Has anyone had any good or bad experiences with the diet. If it doesn't work which would you recommend. I dont want to gain any muscles which is why I havent been using the atkins diet.

Not always. But you don't need an expensive fad diet to lose. Start small, choose healthier foods. Limit to only 1 low cal snack a week. No pop either. Even small steps like not choosing both jelly and butter on toast can dramatically help. Excercise, go walkin everyday. The oldest tricks are the best tricks.

I found it very effective. Preparing the meals myself seemed a lot of trouble, but I did learn a lot of good ideas for cooking healthy dishes. Nowadays there are pre-prepared meals in the stores. The most important thing to me was to learn to identify and avoid foods that are high on the "glycemic index."

I have lost lots of weight with South Beach and am very happy.

it works, very easy, but you won't gain muscle on it or atkins or any diet. exercise os how you gain muscle.

My parents did and my dad lost like almost 20 pounds and my mom like 10.

Gain muscles doing the Atkins????? I am sorry but your post stuns me.I am amazed at the things people believe without doing their own research. When you do low carb you lose fat not muscle but you don't gain muscle unless your body building. Atkins is also not all fat either. It is very healthy if you get the book and follow the plan. South beach works too. I lost 50 pounds on the Atkins and kept it off for 2 years. I never plan on ever stopping my low carb way of life. I do not want to be fat ever again. What it isn't however is a diet that you can stop. Low carb only works if you plan on eating this way for the rest of your life. But that goes for any diet on the planet. Stop and you gain your weight back no matter what plan you choose.