I think the key for me in maintaining is realizing that even though I am now a healthy weight, I'm not "cured." I will never be "cured." I'll never be able to eat exactly what I want, in the amount I want to eat it, and weigh what I want to weigh (I can only have 2 out of 3). If I go back to the way I used to eat, I will weigh what I used to weigh. Seems obvious, but it took a while to sink in.

Fortunately, what I want to eat has also changed-- for the better.

Great discussion, and helpful for me. I've recently passed my 3rd year since going low carb. What has been the challenge is the accessibility to lower priced food since moving back to the mainland from Hawaii. Go figure.

My passion is cooking and my efforts go towards adapting recipes to low carb, finding ways to eat "normal" in a low carb way. Lots of vegetables, eating small breakfast and lunch, creating low carb occassional deserts. LOTS of shirataki noodles. Most of the success has been to make my WOE not feel like a diet while staying true to the regimen.

I do have the occassional treat for special events, but this practice can EASILY get away from you. While I have not "lost it", I have slowly gained 16 pounds from my low of 104 lbs. Since my move back to the mainland for a job and losing my hour for exercise, I haven't exercised. No mystery here! Good news is that I've slowly carved out 30 minutes in my morning and am slowly starting back on an excercise program. I get good support from coworkers (that have only seen the "fat" me in photos) who do not try to sabotage me. I have to constantly resist the Krispy Kreme donuts at work (in lieu for SF chocolate truffles I recently adapted and Sf chocolate meringue cookies).

I'm encouraged and confident I will get my weight back in check. Thanks to folks like you and my own demonstration that I can lose the weight.....and will keep it off. :-)

This article accurately spells out the mysteries as well as the frustrations of weight management that all of us are well aware of. Reading it takes the edge off my sense of failure and guilt, now that I'm seriously addressing a bothersome weight gain.

(Ain't it awful, ladies, that having a good man in your life tends to make you fat?? But that's another story.)

Even though I put on a few pounds that I'm working to shed, I never have abandoned my commitment to exercise. Because of that, I'm sure I gained those pounds much more slowly than I would have without it, considering how far and how frequently I wandered off the LC path in the past year.

I used to do aerobics and weight training 6 days a week. Now I'm a devoted walker--brisk, daily, sometimes with light wrist weights. I really, really enjoy it, and that's the key.

I've been a member of Dr. Hill's National Weight Loss Registry since 1998, following a loss of 50 lbs. on a traditional low-fat/low-calorie diet, maintained for 2 years. However, it was Dr. Atkins who gave me the lifetime tools to manage my weight for the long haul--if I follow the plan.

Every "diet" can get you to a goal. But only a WOE (way of eating) can keep you there. That doesn't happen without constant attention. It's worth it to me.