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Have an atkins book. Have seen a lot of social media about keto but not entirely sure what the differences are in those diet plans. Struggling with the idea of giving up so many of my favorite things and already thinking about when I can reincorporate stuff I love- questioning whether I can stick to the diet but would love to see the 10-20 lb drop this summer so I'm going to try to eat clean according to the book.

Yesterday we stocked the fridge/freezer with chicken breasts, eggs, canadian bacon, 1/3 lb burgers, cheese, tomatoes, romaine, bell peppers, salsa, and tuna fish.

Wish me luck.

What are your "favorite things"?

Welcome and I wish you "good luck", however there's not much luck involved, just change what you eat :)

The first few stages of the Atkins diet are ketogenic. Anything under 50g carbs per day will be ketogenic with under 20g being strongly ketogenic, as long as you don't overdo it with the protein.

failed since initial attempt, gained more weight after returning to normal eating habits, back to try again after hitting a high weight and embarrassing low moment in life.

Atkins/Low Carb/Keto is a lifestyle. If you return to your "normal eating habits" and those foods caused you to gain weight before, they will do so again. As Rob said a year ago, you have to change what you eat.
Do you need to lose weight or would cleaning up your diet (maybe only dropping sugar and refined processed carbs) be enough? At 5'4", under 145 is considered a healthy weight, 135 a BMI of 23, and 113 on the lower end. Since you have had a difficult year and emotional low, consider picking a health goal rather that a weight number. More research is being done on mental health and LC diets. https://www.dietdoctor.com/low-carb...l-health-guides

Keto is just another name for very low carb diets--Atkins is one of them. It can sure get confusing with all the names.

The first couple of weeks can be really tough while you're trying to break the carb habit and you're surrounded by people eating the stuff and encouraging you to do the same. Make sure you have lots of good food in the house and get rid of all the carbs. Throw it out, give it away, whatever you have to do.

Then make sure you're eating plenty of good protein and don't shy away from fat. If you're hungry, eat something (not carbs). If you have cravings for carby food, eat something with protein and fat.

Your first goal is to just make it through the first couple of weeks. Some people find using replacement sweeteners like Splenda or stevia useful during this time and other people like the cold turkey approach. Do whatever you need to do to just stay on plan. After that it becomes easier to stick to and if you need to make tweaks, you can. For now keep it simple: Don't eat carbs and don't be hungry.

I've been on keto since the days it was called Atkins Induction.

For decades I eat fewer than 20 carbs per day, and for the rest of the food I try to eat at least twice as many grams of fat than protein. It's that easy.

But if you adopt this keto lifestyle, you have to make it a choice for life. If you are going to do it to lose weight, and then go back to your old way of eating, don't bother, it won't work.

Bob

Sometimes, when we say this it sounds like people have just signed up for a lifetime of deprivation, especially when they're just starting and can't imagine what it's like to live without their favorite foods for a few months. Certainly not forever!

But the changes are like any other diet: If you adopt a low-cal, low-fat diet and lose a bunch of weight, then you go back to eating all the things that made you gain weight in the amounts you ate them before, then you'll gain weight again. If you go from very low carb back to over-eating on high carb, you'll gain weight again.

Once you get to your goals, you make adjustments for maintenance. Many people (it's hard to tell how many, since we don't have good statistics for maintainers on LC), increase their carbs slowly and end up eating something like Paleo which is a low to moderate carb diet.

During the time that you are losing weight, your tastes change, you learn new recipes and your perspective on how "do-able" this is for you long-term will change.

Today, starting out, commit yourself to getting through the next two weeks. Then the next two weeks. Then the next month.

Quitting sugar is a bit like quitting smoking. You just have to give up something detrimental to you even though you enjoyed it.

I think it's easier than quitting heroin or alcohol.

There will be other things you will enjoy, look for them.

Me? Bacon, 85% chocolate, cheese, nuts, and so on.

Bob