Hi Kae
Sometimes reading low carb books you find that a single picture comes together and then reading others questions arise as they seem to be coming from different directions.
Anyway, a Paleo diet - I've read Neanderthin - really means eating like they did back then. Thus they had very little dairy products and would just eat the meat and fish they hunted, the vegetables they grew and the fruits and berries as they were in season. This is a very pure way of life and many see it as too restrictive. The way of life naturally restricts carbs, but not necessarily to a level where the body is in ketosis.
There has been a lot of negative press about Atkins over the year and some do call it a fad diet. However, he has never expected people to live on very low carbs for the rest of their life, just in the induction phase. Atkins gets you into ketosis at the start and aims to keep you there until you have lost all your excess pounds. Whilst other low carb plans restrict carbs the carb levels are different and I am still uncertain as to the necessity of being in ketosis to loose that extra fat. After all ketosis just shows that you are burning fat rather than carbs and the fat can be dietry or your own.
Loosing weight is certainly a delicate balance. I lost pounds quite easily at first and then stalled. I found that whilst not eating too many carbs I was eating too many calories. Using
Fitday.com I noted that I was averaging 2,200 calories a week when I was not loosing. In the activities section it told me that my basal amount was just under 1600 kcal with around 800 kcals for my sedentary lifestyle. I know that I must not eat less than 1600 kcals, otherwise I will stall as my body protects itself from starvation. I know that 2,200 is too much, so by trial and error I have found that I loose weight with an average of around 1900 kcal per day. I try to keep my carbs between 20 and 30.
Fat is good for your body. It improves your skin and hair condition amongst other things, however, I think you can have too much and give your body too much to burn. I suspect that it is best to keep your fat ratio at around 60%, carbohydrates around 5% and then increase your protein level to 30% or just above.
Exactly what works for you is a delicate balance. All fats were not created equal and unsaturated fats, such as in avocados and olive oil are better for you than monosaturated fats (found in meat) and polysaturated (margarines, etc). However, unless you want to cut off visible fat from your meat I would not worry to much about this at this stage. I have no problem with eggs, but these can effect others.
If you want to remove things from your way of life it is probably wise to do it one thing at a time and see the result before removing the next item.
I hope this helps Kae and every success for the future. May those pounds get mobile and fall away.