Hi there
perhaps you don't really understand enough about carbs. Protein or fat. Carbs are not bad for you. Refined carbs are the problem. Animal fat is a problem too as it gets stuck in your arteries and leads to heart disease ultimately.
You should think about what it was you ate so much of that got you overweight in the first place? I bet a lot of it was sugar and the other lot of it was probably butter or fat or one sort or another. Its not the carbohdrate in nuts that's a problem, its the fat if you have too many calories. If you eat too many calories, even on the atkins diet, you will not lose weight.
Can i suggest the CSIRO total wellbeing diet as an actually HEALTHY approach to weight loss rather than the Atkins idea which is not very healthy at all and certainly not something you can do for the long term.
In contrast the csiro diet trains you how to eat better and educates you in good nutrition at the same time. The only objection i have to the CSIRO diet is that its a bit low in calories in for me so when i did it, i got a bit hungry. I"d rather lose weight more slowly and so i tend to eat more than they suggest in their diets. However, its a very adapatable diet and i do my own version of that diet. I've been doing it for about 5 months now - though not today because i had a shit day and blew my program.
But about the csiro diet - a book you can buy in the uk off the shelf in some bookshops i believe or you can order it on line if you google it. CSIRO means Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO). It is Australia's national science agency, delivering solutions for agribusiness etc. This book is the result of genuine scientific studies, first on women who were pre-diabetic or who had the X syndrome which is women who find it hard to lose weight because of their metabolism. Actually i can't remember it all properly now. That said, the diet is suitable for anyone. After the first book came out there was criticism about the high protein content but its not as high as the atkins diet by any means. I also wrote to them saying "what about us vegetarians" and they've come back with a new edition that answers the critics and helps people like me who don't want to eat so much meant even for non-dietary reasons. The books have menus and lots of nutritional information. In their second book, they have a non-meat alternative for vegetarians but of course meat-eaters can incorporate those meals into their diet.