Weight was a life long struggle. As a teen and young adult I had been on every diet known to man and ended up 75 pounds overweight in the process despite following diets, pills, and exercise. My doctor discussed his carb conspiracy theory with me and I began a low carb diet 12 years ago and dropped the weight. I maintained a very healthy weight until I went on steroids for a medical condition and gained much of it back. And honestly, with the steroids, I stopped following the low carb plan and ate portions like Amy blogs about. I'm not sure who finds one serving of raisin bran filling.
I'm back on the low carb and while I admit that as a carb junkie, the first few days are the hardest, it is mostly the habit of reaching for the carbs that are hard to break. I look forward to getting back to a healthy weight and maintaining it. I wish other people would read the material as Amy suggests. It is enlightening.

Thanks for the eye-opening info! So far, I've been finding portion control works best for me: mindfully eating what I like in sensible amounts, as opposed to my old method of shoving any old junk food into my mouth so fast I barely tasted it. :-) I'm a Weight Watchers member, and I do my best to strike a good balance of necessary protein, fat, and good carbohydrates, e.g. fruit and vegetables (as opposed to bad carbs, e.g. too much candy and other junk food). I'm not saying I'm always perfect (who is?), but I've lost 22 pounds in the past 5 months, so I must be doing something right! :-)

Nice job Dorian and Kristen.

I feel like a fat slob b/c I put on 15 lbs this winter. I am purposefully wearing too-tight pants today (no worries, I'm not walking around with a muffin top but they feel tighter to me than I'd like) in order to constantly remind myself of my goal. I know it's because I am less active in the winter, and we are not grilling as much.

Baked tortellini on a snowy night? YES PLEASE!

And now I am paying my dues for being a fool. This morning I had two eggs with a slice of bacon, some spinach sauteed with the bacon and a very small sprinkle of cheddar. Now it's time for a protein drink (gotta feed my muscles...). Or maybe some nuts or yogurt (with fat). I hope this works Amy. I'm just going to follow the rough guidelines you suggest.

I hope that, in a month, I can say I lost 5 lbs.

I just wanted to add an anecdote. I've been cutting back on carbs (Amy convinced me). I have not lost drastic amounts of weight, due to a backslide over XMas, but my energy level is much higher, and a couple health problems I was having (minor but annoying ones) seem to be resolving themselves.

I have not cut out carbs completely. I have substituted dairy for seitan and tofu (Im a vegetarian which complicates this, no I'm not interested in a discussion about whether or not I should be a vegetarian). Having more dairy seems to be really working for me.

"If you send your children off to school on a breakfast of Frosted Flakes, you and your children have more problems than accurate serving size."

Last time I checked, there was milk in the bowl. Most young kids do not have weight problems either.

You know what else they put on the nutritional label? How big the serving sizes are.

If you haven't realized that yet, and you aren't still working on memorizing your multiplication tables for 3rd period math class, you are an idiot.

Changing the "approved" serving size doesn't change anything other than what idiots think about the food they're eating.

They have 100 calorie snack packs now in case you can't do math. Of course, if you think that 100 calorie snack packs will help you lose weight, I can get you a sweet discount on a few cases of "Full Bar."

Just eat one full bar and drink a glass of water, wait 20 minutes, and then eat your meal. You'll be amazed!

Gretchen, I wish it was only 15 for me, lol. This was very successful for me in the past with losing and maintaining and like I said, weight was always a struggle for me until I went no carb. Between being on steroids and going back to being a carb junkie, the weight did more than just creep on. Like Amy said, the carb cravings take awhile, but I'll take a bacon and egg breakfast or steak dinner over some tiny measured amount of diet cereal or a frozen low fat, diet, tasteless dinner any day especially when the result is weight loss and feeling good.

"I'm not sure who finds one serving of raisin bran filling."

And there's the winner: key is to redefine your eating habits so "full" is NOT your goal.

Serving size is amusing to me. What? A pint of Ben & Jerry's is four servings? Hah!

OK, I have a question, being a heavy protein eater who loves, loves, loves bacon...but can't eat it very often because of all the additives. They don't go so well with my system to consume on a regular basis. For example, smoke flavoring, nitrates, msg found in most bacons - all of which I seem to be highly sensitive to.

I buy TJ's bacon, the one without all the nitrates - but it is expensive...

Can anyone here suggest another brand that doesn't have a lot of the additives in it?

Gretchen, in September I started eating bacon and eggs cooked in bacon fat and sprinkled LIBERALLY with cheese and green chile for breakfast. Avocado with oil and vinegar and salt and pepper for lunch. Another meat and broccoli or asparagus for supper. Except I often am not hungry for supper any more. I pay no attention at all to calories; I just stay full.

I don't exercise much in the winter. I like moving around (gardening, swimming, etc.), but I DO NOT just exercise for the hell of it.

Anyway, as soon as I learned to unbrainwash myself about fat consumption (it helps me feel full and doesn't make me fat), I started losing weight. Thirty pounds so far.

And that's not all. No more hot flashes (I'm 50. Had 'em for years). No more digestive issues (gas, bloating, etc. Had those all my adult life). No more water retention. No more gnawing hunger.

I was totally convinced for years that this couldn't possibly work. I started because I knew (from long experience, including losing 40 pounds by intensive exercise and "eating sensibly", being miserable the whole time, and gaining it all back) that nothing else did, either, and Amy seemed like a sensible person who clearly had nothing to gain.

Now I'm happy not to be fat, but I'm so pissed off that so many other people are fat and unhealthy because of prescriptions by know-nothing professionals that they MUST eat a high carb diet to be thin. Also, it's very annoying to be regularly lectured that I'd be more healthy if I went back to my old way of eating.

That stinks, Feebie, the food sensitivity issue. The only place I would have suggested would have been TJ but saw that you said they were expensive.
And Rad, eating until satisfied would be a better way to put it, but again, the size of a serving of cereal does nothing for me. Gary Taub's book makes a lot of sense and I say that from the experience of someone who followed a low carb diet before I ever heard of Taub. It was my doctor years ago who said he believed the diet industry has a carb conspiracy. If you look at low fat items, the carb content goes up drastically. He felt, and I agree, that carbs are addicting. The more you eat, the more you crave. Its not as simplistic as that, but the evidence is in the books that were suggested.

Bacon is your friend (providing you aren't supplementing it with carbs, which should cause you to put on weight). If I eat a very low-carb diet (which I do), I am effortlessly very thin. Basically, I eat bacon, eggs, salad, green beans, asparagus, chicken, salmon, steak, steak, hamburger, steak, and liver. And cheese, cottage cheese, butter, and more cheese. And I snack on salami.

Why am I picturing you prowling across the African Savannah, on the hunt for a nice gazelle?

Changing the "approved" serving size doesn't change anything other than what idiots think about the food they're eating.

Actually it can have a impact. Food producers are not required to report anything that is less than a single gram. As an example, if you look at sugar free Cool Whip you will notice that it doesn't have any sugars per the nutritional label. However, if you look at the ingredients, it's main ingredient is corn syrup, it has more carbs than regular Cool Whip and its serving size is a teaspoon. When was the last time that you consumed only a teaspoon of Cool Whip/Whipped Cream?

When it comes to special diabetic, gluten free, or nut free food, the portion size has a great impact on one's ability to manage their health...especially for the very sensitive people. There are some idiots out there, but I also agree that there are food producers that are treading the line of false advertising and making the portion sizes so small that they don't have to report everything. That is a real concern.

-Julie

My wife and I exercise a lot. Then we can eat whatever we want. We're both fit as fiddles (at 45, mind you). Did you say "carbs"? What's that?

@Amy: another thing: Didn't you recently say that the AMA supports the current, carbaceous food pyramid?

Now, it appears, judging by comments on Free Republic (http://www.freerepublic.com), that the AMA is basically a leftist organization. And, I think that one thing that leftists like to do is to deliberately create an atmosphere of crisis, so that they and their government compadres can have an excuse to take over more and more of our lives.

Now, here's where I put on the ol' tinfoil. Isn't it possible that the AMA and their government compadres know damn well that low-carb diets are beneficial to us, but they continue to support the food pyramid, so that they can help push obesity to those crisis proportions that they need to successfully take over our dietary choices?

Being nothing, if not reasonably paranoid,

mpetrie98

I tried the "no carb" thing. I didn't even make it a week. I just don't understand what you guys are eating! I found myself constantly wanting snacky items (and I'm not a snacker, usually), and my little cheese bites and carrots just were not doing it. And my husband and I aren't really creative cooks, so by night three, I'd blown through my pasta-less repertoire. I can't cook steak (or bacon; I always burn it) and by the end of the week, I was starving.

How do ya'll do it? I'm not being sarcastic or snarky (I'm a pretty consistent poster), but the no-carb deal really flabbergasted me. Amy always makes it sound so easy, but I really had to struggle with it.

Feebie, I was able to find nitrate-free bacon at Costco while I was pregnant. Slightly more expensive than regular, but nowhere near as pricey as TJ's.

I have Crohns and struggle to maintain a decent body weight. When looking at a menu I go for all the high calorie foods but stay away from processed ones. It might sound like a dream come true, but the inability to keep pounds on is not a fun thing to deal with.

Thank you, mse!!!!

Anecdotally: At my old job, I generally skipped lunch and just snacked on something (good or bad). I drink coffee all day.

I started a new job, and to be social I was/am going out more for lunch. For a few days I was just hungry day and evening. It finally struck me that I was having soda with lunch. I go to unsweet iced tea and the hunger goes away.

Time to learn to cook cornerdemon. Practice makes perfect. A microwave cooks bacon easier than in a frying pan in my experience.

I read Taubes when Amy first recommended him and am in Week 6 of the Eades "Cure" (Amy you should be looking for some payback for the books you sell for these guys!) I'm 42, 5'3" and weighed 128 after xmas (purposely eating stuffing and cookies and potatoes, oh my!). Four weeks later I was at 115 and that's where I've been sitting since. And our workout room is in shambles right now as we renovate the basement. I think anyone with the classic "beer belly" shape (which wasn't me) would drop weight faster. More importantly, I've lost 2 inches on my waist and am back to the right hip/waist ratio and back into my regular jeans. (They aren't skinny jeans...the other ones are my "fat" jeans!)

And I'm just enjoying the leftover pizza I made last night...not a speck of flour in it. The only significant carbs come from the green pepper and the smear of tomato paste. I've developed a new found interest in cooking by seeing what favorite comfort foods I can find a low carb alternative for on the internet.

For anyone interested: http://lowcarbdiets.about.com/od/pizza/r/deepdishpizza.htm

BTW -- Eades has published recipe books...but don't buy any until after you've bought Amy's book!!!

Atkins worked very well for me a few years back - after the initial "I will strangle someone for a Dorito" phase. Great energy even through the usual 3Pm slump. All the Wendy's burgers I wanted, just toss the buns. Sadly, couldn't stay on it too long due to a health condition that contraindicates high protein intake.

Started Medifast's "5&1" program Jan. 1, lost 10 lbs in a little over a week, now down 20+ from my XMAS / hibernation high weight. Feels great to not be pushing that bowling ball around in front of me. Check it out! Good luck!

Cornerdemon: Try the cookbooks "Gourmet Nutrition I" and "II".

The recipes are backed by this eating philosophy very similar to Taubes/Eades, but also allows for varied lifestyles. It is also not so narrow minded to think that everyone's body responds identically. Everyone I've talked to has had success on it, when they DO IT. If you get into the Precision Nutrition system there are great message boards w/ more recipe ideas.

The recipes don't require you to have that much skill, and don't take tons of time. Think stuff like: chickpea curry and kung pao chicken. Doesn't taste diet-y b/c it's not. It's a little more low-fat than the stuff Amy ascribes to. Anyway, the cookbooks are on Amazon and they're worth investigating if you're stumped for food ideas and need a good resource. You can buy just the cookbooks w/o buying into the system and use Amy's book recommendations to supplement.

I have the knowledge. And the recipes. My problem is that I consciously choose to indulge.

I think that there is a place for carbs when used appropriately (e.g. as a quick source of energy for athletics and exercise). But I agree that the sources and proportions that are common in the American diet probably contribute to obesity. It's my impression that a lot of people develop a carb habit in their youth, when they're better able to metabolize carbohydrates, which catches up with them in their 30's or 40's.

My saving grace is that many carb sources and processed sugars make me feel sick when I eat more than a small portion. So I've never developed an affinity for them. This is probably one reason that at 40 I'm still the same weight that I had been in college.

I just came back from a week at an all-inclusive 5 star resort in the DR. I ate constantly all week, drank a few mojitos, and when I came back, I had actually lost 2 pounds. Very mysterious, non? Mystery is explained: All I ate was protein and vegetables, so lots of lobster, fish, meat, chicken, salads, green veggies, but NO bread, potatoes, sweets, and other simple or high glycemic no-nos.

Cornerdemon, I cook my bacon on the George Foreman, then use some of the fat to cook my eggs. I like it because I don't like my microwave to smell smoky, skillet bacon puts grease all over my kitchen, and oven bacon, while delicious, takes too long.

I also eat a lot of egg salad, tuna salad, chicken salad, pimento cheese...for that last, mix a little grated cheese with mayo, cream cheese, onion and jalapeno. Or celery. Then scoop onto celery.

As a side note, carrots are NOT low carb. If you crave the crunch, use celery.

Chrissy, I did the same thing about 6 years ago down in N'Awlins. I went with the solid intention of eating myself stupid and to gain ten pounds. Beignets and Cafe au Lait every 7:00 am at Cafe du Monde, bigger breakfast with everyone else (lazybones) at 10:00. Muffulettas at Corner Grocery almost every day. Dinner at whatever incredible restaurant we chose that night. This went on for seven days. When we came home, I'd lost 5 pounds. Hubby gained 6, sister gained 8. My glycemic no-no was the beignets covered in powdered sugar.

Lord, I miss those.....

Dinner tonight? Pot Pie with Venison Tenderloin and Bacon. Boo-ya Baby!!!

No fair, Juliana! Talking about Cafe DuMonde and muffulettas........

Thanks to Robin and Gretchen for the tips. Gretchen, I will look for those books, too... I like to look at cookbooks just for the fun of it anyway. I can cook, but for some reason, steak is beyond my skill and bacon... bacon has eluded me!

I didn't know you could do bacon the George Foreman! That actually sounds ideal - much better than the grease-poppin' skillet (my usual method).

Maybe I'll try the low-carb thing again...

Another thing to look at is home cooking Oriental recipes. I can bring a whole pan of General Tso's chicken in at less than 1800 calories -- and it tastes good.

That is enough to feed 4-5 people w/ leftovers.

Basically fry your protein, little flavor/sauce at the end. Then fry your vegetables add more sauce. When crisp tender, mix the meat back in. Side of rice and you're done.

I've listened to Taubes and really like him - thanks Amy! I'm not into following recipes, but just general principles. This low-carb idea has been a big paradigm shift for me - it's great! I don't need to lose weight, but wanted to just eat better and stop crashing under stressful workloads.

Now in week 6, my pants are getting pretty loose, and I feel like my motor's just humming along - more consistent energy all day. I am amazed how easy it's been to say no to all the cupcakes I get offered teaching elementary school! I just don't feel like eating them anymore.

As for nitrate-free - go to Whole Foods - I get turkey bacon that takes a minute in the microwave and eat that with a hard-boiled egg on the way out the door.

Amy - don't know if you've heard of this guy, but he complements Taubes on the science - really explains well the biochemistry of metabolizing fructose and how that's contributing to the obesity issue - 30% of it is stored as fat!!! His info has REALLY helped me say no to high-fructose corn-syrup:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM
Robert H. Lustig, MD, UCSF Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Endocrinology

I'd like to read up more about nitrates/nitrites - haven't had time.

Wondering if drinking more has to do with the body processing more protein. I don't drink coffee, but am drinking more water and herbal tea.

Hope you'll get a chance to listen to Lustig - I think you'll like him.

Earl, of course that bowl of frosted flakes has milk. And milk, contains sugar. Combine the two and you are ingesting an amount of sugar equal to two cans of Coke.

I didn't have weight problems as a child but all those frosted flakes came with a price once I hit my 30s. I sure wish my Mom had known then what she's figured out now.

Bah.

Staying fit is easy.

Eat lots of meat & fruit.
Drink juice & water aplenty.

Eat lots less of snickers and potato chips.
Drink lots less milk shakes & soda.

Get some exercise. Go bicycling, go walking, go swimming, go running, go lift weights, go do SOMETHING more significant than sitting.

Oh and yes, use some goddamned sense.

If something says 1/3 less fat...don't eat/drink 5 of whatever it is.

If you needed to be told any of that...you're probably already in trouble.

Combine the two and you are ingesting an amount of sugar equal to two cans of Coke.

I have always wondered why parents don't read those nutrition labels when they feed their kids. Or is it that they don't care?

I actually had very weird eating habits as a kid. When I was still on baby food, I hated the kind with meat in it. I'd eat all the vegetable ones except green beans. I was notorious at school for not eating the main dish and going straight for the veggies (we had real ones in addition to mashed potatoes and tater tots). My biggest issue was with not eating enough protein. Where other parents had to fight their kids to eat their vegetables, I would eat all of my Brussels sprouts and leave the hamburger. Becoming a vegetarian at 16 actually made eating so much easier on me, because I could get other sources of protein. I know it's not as good as eating animal proteins, but now I at least pay close attention to how much I am getting, and I get it from different sources. And, NicoleK, I have found that the Gardein brand of fake meat products are the best. They actually taste good, as opposed to all those meatless hamburgers out there that taste like they came from my garbage disposal. Try the "chicken" tenders, with a little browned butter with sage and some veggies. Delicious!
By the way, I am not a vegetarian for any moral reasons. I wish like hell I could eat meat without gagging, because it is by far the best source of protein and iron, which we vegetarians tend to struggle with.

On a completely off-topic note, Girl Scout cookies came in today...

And I'm with Amy on the eating out. Restaurants and take-out tend to be more cost-effective for me than pre-prepared frozen meals (although I do like the Amy's [no relation] brand of frozen vegetarian meals) because I get at least two meals out of it, usually three. My treasured Ma Po Tofu from P.F. Chang's (seared tofu with broccoli in a spicy sauce) lasts at least that long. I know the "science" says it's better to have pre-counted calories, but I've done some counting on my restaurant food (nutrition info provided on request at most places, then divided by how many meals I get out of it) and what I cook for myself (including butter and olive oil), and I usually come out about the same or less because of leftovers. And because I'm eating real food as opposed to low-fat, tasteless food.

On a slightly different note, I just do not get "diet" desserts. What is the point of eating something that will most likely not taste as good as you are expecting just so you can have something sweet? I have a killer sweet tooth, but I often go without if the only thing available is diet (the only diet I do is Diet Coke). I had a recommended serving of low-cal, low-fat cookies one time and I was willing to set my grandmother on fire for an Oreo. But I can have something with real butter and real chocolate and I only eat a little bit and am very satisfied. Moral of the story... eat real food, you'll feel better.

Feebie, the only thing I can suggest is to find a slaugterhouse where you can buy meat fresh off the carass

cornerdemon, I dont generally endorse products but go one amazon and lok at a thing called flavorwave - I got mine for 40 bucks, frozen steaks cooked to medium rare in less than 20 minutes

I'm going to try and use it to cook a small turkey as my oven kind of burnt out and partitally exploded.

Most expensive mouse trap ever, but at least the little fucker is dead

http://thisiswhyyourefat.com/

Just thought I'd pass along this link:
Low-Carb Luxury - This site has been around for... gosh, nearly 10 years, I think. Lots of good articles, and lots of kick-ass recipes (lookin' at you, Cornerdemon :-) ).

OMG Karen, I've seen that website before. I could feel my arteries harden just looking at it!

I was on Atkins a few years ago and lost 60 lbs. Then, I got lazy and went off, and gained that back and some more (I blame the fact that we have way too many good microbrews around here). I'm back on now, and I can tell you for a fact that if I eat a carb heavy meal, I'm starving two hours later, but if I stick to protein, I can go all day on an omelette and some bacon, and I feel a lot better.

Oh, and if you haven't read Taubes book, do - it's really, really good.

Amy, thank you for blogging about Taubes and Eades and all of them. This is going to be long, but I want you to appreciate the positive impact you've had on my health.

I always thought my weight was a lost cause. I knew I could never cut down to a low-fat all grain diet like my sister. Point counting left me irritated and hungry. My fiance started Nutrisystem and the food was gross and I was always hungry. Nutrisystem is really, really icky. I resigned myself to being a fat bride for our wedding at the end of this year.

But after reading Taubes and Eades about the low-carb thing I knew I could do that. All the real food I could eat. It was a little difficult to give up my 2liter a day Mtn Dew habit and harder to give up bread (I still love bread. It's the perfect carrier for butter).

But in four weeks I've dropped a pant size and 5% of my body fat. I've never felt better in my life. No winter itchies, no winter doldrums, no sleeping problems. I'm completely sated at every meal (and sometimes skip one or two without noticing). I'm losing weight faster than my low-fat grain eating sister. My fiance eyes my plateful of steak and peppers longingly while he makes his nutrisystem crap-in-a-cup. And I'm amazed out how easy this whole "diet" thing is. I really will be able to do this for the rest of my life.

There's still a ways to go. I still have at least another 15% body fat to lose to get down to my ideal range. But I won't be a 200lb bride. And I won't be adding to that weight for the rest of my life.

So thanks Amy. You make a difference (as if you had any doubts).

I can tell you for a fact that if I eat a carb heavy meal, I'm starving two hours later, but if I stick to protein, I can go all day on an omelette and some bacon, and I feel a lot better.

Ann, I read a while back (cannot for the life of me remember where, sorry) that even if you don't give up carbs, if you eat protein with them, you will be full longer. So instead of eating toast in the morning, eat it with bacon or cheese. Your body digests the protein first and then the carbohydrates, leaving you full longer on smaller portions. However, there are studies that suggest it's bad for your digestion to eat a protein and a starch at the same time. I haven't vetted the studies, so I don't yet know if this is accurate, but it does slow down starch digestion to eat a protein at the same time, so you will be full longer than on a starch alone.
Obviously, it is better to cut out the starches altogether, but if you must have some, put some bacon on it. Moral of this story...bacon is good for you!

I had to share:

http://store.dieselsweeties.com/collections/bacon-is-a-vegetable

-Julie

On most matters Miss Alkon, I find I agree with you.

But science is predicated upon testable facts, which are themselves the product of logical questions.

The logical question however, which is to say the RIGHT question in this case, is to often simply not asked.

For one thing, when it comes to things that say: "1/3 less fat" oh I'm sure you're right on the money when you say they've probably replaced the fat with sugar.

But that knowledge wouldn't even be necessary if someone asked the right question in the first place:

"If they had to make something with 1/3 the fat as the original...just how much 'worse' was the original...and is this one likely to be any better, or just better disguised?'

A little suspicion goes a long way.

Don't think of my previous statements as advice...truth be told it was more like an idle rant.

My quality of health is far far better than average.

I drink loads of juice, ideally I prefer to make it myself...its one of the few things I can do in a kitchen without having the fire department visit. Nothing like the taste of fresh fruit anyway. Beyond that my diet is highly carnivorous and my lifestyle very active.

Oh I don't have the scientific explaination, but truth be told a good bit of what you've mentioned is what I do, albeit in my case it was more accidentally right than planned out, I've always said that results speak louder than theory. And in my case the results, are quite indisputable.

What Amy said.

If you decide to give if up juice for straightforward, best-case dietary reasons –which a friend with a degree in nutrition strongly recommends– then you'll find there are other good reasons to do so...

Commercial juices really have lost their voodoo sex-flavor over the last few years... It's not just your imagination, and it's not just the corn sweeteners.

*****Ann, I read a while back (cannot for the life of me remember where, sorry) that even if you don't give up carbs, if you eat protein with them, you will be full longer.*****

I've read that too. The problem is, I'm SERIOUSLY affected by carbs - the last time I did Atkins (I do the '72 version, not the "newer, more carb-friendly" one) my maintenance level was 20 carbs PER DAY. Yeah, I'm that sensitive. So, I'm really careful what I "spend" my carbs on. It's just a good thing I'm a complete carnivore. Oh, and I discovered my local Mexican restaurant bottles its homemade green chile (OMG IS IT GOOD) and it's 12 carbs per serving, and it's a generous serving at that. http://www.consueloschile.com/ Get the hot - you won't be sorry! I think I just died and went to carnivore heaven. :D

More food for thought:

http://video.tiscali.it/canali/truveo/88656043.html

A reminder that the Atkins diet was not designed for weight loss. It was designed to eliminate the infarction, which seems to be a 20th Century thing with high sugar high carb diets. Atkins was a cardiologist. The problem with carbs are they produce glucose which causes your system to produce a lot of insulin, which deposits glucose as body fat, and also floods your system which eventually causes diabetes by your body developing resistance to your own diabetes.

Low carb diets not only reduce glucose but actually clean out your veins and arteries. This has unexpected side effects. The male erectile system works on copious flow of blood though the male organ, with the system reducing the outflow when properly "motivated", thus inflating it.

Viagra is necessary for many men for the same reason high carbs clogs arteries and kills with heart attack.

I am hypoglycemic, and wish I could eat 20 grams of carbs a day like Ann. :) But, after a four years on the diet, which corresponds to Phase One of Atkins, my "pointer" now is absolutely horizontal when properly motivated, and I am 67 years old.

Another note. Some studies have shown in the presence of a high quantity of protein, some people's systems convert protein to glucose, which for the hypoglycemics can cause serious problems.

I do not think Atkins itself is especially important. The book Amy recommends sounds like a good choice. In my opinion, Atkins was for people who need stuff spelled out in great detail.

The whole point is to reduce carbs, and for those who must reduce it dramatically, add supplements for the minerals and vitamins and fiber we usually get from carbs.

The Eskimos traditionlly had no source of carbs in the winter. They knew to eat certain organs of the animals they killed to eat, to get vitamins and minerals.

I use the Equate for Centrum Silver, because it has low Vitamin A.

Atkins was designed for weight loss - he used himself as the first "guinea pig". And yeah, irlandes is right in that if you need directions Atkins can be particularly helpful, but most people can figure this out on their own. And I can't remember exactly, but I know Taubes talks about Atkins in his book and he does make the argument that you can get everything you need without eating carbs.

Robert, were you ever fat and tired? Or have you always been reasonably athletic? Because Taubes, whom I have been lucky enough to see speak at the Missou School of Life Sciences and to the Boone County MO Medical Association, talks about something called "fuel partitioning." Naturally slim and athletic folks, he says, have bodies that shunt most of their calories into immediate energy production, with the result that they have a lot of energy to burn off, and feel like going out to run or play b-ball or whatever. Those who naturally gain easily and are not athletic shunt most of their calories into storage, leading not only to weight gain, but to hunger and fatigue, since the body isn't left sufficient calories for immediate energy. In other words, people aren't skinny because they're athletic, they're athletic because they're skinny.

The point of a low carb diet is that by dramatically reducing circulating insulin levels, it minimizes calorie storage as fat, and allows the body to access stored fat for fuel. This not only results in weight loss, but a dramatic increase in energy -- which in turn encourages the newly-energetic low carber to get up and move around.

I can assure you that this low carber, at 51, with nearly 15 years of low carbing behind her, has vastly more energy than she did at 15. And is in better shape.

As for all that fruit and juice, fructose appears to be uniquely fattening, and further, it's damned hard on your liver; it can induce non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. Also raises triglycerides like nothing else. You may -- at least at this point -- have a robust enough metabolism to tolerate it, but that doesn't make it a great idea.

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