I have been reading several different forums (amazing how many different ones there are re low carb) and there seems to be a common thread in all of them. Many people will not dream of eating "store bought" treats, but think nothing of breaking out the heavy cream, cream cheese, etc. to whip up a "treat."

I am a bit puzzled by this -- if the premade stuff would give you cravings, why wouldn't the stuff you throw together out of the fridge?

Fat's fat.... splenda's splenda....

I guess the reason this mystifies me is that if I buy a cookie at the store, I have ONE cookie -- if I start mixing things up out of the fridge the quantity I could consume is anyone's guess...

Is there something I'm missing here?

I think it has to do with the type of sweeteners, type of fats and other ingredients in the store bought. Fat isn't fat. there are allowable fats and not allowable as in the transfats or hydrogenated saturated fats that don't occur naturally.

Sweeteners can be the good stuff splenda or the bad stuff sugar alcohols which I call them mythical magical counting noncounting carbs, highfructose corn syrup as in the new Breyers icecream, or aspartame.
If you make it from scratch you know what is in it and how many carbs it has.

That is what most folks mean when they say avoid the frankenfoods.

Sunslyte,

I was like you at first. I really didn't understand the differance in me eating all of the LC convenience foods, but while on the forums I would hear people talking really bad about them. I continued to eat them (Counting all hidden carbs and whatnot) for several months into my new WOL and was quite content. However, I never really experienced the full loss of cravings, but they did go down quite a bit. For the past 2 weeks, I decided to cut out all sugar alcohols (or at least as many as possible) and stop drinking diet sodas. (I also threw in lots of excersize) To be honest with you, I feel 10x better! I can't say that it's the reduction or sugar alcohols or the excersize alone that has helped, but in my opinion it was both.

If you read the posts in this forum it seems to me that the main reason that people tell you to stay away from sugar alcohols is that it causes "stalls" in most people. Everyone's body is differant so you will be able to find out what effects your body and what doesn't.

Hope this helps! Later!

Atkins bars are the kiss of death. I'm convinced the only reason the people at Atkins allow them on induction is to make an extra buck (or 3 in this case). I agree with the others when they say it's better to make the concoctions at home because then you know exactly what's in them. Also, for me a few tablespoons of whipped cream is very filling. I could eat an entire Atkins bar and think "man another of those would be great." I'm an all or nothing person so either I'm not going to have the sweets at all or I'm going to eat them until I'm completely satisfied. With the whipped cream I reach my satisfaction without going crazy in the carbs or cravings. The Atkins bars leave me wanting more.