Atkins is, to me, the most workable of all "diet" plans. I have repeatedly had success with it over my lifetime. I have had just as many failures over my lifetime because, due to stress, depression, whatever, I have not followed the 5# ideal weight window and literally always let it all go to hell.
Atkins is not hard to adhere to, because it freely allows alcohol. There is 0 carbs in all distilled spirits (hard liquor).
When I was working at USS in Gary back in the early 70's I went from 313# to 195# and during that time, there were many days when my 35 grams of allowable carbohydrate consisted of 12 Miller Lites (there is much to be said for the single life).
There are times though when you just die inside for a loaded baked potato. You can't succumb to that temptation though because once you throw your system out of Ketosis, it takes several days to get it back.
Right now, for example, I am on Atkins, and have gone from 438# to 302# as of this morning. My blood pressure and cholesterol levels are fine. I always heard it would be harder to lose as you got older (60 this October) because your metabolism changes. I can't say that I am finding that to be the case with the Atkins approach. I am not losing as rapidly as I have in the past because I am inactive due to my arthritic knees and joints.
I've got a stationary recumbent Life-Cycle that I have recently begun to ride again. It is a real treat for the knee joints and 30' at level 2 is enough, but it gets the heart rate going (145bpm) and it is a beginning.