Humans are complicated animals.  There is no single answer that fits
everyone.  My own situation is similar to yours.  I did not gain extra
energy, nor did I lose weight quickly.  

The Atkins diet seems to work best for those whose appetites are
primarily triggered by rapidly falling blood sugar levels.  The Atkins
diet is indeed pretty good at leveling out blood sugar levels.  If a
person was producing too much insulin, causing blood sugar levels to
fall too far and too fast, the Atkins diet can be spectactularly good.
But other people have other things that can be their primary trigger
for hunger.  For example, brain chemistry.  Serotonin levels (along
with some other chemicals) in the brain can be the dominant controller
of appetite for some people.  This was one of the primary areas that
the drug combo Fen-Phen was aimed at.  I got in at the very end of
that and found it much more effective FOR ME than Atkins.
Unfortunately, it was pulled from the market due to rare but serious
side effects.    

There are other factors as well.  The stomach produces a chemical that
triggers hunger.  The larger your stomach, the more of this chemical
and the more hunger signals.  This is one reason why stomach-reducing
surgeries are often very successful in reducing hunger.  It's not just
that the smaller stomach is physically filled sooner and gives a
physical "full" signal, the amount of this hunger-stimulating chemical
has been reduced.  But there are many other risks one takes on if one
goes that route.

Besides the physical, there are also the psychological reasons for
eating.  Some people eat because of stress. Food can act as a
tranquilizer (sometimes through blood sugar levels, sometimes through
serotonin levels, sometimes via psychological means, etc.)  Some
people eat because of boredom (it's an enjoyable activity).  The
reasons are many.

No diet is right for everyone.  Low carb used to be a diet of last
resort, something that people tried only after failing on low fat
diets.  That meant that there was a bit of pre-selection going on -
the people who were trying Atkins were more likely to succeed on it
than a random selection from the population.  This gave Atkins a
double boost - it worked in larger percentages than it otherwise might
and it worked where other things had failed.  This gave it a bit of a
reputation as a "miracle diet".  But now that it is becoming more
mainstream, I would guess that a lot more people are trying it as
their FIRST diet.  I would expect the failure rate to go up.  There
will be people who do best on low fat who try Atkins and fail - then
go to a low fat diet and succeed.  I expect that things will even out
a trifle now that things are a bit more randomized.

The thing to do is to look at all the factors and decide which way of
eating is best for you.  Lowcarb didn't give me a burst of energy and
I'm losing weight even more slowly than you are - but there are other
reasons why I stick with it.  I used to have big problems with acid
reflux/heartburn, those have almost completely gone away.  I used to
have much worse nasal congestion than I do now.  (Most likely I have a
food allergy to one or more of the starchy vegetables like wheat,
corn, rice, etc.)  My blood pressure is better on low carb.  My blood
sugars are under good control.  They may not be my primary trigger for
hunger, but having too-high blood sugar levels can lead to several
very serious long term health problems.  I want to avoid that.  Low
carbing does that for me.  And maybe, eventually, the weight loss will
start to go faster.