Atkins Bars & Recipes

Atkins has some bars I really like and the net carbs are low.  However, the bars do have more fat than other low carb bars.  The recipes sound delicious, but I just can't bring myself to use heavy cream and so much butter.  I've tried to keep fat grams down for years.

What do you think about eating the bars and using the recipes?  I suppose the heavy cream could be subbed with lower fat milk.

I try to stay away from all the protein bars because the good ones are way too much like candy bars.  I do keep some at home for emergency traveling, etc. 

I do use real butter, olive oil and coconut oil instead of diet margerines. I just bought some unsweetened almond/coconut milk, 1 carb, 35 cal.  and used it in my shake tonight and it is pretty good.  I will try it in some other stuff, like my oatmeal in the morning.  I have been putting a little half and half in to make it creamy.  I used heavy cream in salmon stew and some of my cream soups.  It hard because the lower calorie ones have more carbs, high calorie, lower carbs. 

I have a jar of coconut oil but I've not cooked with it.  How do you use it?  I have 2 of George Stella's low carb cookbooks and he has some great recipes.  He calls for heavy cream in some but notes you can use almond milk.

I started using the coconut oil just on my skin but I now use it for cooking too.  I used it in my no-stick pan which isn't anymore to scramble eggs, to grease muffin tins and almost anything that I need to add some fat of some kind to the pan, like stir fry.

the coconut/almond milk unsweetened is ok for shakes and in my oatmeal.  Haven't tried it for anything else.  It does have a slight coconut smell so I imagine taste so I'm not sure I would like it in cream soups or stuff like that.

I,personally, would use heavy cream and butter before I would eat the crap in Atkins bars. At least butter and cream are REAL food,compared to what is in the bars. 

It is old school thinking to be afraid of healthy fats. Healthy fats are not our enemies. Our enemies are the over processed and not real frank enfold that has been pushed on us for decades.

I do use butter because margarines are made of things I don't want to eat.  For so many years, the weight loss plans I was on preached low fat so it's hard to get used to eating full fat.  Usually, when the fat is removed, additional sugar or other ingredient is added to make up for the fat removed.

I'm working a temp job now and I am having a protein bar every day.  My schedule is different than when I'm home.  It would be better for me to eliminate the protein bar and have real food.

I would pack boiled eggs,lunch meat and cheese,Greek yogurt to take to work instead of a protein bar. Most protein bars are just glorified candy bars. 

Thanks for the suggestions.  Since WLS I've not been able to eat eggs until recently I've tried them and they're ok.  I never liked boiled eggs but I should bring deli meat or cheese and forget those bars.  I think one reason I like them is their sweet taste.  Probably, if I would ditch them I would lose that taste for sweets.  In the beginning my taste for sweets was non-existent.  The first year I was so careful about what I ate.  Then I started tasting this and that and my sweet craving was back.

One thing I need to do is make things for me whether my family likes them or not.  I tend to make food they like and either I don't eat it or just eat less.  It's that taking care of others before myself I need to stop.

yes,you have to take care of yourself first,because often we can't depend on others to take care of us. I would and do cook what I can eat for my DH as well. If he wants something different he is a grown man and can fix it himself. He could also fix other things for our kids if wa had any at home.

i am sure you like the sweet taste of the bars,:) glorified candy. Bars :). And yes the more sweet you eat the more you will want to eat. If you get back to be ing so careful about what you eat,you will be better able to lose/ maintain.