I lost 20 lbs while eating two big macs almost everyday. It just so happened that I was probably burning near 5,000 calories a day when I happened to lose the weight.

You could sit down and eat a jar of sugar if you wanted, you'd just have to be burning that many calories.

Sure you can. But you can't have the buns, fries, or non-diet drink ..

Atkins? Seriously? 5 years later?

In theory, sure, we're with you. But in practice, Atkins is a diet for fat people. If you're 250 pounds and you want to get down to 230 and stay there, Atkins is your huckleberry. We all know plenty of fat people who are noticeably less fat thanks to low-carb diets, but I can't think of anybody I know who used to be fat and is now thin because of one.

If you're 250 pounds and you want to get down to 170 and stay there, it seems that "eat less and exercise" is still your best bet.

See Jimmy Moore: http://livinlavidalowcarb.com/blog/?page_id=2464 and there are a lot more examples. Myself, I have gone down from 290 pounds to 225 low-carbing, and I am still losing weight.

Also, Atkins is just one type of low-carb diet, and a rather strict one at that. It is because of how strict it is that people tend to fail a little ways in

Isn't low-carb just a mechnism for creating a low-calorie diet though?

No, it's not. Low calorie diets don't tend to create ketosis and if you start eating too few calories on Atkins, you will stop losing weight. (I speak from experience. Had to make myself eat more. Funny, huh?)

Last time I checked the two weren't mutually exclusive. Going low sugar is good for you. Eating less is good for you and getting off your rear is good for you. One of them isn't the solution at the expense of the other two.

Or the ketchup :)

With a proper diet, you wouldn't be eating the burger to begin with...

Atkins is a diet for people who insist on eating the wrong foods. It attempts to minimize the harm of eating crap without actually encouraging the dieter to eat healthy stuff.