I'm solidly in the camp that realizes the weight loss from Atkins dieting is not just (or even largely) water. This thread does spur something I've been curious about for awhile... would love to see a thorough analysis of weight composition... the interior of fat cells and interstitial fluids (fluids between fat cells), and everything else but especially that. There's such a wide range of 'fat' appearances for people at a certain height/weight/frame size.

People who are ill in certain ways hold a lot more fluid than others (Some diabetes conditions for instance when cellular waste products build up.... and perhaps that was also part of the in-hospital problem with Atkins himself when he was in a coma, as the body then is likely in an impaired state as far as clearing debris and fluid.)

So what I'm getting at is that I'm curious whether for some otherwise 'healthy' people, if a fair portion of weight is indeed not some uniform measure of fat but fat and the fluid that's cushioning toxins of various sorts... and whether indeed that fluid level varies a lot depending on the person and the level of cellular waste they've accumulated.

Part of healthy weight loss, it seems to me from experience, is 'clearing out' all sorts of unneeded things... you know how you often feel better, look better and everything starts to work better during weight loss... it's not just losing fat, it's a 'renewing' when your metabolic engine gets going.

There are some schools of thought that put a lot of credence in lymphatic massage and regular slightly bouncy exercise (like rebounding, or even walking) that help move the extracellular fluid (carrying wastes) around and theoretically out, so that doesn't all get trapped in the cells.

Would be interested in observations around all this. (Reading up on and looking at pictures of 'lymphedema' or 'lymphoedema' provides some good food for thought... that's often with upper arm swelling...)