Well, I can tell you about my past success. I'm just getting started this time around!

I lost from 180 lbs down to 115 doing a loose form of Atkins. I was in my 20s. By "loose" I mean that after induction, I immediately skipped ahead a few rungs and stayed there. And I didn't count carbs, I just strictly avoided certain foods. No grains or starches--but plenty of vegetables, nuts, and moderate amounts of dairy and fruit. You might say I was doing primal before primal came onto the scene. What struck me about that experience was what I didn't have to do. I didn't have to count calories. For some people, they don't have to count calories on Atkins because they have no appetite. But once you get to the "higher rungs," you are actually eating a relatively decent amount of carbs. So I had a healthy appetite. Just not an insatiable one. It just didn't seem to matter. Once, just for a change of pace, I decided to count calories. By mid day, I had already consumed over 1000 calories...I got scared. MFP starts out telling you to only eat 1200 in a whole day! So I promptly stopped counting them. The other thing I didn't have to do was to exercise a lot. I did exercise, but I did something vigorous for 30 minutes, 2-3 days a week. That' it. When you're calorie counting, you get encouraged to "burn those calories." Well, when you're a short woman who isn't particularly muscular, that's an arduous proposition. Small people don't burn a lot of calories. A 30 minute run burns about 130 calories for me. How horribly disappointing to come home huffing and puffing and realizing that you barely burned off a slice of bacon. So I stopped thinking about exercise as about burning calories, and more about its role in stoking the metabolism and for one's overall physical and mental health.

It was a whole ago, so I don't remember how long it took. But I will tell you--it was neither miraculous nor slow. There were fits and starts--good weeks and bad weeks--but I lost, on average, a smidgen more than 1 lb a week. For someone my height (4 ft 11 in) that's pretty good, but certainly not worthy of an infomercial. What I do remember was that it was pretty consistent, straight forward, and easy. I also remember that for me, it was the only thing that ever worked. And I kept it off for a decade. Age and illness has helped me gain some of it back in the last 3 years--but thankfully, not all of it.