The Atkins Diet program is set up in four phases. The first two are designed specifically to help the dieter lose weight. The last two are set up so that you could stick with atkins for life. The point of the program is not to help one lose weight in just the short term, but to help them lose it for good and even keep it the rest of your life. As such, many dieters unfortunately disregard the last two phases once they get the results they need and as a consequence, they get less than satisfying results from their diet.