sissie, to answer your question about the difference in diets. On the South Beach diet, you only cut carbs and sugar the first two weeks of the diet. Then you slowly start adding friuts, yogurt, and carbs back in the diet and still lose weight. Your body needs carbs, but not the bad ones, ie the "white foods", so being on the Atkins, you are actually damaging your health. With the South Beach diet, you level out your blood sugar and improve your cardiovascular system. The diet was founded by a cardiologist in South Beach, FL(hence the name). My husband's nutritionist told him that out of all the diets, that the South Beach diet was actually the healthiest one to be on. I'm not trying to sway anyone to go from one diet or another, I'm just sharing the info i have gathered from reading the book. I hope this helped answer your quwestion, sissie!