1. Eliminate carbs for a few weeks and watch the weight melt off your body.
2. Reintroduce carbs slowly, to determine how your body uniquely responds to them.
3. Adjust the level of carbs to achieve your desired RATE OF ON-GOING WEIGHT LOSS.
4. At your target weight, increate the level of carbs to maintain your desired body weight
I didn't buy the Atkins book, but did cut down on the carbs and lost 20 lbs in 2 months and maintained for another 2, eating moderate amounts of carbs(a baked potato once a week, an apple a day and such).
Recently went on what one could call a tortilla chip and salsa binge and gained 5 lbs.
It wasn't the salsa that caused the gain, but damn it was good. Happens about once a year.
Just to my revise my remarks in the above because the word binge has certain connotations.
What I meant as "binge", was snacking on a half bag of tortilla chips, that were marked down by 50% and eating them with nicely refridgerated salsa for 3 days in a row.