[Deena52]

Hi again Bianca....hope you make it back here and see this.
Also, there are probably gonna be a whole lot of caveats in here. Starting with.....

I went to the MRC website and the problem is, they don't have a list of the approved foods. BUT, I did review the recipes and they seemed very Atkin's friendly, for the most part. THEN, I went to some sites where they sell the MRC products.....and had a few concerns when I saw these.

From my perspective (and I do have some medical/anatomy and physiology training) there are 2 basic kinds of diets....lower calorie/calorie counting and metabolic. And there are a bunch of different sub-categories/variations of these....for instance, WW is a lower calorie/calorie counting type.

But I can't quite figure out which one the MRC is (I also am perplexed by a few others, including crack the fat code and the fat smash diet). I totally understand the calorie counting ones....very simple premise, really. It's some of these metabolic ones or the ones where I can't figure out if they're metabolic or calorie counting or some variation thereof that perplex me.

OK...let me say a few things, although I do have to warn you that 1) I am a huge Atkins advocate and 2) only very strict Atkins seems to work for me...but clearly other diets DO work for others (including MRC, at least initially).

First....I see that they have a bunch of products that fall into the "sweets" category....shake mixes, bars, etc....and also soup mixes. And a whole slew of "supplements". I cannot find the actual ingredients listed on any of the websites I saw....and I have to be suspicious that some of them have to contain hidden carbs (just like some of the Atkins processed products do) but here are my main concerns regarding these:

1. I have found that one of the huge benefits of pure Atkins is that my sweet cravings, my late evening sweet binges AND my appetite in general are extremely well controlled on pure Atkins. However, years ago, on Atkins maintenance, I did get a little too interested in the Atkins chocolate-coconut bars....and found that these began to kick in my sweet cravings and the old evening binge behavior...even though they did not contain actual table sugar.
I find that just avoiding any processed sweets altogether and only eating the pure proteins, veggies and dairy works for me to control these.

2. If you have to include all these products and supplements, how are you going to manage to maintain without them? Or do you have to pay lots of money to continue them? They have all sorts of sweets recipes, that COULD be made Atkins friendly....but they include having to use THEIR shake MIXES in them, for example.
I also scanned thru the MRC section/forum here and noticed that a whole lot seemed to have gained most, if not all, the weight back....once they went off the program. Atkins has a maintenance program...but it's free, in the book, and do-it-yourself, easily. I don't know what the percentages would be, comparatively speaking, regarding maintenance success of MRC versus Atkins....but Kim has maintained for 6 years and I maintained for 12 years and have no doubt I can do this again.
And finally....why eat processed products or include them if you can eat pure, whole foods?

2. It's very interesting but I have observed here that many of these other clones, for instance, the crack the fat loss code program...initially has you do an Atkins induction....but then you add all these carbs back in, including things like bread (which, BTW, is allowed on MRC...although limited, I'm sure). And funnily enough......the ones still in the induction phase lose a significant amount of weight....but as soon as they graduate to the carbs added levels, they almost always run into problems.
And I sit here shaking my head, thinking, "now what does that show you? Why not do a diet similar to the induction where you were clearly losing weight rather than frustrate yourself just due to some added bread, etc?"

3. And finally, I am always suspicious when a) the program costs a whole lot of money/is very expensive and b) you get the impression you cannot do it on your own and must rely on them and their products to be successful.

Like I said, I am a huge Atkins advocate, probably because it works SO well for me (when other programs do not) and I feel so great on it. BUT, that does not mean that you cannot lose weight on other programs, including MRC....and many do. BUT....if you find yourself stalling or running into problems....I would consider doing true Atkins. It's rarely unsuccessful if done correctly. The main problem usually encountered is that there are people who simply cannot live without lots of carbs in their diet. And if you do get to your goal on MRC, I would definitely investigate Atkins maintenance, rather than to have to continue to pay large amounts just to maintain.

Hope you see this and let me know what you think.

deena