Low carbing naturally causes you to lose fluids - and that means you will lose minerals. When LC'ing its very important to drink lots of water - and most LC gurus reccommend taking supplements - particulary potassium. If your potassium goes to low, it can cause muscle cramps - so your mom is probably right.

I take 595mg of potassium gluconate (which equals 99mg of elemental potassium) - three times a day. Never had a problem with leg cramps.

Its also important not to skip breakfast, in my opinion. One of the main principles of LC'ing is that you want to keep your blood sugar levels consistent - skipping meals can cause your blood sugar to drop, which will cause major hunger and carb cravings. Then when you finally eat something, your insulin may spike. You end up bouncing between sugar highs and lows, and this is what feeds carb addiction. I good rule of thumb is not to go more than 5 hours without eating - and since you will be fasting while you are asleep at night, you will need to eat something in the morning. If you normally skip breakfast, that may have been why you found Atkins to be too restrictive - you can't survive an atkins induction if you skip meals. (But of course, PP is fine too, if its more to your liking.)

If you aren't a breakfast person, it will take some adjusting - I used to skip breakfast and even lunch all the time. But once I planned 3 meals and some snacks throughout the day - it really improved my energy, no more carb cravings, and best of all I wasn't so "spaced out" at the end of the day.
:-)