Understanding Net Carbs
 

This is what it says on an Atkins Bar. 17g of Carbs..net carbs 2g. Which is it...which do I record? I am in the induction phase and I don't want to screw up.

Atkins EndulgeTM Treats - Peanut Butter Cups / Friandise au Beurre d'Arachide
Serving Size: 34 grams (3 cups) / 34 grams (3 morceaux)
Total Servings: 1
Net Atkins Count: 2 grams
Product Of Canada / Produit Au Canada

Energy / Énergie 160 cal / 670 kj

Protein / Protéines 3.0 g

Total Fat / Matière Grasses 13 g

Carbohydrate / Glucides 17 g
Isomalt 2.5 g
Malitol 11 g

Sucralose 6 mg

Percentage Of Recommended Daily Intake / Pourcentage De L'apport Quotidien Recommandé

Iron / Fer 5%


Any help will be appreicated.

Thanks to all that responds

Hi Cathy!

I wouldn't recommend any "frankenfood" bars during Induction, but rather to try to keep Induction as clean as possible. These bars contain sugar alcohols which has proven to give lots of people trouble stalling/not losing weight/slowing down. (This board is full of discussions about it.) Most people use them as "lifesavers" on the road, on OWL or pre-maintenance.

Induction is supposed to be the period when you cut your sugar cravings. You might want to try to stay away from sugar-tasting stuff for that period, in order for this process to work better. :)

The sugar alcohols issue is also quite confusing, since they do contain carbs, which should be accounted for, but at the same time don't get fully absorbed by the body. It's also debated *how much* of the carbs should be accounted for. So I just make it simple - I stay away from them. (They cause indigestion problems too... try a search on "sugar alcohols" and you'll find plenty of threads about this. Oh, I did it for you... Here you go: http://forum.lowcarber.org/search.php?searchid=194845)

There is also a great article on sugar alcohols up at "Low Carb Tips" in the top orange bar on this site, for more (and better) info than what I'm able to give.

Cheers,

/gil

Oh, and as for understanding netcarbs.

Normally, it's very simple.

Total carbs - (indigestable) fiber = netcarbs.

In Europe fibers are normally subtracted from the carb figures shown on packages (and accounted for separately.) So we get the netcarbs served "automatically".

As I understand it, so far, in the US and Canada there are still no regulations to whether producers should subtract fibers before printing the carb content or not. There is apparently a trend towards doing it though.

Here's a thread that puts a spotlight on this confusion:
http://forum.lowcarber.org/showthread.php?t=119733

-----------

As for the Atkins Endulge bar you needed netcarb account for, as I mentioned earlier, when it comes to sugar alcohol - it's another matter.

If you want to "play safe", make account for every single gram of carbs in that bar. Some people just "count 50% of the carbs" since sugar alcohols are incompletely digested. Atkins themselves have - as far as I remember it - chosen NOT to count these sugar alcohol carbs at all, claiming they don't affect the blood sugar (or something). It's still carbs though. Ugh... as I said, I just stay away from them. Too confusing... :rolleyes:

Oh, and if you look at the first threads in this section, Karen has made a sticky called "Sticky: For Newbies - Carb Counting and Label Reading". She's probably explained it a whole lot better in that thread than fogheaded me. ;)

/gil

Frankenfood
 

Hi,

Welcome to LC'ing! I am with Gilibel on that "frankenfood" usage. If you are going to be successful at this WOE, I am convinced, after one month of doing it, that you HAVE to stick only to the foods on the induction list and the rules.
www.atkins.com has an excellent section on induction.

The only thing I have played with at all, except for a couple of "bad choices" is the caffeine and the use of Aspartame. We can't get many things sweetened with Splenda here, so I resigned myself to using splenda in my ONE coffee and day, allowing myself a couple of grapefruit sodas with aspartame..tastes like fruit lol.

Anyhow, where I am going with this, is that we are basically retraining ourselves to eat differently for the LONG LONG haul. That means fighting a sweet tooth, giving up the flour/wheat/noodles etc. and I think the bars etc. on Induction just replace one bad habit with another.

I complained that I spent years learning the calorie count of every food on the planet including TOFU lol, and now I am in carb kindergarten. That net carbs bugged me too. However, I think IMHO that I have figured it out, and anyone reading this correct me if I am wrong. When I read a label I look at carbs, and the fiber and subtract the grams of fiber as they are indigestible carbs, and that gives me the net digestible, thus influential carbs.

Hope this helps.

margot

That's correct, as long as the manufacturer hasn't already subtracted those fibers from the carb figure once - as you in that case would end up with half or so of what the item actually contains. But (as mentioned earlier) I don't know how the regulations are in Canada?..

Another way is to do a quick math, with rounded-off figures:

fat grams x 9 (= number of fat kcals)
protein grams x 4 (= number of protein kcals)
carb grams x 4 (= number of carb kcals)
_________________
TOTAL: (= total number of kcals)

If the sum of these roughly matches the kcal figure stated on the package, then the fiber is already subtracted from the carb count.

Or use the Hidden Carbs Inspector - link to the right on this page.

/gil

Ps. Love that doggy line in your sig, mollymom! :D

Thanks for your input
 

I had a bar yesterday now I feel like I killed my diet ...oh well new day...new way of living.

What do you guys do when you have have sugar cravings. Yesterday I was really week..as my body would not function, I know I am pmsing but it was really hard.

Any suggestions?

Hi again Cathy!
No, you didn't kill your diet. :D
Having one isn't going to do that. This is a lifetime way of eating, not a short term diet, so as long as you continue to pick good choices you'll be just fine.

As for sugar cravings, there are a couple of supplements that can help: L-Glutamine and Chromium. (They help stabilising your blood sugar.)

In the beginning of LC:ing curbing these cravings is one part of the detox. If you continue to have unbearable cravings (during PMS for example) in the future, a small piece of one of these bars, or some SF candy or - even better - a 10g piece of dark, dark (real, not SF) 85% cocoa and up chocolate often helps. The cocoa has healing properties too, and is a natural "happy hormone" booster. (Lindt Excellence 85% cocoa contains 2 netcarbs/10g square... Their 99% cocoa version contains 1.34g carbs or so...)

Other people rely on SF jello with a dollop of SF sweetened whipcream on top.

But my best tip for cravings is to see to it that you are full from REAL food and that you drink tons of water. Sometimes dehydration masks up as sweet cravings.

Best of luck! :)

/gil

FitDay and net Carbs
 

I had a really good induction, and have basically stayed on induction for another two weeks, and haven't really lost anything, had a big up, then a big down, but am still a pound heavier than I was at the end of my first two weeks.

I have been eating only what I can make from real food, (no products) and using Fitday. Now I am finding that my Total Carbs are coming in at about 22-23g, but usually about 5 g fiber, when I use Fitday to have a "closer look" at a day. Does anyone know then if I am correct in thinking I actually ate at or under my "required 20 g" of induction carbs if I substract that 5 g?

Thanks Margot

Fitday doesn't subtract the (indigestable) fibers from the total carb sum, so in order to get the net carb figures you have to do that manually. If you had 23 carbs acc to Fitday and 5 g fiber, then your actual net carb count is 18 carbs.

I have never included fiber in my carb count. I follow the DANDR way of counting them - wouldn't be much space left for veggies otherwise. Some people seem to count "total carbs" (incl fiber), but I can't see the point, since fiber passes through our body, don't carry any energy and helps digestion/bowel movements. It would be like counting cardboard...

/gil