labonbon...

Regarding that "stick with a 1,000 calorie diet while doing Atkins" thing. I think you may be confusing that with the fat fast, which Atkins by no means suggests that anyone "stick with". As a matter of fact, he strongly discourages anyone who is not metabolically resistant from even trying it. The fat fast in Atkins' book is followed for 4-5 days followed by a modified fat fast of roughly 1,200 calories a day for a week, then back to induction levels again (see pgs 272-274 DANDR 2001 edition). As you can see, even the metabolically resistant don't stay on that low a calorie level for long.
It's been stated over and over that the 10-12x your body weight in calories is a guideline, not a law or even a hard and fast rule. It won't work for everyone, but it's a place to start, especially for those who have been on low calorie/low fat diets. Some lucky people find that they can consume even more calories than that and still lose weight on low carb, others find that they need slightly less. We all have to find our own levels, but as I said before, it's a place to start. Personally, I would rather see someone stall because of too many calories and have to adjust down a bit than stall because they are consuming too few calories and have permanently reset their metabolisms to a lower rate and will then be stuck having to go no higher than that for the rest of their lives or gain weight. Better to go too high and have to adjust down than go too low and not be able to adjust up.