I have a friend who just did the Atkins maintenance phase. She just lowered her carbs to 100 a day. She lost 5 pounds a week for the first 3 weeks. She only had 25 pounds to lose to begin with. Her weight loss has slowed down alot but that is normal with the last ten pounds. She is now talking about just dropping by 5 carbs a week. She is in no hurry to lose so it works fine for her. I guess it is like a reverse Atkins. When she finishes losing she will continue low carbing to maintain.