Not at all. My first organized effort at weight loss was with Weight Watchers, which is 'balanced' by all accounts while low-fat. The first time I lost around 15 pounds over about 6 months and was happy with that. Then I discovered I was pregnant, ran in to financial problems (husband lost his job) so couldn't continue. Keep in mind during the entire weight loss time I also struggled with low blood sugar, constant hunger and severe cravings.

After my second baby was born I went back and tried again. I stuck with the plan, except for a once-a-week 2-oz. nut fest to give me some fat. Again, I went through the constant hunger and low blood sugar. I walked out of my last meeting after more than three months and only losing 5 pounds. Keep in mind, I was only 26 years old--not old enough I should've been having metabolism problems.

Finally, I tried Richard Simmons. Now according to all the health experts out there, these diets should've been working for me perfectly. I never exceeded the maximum allotment of foods per day, and honestly never even experienced the water weight loss which first accompanies a diet. Again, I was starving all the time and my blood sugar was out of whack. I did enjoy the exercise videos, though! I finally gave up after losing maybe 2 pounds in a month and decided I'd rather be fat and happy than dieting and miserable.

Now, fast forward through my life from my low-fat days in my 20s and early 30s, when I was extremely active and not able to lose more than a couple of pounds, to almost 15 years later, where now I'm fairly sedentary due to health issues and perimenopausal with hormones turning up my body every which way but loose.

Last fall I picked up and read Dr. Atkins Diet Revolution. Being hypoglycemic and having the consequent weight problems, the book made perfect sense to me. In order to lose weight I needed to first control my blood sugar, and this needed to be done by cutting out carbohydrates (the very things that for years I thought I needed to maintain blood sugar levels). Low and behold, within the first three months I had lost nearly 20 pounds.

Yes, some people call the Atkins diet imbalanced but honestly it's not. My body needs good amounts of fat and protein. It needs very few carbohydrates. Tipping the scales in this direction has balanced things out quite nicely. For people with higher carb tolerances and requirements, their balance will look slightly different than mine. But that's the beauty of it--as I said, the plan is tailored individually, so that in the end each person can find their own perfect balance.

Another thing I might add is that by giving your body the types of nutrients it requires (and again, each person is different on this) food cravings are a thing of the past. I eat now when I'm hungry and my food satisfies me completely. I also eat very healthily with enough variety in my diet that I don't even need vitamin supplements most of the time, and this wasn't something I could do on a low-fat diet because of limited meat intake and no allowed foods like nuts.

I'd also like to add that during my low-fat days I consumed roughly 1200 calories a day. There's no way I shouldn't have been losing weight well, at least during the early stages of the diet before starvation mode would have set in. Following Atkins I eat roughly 10 times my body weight in calories per day. Right now that means I'm eating around 2,000 calories a day, and losing weight at a nice clip.