ok well, MY opinion on low carb (< 100 g/day) is not necessarily that, "Everyone should eat this way," but that, everyone COULD eat this way and be healthy, functioning people. now when people bring up athletes, well...i take that to be an extreme case. just like I am and extreme case. for me, 100 carbs, although still low, would make me gain weight. heck 30 carbs makes me gain weight!!! BUT, this is b/c of something i chose to do at some point in my life (overindulge in high carb and high fat foods) and weighed 300+ pounds. athletes CHOOSE to put high demands on their bodies and so they have different needs but i dont consider them the norm, as i dont consider myself the norm.

i see it like this, if everyone was born healthy with no disease or disorder and was raised on a similar HEALTHY, whole food, unrefined, lower carb diet, and didnt put any uneeded stress on their body (either by gaining a lot of weight or over excercising, etc)...everyone could "do low carb."


oh and all that said, technically you could eat more than a 100 carbs a day and still be on atkins' plan, thus "low carbing." maintenance is a very individual thing.