After you have lost the weight you want to lose, you need to monitor your weight and carb intake carefully, because that is how you will determine how many carbs you can eat for the rest of your life -- by noting when you begin regaining the weight, or not – according to this plan.

Pro: It is possible to lose weight on the Atkins program, and it is even possible (barely) to keep it off.  And the plan does teach you all about bad carbs, much of which is quite true.  (Though they go way too far with that, of course.)

Con: Overall, this is one nutty diet. The big problem we have with Atkins is that it is so extreme. It’s the sheer difficulty of following the program that most bothers us.  For example: you are forced to take a urine test every day to see if your body is still in ketosis. Can you imagine that? Here’s a diet that’s supposed to make you healthier, but to get there you have to check your urine every day!

Also, to do Atkins correctly, you must be absolutely stringent about following all of their advice.  Not eating carbs is just one part of the program -- you must also make sure that you are drinking enough water, because the kidneys have to work extra hard to deal with all the protein you are eating and all the ketones your body is producing (which it does because it is being fooled into thinking you are starving).  Without giving your kidneys enough water to get the job done, you could actually face kidney failure.  You also have to be very careful about getting enough fiber, which is difficult, because most fiber comes form carbohydrate sources. Constipation is a major problem for Atkins adherents.

And then there is the issue of fats. The Atkins plan claims that, as long as you are controlling the carbs that go into your body, you don’t have to worry about the amount of fat you eat. The problem: that advice flies in the face of much of the scientific evidence available today concerning the role of fat in health and nutrition.  High fat diets are known to be linked to cancer and heart disease. But apparently, Atkins doesn’t care about that.  We do.

Another point about fat: Ingested fat turns more readily to fat stored in the body than any other food type you can eat. Nevertheless, the Atkins dieter is not just allowed, but required to eat a high volume of fat, and that is not respective of the kind of fat… Atkins allows unhealthful fats just as it does the healthful ones. We just don’t think people that are being encouraged to eat pounds of bacon per sitting will be able to both lose weight and maintain their good health. More likely, they will ultimately achieve neither.

The most vexing problem that we see with Atkins, though, is that it is inherently unsustainable. If you go on a diet plan that causes you to behave in ways that are not natural to you, and that are difficult for you, you will inevitably stop doing that program.  Someday.  So unless you plan on severely restricting your intake of carbs for the rest of your life, and potentially suffering from a variety other health problems -- some of them quite serious -- then the Atkins plan is just not for you.