The one thing I'll say about the Atkins diet is that I've never met anyone who has resumed a normal diet and kept the weight off]The one thing I'll say about the Atkins diet is that I've never met anyone who has resumed a normal diet and kept the weight off

But that's not the diet. The diet intends you to keep eating like that. What do you think Atkins does?

My parents are on that diet, and plan to stay on it for the rest of their lives. My dad lost 80+ pounds on it.

Once you get down to your target weight, you have to balance out. My parents, when balancing, do eat a lot of meat and high protein foods, but they also eat greens. You can eat healthy, just not what people tend to think of as healthy. Like someone said, people don't usually think of fat being good for you, but it's the carbs that do it. If you eat a lot of carbs, then the fat isn't good for you.

Also, every once and a while, my parents cheat on the diet. They'll have a 3 day business trip or two, and at the company dinners they'll eat some bread and other carb foods, but then they'll follow the diet more strictly for a week or so before balancing out again.

Honestly, with all the negativity the diet has gotten, as usual it was not very well informed.

• For one, people would just decide to go on it. That can be risky. You may be pre-disposed to something adverse to the diet.
• Some people don't read up on how to do it. My girlfriend's roommate just up and decided to do it, but didn't read up on it. It's not as simple as,"drop the breads and sugars and eat lots of meat." There's more to it.
  

The fact is, my parents have regular doctors checkups. My mom has a slight form of diabetes, and her doctor admits that the diet, and the diet alone has helped keep it in check. They don't suffer the side effects, and are, without a doubt, better off than if they didn't loose the weight.

Oh, and my dad only has one kidney