If they kept the sweets down and largely avoided processed foods (particularly lots of white bread, pasta and rice) they were close to the money according to the low carb mantra. A number of studies support the argument that the switch to high carb diets (largely from sugars and processed starches) drove metabolic changes that led to the current obesity epidemic. The argument goes further to claim that the medical establishment's focus on low fat helped drive the move to high carb. Anecdotally my experience supports that view in that I adopted lots of low fat products and over a few decades grew from 170 to a high of 195, despite a continuing increase in exercise over those years. Simply stopping candies led me to drop from 195 to 182. When I recently moved to LCHF and started reading labels I saw that many of the low fat products I bought were very high carb -- the food industry delivering just what the doctor ordered and keeping me from further progress.

As others have said on this thread, we will see over time. I am only two months into this regimen so maybe I will backslide to 190+ in a year or two. But I am very satisfied with the food I am eating now and have lost my craving for sweets and carbs (which was substantial and growing) so I see no reason why I would fall back to my wicked ways.