Hi, I'm still here and still following Atkins. I have lost 15 pounds in just about 6 months, but my husband and I ate out last week and I saw a pound or so come back after that. It's always dangerous to eat out, I find. I'm at about 40g carbs daily (total--I'm doing Atkins '92, which does not subtract fiber), and I think that is close to my critical carbohydrate level for losing. As long as I stick to plan, I stay in ketosis and my hunger is well suppressed, so that I don't overeat. I generally eat about 1300 calories per day. I still have quite a few pounds that I need to lose, but I am looking at this as a total lifestyle change. I imagine it will take me a complete year or more to lose all the weight I have set for my goal. I started at 152, was 137 at my lowest--probably 138 right now due to the date night--and my goal is, I think, 119. We'll see as I get closer to that. I am a 5'2.5" tall, 40 year old woman. I'd love to have an Atkins buddy on this forum. So far, I haven't come across anyone else following this way of eating. I imagine an allergy to eggs would make things difficult, but you can do other proteins and fats, right? Best wishes to you. I hope to see you here often.

The Atkins Diet has been around for a long time now. The Protein Power Plan is the one DH and I are doing; it is a modified version of Atkins. We can have up to 10 carbs a meal along with our minimum protein requirements which you figure from a equation chart the book has. We stay away from flour (white especially), potatoes (I bake potatoes, take out the pulp except for about 1/4 along the sides, butter and call them potato skins. Use butter and some non transfat margarines. We eat green beans, broccoli, cauliflower, zucchini as our other vegetables along with lots of salads which I love. I love cheesecake so make these using several varietions I have picked up on the LowCarb Friends site. I use Splenda, 1/3 less fat cream cheese, sour cream and for cream I use Hood's Carb Countdown milk which is really rich tasting. I love the Chocolate flavor. DH has cereal most mornings using Special K low carb variety with the Hood's milk. Atkins has a cereal I like Morning Start Crunchy Almond Crisp. I buy the Special K at Wal-Mart but most of the Atkin's stuff I can find at Big Lot's, etc for lot's less money!! Found a Total Protein Low Carb cereal when I was at Big Lot's Tuesday along with Atkins corn muffin mix which I will need as it is getting cooler weather and soup time. I am waiting for someone to come along with a good low carb cracker!!! We eat pork cutlets, talapia fish, tuna, salmon or beef and chicken in some form most midday and evening meals along with a vegetable and salad. No bread except for some low carb I keep for french toast, regular toast and a sandwich now and then. If we can't have the real thing we can do with out bread easily. I have done Weight Watcher's, TOPS, Protein Power Plan in the past and the programs are as good as the person using them. If you stick with the guidelines they are all going to work. Doing PP/low carb is sure easier now that it was 5 years ago when we were on it due to all the low carb options now when you go to the grocery store-- but not all of the low carb options are that great-- taste wise. We are better off sticking to the basics but if you can't have the "real deal" the low carb items out there help. I switched from WW to PP because DH is diabetic and wanted to try to get his blood levels back in line--it really helped when we were on it 5 years ago but we slowly drifted off and his sugar levels drifted back up along with both of our cholesterol and trigliceride levels. He is on Lipitor which I sure hope he can get off of--don't like the side effects of most meds. Exercise, Water and Portion Control are stressed on PP as well as most other programs I have been on and is a real Key to success! Susy/Missouri

Week II in Hi-Energy (post "Detox"): Yesterday was my "first service" visit to the Gilbert, AZ office. (Btw, the contract states you have until 7 days or within 3 days of the first service date to cancel the program, whichever comes first.) Interviewed by a counselor regarding my first week of "Detox" whom when asked admitted to no credentials relating to nutrition, dieting or any medical field. After explaining the program guide booklet and selecting my food choices for purchase ($148.69--I bought extra boxes to accomadate food choices), she administered a 10-lead electrocardiogram. I learned this is a 5 and 1 program where I eat six (6)times a day. Five (5) times with their "Medifast" food and one (1) time, i.e. dinner from my home refrigerator. Dinner, or "Lean & Green", in one sentence is basically any lean meat, e.g., fish, chicken, pork, turkey, lamb and so on. You can go meatless with eggs. The "Green" is broken down chartwise into a low, moderate and highest carb count listing from their guide. Bottom line: After listening to the counselors about taking the upcoming urine test for Ketones, studying the guide and the Medifast food boxes, the Hi-Energy program offered here in Arizona--is the very same Medifast program offered online, or what is is offered at any Medifast facility (e.g. Texas). Online, you are offered an opportunity to start a franchise or join the program. See the link: http://www.medifast1.com/index.asp and you will know "Hi-Energy." Everything is there to include the program guides and food information. However, the this rabbit hole goes even deeper. These programs work by spilling ketones, or more simply put, changing the body metabolism to primarily burning fat stores in leiu of carbohydrates. At the deepest depth of this rabbit hole--you will find Robert C. Atkins, M.D. He wrote a #1 best seller called: "Dr. Atkins' New Diet Revolution" 2002 latest edition for $7.99. May he rest in peace. I own this book and lost 20 pounds on the Atkins diet serveral months ago. I've kept off the weight because my girl-friend who does the cooking always has presented my dinners with lean and green! Btw, a prevailing media misconception of Atkins is that there are no carbs on this diet. Actually, the first week "limits" carbs to 20 grams to induce ketosis, and thereafter to around 40 grams per day. If you look at carb gram counts in different foods-you will notice this is an abundance of food. It's dark in this hole . . . let me get my flashlight out . . . alias Hi-Energy at $924.00 plus food, or the Atkins book at $7.99 plus the frig and sensible grocery shopping? Here is a link that might be useful: Medifast is Hi-Energy

I bake all the bread, rolls, etc that we consume in our home and that way I can better regulate what goes into them. I do eat some bread, but if I wish to drop the excess weight, then I have to be careful. Home baked bread is sooooo tempting, especially hot from the oven and with butter on the counter.. LOL I eat oatmeal with blueberries nearly every day. And I eat fish at least 2-3 times a week. I love sardines, so that can be a meal for me while hubster eats a burger with all the trimmings,french fries and washes it down with a huge glass of milk... then a generous serving of ice cream just before bed... and he is soooooooooooo painfully thin... Gahhhh.. but he is pretty healthy for 82 and that is a blessing.. I think incorporating walking is a huge differnce in how I lose the weight and tone my body.. and I am so completely addicted to walking especially here in these beautiful woods and country roads.. it is to me like paradise.. Trouble with me is that I will set out with the dogs and we will walk 3 or 4 miles out and I sort of tend to forget we gotta walk back that same amount.. More than once hubster has had to come and get me because it got dark out and I still wasn't back.. he worries because of my heart condition.. but I don't.. cuz I know he will come and get me.. Carolyn