Here's my experience with the bars, my wife bless her heart, came home with 3 Atkins bar of different flavors, She was so happy to find me something that I might enjoy, maybe use as a snack of dessert. I also thought it was going to be great, later that night I decided to try one. I couldn't get though the 1st bite.

Really I couldn't get it down. My wife tried it and same thing couldn't get it down. We both laughed and the was the end of that.

OK.......let me in here! I would like to put my two cents into this conversation.
I lost 13 pounds in the first 6 weeks of my low carb diet.....before I started reading all the posts on all the low carb boards. I happily used my Splenda in my coffee.....I had an Atkins chocolate peanut butter bar every other day or so.....and I was eating grapes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hmmmmmmm! I kept my carbs down to around 25-30 a day.... and ate good healthy food .Then, I came to these boards and started to read all the warnings.....
"Stay away from artificial sweeteners"....."Stay away from Atkins bars"........."Stay away from any 'fake' food' (which meant anything offered on the internet such as Steel's jam or Ross chocolate bars, etc.)......"Don't be making low carb desserts because they will cause you to stall and make you want to go out and buy 2 tons of M&M's" .........."Just eat meat, fish, low carb veggies and drink about...oh.....2 or 3 gallons of water a day"!
Yuk!! That isn't why I liked this diet! I liked it because you could have really tasty meals using not only butter, cream, creamcheese or sour cream but using Splenda to make wonderful desserts and being able to buy such things as Steel's jam, and having an occassional treat such as a Ross chocolate bar (actually I never have more than 1/3 of a bar on any given day!)
I purchased several cookbooks and found some wonderful recipes and delighted in the fact that one of the cookbooks was written by a gal who together with her husband had lost 210 pounds making all kinds of wonderful desserts using artificial sweeteners.(Nancy Moshier - Eat Yourself Thin LIke I Did With Fabulous Desserts).
I am not looking to develop a new religion. I just want to take off an additional 60 pounds.......enjoy myself along the way discovering lots of new ways to prepare main courses as well as desserts so that I have a whole new way of cooking when I reach goal. Is that so horrible? Is it so terrible that I would like to find a few replacements for some of the high carb things I used to eat? Fine if you never want anything sweet again.......good for you.........my hat's off to you........I admire you!
But please, don't try to tell the rest of us that we need to all think that way.
Dr. Atkins has a catalog FULL and I do mean FULL of all kinds of low carb substitute foods. If you are all so in love with him, why do you totally discount the idea that maybe it isn't such a bad idea to learn to make low carb muffins instead of the high carb ones in the market? Why do you suppose he even offers Advantage bars if they are so "'stalling"?
Let me tell you..........25 years ago, when I was a Diet Workshop instructor (and weighed 105 lbs) I had hundreds of members in my classes who lost thousands of pounds using Sweet and Low.....in their coffee, in their desserts, in their soda, etc. Nobody ever blamed artificial sweeteners for a "plateau" as we used to call it! And these gals lost just fine......usually averaged 2 lbs. per week as long as they stayed with the program. I'll grant you that I don't like the WW type diets because I am always starving on them.......(that's why I love this low carb woe), but you certainly can lose weight!
My appetite is nothing like it was before I started.Low carbing has totally changed my constant desire to eat something......but I really do enjoy a couple of treats every day.........and dammit......if it takes me twice as long to lose this weight, I refuse to buy into this hysteria about stalls.
I have never heard so many people blame so many things for what is probably just ones body adjusting to the diet and weight loss. Eat good healthy low carb food, exercise, drink a reasonable amount of water (oh, and yes, all those members who lost 25, 50 and 100 lbs. in my classes, did so without the 100 oz. of water every day!!!) and besides watching your total carb count very carefully, enjoy whatever makes you happy as long as it isn't on the list of bad carb foods. Good grief!!
Forgive me for venting, but I think I have had just about enough of this "stalling" scares. And by the way, just what does "stall" mean? Stop losing for a while? Stop forever?
The "hidden carb" info is good.......because what I learned is that foods such as eggs, coffee, cream cheese, etc. all have small amounts of carbs that can add up.......along with the 1 carb per packet of Splenda. But to say that even if one is counting very carefully but chooses to spend some of his/her carbs on a low carb treat is flirting with disaster ......well, I just think that is
putting undo pressure on a dieter who is already giving up a whole carload of high carb foods.
I think there should be a separate board for those of us who choose not to relegate ourselves to months without anything
tasty. Did you ever consider that may be why some of the gals who were the most strict, fall off the wagon and go back to high carb foods? Maybe if they had educated themselves about some substitutes, they wouldn't have gone off the program. I see no reason to ever go back to regular jam, for example, when I can have the delicious Steel's preserves for only 2 carbs a tablespoon.
(as opposed to 10-12 for Polaner's All Fruit!!!) I found Aunt Paula's Low Carb (.65 crbs per cookie) Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie mix. I add more nuts and a little almond flour and these cookies are to die for. Why would I go back to the cookies I was eating with the tremendous number of carbs and all that sugar?
I'm learning.......and I will have such a wonderful array of things to eat and recipes to make by the time I reach goal that I don't think I will ever desire to go back to that evil sugar!!

Hi Mary-Anne,

I'm afraid I don't understand your apparent anger about this subject.

If what you are doing is working, that's wonderful. Good on you!

But, in the 9 months I've been on this wonderful forum, I have seen many, many people post with questions as to why they are not losing. There can, of course, be many reasons. And one of the reasons I and others have seen, has been the consumption of low carb bars and other "artificial" foods.
I have never seen anybody refuse to sanction their consumption altogether; most of us suggest there is a possibility that they may cause slowing of weight loss. And, experience shows that for many folk, that is exactly what happens. YMMV (your mileage may vary) is one of the most common expressions used here.

I have never seen anybody ever say, "Don't do this! Stay away from that!" as you indicated.
All of the posts I have seen whether from members, mentors, moderators or administrators usually suggest that dropping this or that might help.

So, to sum up, if you are one of the lucky ones who can eat low carb bars, grapes or whatever, more power to you! Unfortunately we are not all as lucky as you, and I for one, shall continue to warn folk who ask why their weight loss is slow, to be aware that there is a possibility the "artificial" foods may slow them down.

Cheers, Mary-Anne. All the best to you.

Rosebud

Well, Mulberry...that was a mouthful!

You'll usually see advice given to people who've asked what they can do to help speed the weight loss along. Suggestions are given and it is up to the individual to take the advice, modify it or reject it. This isn't a nazi camp it's a support forum where people come who need answers to questions. Experienced LCers give the answers based on hundreds/thousands of hours spent on this board discussing what works and what doesn't work with hundreds/thousands of users.

We offer the best advice we have. If it's not what you want to hear, then there's no reason to get upset or try to change the whole way this board operates...that's probably not going to happen. Most of the members here are very happy with the support that is offered. The ones who aren't go elsewhere.

If you're continuing to lose while using artificial sweeteners, caffeine, wheat gluten, citric acid, soy protein, almond flour, maltitol, etc. then that's wonderful!!! Not everyone is so lucky and they need help to decide where they should make adjustments...and they are sometimes willing to try different things.

Well Mary-Anne I read all your venting and than came to your sign off....." If it taste good .... spit it out"

Intresting that all that venting on making things taste good, just wondering do you than spit it out........

You might be interested in this page from Dr. Atkins' site where he recommends that bars and shakes be limited to once a day and also suggests that if you stall that they be cut out until weight loss resumes. Check here: http://atkinscenter.com/helpatkins/...ctionphase.html

I've also read an interview with Dr. Atkins where he freely admitted that the Advantage bars do seem to stall some of his patients, although I can't seem to locate the link right at the moment.
I'd also like to point out that not everyone here is following the Atkins plan; there are many low carb plans out there, some more restrictive than others.
I don't think anyone here (or at least very few) would suggest that you never ever have a sweet treat again as long as you live. However....if you find that you need to eat sweet treats (sugar-free though they may be) a couple of times a day instead of occasionally (like once or twice a week), I'd suggest that perhaps you haven't really dealt with the core problem: sugar addiction. You've just replaced the sugar with something less lethal to your body. Addictions often have both a physical and an emotional or mental component to them. Some people also react to artificial sweeteners as though they were real sugar with the resulting insulin response and all, but not everyone. As mentioned above by several people, the advice to stay away from artificial sweeteners and low carb sweet treats is usually given to those who find they they have stalled (defined as no weight or inch loss for several weeks) or are having great difficulty losing weight. If you can eat them (or anything else, for that matter) without a problem, go for it.
I usually recommend that people stay away from artificial sweeteners and low carb sweet treats during induction simply because that is the time to break the sugar addiction and it's difficult to do when you are still eating things that taste sweet. During induction, I also feel that you should be using your carb allowance on healthy whole foods (meat, eggs, cheese and low carb veggies) and getting the best nutrition possible to get you off to a good start (and if you read through the Atkins website, it appears that is how the good doctor feels about it as well). It's a recommendation; nothing more. Everyone is free to accept it or reject it as they see fit.

I think another thing to keep in mind is that science is progressive. It took Atkins a while before they would agree with the deduct fiber from carb count rule, and now it's almost a standard. If you find that something affects your body a certain way, don't wait for research to confirm it before you act on it. Another thing to remember: Although I'm very grateful to Dr. Atkin's for the knowledge I've gained from his work, I've paid for it. Atkins is not running a non-profit, this is how he makes his living. I've bought his books, products, etc. Keep in mind that Atkins is a corporation, not a charity, and therefore is motivated by their bottom line. I almost gave up on this way of life because I was losing weight so slowly (compared to everyone else I knew), but I used a lot of Atkins products during my last few months of induction. Now I know that for me, if I'm going to eat a lot of processed Atkin's products, my weight loss will be slower. Sometimes, I just opt to have slower weight loss because I want those products; but I worry about the people who will just give up because they are losing slower than anticipated.

I have an Advantage bar every morning, it is nice to have a breakfast with all the vitamins. I can't eat eggs and cheese and meat is just to heavy in the morning, so an Advantage bar is great. I don't get the munchies in the morning and when I tested my blood, my body didn't even notice it (I went to 134) in other words my body didn't spike. Now you may so if you can test your blood do the experiment. If you get cravings after you have one then I wouldn't eat them. Its different in different people.
I happen to like the non chocolate ones. My co-worker likes only the chocolate ones. Each to their own

hi.. i used the bars and shakes after induction...... i actually like them.. i don't think they taste bad at all... anyway i have been doing very well losing weight so it hasn't affected me at all.. i did have a 2 and 1/2 week stall but once i picked up my water intake i was right back on track.... i find that when i have the bar/shake i feel very full and i am full for hours....... it really helps me not feel hungry.. it hasn't made me crave any other sweets either..

That's exactly it. For people like my husband, (who has never even BEEN to this forum), it's a NON-ISSUE. For people like ME.....I need every single fact I can about what might stall me. To stay on the WOE and not lose is very discouraging. The information here is very valuable to me.