A low-fat diet has left many folks chronically hungry and counting the minutes until their next meal. In addition, eating loads of carbs will raise your blood sugar so that more insulin must be produced to deal with the excess sugar -- this causes great mood swings in lots of us who are sensitive. I remember biting my husband's head off many times over little things and his saying, "Will you just eat something?!!" to try and get me back to a decent mood. So...

As a fellow Southerner, I say go with Atkins. Commit to a very clean 2-week Induction period and see how it goes. You will see a very encouraging loss during that time period and you will also have an energy boost afer (about) day 3-4. Both boosts to keep you going. In addition, there is no reason whatsoever to ever be hungry. When you're hungry, EAT. Just make sure you're eating from the Approved list of foods for Induction.

I had my bloodwork done after being on Atkins for about 7 weeks and there was MASSIVE improvement in my triglycerides (which were HUGE before), my LDL and also a healthy rise in my HDL. I'm on a more even keel mood-wise than ever (not so say I'm normal yet!). I'm never hungry and I get to eat Southern Fried Chicken.

In the immortal words of Larry the Cable Guy, "I don't care who you care, that's good!"