*Sorry, I have gone too far with just 'one' piece of advice...now a whole chunk...

I must say the newbie must understand a few factors:

1) choose a comfortable diet pace. If not, then make sure you have enough discipline to see thru.

2) If you really crave for sugar, go for fruits mainly. Juices not included. I actually tell myself if i really have a sudden craving, I'll just eat the lower-carb fruits as much as i want.

3) Exercise. My mom has been nagging me for the past 20 years, but I always thought there's a magic diet potion out there that doesnt req exercising. Even Atkins doesnt do this to me totally tho I lost 20kg solely on it w/o regular exercising. And now after being a regular threadmill runner for 2 years, I stand by this exercise regimen. Sometimes I can get 'cold turkey' if i dont have the time to jog.

4) A rule of thumb, limit yourself to a range of foods (proteins, veges, fruits, nuts). REAL foods only. Those which God made for you to eat.

5) Look at how your inches drop, not on the scales.

6)If your friends tease you or are against the diet, just mention you are also consuming two impt foods - veges and fruits. Or else ignore them. I guarantee after some time they will start to imitate your LCing after they see ur results.

Perservere - you will reach your goal even though it might take longer than you initially thought.

fumih 81 and serrelind have just been voted off for not adhering to the one and only one rule. You are the weakest link, goodbye.

My advice is eat your veggies. I hear all the time how people quit low carbing because they feel tired or kinda not well and when you review their info you find they aren't eating two cups of veggies or three cups of salad. Or they go extremely low in carbs and wonder why they don't feel so good. Atkins says to eat the veggies and its true.

I've been working long hours but managed to get 8 hours of sleep in. The last two days though I've been dragging the only difference in my eating was not eating veggies (needed to get to the store) Well yesterday I had my two cups and today I'm much more energetic and clear minded. I lost 3 lbs too.

Hey if they get to give more than one piece of advice, so can I!

Read the Atkins website's carb counter, and try and memorize what whole foods are really low carb. This will help you make intelligent choices in the store.

Pick a plan that you can actually live with and stick with it.

It is more about good health than it is about losing weight.

I must say what helped and still does help me is mental images or words. When the time comes and I feel like cheating which happens a lot at times I have to think of something to keep me on track. Right now I think of my stomach and how I dislike it and if I cheat it will never go away.

I think exercise is key, but if/when you start start SLOW even if it's 10 minutes that's great. And build up slowly also as you can. I could never find a way to stick with exercise until I realized it was because I hurt so bad the next day. This time I started out very slow and have kept up with it. Good luck!

If you do Atkin, Dont stay on Induction for more than 2 weeks. It was designed for a 2 week period to jump start your weight loss. Longer than that and your metabolism will start to slow. In no time, you'll be in a stall. It's better to move on to OWL quickly, even if you have a lot of weight to lose. You'll get to eat more foods and will have a more consistant weight loss.

The ONE piece of advice I would give it to NOT treat this as a diet, but as a WOL (way of life), it's the ONLY way the weight will stay off. It will also help you keep from being frustrated if the scale doesn't ROCKET down.

My 2 cents...

Don't cheat. Not a bite, not a "special occasion" treat, not any kind of exception. JUST DON'T. I went off-plan for just two days in May and the cycle it has created for me is a nightmare. I am still struggling to climb out but getting deeper in the hole.

This is good advice that I wish I had followed a year ago. Induction stopped working after a while and we all know how crazy we can get when we're in a stall and start trying everything but raising carbs to break out of it! I finally raised my carbs to 35 and started losing again.

The biggest thing that turned me around, which I think is vital, is: DON'T GO HUNGRY!

This was something difficult for me to grasp, because I was so used to thinking that "losing weight" and "deprivation" were the same thing. Not so! You need to get out of that mindset. It is key to keeping your fat up, keeping you satisfied, and keeping your metabolism humming.

Don't let your body think there isn't any food out there. It's a sure way to slow yourself down. And make you vulnerable to cravings.

STICK TO THE PLAN, DO CHEAT, ONE BITE DOES MAKE A DIFFERENCE!! My sister was all hyped up about my weight loss, and asked me how to do Atkins. I told her, she did it to the letter ONE day. The next day, I called and asked her "What did you eat for supper?" She says something to the effect of a chicken breast a salad with thousand island dressing, and some low carb bread. I was like,,,what the f**k?? I said, "You can't have the dressing, or the bread!!" And she replied, "I am going to do Atkins my way." I told her that if she changes the plan, it just won't work,,and sure enough it didn't. Now she tells people that she did Atkins and it just doesn't work!!