well, i'm trying to lose weight, but mine's been stable for years (fluctuating within 5 lbs). my problem is excersize, tho, not diet. i need to move around more, but with a pile of sleeping disorders (at least one of which causes muscle pain), that's not always easy.
as for my diet, i'm diabetic, and i'm using a program developed for me by a dietician. it's basically weight watchers (they took the diabetic program and publicized it), but for the purpopses of this poll, i just said i was carb counting.
now, as to atkins, i'm very wary of it. several reliable and respectable doctors have told me over the years (in various contexts - warning me about a balanced diet, warning me not to have too much neutrasweet (which is a protien, or close enough), warning me about what happens when i don't have enough insulin and my body has to start digesting fat so my cells can get enough fuel, etc) that overloading on protien and/or not getting enough carbs hurts the kidneys. basically, the more work your kidneys have to do, the quicker they wear out. excess protien is, as far as the kidneys are concerned, a flow of large chunks of material that need to be filtered out (i.e. a lot of work). as for digesting fat, that produces ketones as a by-product, which are also a bunch of extra work for the kidneys (and which generally aren't healthy to have floating in your system).
now, the way atkins works is this: you fill up on protien, which digests slowly, making you feel full, but which don't provide much in the way of fuel (some fat, depending on the protien of choice, and maybe a bit of carbs, but not much). then you avoid eating carbs (aka "useful calories") as much as you can. this forces your body to look elsewhere for the fuel it needs to keep running, and that means digesting your fat reserves. that's why you lose weight so quickly.
unfortunatley, losing weight quickly is not generally healthy (it requires adjustments in metabolic rate, circulatory patterns, etc, and those things take time). also unfortunately, you're flooding your system with excess protien and ketones and other biproducts, all of which your kidneys have to filter out.
now, i'm told the atkins people claim that this is a myth, that it doesn't really hurt the kidneys to have to filter all that stuff out.
i'm also told that the tabacco industry claimed that there was nothing dangerous about their products.
now, i haven't done any of the research myself, nor have i seen the actual studies. personally, though, i'm inclined to trust the various physicians i've seen over the years (including my dad, as it happens), rather than the people who are trying to make money selling me something that is directly affected by the research in question.
Paul
