But I think that's the point. People who overeat can be very out of touch with what their body actually needs. By getting people to eat until they are satisifed, I think, Atkins is trying to get people to listen to their bodies in a way they haven't for a long time.

Calories do matter to a point, but if you can learn your body's setpoints for being full, and you feed yourself the right foods (ie. restrict refined carbs and sugar) you never have to worry about counting calories again because you will just know when you are done eating, and you will know when you are hungry, and you will be able to trust your body because you are not confusing it with foods that induce cravings and blood sugar level spikes.

Feeling full is subjective, but any feeling you have is subjective to you. You are not the same as anyone else so why bunch yourself in with them under a calorie limit umbrella? Not only that, but unless you eat the exact same thing every day, and do the exact same things every day, it's likely that your body will be satisfied at different levels of calorie intake from day to day. Your body knows when it's had enough, and when it needs more, most likely you have just been confusing it and not listening for so long that you don't recognize the signals.

One of the things I noticed after doing Atkins for a couple of weeks is that I realized that what was a "normal" portion seemed too be more than I needed and that I was getting satisfied before I finished the entire meal I had planned out for myself. At fist this didn't deter me from eating the rest, I still find myself dealing with the "if it's there on my plate I will eat it" mentality, but now that's starting to lessen too, in part because I plan the meals smaller and pay attention to when I am satisified but more because I pay attention to my body and how it feels. If I finish and am still hungry, I wait about 10-15 minutes and see if I am still hungry. Most often I am not. So if you are worried that you are still overeating on the diet, you may be, but the fact that you are worried about it may indicate that your starting to recognize your body's signals again, now that you have restricted your carbs.

Don't count calories, count grams of carbs and listen to your body. It's tough, I'm still learning to do this myself, but feeling like I can trust what my body is telling me is something i haven't been able to do for quite a while. Its a good feeling.