Well, here's the poop. Basically diets are not temporary. If you treat a diet as a quick fix, you'll quickly be back to where you were before. You really need to follow the maintenance plan for the rest of your life.

So, if you were thinking of doing Atkins to lose weight then going back to how you ate before, then you're going to gain the weight back. It's that simple.

The reality is, only 5% of the people that lose weight manage to keep it off. So you need to think long and hard about how you're going to not regain it. I think most people give washing their socks more thought than how they're going to maintain. And before you know it, they're on another diet.

I'm 45 years old, have been gaining and losing weight since my 20's and I must say, I haven't be in the 5% bracket yet. But I'm reasonably certain that THIS time, I will be because I plan to stay low carb for the rest of my life. Not AS restrictive as I currently am, but definitely no sugar and no flour or high carb stuff will enter back into my daily life.