I am managing the Atkins plan with the help of one or two of these low carb bars a day, but am not losing much weight since my first two weeks. I am still following the induction plan, meat, cheese, eggs and some veggies, but am counting on these bars to get me through. Anyone else have this experience? I am also drinking diet Hansen's soda made with Splenda with no carbs. Any similar experiences or ideas to change this stalling? I am exercising one hour 4-5 times a week (elliptical trainer at the gym)
Thanks for your ideas!

I have seen a lot of comments on these bars all over the web. Many people are stalling their weight loss by having one bar a day. I have only had one of these bars ever - and that was in an emergency situation where I hadn't eaten all day and I wanted something to quickly staisfy my hunger. I personally couldn't eat them all the time because they are too good and it wouldn't train my pallete to not crave sweets.

I would try limiting the bars to once a day and then work yourself down to 3 bars max per week and see what happens with your results. Good Luck!

Kim, I think you are correct about training your pallette not to crave sweets or sweet-like things! I did a little more reading about sugar alcohols, and I'm afraid that I'm a sugar alcoholic, is there a 12 step program for this? Just kidding! I will take your advice about cutting down on these bars. They are also very expensive. I am a real cheapskate and it is so painful to spend $2 on these bars, especially when I see the Hershey's sale priced at 5 for a dollar!

Rachel, I was using the bars, drinks and snack bars as staples to my plan and I stalled for a few weeks. I don't even touch them now. I'll use them again some once I get to the maintenance phase. My brother-in-law uses them with no penalty at all. It's an individual thing I guess.

The bars are NOTORIOUS for causing stalls and should be viewed as a "treat" not an everyday item. There are also many questions on how sugar alcohols affect us (may still cause insulin spikes and further cravings) and whether we really should be deducting them as most labels indicate.

If you look at the total number of carbs and then figure you really may not be able to deduct the sugar alcohols (especially since they do affect everyone differently) you will see how high in carbs the bars are and how they don't fit into the daily plan.

Since starting Atkins 5 months ago, I have not had a single atkins bar (altho I have one in my desk for emergencies)...I have had some sf chocolate (I think around 4 bars in the whole time) and a couple of small bags of sf jujubes/gummies (which do have that laxative effect as mentioned on the label - I seem to tolerate the chocolate better).

There are lots of other "legal" and less dangerous sweets you can have while low carbing.

Good luck!

Froufy

The more of those nasty evil little bars I eat, the more I WANT! so I have to stay away from them totally

evil evil little bars ~

If you scroll down on the Atkins forum page here a little, you'll see a thread about sugar alcohols with a link to an excellent article on the subject.

I have to say, for me they're deadly! As soon as I stopped eating anything with sugar alcohols in it, it was like being in early induction again! Now my "sweets" are cinnamon and splenda covered pork rinds

Amen, Leens! Evil, evil little bars!

how does sugar and cinnamon pork rinds taste? do you just sprinkle it on there??

The cinnamon & splenda pork rinds taste DEVINE! I buy them at low carb stores - they're from Gram's Gourmet **side note - they also make super yummy ones with cheddar powder that reminds me of the kraft mac and cheese stuff, perfect for those of us who REALLY miss cheetos!

Also, someone came up with how to make them yourself. Check out the thread for our weekly chat for the 13th - 19th.

Those bars say they have 3 or so effective carbs, totally false. I take insulin and my blood sugar shoots up when I eat them. If I eat them I count the carbs and take my insulin otherwise I get a big spike.

Thanks for all the info. I am returning the 3 five packs of Atkins bars to Wal-Mart to get my money back. I will definitely try those pork rinds, although the thought of what they're made out of does gross me out a little! Any other "legal" sweets? How about sf Jell-o?