? about adding fiber/Splenda?/ and a little intro

[brownstar]

Hi all!
I did an intro in the other area but will do a quick one here as well.
I'm Karen; 32. I'm 5'2 and ever since I stopped growing I've held steady around 139. If I gained or lost weight, if I did nothing I"d end up at 139, even after 3 pregnancies.
I don't think I particularly am that overweight but have always felt my best under 130 and would like to lose 15 pounds or so, maybe 20 if Atkins allows!
I started about a week ago after a stupid crash diet that lasted about a week. I'm not sure how much I lost or what I truly started at, but today I'm hovering around 132/133 and can get into some clothes that were too tight a couple of weeks ago.
I also got my first dark ketostrip yesterday! YAY! I was addicted to peeing on sticks before when we were having babies and this is the perfect transition lol!
And on the day where it really changed from trace to moderate I started to really feel fine again. I was initially hungry all day long for about 2-3 days into induction.
So on to the questions.
If I were to add fiber to something I was eating, like let's just say I added some flax seed to a smoothie; can I deduct carbs based on the amount of fiber I added? I'm wondering if this might be a good way to counteract some carbs in salads, etc.
On to Splenda. I have DANDR but don't really see a reason as to WHY you are limited to 3 servings of Splenda per day. Is this because it could slow weight loss, or is it because it could hinder your ability to kick sweet cravings?
I'm thinking it's the latter. I made a cheesecake and tried some when I wasn't THAT hungry to see what it tasted like. Immediately I felt hungry. So I can see the danger there.
I'm at the point in dieting where I'm at almost 2 weeks of being in control and I'm worried about hitting a plateau even though I just started Atkins. I'm hoping my mental state won't translate into physical!! This is just the point in which I'd either quit or stop losing weight. And then quit lol...
Hey, anyone who doesn't normally eat meat begin eating meat again while on Atkins? I used to be lacto-ovo but added fish about 5 years ago. I have the strangest craving for turkey. It scares me!!!
Anyway, looking forward to losing with all of you This is so exciting!
Karen

[not2late]

Hi and welcome.

Fiber: According to the book, we are allowed to supplement ourselves daily with fiber sources from psyllium husks, flax seed or wheat bran. You will have to count the net carbs of those fiber supplements. Contrary to what the packaging says, flax seed does have net carbs of about 1 net carb per serving.

Don't get into the mind set that carbs are bad. They aren't. You still need a certain amount of carbohydrates. Just remember the only reason for the 20 net carb limit on Induction is because that is the level of carbs where Dr. Atkins found the majority of people will get into ketosis/lipolysis. The vast majority of us can lose weight steadily with eating more than 20 net carbs a day. The purpose of Induction is to get us into ketosis/lipolysis and to help us kick the carb dependency. The way Dr. Atkins wrote his diet, Induction was never meant to be the major weight losing phase.

Splenda/artificial sweetener limits aren't explained in DANDR 2002 thoroughly. Dr. Atkins found that when some of his dieters had 3 or more servings of artificially sweetened foods/drinks or the sweeteners themselves, they did not lose weight or their weight loss was very slow. So by limiting those sweeteners or eliminating them completely, he hoped it would optimize our losses. Also, Dr. Atkin's recognized that artificial sweeteners were useful for weaning people off sugary foods, in hopes that people would eventually lose the taste for added sugars and eat foods with naturally containing sugars and eat no artificial sweeteners. If you read the sticky thread above about "Addicted to Sweets", you can see that some of these sweeteners have the same effect on some people as regular sugar.