i agree. i'd say i am an atkins/protein power hybrid. i think it's the best of both worlds. i've been keeping net carbs at 30 or below, most days. i like atkins because it's a very scripted diet; the directions are all written out to a T and the OWL "carb ladder" and climbing-the-rungs thing is very specific and there's very little margin for error. i tend to have problems with diets that are too liberal or let me eat a very large range of things. to illustrate, in 2004, i went from 170 lbs to 145 or thereabouts on south beach. then i gained a lot of it back, went up to about 168 or so. then went back down to 155, by doing south beach again. but i could never get back down to 140. the problem with south beach was that i would lose weight quite predictably in phase 1. and then phase 2 (when you add back grains, fruits, etc.) would inevitably cause me to gain or, at best, stall out for months. this drove me crazy. then i picked up the protein power and atkins books and read them both cover to cover. they both made a lot of sense to me.

i went from 155 to 140 by doing atkins. i don't pay much attention to the OWL rungs. in that sense, i'm more protein power--i pay close attention to my carb intake but i also enjoy a glass of red wine or half an apple or whatever even if i wouldn't be able to under atkins until later stages of OWL. even though i like the great deal of order in atkins, when i feel like i am being over-restricted (in terms of, 'i really want a spoonful of peanut butter but i can't until i reach the legumes rung of OWL') i tend to quit. in my experience.

that said, i'm very carb-sensitive and have PCOS/insulin resistance so i notice that i have to keep carbs around 30-40 net carbs/day to lose weight reliably. i also use a lot of supplements that atkins recommends--gtf chromium and L-glutamine especially for cravings.