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But there are many who love him. Tom and Betsy Sales, Atkins adherents in Chicago, have jointly lost 85 lbs. this year on meals like bacon and eggs without toast. Lots of their friends are on the diet, and local waiters have learned to expect bizarre requests. "At Bijan they do a baked brie that's out of this world. I asked to have the brie cheese with celery instead of bread," says Betsy, "and the waiter didn't even blink. And Dan O'Toole, a sales executive at the Los Angeles Times Syndicate, shed 50 lbs. while eating fatty food. He says the diet gives him much more energy than he had in the past, though this may just be because he used to weigh 250 lbs.
But then there are people like Sherri Miller, 32, a full-time mother in Manhattan who tried the Atkins diet, lost 3 lbs. but quit when she tired of the fare. In fact, one of the tricks behind these diets, detractors say, is that by cutting out one major food group, like carbohydrates, people get bored quickly. "These diets work primarily by making people feel sick," says Dr. F. Xavier Pi-Sunyer, chief of endocrinology, diabetes and nutrition at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital in New York City. "If you go on a strict high-protein diet, you feel nauseated and a little sick to your stomach after about four to five days, so you lose your appetite and eat less." By this theory an all-chocolate-and-cheese diet would work too, because eventually you'd find you can stomach only so many calories of Hershey's and Swiss each day. It would also be delicious.
Most of the other low-carb diets are less restrictive, lower-fat versions of the Atkins formula. Sugar Busters!, written by a mess of New Orleans doctors led by H. Leighton Steward, 64, vice chairman of Burlington Resources, advises avoiding white flour and refined sugars but allows you to eat cheese omelettes. "We think that if you eat the right kinds of carbohydrates, you won't get such a surge in blood sugar," says Steward. And while they don't advocate the heavy fats of Atkins, the diet still has a fair share of buttery goodness. Pam Hoffman, 33, a housewife in Metairie, La., knocked off 120 lbs. eating, among other things, ham, eggs and cream of broccoli soup. In Louisiana, of course, this might not be considered a high-fat diet.