What has worked for me Shelly is to do "sensible low carbing". I can't do Atkins and to those who can I applaud you. I need some carbs, it's just my make-up I guess. But carbs were obviously killing me. When I had my auto accident and went directly to ICU from emergency my blood sugar level was 187! And I am not diabetic but before I left the house I had eaten a big slice of apple pie for breakfast. I was not dieting then. I previously had counted fat grams for 5 years, ignored carbs grams and sugar and made no headway to health or losing much weight. And my fibro got worse during that time. When I finally was forced into looking at how much I weighed, I started low carbing immediately. The first two weeks took off 14 pounds and it's been steadily downhill from there with my weight. And as I have weened myself from most carbs, eliminating specific things my fibro has begun to vanish. I have a list of about a dozen "no's" that I don't eat no matter what. I simply keep a watch dog on my carbs and that seems to work for me.~~bella