I'm down 24 pounds so far (havent yet updated my stats) and my family and in-laws are becoming quite interested in low-carbing. My mother, 2 aunts, and mother & father-law all could lose a fair amount of weight and have been watching my progress with interest. My mother-in-law went out and bought the Atkins book and my mother and aunt started another low-carb diet 2 days ago. Kinda funny how differently people look at low-carbing when the see it in action. They all used to think it was about all meat, no veggies, and that it was a fairly gross (and not healthy) concept in general. Now they've seen/heard how I eat and what I eat, and they're intrigued. Be interesting to see how they do. I'll tell ya...I only tried it after seeing someone else's results and I did some research. Since then, I've done great with it and consider it my way of life now. My husband asked how long I though I stay with Atkins...and I told him "forever". I'm convinced that it works (obviously) and it doesnt feel like a "diet"...so why would I go back to eating all the things that gave me trouble in the first place?" He smiled and told me he thinks it's great that I'm feeling good about myself and enjoying everything about getting my body where I want it to be. Just thought I'd share.

Heck, the only reason I went on Atkins was because a lady at work had really dropped some weight on it. I went looking for information and found the Atkin's site. If they hadn't had all that free information, I doubt I would have started the plan. I have bought the books, and done research since, but it was that free get started info that gave me the tools to lose 16 pounds in the first two weeks-and inspire me to keep with it.

I agree. I started after I saw that it worked for my mom. She even loaned me the book. It is hard to understand unless you see it in action. I thought it was too good to be true.

Yes, that whole "I can't live without bread" thing really gets to me...since I thought that way, tried Atkins, and now couldn't care less about bread.
But they won't believe it!

When I started low-carbing, I told my parents about it and thought I was going to convince them to try it. But it turned out they had started it on their own at about the same time I started. The rest of my family are resisting. But I'm especially glad my dad is doing it. He has heart problems.

And as an aside, my mom's HDL has always been high, but now it's over 100. I wish mine were that good, it's only 68.

I started LCing because a girl at work started and she lost weight really fast. I was calling her the incredible shrinking lady. I tried and failed that summer but started again this spring. I feel great.

My brother and SIL saw me a few weeks ago at a family get together. My SIL commented on how nice I looked and I told her on the QT that if my brother didn't start doing something he was going to be the "Fat" one in the family. The next weekend they announced they were dieting. LOL

I started b/c I saw Dr. Atkins on the Today show and got intrigued. I figured that 2 weeks of that couldn't be worse than when i quit smoking--and it was so easy! Not that induction was easy, but very doable, since i was never hungry, had more energy, etc, etc. Now that I've been on maintenance for a while, I have to be careful to be consistent and vigilant--more & more products are coming out that can substitute for high-carb foods, and some of them are so good that I can't stop eating them...

Anyway, now my daughter and son-in-law are doing South Beach and liking it!

I've got a "seen it work, thought I'd try it" twist for you:

Although I originally tried Atkins probably 15 years ago with a co-worker, it was too restrictive for me and I dropped it. And forgot about it.

About 4 years ago, I started researching a natural diet for my dogs--my oldest dog at the time had arthritis and a few other complaints and I couldn't keep weight off of her. After watching my pup of 9 months completely freak when my old girl got very sick, I'd decided to get the old one's "replacement" (not really, but you know what I mean) early to give the younger one time to become attached and hopefully not take it quite so hard when my old girl died--which could be any day. Anyway, when looking for ways of relieving Kiva's (that was my old one's name) symptoms naturally, since she'd topped out on pain medication, I came across such things as "Give Your Dog a Bone" and related books and after talking with the breeder from whom I'd gotten my younger girl and was going to get the new pup (she'd been in the process of switching her dogs over for much the same reason--one really old guy)... anyway, to make a long story less long, my little guy, Corwin, was weaned on a raw meat plus veggies diet and at the same time, I switched my old girl (12.5) and young girl over. Kiva went on to live to just shy of 14, had slimmed down a bit, toned up, and was actually trotting around some days--and this with some other problems that should've taken her down two years earlier, my other two, which having a little bit of fat are never off my more than about 5-10% no matter what, are quite muscular, no health problems, good coats, eyes, heal quickly, strong...

Heck, I'd love to be so healthy! Hey, dogs have very similar digestive system as humans. One of the reasons they probably took up with humans 10k+ years ago included similarity of social structure and compatible food requirements, I thought... so if they're doing so well on a no grain, mostly meat with veggies and some fruit diet, why am I supposed to do so well on exactly the opposite?

The closest thing I could find was Neanderthin, which lead me to reading up on pretty much all the low carb variations and noting some pretty interesting similarities across the board and ultimately to here.

The only ones in my household on high carbs are the parrots so I guess you could say we think the food pyramid if for the birds

Dianne

who *does* cook her chicken, though