congrats, y'all. I was glad to read this!

It can stall weight loss, but that's rare. It has been studied for insulin effect with none found. The worse news, Doriann, is that it can keep that sugar addiction mindset/habit in place for some, so it's probably best not to use it (or any AS) daily.

Splenda is the brand name for sucralose (or 1,6-Dichloro-1,6-dideoxy-beta-D-fructofuranosyl-4-chloro-4-deoxy-alpha-D-galactopyranoside
)--chlorinated cane sugar, as I understand it--the chemical process makes it unabsorbable as a carb (nor calorie, nor is it a tooth decay agent, apparently). It tastes exactly like sugar (no aftertaste or bitterness) and cooks like it, too (many artificial sweeteners are not stable under heat or high pressure). More sweet in its pure liquid form than regular sugar, it is combined with a real sugar in the granulated form (actually a kind of fluffy snowflake sort of granule) to make it measure 1:1, so the granulated form will have carbs.

Some debate exists about its safety--to read the scarier stuff, do a web search for "sucralose danger"--but I suspect it's safer than real sugar (just an opinion, tho).

HTH!