Rating: 
Summary: An inspiration and a miracle for me. Should be ten stars!
Review: I cannot tell you how much this book changed my life. Since hitting my mid-20's, I had begun to put on weight. Please note that I was a fitness fanatic. I lifted weights, rode a bike for an hour every day in addition to doing hundreds of calistenic exercises. Regardless of the hours of working out I did every week, I could not get rid of the extra weight. I had followed the conventional nutritional advice by avoiding fats (like the plague) and loading up on the low-fat carbs. This did nothing to reduce the size 36 waist I had aquired over these years. And little did I know that I was heading down the road to being a diabetic. I began the Atkins prorgam in December of 1998. In three months, I lost 30 pounds. People that had not seen me for a while saw me at my sister's wedding in April of '99 and hardly recognized me. These were family members, mind you! It has been almost three years now and I have to say, I'm 35 years old and wear size 31 jeans like I did when I was 19! I've never regretted one minute of it all. Every day I eat a jumbo omelette loaded with cheese bacon or ham. I eat lots of steak and snack on whipped cream! Talk about heaven! I've completely given up pasta and the pounds of potatoes that I used to eat. I don't even crave that stuff anymore. The biggest thing though is that, with the weight loss came a self confidence long forgotten. I had persued a dream; authored and starred in a video called Tao of Golf (...) and even hosted my own TV show in New England. I have recently completed another video on self defense for police officers and am in the process of making several more videos on golf. The point here is, without losing the weight, I would've never found the motivation or confidence to go up against the "big shots." (My golf swing training system is an example. It teaches the swing without all the un-needed technical junk. Like Dr. Atkins' book, it's simple and WORKS) If you're stuck in a diet rut, give Doc Atkins two weeks to turn your life around like he did for me. You will not regret it!!
Rating:
Summary: This diet really works!
Review: It took me a while to start this diet because after I had read the book, I was unsure if this was the healthy way to go. To be honest with you, I am not a very successful dieter. I am addicted to carbohydrates. I put this diet on hold and tried other diets like Weight Watchers (which is high in carbs). Weight Watchers didn't really work for me. I'd lose very little and if I even cheated a bit, I'd gain it all back quickly.I finally was desparate enough to try the Atkins diet. I could not believe it! I lost 15 lbs within the first two weeks and have been losing weight ever since. I eat more vegetables than I ever did. Even though I can have cream and butter on this diet, I don't go crazy with it. I grill my meats and steam my veggies. I don't ever feel hungry, in fact I lost my appetite. It is almost like the carbs I was eating before would increase my appetite. Now that I hardly have any carbs, I am not hungry. I am not saying that my carb cravings are gone because I still dream of eating a hot cinnamon roll. I don't think there is anything in the world that can ever make me stop craving this. All in all, this diet gives me the quick results I need that motivates me to stick to this diet.
Rating:
Summary: Follow the rules and wear old clothes
Review: Detailed and verbose outline and instruction for attaining that new (or long forgotten) size you wish. We practiced the diet as an office "challenge" and the weight loss varied from 5 to 15 pounds within the first three weeks. It's not for everyone as discipline and attention to diet is critical. There have been review about the health concerns regarding this diet - just drink lots of water, take your vitamins and don't cheat and you'll do fine - at least we did.
Rating: 
Summary: This diet is too hard for me to follow
Review: I've read this book and tried to follow Atkin's advice, but for me this dies is just too boring to follow. I also didn't lose much weight on his diet, either, I believe it probably has more to do with the fact that I can't tolerate a diet in the things he recommends. I've read his support of his diet, and while it does make sense, on the other hand I'm still very leery of his advice. I suppose I could go get a blood test done to see if what he says is accurate, but this would have been while I was on his diet. I would have to say that I really believed this diet would be for me, but unfortunately there are many things he says not to eat that I like to eat. I will admit that his diet is what got me back to eating vegetables again, as I wouldn't really eat them before this. His advice makes sense because humans are technically carnivores, otherwise we wouldn't have our eyes facing forward like almost all carnivores do. I also realize the problem with carbohydrates, especially sugars, that we have is because sugar was not found very often in nature by hunter-gatherers, but in our society today it's plentiful, and just because it is plentiful doesn't mean that one can just turn off the switch for sugar cravings. I always take all diet advice with a grain of salt. Something that works for one person doesn't necessarily work for another. I lost very little weight on his diet, but have heard from others how well this diet works, especially for men. While trying to follow his diet turned out to be beneficial for me in other ways in the end, as I have been trying for a long time to learn to like vegetables, I would have to say that if it doesn't work for you, don't feel bad. It's not the advice that's bad, but just that the diet isn't what you need. So even though this didn't work for me, I still find this a well-written book and a good guide for anyone who can follow Atkin's diet.
Rating:
Summary: Hard to live with in the long run...
Review: The Atkins diet is a good way to loose weight. It is NOT nearly as easy as Dr. Atkins claims. You can't eat all you want & lose weight when you get closer to your goal. He exagerrates alot in his book but it does work better than most other diets with less hunger. However, after observing friends, family & hundreds of comments from the low carb message boards for 3 years it apparently is just too hard to stick to in the long run. I don't know ANYONE who has kept the weight off because it was just too hard to resist carbohydrates especially during holidays, stress, ect. It has been so disappointing to see all the former Atkins cheerleaders looking so great & preaching low carb, only to see them gain it all back & more eventually. I include myself in this observation. And the real killer is when you try it again it never works as good as the first time so they give up. It just isn't fun anymore without the motivation of faster weight loss. I will probably always try to keep my sugar & bread consumption lower but I find that I am less likely to binge when I make all foods "legal". I was obsessed with chocolate until I did this. All the low carb alternatives to sweets out there just made me want the real thing. They taste horrible, are loaded with artificial ingredients & are higher in carbs than they claimed. I think the reason so many Americans (not all!) are very obese is there mental attitude not a "carb addiction". When you are truly happy with yourself you won't turn to food when your husband, boyfriend, wife,ect hurts your feelings. Or when your job is very stressful. After three years I've heard all the excuses for overeating,cheating on the diet, I've been there & it sure feels great to just be happy with myself now & not turn to food for comfort or distraction. It never helped me feel better anyway. Do what works for you & makes you happy. :)
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Summary: weight loss... use common sense.
Review: In order to effectively make use of this book, you must ask yourself a question: Which is healthier, lugging around 4 gallon jugs of extra milk on your gut, or not? (roughly equivalent to losing 40 pounds)... which is what I did, through this diet... I was able to lose the weight, and keep it off.. We are omnivores, in essence. We are not meant to consume meat alone. Enjoy a steak, enjoy an egg, enjoy a salad.. but lay off the buttered popcorn and gummi bears and M&M's. What started me on this "health kick" was dating a girl with such a Toned Body that it made me feel guilty not being as toned... see this diet as a portal. Exercise. Get off the couch. This book can help you to do that; every "diet" requires motivation... here's one that commands it of you without starvation.
Rating: 
Summary: Seen It Work, But At What Price?
Review: I'll be the first to agree that obesity takes a terrible toll on the body,so a diet that actually works shed these pounds off is actually doing something positive for the overall system of the dietee. I will also admit that the diet has worked wonders for several people I know personally. What actually amazes me is that they feel great and the cholesterol level has actually dropped signficantly after being on the diet for several months. My personal experience with the diet, along with some common sense, however, tells me there is something awfully askew with this program. They claim the first few days of the diet are the toughest, but once you get through it, youre home free. Well...I couldnt even get through the first few days. I like eggs, bacon, steak, lobster, etc. just as much as the next foodaholic, but jeez after two days of this I couldnt get the stench of the fat oozing out of my system. Never mind that no matter how much food I ate, I still felt incomplete not being able to eat a peach, or an orange, and there comes a point when you just say to yourself "dammit I want a piece of bread"! I need to lose about 20 lbs to reach my ideal weight, and I have no doubt that adhering to the Atkins concept will help me get there, but the emotional as well as physical dangers of consuming gobs of saturated fats alone for months at a time has to throw your entire system out of whack...I don't care what diagnostic evidence has shown otherwise. All I know is that those two days on the Atkins plan were among the two most miserable I've ever spent. So to sum up, I'd rather be slightly overweight and happy (not to mention healthy) than risk my long term health on a protocol that clearly has disaster written all over it. I mean common, any diet that requires you to eat gobs of fatty foods, then ingest a mountain-load of multi-vitmains (much of which can't be absorbed properly into your system in pill form anyway)to compensate for the lack of nutrients the body actually needs to function right because the foods that provide them are no-no's, cannot be a sane approach to dieting. Besides, where is the proof that what youre losing is fat. I suspect the initial weight loss is mostly water, followed by muscle tissue, and not fat at all. Again, I've seen it turn some real chubby people into slender folks, and I do agree that Americans indulge in far too much refined sugars (candy, colas, ice-cream, etc.), but to group fruits and vegetables as among the culprits to an obese America, is pure quackery. Wanna try a real radical diet that truly works? Try taking a cold shower (I mean real cold) for 45 minutes at a time. The shivering process burns off more calories than a 7 hour jog. Reduce your overall caloric intake, and excercise in the mornings before your first meal...30 minutes of uncessistated aerobics. Yeah its a lot harder than chowing down t-bones and prime rib all day long, but rest assured you won't end up being just another statistic when enough time has passed for the physical damages of the atkins diet to come to the surface.
Rating:
Summary: Stop being a fat slob now!!!!
Review: I'm 5'5"...at 195lbs, I was "concerned" with my weight. At 230!!!..I was scared. I tried them ALL. Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, Lean Cuisine, etc, etc. THEN...I found about Dr. Atkins. I'm now 160lbs!! BUY THE BOOK! READ THE BOOK! Eat when you are hungry! Lose weight! And for all those new to Dr. Atkins, TAKE THE VITAMINS while on the diet. If not, you will be tired the first week. If you do, you'll feel GREAT from DAY ONE ON!! I eat like a KING, and am STILL losing weight! I went from a 48 waiste to a a 34!!! My cholesterol dropped ONE HUNDRED points! I eat when I want. I eat what I like (steak, fish, ribs, chicken, lobster, shrimp, etc, etc,) BUY THE BOOK, READ THE BOOK, EAT AND LOSE WEIGHT!
Rating:
Summary: I tried it and lost a little
Review: My husband and I went on this diet together. We both have family trees that are full of diabetics. After 6 weeks, I lost 12 pounds, and my huband lost 20. I felt like I was cheating all the time because of all the meat and eggs, and I was never hungry. I only lost 5 pounds on the induction level, so I went off of my Celebrix and all Nutrasweet products, and was able to lose, but only on under 15 grams of carbs a day. I felt tired and washed out all the time, so I have since changed over to another diet that includes some whole-grain carbs and fruit. If I get stuck, where I'm not losing, I'll probably go back to the induction level for a jump start. I really like the way Dr. Adkins explained the basis for the diet.
Rating:
Summary: Well Written & Worth Reading...
Review: Everyone is unique and therefore believes differently --especially about the human "diet." For those of you who believe in a "high-protein, low-carbohydrate philosophy," this book can be invaluable for you. Dr. Atkins explains from square one why this kind of diet can be healthy and helpful. I personally have had success following Dr. Atkins suggestions. From a physics sound wave perspective however, any "diet" will work for anyone, anytime as long as they think, feel, and believe that it will...and then all you have to do is be happy and thankful...
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