Practically a fixture on the mass market bestseller charts, Dr. Atkins' New Diet Revolution is marking its 218th week on the PW chart; Avon reports more than 8.3 million copies in sales after 73 trips to press (those numbers reflect sales of the 1999 revised edition). The latest revised edition, published last November, has an additional one million copies in print. The trade paper edition has 1.4 million copies in print and an updated edition will be hitting the stores in June. Why does this diet book have more longevity than other fitness books? The Avon folks are happy to say that the controlled carbohydrate approach works. A 48 Hours piece in January emphasized the positive results and spiked sales even further.

With reporting by Dick Donahue