Two Diets, Low Carbs and a Chance for Dramatic Results in Lancaster, Pa., Area.

Byline: Jane Holahan

Oct. 14--Pity the poor carbohydrate.

Once considered the key to a healthy diet -- eat that pasta for energy! -- it is now reviled by many. It's not just bad for you, it's evil.

It's the wicked carbohydrate, they will tell you, that makes you fat, raises your blood pressure and makes you feel tired all the time. It's the horrible carbohydrate that keeps you from staying on your diet.

Carbs, it would seem, are the bane of our existence.

Low-carbohydrate diets have swept the country in the last few years. Everyone is on a low-carb diet like Atkins or South Beach or the Zone, or knows somebody who's lost a lot of weight on one.

And those who have lost weight swear by the low-carb lifestyle.

"It works, and it's not that hard," says Jeff Kent, 29, who's lost 45 pounds on the Atkins Diet. "You can eat whenever you want. If you get hungry, you eat."

"I tried other diets, but I couldn't stick with it," says Howard Solsman, 27, who lost 120 pounds on Atkins. …