I know everyone is against this but.....

[lowcarbing4ever]

but I can't wholeheartedly say that I am. Everybody is really against eating certain food supplements to help them on Atkins and I have to say that I am not totally against it. I do however, believe that people use them too much, use too many products and basically try to substitute every food in their life with a frankenfood or use some of them to feed their addictions. I am totally against that. But I keep Atkins bars, shakes and diet rite in my home. When I need something sweet once in a while, I drink an Atkins shake. I don't really like them all that much to go nuts on them or turn it into a "binge" type food. I also use the Atkins bars; when you work so much that you barely have time to have a lunch at work, your were planning to eat at a certain time and a meeting runs way too long or I am in traffic (and if you know about traffic here and in LA, we are talking HOURS),you bet I will use one instead of eating breadsticks and marinara sauce or starving til I get home and then go nuts. For me, they do not trigger any sugar cravings and believe me, I am a sugar aholic who ate sugar off the spoon from the bag in my fridge and used to have the middle name 'chocolate'! :yikes BUT.....that is not everybody. Some people can't handle it. My rule of thumb is I try it (if it is allowed on induction) and if it makes me feel like a sugar fiend....off with its head and I never touch it again. As for the diet rite, I don't drink it that often and a case will last me weeks on end. Sometimes I like to have a soda with my dinner and I never have more than a can. Which says a lot for me, because I am a MD addict and one drop makes me in ecstasy! LOL! Anyway, that is my view, however wrong it may seem, to those against who are totally against products of any kind. I do eat 99.998% fresh or unprocessed food on Atkins (I don't even eat cold cuts, bacon, or lunch meat like some do) , I eat my veggies, etc. so i don't think this is too bad. :nono Don't get me wrong, I do not eat this stuff everyday but I have it for the "just in case" moments and don't recommend it for everyone but I also don't agree that they should be 100% forbidden when they do have a purpose for some who can handle it. just my thoughts. Please don't take this as a "mean" post or I am trying to cause issues. Just wanted to say it! :joy

P.S. I only stick to Dr. A's products because I know that if he says they are a cerain carb or won't raise blood sugar, then I know it is true. i don't use anyone elses stuff (like Carbwise. Carbconcious or anything like that)

[hulagrl1120]

everytime I think the frankenfoods debate is gone for good it starts again...let the madness begin...

I just read one of your posts where you said that up until this point you hadn't gone 7 days without a cheat...were you eating bars and shakes before?

[lowcarbing4ever]

Uh oh, have people debated badly about this before? ok then I am sorry I brought it up. I didn't want to start anything.

[hulagrl1120]

I edited my post to ask you a question...see above.

[Moochiecat]

The focus of the Atkins 14-day Induction forum in ADBB, is to encourage people to do a good, clean Induction by eating from the Acceptable foods list, following the rules, and eliminating all frankenfoods for the first two weeks. Regardless of what the book or site may say, this is what we encourage people to do. :yes

Nobody is saying you can't ever have these foods, and nobody is saying that they are super bad for you... but it's best if you refrain from having them in the first two weeks of Induction so you can get the maximum benefit from this time and get a clear idea what your metabolic resistance is (page 158, DANDR).

You might want to post this in the Extended Induction forum, or the Main Induction forum :yes and you might want to look down the list of posts in those forums, because this topic comes up fairly regularly.

[lowcarbing4ever]

Oh, I thought everybody was against it period. ok, that makes sense. Sorry I didn't know this tends to be a major issue or that I posted it in the wrong site; only been here 5 days. :sadblinky Sorry. I am sorry I brought the whole thing up now. I think maybe I will keep my mouth shut a little more now.
In answer to your question, hulagirl, I used them briefly in an atkins attempt many moons ago but my problem with my cheating is two-fold, my weakness for junk food and from being unprepared. I never had the right foods with me or in my house, DH always had some junk food or another around in the house or was bringing home take away for us to eat, I stopped and started exercise, on and on. This time is much different. I have more if his support on not bringing junk home, I am learning that if I want to eat right, to bring food with me and my own lunches (or dinners when I need to) instead of just saying, oh well, just eat it, I am trying to exercise daily and I think my frame of mind is different now. I think my other attemps were to make Atkins a "diet" versus WOE for life. Now that I am prepared all the time, I don't have craving for the junk anymore (or at least now) and I have learned a lot this time around.

[not2late]

The low carb convenience foods topic does come up. So it's an appropriate discussion imo. ADBB doesn't recommend their usage for one very big reason: in our collective experience, people run into weight loss slow downs or stalls while using them. The first 14 days of Induction are very important to this diet, as Dr. Atkins explained in Chapter 12 and 13 of DANDR2002 and we want all Atkineers to be as successful as possible while on this diet.

If you want to use these products after your 14 days, you can if you want. Just be aware that Atkins Nutritionals Inc. does not recommend more than 2 servings of these foods daily during Induction and that the food must comply with the Rules of Induction (specifically Rule #4) and the Acceptable Foods List. They also acknowledge that these products can stop or slow down weight loss and recommend that if you experience weight loss difficulties while using them, to drop them from your diet and eat "whole, natural" foods.

Also remember too. Low carb junk food is still junk food.

Recently, I read a biography on Dr. Atkins. Here's a couple of passages that addresses the convenience foods issue.

The patients who stayed, however, were extremely loyal to both Atkins and his low-carb diet. But they had one major complaint: In a fast-paced world where everything was low in fat or high in carbohydrates or both, it was difficult to find something that they could eat on the run while still remaining on the low-carb program. They had no time to prepare their own snacks. Perhaps something like the low-fat energy bars sold in convenience stores would be great, only low-carb instead.

Atkins hesistated, and for a good reason. One of the things he constantly stressed with his patients was that they should eat foods that were as close to their natural state as possible, and for him, any kind of energy bar was as good as poison since it was clearly a processed food.

****
But his patients continued to beg him for something---"you sell the vitamins and other supplements, why not energy bars?" they reasoned--and so, with great reluctance, he gave in and developed not only an energy bar but also a low-carb shake that would make it easier for patients to keep to their Atkins programs.

"As long as you only use it for emergencies," he reminded them.

****
The energy bars and shakes were a necessary evil, there only because he thought his patients were too lazy to prepare the real kind of unprocessed foods that were the mainstay of his diet.

---Excerpted from:
Dr. Robert Atkins: The True Story of The Man Behind the War on Carbohydrates Lisa Rogak. Chamberlian Bros. 2005. Ch. 6

[hulagrl1120]

ok so let's discuss this a little further...so here's a question...are you truly considered cheat free if you eat the bars, shakes, etc? I thought by definition cheat free means eating only things on the acceptable foods list.I think we need to clear it up because newbies may get confused by this.

[lowcarbing4ever]

Well, I hope not because I, thank goodness, haven't had anything lately, mainly because right now I don't have the money for any bars or anything else. So in that respect I am cheat free. :nod And i did have a diet rite yesterday and according to the book, it is on the accepted food list, as it says diet drinks without aspertame. Some people here are drinking diet coke or pepsi, which has aspartame and caffiene and is against the accepted list. Now, that I know, I won't be using any bars or drink for a few weeks, if I even choose to go back to them. :nono

:confused I am confused because I have re-read this section twice and although he does caution about using these things as part of your plan, it doesn't say that you can't use them the first 2 weeks of induction. Is this just an ADBB suggestion? Just asking because I don't know. Even so, i won't be using them so that I can concentrate on learning to eat things and make meals for myself without them.

[hulagrl1120]

which edition of the book do you have? I know the later version okays the use of bars and shakes but that was after Dr Atkins died and since his death the company is all about selling their low carb products...we stick to a clean induction eating only the foods on the acceptable foods list.

[lowcarbing4ever]

I have the 2002 version. I don't bother with the new ones; as far as I am concerned once Dr. A died, everything else they write is not for me. :nono The part I am talking about is on page 129 after the section on Specialty foods and then there is convenience foods where it talks about bars and stuff.

[Elleth Faewen]

This was the start of the selling of low carb products. If you look at the rules of induction, it says to consume nothing that is not on the acceptable foods list. When you check the list, ingredients such as sugar alcohols and glycerin are not on the list. This eliminates the bars and a lot of other low-carb products. Because we've also seen a lot of people have problems with shakes, we do not recommend them during the first two weeks of a clean induction.

hope this helps!

[not2late]

Just to add, the Acceptable Foods List does include that those convenience foods can be used in an emergency and that they must comply with the Rules of Induction.

Concerning "emergencies", "emergencies" don't happened every weekday morning at 7 AM while you're rushing to go to work. It takes only alittle planning to make sure you have a dozen hardboiled eggs or mini quiches in the refrigerator, ready to grab and go. Likewise, it takes only alittle planning to grab a couple of cheese sticks and before you go for a day of shopping at the mall or to the movies. Even if you are stranded somewhere and need to buy food, you can always buy a sandwich---toss the bread and eat the meat---or a salad, which are much better choices than a shake or bar.

Again, we discourage their use because we've seen too many posts from too many people who aren't losing weight or their weight loss has slowed down due to these products.

[bluehairbrush]

The only reason I would strongly caution against them is that they seem to cause cravings (at least for me). This is the first time I've done a perfectly clean induction, but before when I did Atkins, I was just like you and ate the shakes and bars and stuff. Throughout the two weeks, not only did I lose very little weight, but I also had cravings every single day (and ate the bars to temporarily satisfy them). I then dismissed Atkins for several months, saing, "I tried Induction, but I was always craving carbs and I didn't lose any weight. Atkins was a crock." Then someone gave me a nice little lecture (ok, it wasn't so nice - it was from an Atkins diehard who ripped me apart when he learned how I had been following Atkins) and I decided to try a very strict Induction. After the fourth day in, not even a trace of a craving remained and the scales were moving downward.

That being said, everyone is different. The shakes and bars were pure poison for me, but if you can eat them and still lose weight, then more power to you! After all, losing weight is the goal here, no?

Good luck with your weight loss journey! Happy low-carbing :joy

[Moochiecat]

Oh, I thought everybody was against it period. ok, that makes sense. Sorry I didn't know this tends to be a major issue or that I posted it in the wrong site; only been here 5 days. :sadblinky Sorry. I am sorry I brought the whole thing up now. I think maybe I will keep my mouth shut a little more now.

Oh golly, don't feel bad! :hug
and it's better to bring something up and find out about it rather than never know, right?
No worries, JuJu!