Hi Lauren~
I have to say you found a great site to research- it is both active and diverse.
I feel the low carb products are helpful to following the Atkins plan. I have tried shakes, bars, baking mixes, tortillas, condiments, candies, and as of yesterday, the ice cream. To me the primary advantage of the increasing availability of low carb products is that it makes following Atkins more doable in the long term. The theory of Atkins being that you don't go "on" and "off", but to maintain a low carb lifestyle. In a short-term diet, I could give up ice cream and chocolate for a month or 2 for the sake of losing a few pounds. But for the rest of my life? I'm glad to have options.
Do I still lose weight using these products? Yes. I research the products I choose (largely right here and reading labels). I have continued to lose weight using a variety of convenience foods. Maybe more slowly than a purist, but it's been easy.
The taste of these products...that is such an individual judgment. The sugar free candies are pretty good (probably been in development the longest) and most other products have room for improvement. Even the ones that are passable are not what most people would seek out if they were not eating low carb. Pricing leaves much to be desired!
But it all comes back to choices. I "can" have ketchup, or bread, or ice cream...and so I don't feel limited in this way of eating.

Hi Wendy!

In TX with all that land, a couple of goatlets would do just great! They can be cheap if you hit an auction or watch a Thrift Nickle-type paper. We raise Nubians, which are papered "snob" goats...milkers from Africa. I swear they *know* they are pretty. And we show them which of course reinforces this. I hope you can get a couple for your place...they are a hoot.

Goatmilk is highest in butterfat...still has carbs so I can't drink a lot, but man, does it make great ice cream! No, the canned stuff is awful! I've seen it in cartons recently, and I have no idea what that's like, but it's pasteurized which takes all the good stuff out. All that wonderful butterfat and nutrient content is pure when it's raw, as I like to say, "right off the goat's teat!" Goatmilk is also one of nature's most complete foods...there is a protein powder called "Goatein" that's outrageously $$$, but I'll bet it's pretty good for you since it's made with goatmilk.

From what you've said about your eating, yes, you may not be eating enough either. I was so used to a WW mentality that it was actually hard to get in my food...imagine! I read we should be eating 10-12 X our body weight in calories. For me that's a minimum of 2300 calories a day. I really can't even do that on this WOE, but I swear I am not hungry at all. Try going to fitday.com and entering in everything you eat for a couple of days and see just how much you are eating. After increasing my calories, the scale has started moving again, and I'm eating shakes and bars every day, just not more than one each.

Come visit my journal sometime...I've been trying to remember to write stuff like this down...and my fitday journal is at the bottom of my sig. I still need to update the rest of the weekend's foods.

badgoat

The Book which I read to learn about Dr. Atkins diet (Dr. Atkins diet revolution) was published in 2000. In that edition Dr. Atkins has been telling us to count "total carbohydrate". The allowed amount for induction was still 20 grams.

Later, Dr. atkins came up with the "net carbs" idea which eliminates fibers and sugar alcohol from the count. Now almost all the new "Lo carb" products either contain a large amount of fibers, sugar alcohol or both.

Although the analysis for eliminating those two items from the count make sense, every time I try any of these new products I don't just stall, I stay off ketosis for a period of time.

If I base my count on "total carbohydrates" I find that the results are exactly as expected. Maybe one day someone will find the reason for us.

Sam

They are ALL very expensive--for instance $5.50 for a package of Banana Nut Muffin & Bread Mix which has either 6 servings if you make the standard size muffins or 13 servings if you make the bread which is a very small loaf and slice it thin. That is compared to less than half that amount for a regular banana nut mix. I have tried the Atkins Cranberry Muffin & Bread Mix, the Banana Nut Muffn & Bread Mix, the Pancake Mix and the Morning Start Cereal. The mixes are OK but lack the texture of regular mixes. The same is true with the Morning Start Cereal. It tastes like you are eating a non-food product with flavoring. I have also tried the Atkins powdered shake mix and it was horrible. I had to spit it out. The Atkin's bake mix is also just OK. I used to buy a lot of low fat products before I started Atkins and they too were lacking in the texture department. But the main thing that stops me from buying more Atkins food products are the fact that they have zero or almost zero vitamins in them. I thought that was what eating was all about---getting the nutrients our body needs. If Atkins or any other foods have no vitamins and nutrients in them, then why eat them? The lack of vitamins, unappealing texture and the high cost make Atkins products a poor choice for meals in my opinion.

There is one thing I have come to realize while low-carbing. High-carb processed are just a cheap form of filler. That's why they are so predominant in our diets. Potatoes, bread, rice, pasta are all inexpensive fillers that help round out a meal. It's no coincidence that it's the basis for most fast food. It's cheap to make and to store and fills you up. Unfortunately it's also rather poor in nutrients compared to good proteins and vegetables.

One of the great advantages in low-carbing is that you eliminates this filler-food that effectively displaces more nutritious food from your diet. I personally believe that it's one of the reason low-carb effectively improves your health as well as lower your weight.

So if you replace all the high-carb food you eat with a low-carb equivalent you are negating a huge benefit of the diet.

This is the reason I refuse to jump on the low-carb product bandwagon or at least keeping it to a minimum

Hi Lauren,
The thing that concerns me is that they will start making lots LC products like they did low fat stuff and lots of people will just use them and gain weight. Then they will say LCing doesn't work when, if done right, it does work very well. Maybe we just need to boycott LC products.

i have lost 50 lbs on the atkins diet and i have never felt better or been happier with the way i look! i have used all kinds of different low carb products, and they haven't slowed me down a bit! i don't replace any meals with any one bar or product, but i use them sparingly as treats when the cravings do occur--which is not all that often!

Although I did the first several months without any LC products, I for one like and use a lot of the LC products showing up up at my supermarket. I like Mexican food, and it's great to be able to eat tacos or fajitas again. (I even have a little Mexican restaraunt near me that will make my tacos with my LC tortillas.) I was overjoyed to find Keto's LC tortilla chips because I love chips and salsa. Most of the products are probably wise to avoid if you're still trying to lose significant amounts of weight because many do contain carbs, but if you're in maintenance it sure makes it easier to stick with it long term.

I just noticed that the first post was back in July. Does anyone know if Time did an article on LC products?

Here's a link to the article as it was posted here.

http://forum.lowcarber.org/showthread.php?t=129734