Agatston and the "Best Life Diet," by Bob Greene can be purchased at your local bookstore or online.
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Step 2
Go to each diet's website. They are full of tools like forums, recipes and menus. They each offer summaries of the diet plans but you'll have to pay to become a member to use the full tools.
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Step 3
Enter the first phase. South Beach Diet requires you to cut out all refined sugars, carbs and fruit in phase 1 for a period of two weeks. Best Life Diet encourages you to stay on phase 1 for four weeks, examining your eating schedule and the reasons why you eat. You're also supposed to stay away from alcohol, increase your activity level and stop eating at least two hours before bedtime.
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Step 4
Keep losing weight in phase 2. After losing the promised 8 to 13 pounds during phase 1, the South Beach Diet allows you to slowly add in carbs and fruit, while still losing weight. You're encouraged to eat the whole grain, high fiber kind of carbs in moderation. On the Best Life Diet, you use phase 2 to learn how to control your hunger. You cut out 6 categories of food: sugary soda, food with trans fats, fried food, white bread, regular pasta and high fat dairy products.
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Step 5
Maintain in phase 3. The South Beach Diet uses this phase as your maintenance phase. Keep adding in good carbs, as long as you don't gain weight. The Best Life Diet considers phase 3 as a time to improve the quality of your diet for lifelong weight management. You may continue to lose during this phase, if you haven't hit goal yet. You also get Anything Goes calories to use for splurges.
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Step 6
Join a support group, no matter which plan you choose. Having other people to talk to, lean on and share ideas with will help you meet your weight loss goals. Each of the diet plan's websites offer community forums.
