Were you talking AWT and IK, Novelty?
They both seem to be fairly, shall we say, portly these days! And I saw IK being interviewed recently about her new book, talking about older women not looking like 'mutton dressed as lamb', and she was wearing a distinctly unflattering outfit. She certainly wasn't a good ad for her own diet.
The same is true of low carbing as it is with any other way of losing weight. It's about re-training your eating habits. If, once you've lost the weight, you simply return to eating as you did before, then the weight will just pile back on.
This is why it's really important to understand how many carbs your body can tolerate. We are all different in this regard.
If you were to follow Atkins, he has a very long 'pre-maintenance' phase, where you look to lose weight at the rate of less than a pound a week, for as long as 3 months - this a way of training you to understand how many carbs you can consume whilst still seeing some weight loss.
You will still be able to 'indulge' yourself - but hopefully by the time you reach your goal weight, your ideas as to what constitutes an indulgence will have changed. Breaking the addiction to sugar is the first and most important thing that happens when you're low carbing - so the dessert menu becomes far less alluring and much easier to resist.
But a pasta meal here or there, or some toast occasionally, or the odd sandwich, should not throw you off course. Dr Briffa says that as long as you follow the rules for 80% of the time, that's acceptable. Now, obviously, that depends on what happens to you in the other 20%! If you keep an eye on your weight, weighing once a week (say), then you can start to take action if the weight goes back on. If you put more than 5lbs on, then this is the time to go back to strict low carbing.
I hope that helps!
Ultimately, it's knowing about carbs and why they are so bad for us that keeps me focused on eating this way - frankly far more than losing weight. I've been eating this way for over a year now (albeit with the odd fall off the wagon along the way), and can't say that I feel deprived. I don't yearn for pasta or bread or potatoes any more. Occasionally I might have some, but it's surprising how they are much less enjoyable, often, than I was expecting.