Great advice to such a wise question in this thread!! I pesonally have also made the mistake of losing 100 pounds on Atkins, and then thinking I could do some sort of combo LC and low calorie, sort of switching day to day. During that time I figured if I kept up my exercise (as I was so much more active than I had been before) I would be more free to "reach for the breadbasket". What I didn't count on, and quite frankly was not watchful enough to notice and clue into, was that once I started reaching for the breadbasket, my old cravings came back, and I was back to rationalizing eating the wrong things. Slowly I felt worse, but I didn't credit it to the food, I was having more problems with stress control and blamed the stress for how I was feeling. Since I was feeling worse I started exercising less. As you can tell the cycle was out of control and as a result over two years I gained back 60 pounds. I am now working on losing that, and it is really true that it comes off sooooooo much slower the second time. I am grateful I finally woke up before I gained it all back, and hope that this time I truly accept that this is a WOL, and don't just get excited when I am thinner and treat myself to much.

I wish you so much luck, and hope that hearing our "sob stories" will help you avoid being where I am now. 60 pounds heavier, out of clothes (that is mostly what finally made me snap out of it, I gave away most of my clothes as I got smaller and got to the point where I was going to have to buy a bigger wardrobe) except for a few new ones I have bought, and struggling to get back into shape, while I am now two years older!!

On the other hand, once you have experienced this WOL, you know if is the answer if you are a carb addict, and now that I am back to my senses, whenever I think about quitting because the weight isn't coming off, I just remember how much better I feel now. I want to be thinner, but even now while I am not I still feel better, and I hope you do to!