Hi, Barb. I'm guessing from a glance at your list of postings that you're an experienced LCer. That would be me. However, I've spent years of my life doing the counting until, eventually, I arrived at something like "normal" eating, for me, that is pretty simple.

--Real food (nothing in a package with a list of ingredients)
--No sugar
--No starch
--No "fast food"

As a human being, I make a few exceptions from time to time. My maintenance weight is considerably above what I used to consider my Goal weight. But I've made peace with the whole process, and I'm grateful to Dr. Atkins for putting me on the right track almost 20 years ago. It would have been longer if I'd listened to him the first time.

Best wishes with your exploration.

Thanks, and yes to almost all of the above, especially the last part. I couldn't have said it better! I say almost because even though I've dabbled in low carb since the 1970s, I never committed to it as a viable way of eating for life until a year and a half ago, after all my other options were exhausted by trial and failure - about 100 times over!

Well, here I am almost a month later, and I have had great success with Atkins 40! Before starting, I experimented willy-nilly with different foods and carb levels over a couple of weeks and gained five pounds. The payoff was that I was able to determine that 38-42 NC is my range for gradual weight loss and that I start to gain steadily over 55 NC. In the last two weeks, armed with this information, I've already lost back four of the five pounds I'd gained.

So Atkins 40 is a good plan for me. No plastic food products, no big deviation from my normal OWL WOE, but I pay attention to portions and numbers now - minimum as well as maximum - and make sure I get in my eight cups of water a day. The water alone has made a world of difference in how I feel and function. The mild PITA of counting, measuring, and tracking is well worth its rewards!

Atkins 40 still does very much remind me of Weight Watchers, but the only difference is on this plan you get full!

Barb, your post is inspiring. I did Atkins several years ago and never found my NC point or range. I always stayed at or close to 20 carbs per day. I ‘restarted’ doing Atkins in mod August if this year. Losing slowly which is good. When I get to my goal I’ll follow Atkins NC range with your ideas too. ThNks for the inspiration and post. 10-11 pounds from goal. 💪🏼

That's great, LCer4Life! I'm glad it helped. I'm a little sheepish about mentioning the newer Atkins programs as they seem to not be very popular around here - marketing ploy to push their fake foods, etc. - but it's pretty universally agreed upon that we need to do what works for us. Take what you need and leave the rest, as the song goes.

Losing slowly is good! Dr. Atkins always encouraged people to slowly climb the ladder. It's daunting, much easier said than done, but very liberating once you find your parameters. Best of luck to you!

I know this is an older post, but wondering how things are going for you? I'm brand new to experimenting with a lower carb woe and starting yesterday I just cut my carb intake in half, to 100g net carbs a day, to get me started. I'm interested in following something with a bit of structure though, and poking around the Atkins site I saw the 40 plan and it seems like it would be a good fit for me-actually since I have less than 10lbs to lose, I would add some carbs, so more of an Atkins 50 I guess

I already eat a mostly whole foods style of eating so it would never occur to me to buy the Atkins packaged food stuffs, so that wouldn't be an issue. I need to get my hands on some of the Atkins books and compare the older plan most seem be be following here vs the newer 40/100 plans!

Hi, Daisy Dawn! Yes, I'm still doing Atkins 40 six months and 12 pounds later and am having great success with it. I feel like I can do it for life, which is the whole idea.

I eat real whole foods, too, except for Carb Smart Vanilla "frozen dairy dessert," which makes me happy and agrees with me. I sometimes rebel against the portion control and tracking philosophy from time to time but have about come to terms with the fact that that's exactly what I need. The funny thing is when you're more mindful of what you're eating and how much, it's just as satisfying as when you eat all you want according to hunger. A lot of us (like me) can recognize hunger and satiety to a great degree but not altogether and often eat out of boredom, stress, etc. So I digress but yeah, it's great and it works. After a while you put a collection of protein-vegetables-fat meals together that you know are balanced and filling as well as a couple of snacks or special treats and desserts that work for you.

Going up to 50 g NC a day is a fine goal on Atkins 40. You just start at 40 and work your way up over a couple of weeks. Or, of course, you could start at 100 and work your way down. I find the 42 g NC limit perfect for maintenance though I seldom hit it; on a typical day I wind up around 30-35. It's nice to have that wiggle room.

Atkins DANDR 2002 is what I read several years ago to get started and is still what I fall back on. It's good to read an Atkins book that resonates with you and use it as a guide for life, but the website has handy tools that help you stay on track.

I hope I offered some useful information here amid my babbling. I'm happy to share it. It's true, there aren't many folks around here, at least not the vocal ones, who follow the newer plans.

Thanks for your response! I need to get a hold of the DANDR 2002 book-will check my library system today. I'm just starting out on this whole lower carb thing, after years of calorie tracking/counting. That's worked well for me, but I'm just bored with it and want to try something new, hence how I ended up on this site

I don't have any interest in going very low carb, especially since I'm in maintenance and just working on a few pounds of vanity weight/winter creep. But, something like the Atkins 40 plan sounds like it's a bit more relaxed with the carbs, which appeals to me. I know myself and I need some sort of plan outline/structure, but at this point in the game I don't need anything too structured.

I eat a lot of veggies-currently switching out the higher carb ones for more leafy greens etc, and I turn into a toddler when it comes to weighing out portion sizes of those-so silly but I despise weighing out my greens!
I love my food scale but it's always such a mess to weigh them out and they're so low carb/calories-it just irritates me to have to do it lol. I'm thinking of maybe doing the Atkins 40 plan, but then not measure out/count my non-starchy veggies? So it would be more of an Atkins 50/60 plan I guess lol.

Sorry, totally rambling here, just thinking out loud and trying to decide what direction I want to go in

No, it sounds like a great strategy! Talking/writing it out helps clarify things. I love my food scale, bought it a few months ago and it's my new toy, but know what you mean about weighing leafy greens. I'm lazy in the kitchen and eat mostly bagged salads or vegetables I can count out, but I find that 85 g is good to use for any vegetable or salad portion. If I'm really hungry and feel like having a bigger salad or veg portion, I go for 128 g (one and a half portions) or 170 g (two portions). If you don't feel like weighing your greens, in all honesty, it's hard to overdo it carb-wise. As I go along, an eenie beenie baby step at a time, slowly but surely, I'm loosening my grip on the exactness and learning how to eyeball or recognize what a normal portion is as long as I stay honest with myself. There's plenty of room along the way for experimenting with what is natural, comfortable and sustainable. You'd be surprised at how much becomes habit, things you want to do instead of have to do.

Best of luck with everything, and please check back in to let us know how it's working out for you.

There is also an old Atkins book seen at thrift stores, "Atkins for Life" It is all maintenance plans, 45, 60, 80 or 100g.

Didn't think of that-I have a thrift shop just a few minutes away from me, I'll have to try and get there this weekend

I'm thinking of getting a copy of Atkins for Life as well.

Hi, everyone! Long time no post.

I just wanted to say I've been maintaining successfully in the 180s for the past four years. Although I don't follow Atkins 40 per se, I have adopted a lot of the tools they offered. I use my food scale a lot and am mindful of portions. If I find myself eating anything straight out of the container, I stop myself. If I can't stop myself, I stop eating that thing.

Lately I've been sloppy. It's so easy to gain a pound and much harder to lose it. I came back here and started reading for motivation, and I must say that reading my own posts from four years ago is so helpful! The guidelines I gave myself based on what works and how I feel still work for me. I had to remind myself of that. Of course, reading everyone else is a big boost and source of support and encouragement, which keeps me coming back here.

Onward and downward!

Welcome back, Barb712,
How great that you are easily maintaining your weight loss on Atkins 40, or something similar to that plan. I too finally found success by upping my carbs to eat more higher fiber, nutrient dense vegetables (and lower calorie vegetables) If I read back four years I would have still been wedded to 20g total carbs, which after a whole decade, I finally realized did not work for me! The other key was increasing protein which offers high satiety food with a lower energy intake…without counting. "Keto" works for some, but MORE healthy, unprocessed carbs was also my answer.

Though some people cannot go above 40g net carbs without derailing their response to food. I've tried multiple times on Atkins over the past 50 years, other LC WOEs, Optimising Nutrition, and my food satiety derails at ~35g NC, even on all real, unprocessed food with 40% protein. I can nudge my net carbs up to 40-50g, but I have to count every net carb and restrict calories and feel deprived and constantly think about food. Under 35g carbs, prioritizing protein with moderate amounts of fat keeps me satisfied with my food and rarely thinking about it, and this lack of food obsession is my sweet spot that is easier to stick to when not tracking everything going into my mouth by just keeping my food triggers out (grains, legumes, sugar, processed foods & most dairy) and enjoying the foods I can eat. Being human, I occasionally on special occasions eat too many of my trigger foods, but by getting back on track ASAP, in 3-7 days I'm feeling better and back to my non-food obsessed self. Increasingly I avoid eating things that require 3-7 days to recover from.