Food addiction is one reason. I think a lot of people also tend to use food like a drug. They invent all kinds of ways to justify continuing the use of their drug. To a food addict, low carb is the same thing as rehab. If you're not ready, you're not ready... even if you try, you won't succeed long term until truly ready to change the way you use food.

Another reason is they are following the wrong plan and eating too few carbs.
I do think there's a lot of individual variance on how LOW you can go and thrive, just as there's individual variance on how HIGH you can go and thrive, so I also think others may simply be eating far too low carb for their bodies. I feel absolutely terribly low on energy when ketogenically doing LC. I feel weak, dizzy, chronically hypoglycemic. I mean, truly mildly hypoglycemic. Both blood tests I had while extreme low carbing (taken while fasting) showed BS levels under 70. The one I had done in september was 69 (this was eating very few carbs, but not ketosis). The one I had taken over a year ago when I was still 200 pounds was 60 (my fasting BS was lower despite the fact I was heavier then and more recently comming off of high carb... but I WAS eating less carbs than I was later).
The form of hypoglycemia I get while keeping carbs really really low isn't a typical insulin-swing induced one with hunger and those terrible symptoms (since it's not caused by too HIGH insulin, but rather insufficient glucose output without high insulin). I just feel the "low sugar" hypoglycemic symptoms (mildly dizzy & weak), not the "sharp swing from high insulin" ones (jittery & suddenly starving).
I'm not the only person who has reported this problem tolerating ketosis, it's actually very common. My theory is that we are all unique people, some of us have metabolisms that can more efficiently make glucose in its absense... others cannot, so their bodies struggle to make sugar. Just like some people can eat all the carbs they want and do fine, some people can feel awesome on no carbs at all.

Anyway, there are lots of reasons why someone would fail to thrive on LC I'm sure, many might be because of objectively valid reasons (not being ready for a lifestyle change, or choosing a plan that's nutritional composition did not agree with you)

I think the emotional satisfaction component of food is a very big factor for me personally. This might as well be using food as a drug. And I get no satisfaction from the composition of a low fat/high carb diet, since both sugar and dietary fat are typically restricted. But on a low carb diet, at least I get to eat fat. I may be a sugar addict, but dietary fat also makes me feel happy, or should I say... less deprived? Food is love, yadda yadda. It's not all in my head since I'm also insulin resistant, but the emotional attachment and feelings of deprivation are important factors for me.

I do agree that low-carb should work for everyone, in the sense that no one can really prove that their body requires high intake of sugar, grains, starch or any form of higher carbs to survive, thrive, be healthy or lose weight.

But at the same time, I don't think there's only one formula to follow, and that one method of low-carbing fits all. Nor that being of the same species imply we have identical biochemical processes, metabolism, hormons, enzymes etc. It's a very complicated science, and even experts in the field seem at a loss of what really takes place.

Wa'il

I should HOPE I don't have identical hormones to yours... no offense, but I've never really wanted a goatee.

Hmmm... Interesting it's guys that are agreeing with one another. Must be a bonding thing.

I actually think we're similar metabolically but those wee tiny differences can make a enormous difference in how well a low carb diet works for you. Things like hormones can really mess you up. If any of you dudes wants to see, perhaps we can arrange for some estrogen shots and give you some meds to make your thyroid function about 75% as well as it does now. *evil chuckle* Then we'll have this discussion again... after you get over your PMS symptoms and the crying jag spurred by your 20 pound overnight weight gain.

Seriously, low carb is great, but things like calories, how low carb to go, how much fat to eat etc, etc I think is seriously individual. What works for you, a guy, doesn't necessarly work as well for a woman of my age, as a weight loss plan.

I don't think these factors (calories and fat) necessarily means high-carb. I don't think we're in disagreement, unless you're implying that women need a high-sugar, high-grain diet. That's why I was very careful in my definition

Wa'il

You are right about those points, because genetics and especially prior nutrition habits and the duration of those habits definitely has to do with how your body (and your mind) will deal with food.

Nice points everyone, it is a pleasure to read your replies and get other people's points of view.

No, I don't think low calorie implies sugar or grains, in fact, just the opposite! Any of us women who tried low fat, low calorie, high carb know what torture that is! But guys, well some of them, seem to think that unlimited fat and calories works for everyone. My body begs to differ! However, I can say that even though I think its a superior diet in many regards, low carb with no calorie counting doesn't work (for me) either. In fact, judging from the number of women who completely stall out of Atkins, that I've run into, I'd say there's something more than coincidence at work here.

There was one guy that posted recently that the women lose weight more slowly is because they're not as active. Too bad you cant deliver a noogie over the internet.

Now wait a sec... could this be the birth of a new industry? Internet Noogie delivery service?

LOL! I like it. I can picture some guy running into your place of work quickly giving you a noogie, a card explaining who it was from, and then running away.

It's tough to be a guy around here, can even be scary....

Wa'il

If I in any way seemed to suggest that one can eat unlimited anything, I didn't mean it. Unlimited fat or calories doesn't work for anuone, unless they only eat until satisfied and can then stop. All I can say is that if you think it rough now, wait until age slams into your metabolism.
In whatever amount of calories you require, keeping a higher ratio of fats and protein and a lower ratio of carbohydrates that the standard American diet is better for anyone, less sugar and potatoes and refined grains is healthy.
As Atkins said over and over again, you have to find your own personal ratios by experimenting on yourself. If you can eat a higher perscentage of carbohydrates that I, hooray for you. At this point in my life, I can tolerate only small amounts. While I can maintain on low caeb without watching amounts , I don't lose unless I purposefully restrict them. Nyah Levi

I think it's likely that the main reason for low-carb failure in women is the persistance of the low-fat mentality. Maybe women have a harder time getting past this than men do.

Wyv

Then again, women can really get behind the concept of having butter on everything.

I'm with NancyLC; Atkins did diddly, or worse than diddly, for me (my blood lipids started going the wrong way). I have hypothyroidism, which is much more common in women than men. Since women with hypoT (whether diagnose, like mine, or 'subclinical') have a harder time losing weight, we may have a fairly high concentration of them here on the forum. And with hypoT, Atkins is way too low in carbs - I don't go under 60g a day now - and that makes your screwy hypoT metabolism go slower and slower. Which, I might add, sucks. Admittedly, it was less horrible than what happened to me back when I did low-fat, right before I got the hypoT diagnosis.

I forgot about my post for a bit, and came back on to see how much I got beat up. I gotta work on being more controversial...

Tamarian, I'm not saying that one specific combination of foodstuffs fits all, the key is finding suitable low carb foods that each person enjoys and finds satiating. Every one of us DOES have the exact same biochemical processes going on. There are darned few biochemical pathways that you could do without and not exhibit some sort of severe disease symptoms. Of course there is some variation in the efficiency of the processes, due to enzyme variants/mutations. But all the feedback loops involved in these pathways, makes the levels of intermediates pretty consistent. Just looking at cholesterol for instance, levels are consistent enough to allow doctors to issue guidelines and make correlatoins to disease states. And of course you have the genetic variants who have outrageously high cholesterol without necessarily being at elevated risk of disease.

Now a second attempt to pick a fight. Ysabella, did you ever consider that low carb only caused your blood lipids to go the wrong way because you were mobilizing stored fat? And that your lipids would improve as you got to a lower weight? This is what my wife is seeing in her low carb efforts. Her thyroid hormone profile is slightly low (not diagnosed as hypoT but could be), and her weight loss has been slow. But she has lost, and her cholesterol is slowly coing down as well and her ratio is good. TGs are fantastic of course. I kept expecting her lipid profile to improve faster than it has, but it seems to be improving at the rate that her weight is coming down. Slow, but in the right direction.

Now a question: how do carbs affect hypothyroid condition? My wife doesn't seem to have had an adverse reaction to LCing. I think you may be confusing transient hypoglycemia with hypothyroidism. A lot of people experience symptoms of hypoglycemia when they start LC. Any time you perturb a biochemical system, it takes awhile to get back to a new steady state. The greater the perturbation, the longer and more severe the fluctuations, but always a new balance is acheived. Granted, hypoglycemia has some really unpleasant side effects. Which might be a reason to slowly wean yourself off carbs, but not necessarily a reason to eschew going to a lower level at all.

Hopefully this doesn';t come across as an attack, your thread is excellent and initial posts were highly entertaining. Excpet when you attacked those of us who write long posts, that truly hurt my feelings!

Tom, you are curious about low-carb and thyroid. Here's something you might find interesting.
http://forums.lowcarber.org/showpos...37&postcount=20

One thing that I noticed is how many people experience coldness and hair loss when they go low carb. Both are hypoT symptoms. For me, I couldn't even lose on 1200 calories a day doing low carb, when things were at their worst. High cholesterol is also a symptom of hypoT. Taken individually, might not be hypoT, but put them all together and I think that for some people with marginal thyroid functionality, going extremely low carb might not be a good thing.

Actually, my hypoT was sub-clinical. What my problem was was with converting one type of thyroid hormone to another, not something that doctors are trained to catch. I had to have my own tests done and found it and took it too my doctor and asked for a particular type of medication to help with that.

Even after that it wasn't a panacea to my weight loss issues. I still struggle for every pound, but at least I can do it now! Before it was about impossible. And the new meds took care of a lot of other stuff, like the brain fog I was experiencing. I feel like I gained about 20 IQ points. Unfortunately they're ones I lost, not new ones... dang it.