I "did" Atkins once on the advice of one of my buddies. It worked great, and kept me healthy. After I dropped nearly 40 lbs from Atkins, I developed high blood pressure, and had to cut out a lot of the foods I liked due to their high sodium content. I took some time off from "dieting" and gained back the original 40 plus another 10 lbs. I'm in the process of shifting my lifestyle to be more active in general, and as part of it, I'm working towards getting into shape and losing the weight that I have gained back in addition to the weight I needed to lose. I'm tried the calorie count method with a twist. I read "The Truth About 6 Pack Abs" by Mike Geary, and he suggested calorie count as the way to go. Well it wasn't. I ended up gaining more *fat* from calorie counting than I would have if I had gone back to Atkins. Now I'm back on Atkins and my body is "happy" to lose the weight.