If any of you have read the book, then you would be less scrutinizing of Atkins.
After a week with my roommate on it, I went on it myself and lost 30 pounds in the first 30 days. I was very excited about it. My blood pressure dropped signifcantly, from 140/85 to 110/60. I'm 22, and 6'4". My start weight as ~330. Sure, you might call me a fatass, but I had only 17% of Bodyfat then. I am extremely big and have a lot of muscle. My legs which aren't fat, are 32" around. That's as large as many small men are around the waist. I used to always be active in highschool too with football and weightlifting. I even dropped down to 200 in HS due to running. Of course 4 years of college had it in for me, and the gaining began.
So anyways...read the book before you judge.
There is an even better way to kickstart your body into ketosis. It's to use a different technique which is in around chapter 13. It is a 1000 calorie a day diet, composed of 90% fats. For me, personally, I am not losing the weight fast enough. My energy has spiked, and the amount of weightlifting/torture I'm putting myself through is great, but I feel that my metabolic resistance is high, as I used to be able to drop weight way faster. Of course I am also making myself feel lighter, by constantly wearing 5lbs./leg weights around the house. You get used to it after ~2 hours and if you sleep in it and stuff, then you'll be feeling GREAT when you take it off.
So...if you're a skeptic, try it. If you're not a doctor, don't tell people what isn't healthy, it's not your body. Everything is healthy when your body is in the correct mode. Some animals are carnivores and eat NOTHING but meat. You NEVER see a fat animal that hasn't been corrupted by humans, do you? Point proven.
Good luck with everything,
GermyBoy