Maybe there are some “fad” high-protein, low-carb diets out there, but if you’re talking about the Atkins diet, I think you’re a bit off-base.
First of all, it’s not “no carb”, it’s “low carb”. It (or more appropriately, the phase that most people think of when they hear “Atkins”) is not intended to be a long-term prospect either.
The Atkins plan has four phases - some people get confused by Phase 1, which is simply a 2-week “detox” period. Even then, if you’re following the plan, it REQUIRES you to eat 2-3 cups of vegetables per day, preferably of the green leafy variety (spinach, kale, most lettuces and cabbages).
Phase 2 is the weight-loss phase. here, you worry about “net carbs”, which are the carbohydrates in food that actually affect blood sugar levels. Fiber does not count, as well as some other categories (such as citric acid and alcohols). Here, you have more flexibility, but it’s expected (and most effective) if you get the majority of your net carbs from vegetables - I’m in this phase now, consuming about 15-20 net carbs per day with 10-12 of them from vegetables (green beans, asparagus, peepers, onions, tomatoes, carrots, etc.). You can add fruits at this point too, but we’re talking about low-sugar, high-fiber fruits - berries and certain melons; not high-sugar fruits like grapes, apples, oranges, bananas, and the like.
Once you start approaching your target weight, you enter Phase 3. At this point, you start adding additional foods back into your diet one by one, focusing on foods low on the glycemic index (such as whole grains) to ensure that by adding that food, you don’t start gaining weight again. This is a transitionary phase that essentially teaches you what foods your body reacts to well and poorly for your long-term health.
Phase 4 is ongoing monitoring. You take the Phase 3 lessons you learned and stop counting so closely, but you also keep an eye on your weight - if it starts creeping up, back to Phase 3 until you get back under control.
I’m old enough to remember when he was a quack. Now his nutritional ideas are conventional wisdom. But he rarely gets credit.
-- usually ONE starchy carb in a meal -- rolls/bread, OR corn, OR rice, OR pasta, OR tortillas, OR potatoes, breakfast being an exception where two carbs was okay because BIG hearty breakfasts were encouraged (as a kid I was shocked early on when I went to the homes of friends and saw for dinner three and four starchy carbs served in one meal, but soon learned that that was the norm in MOST households, where folks were constantly going on diets and overweight)
-- cane sugar, honey, molasses, maybe corn syrup on occasion, and at that only in home-made desserts and on porridge
-- candy and soda was forbidden in my home and in my aunties' and gramma's homes except candy for special occasions, soda pop totally verboten
-- protein, protein, and more protein, fat fat fat, real butter, lard, bacon bacon bacon -- plus all the fruits and veggies (barring starchy carbs) you wanted or could eat -- LOTS and lots of fresh fruits and green vegetables. LOTS -- all you could eat, and always, all the whole milk you could drink.
I have one suggestion for you and the wonderful cook missus -- stop using fake sugar and use real cane sugar or molasses or honey or something like that. Use it sparingly, but STOP with the fake sugar. I used to drink a lot of fake sugar sodas and used fake sugar in some foods, and when I stopped, I felt so much better physically that it was amazing.
Fake sugar, like fake animal-based fat (hydrogenated vegetable "solids" like Crisco and margarine) is bad for your body and metabolism, flat out BAD, much worse than what they replace, regardless of what doctors and nurses tell you. Doctors and nurses very rarely "get" good nutrition. The best nutrition is simple, whole, pure foods, including wrongly demonized ones like eggs, lard, and whole dairy. See my post #10. You could have knocked me over with a feather when I so quickly LOST weight (four pounds is significant on my muscular 5-4 then 132-lb frame) by switching from non-fat to whole milk.
God bless you and yours!!!