Hi Data,
Glad your experiment worked out for you. In Chapter 16 on premaintenance, Atkins addressed doing something similar if you have low metabolic resistance. He talks of averaging out your carb intake for the week instead of by the day - going lower for a few days and then higher for a meal. Since your meal did seem to have enough fat, protein, and fiber that may be why it worked so well. He says if the deviations don't create cravings you are doing well. Understand, you already have a very unfair advantage over many of us since you are a guy My dh is in maintenance now and because of his exercise amounts and gender he can have a fairly high number of carbs compared to me. Good luck and hope everything works out well for you.

Marie