Over the course of two weeks, I posit two things tend to happen to an Atkins dieter: (1) they lose weight through a rather dramatic reduction in calories & (2) they form some habits.

They also lose a lot of water weight.

But pretending Atkins works primarily by some other mechanism other than calorie reduction is, in my current opinion, not true.

Well I think the hypothesis is that by eliminating refined carbohydrates, you are adjusting your body's internal "food clock" so that you will naturally end up eating less. So it's analogous to the Shangri La diet, except that the Shangri La diet purports to adjust your internal "food clock" through a daily shot of flavor-free calories.