:raises hand:
I’ve been on the Atkins program for over three years. I lost the majority of the weight (about 65 lbs) in the first year, and have been maintained the loss for over two years (give or take a few lbs). It’s not for everyone, but it works for me. I didn’t really start exercising until after I lost the weight.
I’m doing a slightly modified version of the slimfast diet with exercise 3-4 times a week. No major results yet in terms of weight, but the exercise is getting easier and I’m only really in my second week.
It’s going to be a gradual thing, which is what I want.
This is what worked for me: Eat small, balanced meals, avoid alcohol, and work out as though your life depends on it.
I counted calories for a couple months, until I got a pretty good handle on what my intake was. I eat 3 meals a day, but keep them relatively small. ALOT of fresh fruits & veggies, not so much fatty stuff (if anything I eat has fat in it, it’s cheese). It seems like I’m constantly eating, but my total calorie intake for the first half of the day adds up to around 500, which leaves me around 1000 to work with for my 3rd meal (I also blow a couple hundred calories on wine - gotta have my wine!).
It’s important not to starve yourself because your metabolism will ultimately slow down and it will make it much more difficult to lose weight. Keep your food intake fairly regular so your body doesn’t think it’s starving, just keep the calories low. Snack alot on low-calorie stuff. Don’t skip meals. I started noticing that when I skipped meals, my weight tended to stay the same for much longer and didn’t start to drop again until I started eating more regularly.
I try to stay within 1,500 calories a day. I also make an effort to burn at least 500 calories a day. This is where alot of people have problems because most people I talk to who are trying to diet don’t have time, or won’t make time, to exercise. I have a cheap membership at a local gym and I spend close to 2 hours a day there - mostly cardio because that’s where you burn the most calories, but also some weights to build up muscle.
My original goal when I started this “diet” was to lose 20 pounds. Now I’ve lost around 13 pounds, but I’ve also gained alot of muscle where I used to have fat so I’m actually pretty close to my target body image, even if I’m still above what I thought was my target weight. (the fact that my BF gets a hard-on when I walk in the room helps reinforce this idea)
It’s also important to remember that weight is completely relative. I have a close friend who is the same weight as me - actually a couple pounds lighter normally, she’s also the same height, but she’s got a lot more body fat, and less muscle mass, than I’ve got because she rarely works out.
Finally (I know, enough already!), it’s unhealthy to lose more than a couple pounds in a week. You’re also much more likely to gain the weight back if you go on that type of a diet. Weight that is lost more gradually will tend to stay off.
Be healthy!
I just poste about this in the MPSIMS thread.
I am on the “Body for Life” Plan, and what you have said here is pretty much the gist of it. Although, I would call BFL moderate carbs, not low carbs. I am supposed to eat 6 small meals a day (although it usually winds up being 5), avoid as much fat as I can, and I workout 6 days a week.
My six daily meals usually consist of:
one or two Myoplex shakes
A tuna salad (tuna, egg whites, pickles, and fat free mayo) on whole wheat
steamed brown rice and steamed chicken breast
a 50-50 mix of fat free fruit yogurt and fat free cottage cheese
The deal is to get something from the “carb list” and something from the “protein list” in every meal.
I also get one free day a week to eat whatever I want. I had wings and cheese fries on saturday night 
My workout is a combination of strength training and cardio. I do 50% cardio and alternate upper and lower body strength workouts around that. So, my week looks something like this:
Monday: upper body strentgh
tuesday: cardio
wed: lower body strength
thurs: cardio
friday: upper body stregth
saturday: cardio
etc.
I last weighed myself (before yesterday) around 6 weeks ago. I have been doing the BFL plan full on for 3 weeks now (had been kind of half-assing it before then), I weighed myself yesterday and I have dropped 19 pounds so far. and I am starting to see some definaition in my arms and shoulders. So, I think that in addition to the 19 pounds lost, I’ve had some fat–>muscle transformation going on too.
I’ve been on the Atkins diet for some time now. I lost 35 pounds immediately, and I could lose more if I’d go back to exercising. Instead, I’m stuck at 180. Just stuck there. Not gaining, not losing. I could stand to lose another 15-20.
Anyway, many people are scared of the Atkins diet because it’s contrary to everything we’ve been told growing up.
Problem is, this nation keeps getting heavier and heavier. The food pyramid has not worked well. There’s lots of reasons for this. One belief is that people become addicted to carbs. I know I was. You might be too. Do you eat big pasta meals or other carb-loaded meals and still crave dessert and candy afterwards? That’s a big sign.
Another problem is that it doesn’t warn against too much flour and sugar, which are unhealthy for the body when taken in the quantities most Americans consume them.
The Atkins diet works for people who stick with it, from what I’ve seen. And, nobody’s proven it unhealthy. But, Americans are unhealthy these days sticking to the traditional diet proposed by most nutritionists.
I never got the concept of “the <x> diet”. If you eat a certain number of calories, fewer than your metabolic rate, you’ll lose weight. What’s the big deal? It doesn’t really matter if its cabbage, corn, eggs, meat, whatever, the principle is all the same. The trick would just be to find something satisfying that is low in calories and fat.
The nutrient content of what you eat would certainly affect your health in a variety of ways, but is it not the calories themselves which determine whether you gain or lose?
I did Weight Watchers three years ago and lost about 75 pounds (250 -> 175), with no real effort. Since then, I’ve gained back about 10 pounds, which I consider successful. That plan is basically just a low fat, high fiber, roughly approximated calorie-counting plan, which should have steady gains over time.
In addition to keeping religiously to the point system (tracking every single thing I ate), I didn’t even buy anything at the grocery store that was remotely bad. So when I was weak (of mind), there was never any ice cream or cookies to eat and make me depressed about “cheating”. I also gave up breakfast, since it gave me a lot more points for the other two meals. But that won’t work if you’re really hungry, I suppose.
Pregnancy has worked for me. I’ve lost four kilos in two months. Why not give it a try? 
Also cutting out meat has helped I think. But I’m not saying anyone should do that if they don’t want to.
More than anything, cutting down on snacks and drinking more fluids (mostly milk and OJ because I hate water) has been the main factor though.
And don’t forget to exercise!
I was diagnosed as being diabetic Dec. 3, 2001. I weighed 240 lbs., it looked like a had a beer belly even though I don’t drink beer. My blood pressure was high, had been for several years. After witnessing the fatal effects of diabetes on friends, families and even celebrities, I was determined to correct this problem.
In three months, or by march of this year I had lost 65 lbs. At that point I as well as my physician decided I should stabilize my weight. As of today I am still a lean 175 lbs. My blood pressure is normal, I have reduce my medication in half and I feel better than I have in years.
The key factors in reducing my wieght are:
Determination, motivation and discipline
Excercise - not alot - 10 minutes each evening, crunches & pushups mostly
Watch calories yes - around 1500 or slightly less, but increase some according to how much excercise you do and to stabilize
Cut out all non diet sodas - I couldn’t stand diet sodas, but now they taste great, I don’t miss the reg. cokes at all
Watch total carbohydrates - stay around 60 - 75 per meal
Regular eating habits - three meals per day at about the same time each day - if you get hungry between lunch and dinner or dinner and bedtime eat a small snack. Such as - 5 saltines with peanut butter, tortilla chips and salsa, small apple or orange, etc.
Stick to mostly white meat - red meat is harder to digest, this doesn’t mean cut out all red meat, just eat less of it
Occupy your mind and avoid temptation
The first two weeks were the roughest, but after that it has been very easy. Another thing you may consider is trying all vegetable meat substitutes, veggie burgers, veggie chicken patties - some are quiet good. Soy milk is a good substitute for whole milk but doesn’t always work with recipes when cooking, i.e. instant pudding.
I hope this helps, I had tried other diets before but this has worked and continues to do so.
Finally - above all else - believe in yourself and your ability to do what you want to do.
My diet is called BBD…no Bread in the house, no food before Bed, and Diet soda. I’ve gone from 241 to 213 in about 2 1/2 months. I still eat alot of crap, but I stick to BBD.
I lost 140 pounds by doing the good old math problem diet (calories in - calories burned = +/- weight). It was rather simple, really. I just started drinking diet sodas, cut way, way back on fried foods, chips, and thick greasy slabs of meat, and started weighing fairly frequently to make sure the trend keeps going down or stays level. Oh, and I work my ass off (literally, in this case) every day, that helps alot. People with sedentary jobs would do well to get a lot of exercise.
So, basically, eat healthy food choices in reasonable quantities, and get sufficient exercise. Easy as pie. (er… easy as rice cake?)
I lost ~50 pounds with a combination of a low fat diet and excercise.
Basically, I set a weekly goal for my intake of fat calories, and kept track of my daily intake in a log. Anything nonfat, I ate as much as I wanted. I was able to set the goal progressively lower as the diet went on as I found more and more low and non fat substitutes for foods I liked.
As for the excercise, it was basically just a half hour jog, which I did pretty regularly about 5 times a week, and lifting weights and crunches, which I did 2-3 times a week.