Health

Sue from California is 49 years old and 5'4 inches tall. Sue has been following the Atkins program for two years now, and has dropped from her high weight of 262.5 pounds and a size 24.5 to her current weight of 162.5 pounds and a size 12. Sue's goal is to weigh 150 pounds and wear size 10.

Elizabeth from Tennessee is 32 years old and 5 feet, 7 inches tall. Elizabeth has been following the Atkins program since January 5, 2002. She started low carbing weighing 228 pounds and wearing a size 18, but now weighs 155 pounds and is wearing size 8/10. Elizabeth's goal is to get her weight down to 140 pounds and eventually wear a size 6/8.

Karen from Nebraska is 41 years old and 5' 4" tall. Karen has been following her own modified version of the Atkins program for a little over a year now. She began low carbing weighing 320 pounds and wearing size 28W and now weighs 209 pounds and wears a size 18. Karen's goal is to reach 150 pounds and sport size a size 10.

Karen G. is an American living in Poland. Karen is 5' 4" inches tall, and has been following the Atkins program since December 31, 2002. In that time, Karen has dropped from weighing 228 pounds and size 20W to weighing 168 pounds and wearing size 12/14. Karen's goal is to weigh 140 and (possibly) be a size 8.

It's much easier to focus on the negative aspects of our lives than the positive ones. Do we remember the sunny smile the clerk at the grocery store flashed in our direction or do we remember that when we finally got all the groceries loaded in the trunk that the right rear tire was flat? Do we think about the fact that our husbands (or wives) dress in the dark so they won't wake us up, or do we obsess about the fact that they rattle the house with their snoring and keep us from getting to sleep in the first place? (Never mind the fact that we snore, too. From our own point of view, that's irrelevant.)

Jori Lynn from Corsica is 51 years old and 5' 3" tall. Jori Lynn's high weight as a teen was 187+ pounds. She began low carbing following Dr. Marvin Anchell's Steak Lover's Diet at when she weighed 167 pounds, and reached her goal weight of 127 pounds. Jori Lynn then switched programs, and has been following the Atkins program since June of 2003. She began low carbing in a size 18 and now wears size 8!

ZACK GRADY writes from Southern California. He reads cookbooks, but mostly, he just adds garlic and hot sauce.

There are certain instinctive drives that all human beings share. Hunger is one of them. Eating is necessary for our survival as individuals, so we eat. We can't live without eating, so the drive to eat is hardwired into our psyches. As individuals, we can live without sex, but as a species we cannot, so that drive is also hardwired into our psyche.

We all know what it feels like to be overweight. The self-disgust. The shame. The exhaustion. Unpleasant physical symptoms abound; maybe we even have to have our blood taken regularly to test for diabetes. A trip to the doctor's office includes the inevitable rationalizations about heavy clothing as we step on the scale and later dire pronouncements of doom and gloom from the doctor if we don't do something.

LBJ from Minnesota is 53 years old and 5' 4" tall. LBJ has been low carbing for since April of 1999, and has been at the maintenance level for nearly four years. She follows the Protein Power program. When LBJ began low carbing, she weighed 150 pounds and wore a size 14. Currently, LBJ weighs 114 pounds and 1s wearing a size 3. She has dropped 36 pounds and more than 5 dress sizes!

Laura from Illinois is 45 years old and 5' 9" tall. Laura has been doing her own version of the Atkins program, and has lost 74 pounds, dropping from gone 199 pounds and size 16/18 to 125 pounds and size 9.