Mainly my mom...for example my cousin weighed easily close to 300 lbs and lost a ton on Atkins. She looked great, exept for she was literally swimming in her skin! She would have been a size 12 but she had to wear 16s because of all the baggage. Anyway my mom saw her recently and said she had gained most of it back. We were talking about why she might have done this, and my theory was that my cousin was depressed that despite losing half her body weight, she still looked fat. My mom said that it was probably that she couldn't stick to such a restricted diet, "I mean all that time not eating carbs...she probably got sick of it". Numerous times I have explained to my mother HOW Atkins works, that even on the most restrictive levels you eat carbs, and that as you move towards the third and 4th stages of it, you may not even realize that the person is on Atkins, you'll just think they eat really healthy because they are eating fruits, veggies, whole grains, etc etc. I told her that after reachng thier goal, some people can even eat 150g of carbs a day which is half what the average American eats (but the average American eats most of their carbs in refined flours and sugars). I don't know if I went into how there is not even a daily requirement in human beings for carbs and that your body makes the glucose it needs from the food you put in. Anytime she sees me eating something she goes "you can eat those??" and I have to educate her about how yes, mom, I can eat strawberries. Tonight is my birthday dinner and we're going out to eat mexican, and I told her I was getting a taco salad sans beans/taco shell. She was like "and you aren't even going to eat real food on your birthday?!"
She is on Weight Watchers. She isn't fat, never really was fat, but kinda had a chunk, like me. She just thinks her way is the best. I can't get any respect, but at least my dad leaves my food alone. Anyone else live with morons?

Well, here's the poop. Basically diets are not temporary. If you treat a diet as a quick fix, you'll quickly be back to where you were before. You really need to follow the maintenance plan for the rest of your life.

So, if you were thinking of doing Atkins to lose weight then going back to how you ate before, then you're going to gain the weight back. It's that simple.

The reality is, only 5% of the people that lose weight manage to keep it off. So you need to think long and hard about how you're going to not regain it. I think most people give washing their socks more thought than how they're going to maintain. And before you know it, they're on another diet.

I'm 45 years old, have been gaining and losing weight since my 20's and I must say, I haven't be in the 5% bracket yet. But I'm reasonably certain that THIS time, I will be because I plan to stay low carb for the rest of my life. Not AS restrictive as I currently am, but definitely no sugar and no flour or high carb stuff will enter back into my daily life.

Oh no, I will NOT gain back the weight once I lose it all. I have been hypoglycemic since childhood and have watched my grandmother go through diabetic horrors like amputation (both legs) among other nonsense. Not to mention I want to look good.

Not to sound harsh, but the reality is pretty harsh. EVERYONE says that: "I'll never gain back the weight I worked so hard to lose!" but almost everyone does.

But it sounds like you do have the right mind-set, not even using your birthday as an excuse to go off your WOE. I think those little excuses can pile up, and pile up, and pile up and then they become habits, then they become daily habits. Before you know it, you're back to doing exactly what you did before!

I think the people who are most likely to succeed are the ones who are most ruthlessly honest with themselves and don't try to justify or rationalize their behavior but call themselves on it, correct it and go on.

My sister is a perfect example of a rationalizer. She cheats a lot on Atkins. She doesn't binge or have huge cheats. But she's always got justifications or rationalizations for why she did it. And rather than owning up to what she did and then trying to improve, she reasons it all away as intentional. "I meant to get off the diet so it is ok".

The end result is she isn't losing weight. I just hope she doesn't give it up and say the diet failed her.

Nope, this is it for me. I have tried Atkins a few times before and didn't do it right bc I was craving non-atkins foods all the time and would give in. Now, I feel no urge to eat crap foods. I am feeling great and don't want to go back.

The bottom line is, you have to remind yourself that you are doing this for YOU! I run into the same negative stuff at work. Most of my co-workers watched me drop 80lbs, while many of them continued to pack it on. It seems that my WOE always seems to creep into out lunch conversations. It's really a matter of people becoming jealous and either by choice or unknowingly, attempting to hinder your attempts.

Judging by your picture, I'd say you are doing super. Keep it up. It is worth it.

3 years LC, and still going strong

Oh yeah, it is DEFINITELY a jealousy thing. I know my mom has to be annoyed at the fact that I can eat eggs and sausage and put heavy cream in my soda, and not gain weight. She has always bought fat free and low fat stuff. She got caught up in the 80's fat frenzy, I guess it stuck. The only good eating habit she imparted on me was using Sweet-N-Low instead of sugar, I was basically raised on that stuff, she never used sugar. Once I got old enough to make my own food and buy stuff, I got addicted to sugar, but I fixed the problem before it got awful and my legs ended up on the chopping block.

No one in my house understands how it works, but they are supportive of my choice. How could they not, I lost like 140+ pounds. I went from being too fat to buy clothes in a store to wearing a size 9.

In the begining I got a lot of grief. My mom was always on me, telling me it isn't healthy, etc. She asked when I was gonna go back to eating real food and stuff.

Then she saw the results. I told her how I am basically cutting out all the "crap" and eating only the good carbs, so I am actually eating more healthy than most people.

She still doesn't understand but I get support now.

I know what you mean. People at work are always asking me if I am still on my diet. I tell them I plan on staying on it for life. They can't figure out how I can do it. It really isn't that hard once you get used to it.

Stick to your guns, after all you are doing this for you.

Fortunately, everyone in this household (except the 6-year-old) is following Atkins, so that makes it sooo much easier! However, I do have family members who just can't understand why we don't eat this or that. "Oh, you should have some--it tastes so good!" Well, my food tastes better, so there!

I do get somewhat grousy when people give me a bad time about what I eat. Funny thing is, though, I have a sis-in-law who's this little tiny thing--about 105 pounds dripping wet. She eats low-carb to control insulin spikes. No one ever gives her a bad time about what she eats, LOL. MOST of my hubby's family is very supportive, although I don't think supportive's quite the right word, because quite a few of them are low-carbers too.

You know what, I think that going on the atkins WOE, doing induction, where you get off of all of the habits and addictions you have for rubbish food and eating the combination of food you have to eat whilst on it actually changes your brain somehow.
The amount of people I've heard (including myself) say Oh no I could never do the atkins diet because I am a carb addict, I LOVE carbs far too much to ever deny myself them...and then once on the diet their views suddenly change...just like that, almost overnight - they become a real atkins dieteer!
I think it must be a chemical change in the brain.

As for family not understanding....well, they don't have to understand, you're doing thid for you, so just ignore silly comments - that's what i do!!

Good luck with the naysayers! My mom is the person who just cant get with the idea that this is my WOE now. Everytime we go to her house for Sunday dinner. "Oh, I guess youre not going to eat the ____ that I fixed". But amazingly, once she realized that my oldest brother is a lowcarber, she stopped saying as much. Now she even comments that she and my dad need to cut down on white flours and sugars. Keep the faith, sometimes even the hard-headed people can come around .