Has there been a Diet that has REALLY helped you lose weight?

I've done Atkins. I lost 5 lbs the first 3 weeks. What kills me is all the people who have opinions on the diet who have never read the complete diet plan. People say "oh when you start eating carbs again you'll gain all that weight back." No, you won't. Because you ARE eating carbs during the diet. You start with a low amount of carbs and gradually increase the amount of carbs in your diet. When you've reached your ideal weight, you just maintain a certain number of carbs per day -- that neither increases or decreases your weight. The thing people also don't seem to get is that people on Atkins, who are doing it properly, eat more vegetables than the average person. Atkins isn't nearly as dangerous as people think. So Atkins worked for me, I've also simply changed my diet and exercise using the recommendations at sparkpeople.com as a guideline. Both worked.