Rating: 
Summary: Scared of the direction the American public is headed
Review: I must say that the average rating of four stars is very disturbing. I find this diet to be dangerous, extremely unhealthy and backed up by a lot of pseudoscience. The other thing that bothered me about reading the reviews is how many people said it was great because of the weight they lost. Being overweight is unhealthy, but overall health is much more important. Just because you are skinny does not mean you are healthy. I must also point out that I can often identify a "low carb/high protein" dieter by their stinky breath! I recommend "The Omega Diet" by Artemis Simopoulos as a book that can help you lose weight while not losing sight of the all important aspect of staying healthy.
Rating: 
Summary: No way to live long-term
Review: The book is well-written, but it is just not a long-term way to live. Plus eating bacon and other greasy meats is just not good for you if you overindulge, and many Atkins diet adherents do so.I've done this, lost a few pounds, and when my interest in avoiding carbs for the rest of life waned, I put those pounds on in spades. Then i tried Weight Watchers. I've lost 50 pounds and I have a sensible diet I think I can live with long-term. My advice: spend a little bit more dough (no carb pun intended), and go to Weight Watchers.
Rating: 
Summary: Why I love Amazon
Review: Perusing the more than 900 reviews of the Atkins diet, which I recently began and am having an easy time with, I realized again that there is no other place you could get the opinions of 900 people who tried the same diet. When I thought about trying the diet again (I did it once in 1975!) after someone I know lost 80 pounds in 5 or 6 months, reading these opinions was a big help. As far as the diet goes, I do have some reservations, although I hate to admit it. But if you think of physiological processes and evolution, the lipolysis Atkins talks about may well be a legitimate metabolic pathway that served a real purpose. I'll say that it makes sense when you think about how we have other physiological processes that spare or conserve constiuents that we don't have enough of. Maybe there really is a fat-conserving mechanism that operates to store as much fat as possible, when it's not found in the diet, for essential functions like the production of cell membranes, steroids, and on and on. It wouldn't be the first such mechanism. Until I read a better explanation of the drop in cholesterol levels these people experienced, I'm going to have to stick with the fat-sparing thesis. The body does the unexpected at times. Nobody can aford to think of the current accepted scientific dogma as the only possibility. We'd all be dead at 30 if we had done that! Don't forget, cows eat grass! And they look terrible in mini skirts!
Rating:
Summary: GOOD BUT NOT FOR GOUT.
Review: I started the Atkins diet around 5 weeks ago and have so far lost 19lbs,however the down side is that I have had two attacks of gout,something I haven`t had for years,perhaps the reader can offer some advice as to why this was so and what can remedy this,I found the diet no hardship except for the no ice cream sugar, bread and most fruits, the book was easy to follow and educational,with the exception of a few discliplines I found it not to difficult to stick to.I have had no alcohol or bread on this diet or other items that are taboo so am at a loss as to what has triggered the gout.
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. :)
Rating:
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.
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