[TritteTouff]

JD, I completely agree with you ... it's about insulin control. Control your insulin and you control everything else! Your hunger, your cravings, your blood sugar, etc are directly related to how much insulin you're producing and using (for glucose usage and for fat storage). And how do you control your insulin production? By limiting your carbohydrate intake. Why diabetics aren't immediately placed on a low carb diet, I'll never figure out. Digestion of carbohydrate produces glucose... if diabetics have too much glucose that they can't use, doesn't it make all the sense in the world to stop doing what creates the glucose?!? I guess that's too simple. LOL Kinda like the old doctor joke... the one that goes, "Doctor, when I do this, it hurts." The doctor says, "Then stop doing that."

Is ketosis important? I think so. At least in the beginning. Ketosis is a state in which you're using ketones, not glucose, for your energy needs. If you have insulin/glucose issues (and I firmly believe that most if not all, obese people do) then putting yourself into ketosis can allow the body to adjust... to repair... to heal. And, remarkably enough, to lose weight.

Is ketosis necessary for continued weight loss? Not in my opinion. Once you're no longer insulin resistant (NOT talking about diabetics here!!!) I believe you can lose while burning glucose, not just ketones. I think Dr Atkins believed that, too. He wrote about late OWL and pre-maintenance as a time when you would be moving in and out of ketosis. Some time in pre-maintenance you would stop doing that... and be completely in a glucose burning state... as you slowly reach your goal weight. So he must have believed it was not only possible, but necessary, to no longer be in ketosis yet still losing or maintaining your loss.

Tril