Hi, folks,

I signed up for ediets.com doing the Atkins plan, and I have to say - I absolutely love it.

My life is *way* too busy and chaotic to survive on my own with regard to meal planning, shopping, etc. Ediets offers a host of support boards, consultations with nutritionists and counselors, etc, but what I needed was STRUCTURE.

They have super meal plans for every carb level of Atkins, from Induction to maintenance. The plans can be customized to handle things like no dairy, no soy, etc, and there's a huge list of meals to choose from if you don't like something that pops up on your pre-generated plan. There are pull down lists for allthe meals and it actually feels like you're looking at a menu for a restaurant. Every recipe I tried was quick, easy and tasty.

The structure is three meals a day, plus a snack, but they advocate taking a thing or two from the 'meals' and using them for an extra snack or two during the day.

Cost is $5 a week, with optional, extra charges for a few things that I don't use (Vitamins, counseling tapes, a fitness plan, etc). To me, the cost is worth it for the meal plans and the shopping list alone.

A few downsides: they do try to sell you extra stuff. They work a lot off BMI, which is not a particularly helpful statistic. I emailed them about my high muscle mass (Just *how* do you expect me to get down to 128 (the bottom of my supposedly 'healthy' weight range) when my lean mass is already 130-135?) and they upped my portion sizes, but not my carbs.

They also offer ZONE plans for you Zoners out there.

I'm including a link, but if the mods don't like that, they can take it out.

Oh, and my first week of Induction? 8 lbs gone.

(EDIT: I put a sample meal plan day in my journal.)

Cheers,

Friday

http://www.ediets.com/dietprofile/d...m?ver=WEB030502