Hi everyone!

Although Atkins doesn't encourage calorie counting, with “only” 25-30 pounds to lose (“only” – yeah, right…), I feel very nervous about consuming too many calories (I would LOVE to have an UNLIMITED amount of olive oil/butter per day like lots of you are doing…but I’m nervous to!). I don’t know if those of us who have less to lose can realistically lose weight without restricting calories…but I could be dead wrong…and that’s why I’d like to know how the rest of you with my approximate start and goal weight have handled this issue and what your experience has been.

There's many formulas out there to calculate calorie needs – the ranges that seem most prevalent are 8-10 x current weight…which based on today’s weight of 144.5 would leave me with 1156 to 1445 calories. I’ve been averaging about 1300 calories…but I’m considering dropping it to 1200.

I know some of you are quite satisfied with losing weight slowly and my hat is off to you! I REALLY admire your patience. But I’ve been yo-yo dieting/bingeing and dilly-dallying for TOO long already and I’m out of patience – I’m going to make this WOE work for me and get this weight off ONCE AND FOR ALL! And I intend to do it as quickly as possible – within reason of course. ALL studies show 1-2 lbs loss a week as very healthy and reasonable. On other programs in the past, I’ve lost an average of 1.75 lbs/wk and I want to aim for at LEAST the same with Atkins (2 lbs would even be better!).

Sooo…for those of you with stats like mine (see signature) that have already lost all/most of their weight (OR those still losing), would you mind answering the following FOUR questions?

1) What was your start weight?
2) What were/is your average calorie consumption per day?
3) How many lbs per week did/do you lose on average? (PLEASE don’t forget to answer #3!)
4) How long did you stay in Induction (20 gm carbs max)?

Thank you so much in advance to all those who respond! (BTW, I posted this same poll at another low-carb board so I apologize if you end up seeing it twice.)