i tried and ugh...i felt awful....couldnt get past 3 days. plus i like fruit way toooo much. what if i cut my carbs to 40-50g a day and make sure my cals are around 1600-1800. do you think i can still lose weight steadily?

I'm not a carb counter.. but what if you just do calorie counting instead of low carb? IMO I couldn't live without specific carbs and there is no reason to ever give up fruit! Fruit and whole grains and veggies should all be part of your diet... I know a lot of calorie counting sites will show you what your ratio is in fat, carbs and protein. That may help you balance a little better?

When my husband and I visited a weight loss clinic a little over a year ago (it's affiliated with our hospital and has a great reputation - unfortunately, virtually no insurance covers the rather expensive program), we spoke with the dietitian for the program and the doctor heading the program. The doctor herself and her husband had each lost about 100 lbs on a slightly modified Atkins. She told us we could modify or skip induction if we wanted (as both of us were on blood sugar lowering medication). For my husband, she recommended that he skip induction altogether (because he was on insulin injections as well as oral blood sugar medications) and advices him to start at least at around 60 to 80g, of carbs or even more if he exprienced low blood sugar symptoms.

There's no "magic," to induction and a person could even do Atkins "backwards" (as in slowly decreasing carbs, until the person found their ideal level for weight loss).

If calorie counting works for you, without carbohydrate restriction - I'd also suggest you go with that. The simplest and least restrictive program that works is your best bet. I also can't resist carbs - but to a point that calorie counting doesn't help. If I eat certain carbs or too many of even the "good" ones, I get so hungry there's a good chance I'm going to go off plan, and often in a big way - or I will stick with my calorie limit and feel like a caged, starved animal.

Because easily digested, high glycemic carbs like sugar (even the sugars in some higher sugar fruits) trigger such insane cravings and hunger that I feel starved - regardless of how much I eat. I could eat twice my normal calorie alottment and still feel starved.

I have to control carbs, or they control me. Carb's aren't "evil," but the blood sugar/insulin spike cycle is well understood medically. More than three decades of dieting, and except for a short experiment with Atkins in the 70's I avoided low carb diets, because of how "unhealthy" they were. Then my doctor advised that I should try low carb dieting, because of research supporting the success of low carb for insulin resistant folks. When I asked "how low," he couldn't tell me. I was skeptical - so skeptical that it took another year and meeting the doctor who'd lost weight herself on low carb, for me to even try it. She said there's a lot of research, and even more coming that low carb can be done in a healthy manner.

I had to leave Atkins - because I can overeat anything. The Atkins program is not UNLIMITED meat, fat, and bacon. You're not supposed to eat until you're bursting, you're supposed to eat only when hungry andl just barely until not hungry any more (hm, sounds alot like the less disrespected "mindful eating"). The problem for me is that I have very defective hunger controls.
If I eat high carbs - I am ALWAYS hungry, and if I eat too low in carbs, I am NEVER hungry. Finding the perfect balance, just wasn't working.

So for me, I had to combine low carb with calorie counting. I do that with an exchange plan (a shorthand way of counting calories, as each exchange has approximately the same amount of calories - for example fruit servings are all around 60 calories, dairy servings are about 90, the calorie range is only about 10 to 15 calories). For people with little understanding of nutrition, exchange plans have an advantage nutritionally over straight calorie counting, because they force some balance - you can't ignore entire food groups (at least not without noticing that you're not "following" your plan).

I know this is really a long post - for some really simple advice - find what works for you, and do that. Not everyone "needs" to eat low carb, but some people do. Restricting carbs has been the only way I have ever found to be able to eat without feeling like my life had to revolve around feeling hungry yet forcing myself to "not eat." I had to spend so much of my day trying not to eat, that it drowned out everything else. If I wanted to have a life while losing weight, I had to control carb type and quantity. If I don't, I don't have a real life. I do sometimes go "off" my diet to eat something high in carb (because I have some flexibility in my exchange plan, I can even stay on plan doing it, but I will feel hungry, and I will be tempted to go off plan).

I did it Sunday at MIL's, as I had a piece of birthday cake (since the cake was for my birthday - as well as my husband's and SIL's), AND potato casserole at dinner. And boy am I still suffering for it. When I eat high carb foods, especially sugar and wheat, I retain water and feel horrible. That piece of red velvet cake was delicious, but so not worth a "carb hangover," or the 5 lbs in water weight. The only reason I haven't changed my ticker yet, is that I always give myself 3 to 5 days to drop the weight when I suspect the weight gain is just bloat.

There is no "one-size-fits-all" diet. Even calorie counting isn't for everyone. Sometimes what you eat does matter just as much as how much. If it doesn't - that's great, then do whatever's easiest. But if easiest doesn't work, you've got to start finding what does.

I'm currently doing Medifast and I range from 80-100 carbs and 1000 calories. I know my first couple of weeks I was feeling like I did when I was doing the Atkins induction, but it passed. The best plan is going to be the plan that you can stick to for the rest of your life. Everyone is different - no one way is right, just what's right for you.

I know EXACTLY what you mean my friend. I'm not brave enough to let myself have a piece of cake (probably never will again) but I had processed, fried meat about 2 weeks ago and it took me 7 days to get back to the day-before-that's weight. Sodium! Water rentention! Fried shrimp certainly are delicious, and for some people on Atkins 1-2 won't hurt, but clearly *I* can't have them...oh well.

We are all different in the amount of carb we can consume and still lose. When I was 29 years old I cheated all the time on Atkins ~ often having 1-2 (or more) Hershey's miniatures a day ~ and still lost a huge amount of weight rapidly. Now that I'm 39 and have been on Atkins 3 times, the weight's no longer flying off and I have to be extraordinarily strict with myself. The only "cheating" I've done since restarting Atkins in August 2008 has been the occasional trip to Popeye's for just chicken, mcnuggets, and other fried meats here and there. Age + not taking care of my metabolism = slower weight loss, for me anyway.

Like others above have said, induction's not a requirement. Do whatever works for you. Best of luck.

That is SPOT ON! The best and only plan is the one you'll stick with and it should make you feel GOOD!

For me, in the first week Atkins feels like a Godsend! I feel SO much better and I have no more digestive problems. But that's me.

I have never done Atkins, but I follow a diet that is *only* fruit, veggies, lean meat, eggs and nuts. Some people call it the Paleo diet, others the specific carbohydrate diet, others the caveman diet. In my case, I started follow it because my tummy gets upset when I have too many grain starches.

I currently do not eat any added sugar, even artificial. I've had great success eating this way in the last six weeks or so. Prior to that, I also ate rice, potatoes and sugar, but was on a plateau.

Michelle, induction isn't necessary but I certainly would recommend it just to kick the cravings for bread, sugar, pasta, etc. I eat fruit several times a week on Atkins and continue to lose, although it's berries, plums, tangelos, etc. Not high sugar fruit like grapes/raisins, bananas, and oranges. But I think you could lose weight if you passed induction and dove straight into ongoing weight loss.

Do you have the book? That has lists of what's appropriate for the ongoing weight loss scale. Even if you don't do induction, definitely stay away from sugar and starches for a couple weeks just to kill the cravings.

i am doing the medifast too and i am trying to keep my carbs low. somewere around 100. I find that as each week passes on the diet I just get used to eatting less carbs and its not as big of issue with me

If you are counting calories I think I would definitely stick to 1500-1600 given your stature already.