If you have a sweet tooth and you are on the Atkins low-carbohydrate diet, Atkins Advantage shakes and bars might be of interest to you. They come in dessert flavors but are low in sugars, and are designed for the Atkins diet. Before you start any diet for weight loss or begin to use diet products, consult your doctor.
Diet Background
On Atkins, you limit your daily net carb intake instead of counting calories or measuring all of your food. Net carbs are the carbohydrates that impact your blood sugar levels, and you can calculate the net carb in a food by subtracting the number of grams of ineffective carbohydrates, such as dietary fiber and sugar alcohols, from the total number of carbohydrates in the food serving. The phases of the diet are induction, ongoing weight loss, pre-maintenance and maintenance, and your allowed daily net carbs increase with each phase.
Shakes
Atkins Advantage shakes have about 2 to 4 total carbohydrates, with 2 to 3 g net carbs. They have at least 20 percent of the daily value for many essential vitamins and minerals, and they have about 15 g protein per 11-oz. serving. Each has about 160 calories and 9 g total fat. They come in flavors such as café caramel, strawberry, vanilla, milk chocolate and mocha latte, and you can use Atkins Advantage shakes during any phase of Atkins.
Bars
Each Atkins Advantage bar is about 44 to 60 g, and they contain about 160 to 240 calories. They have about 22 to 29 g total carbohydrates, but only 3 to 4 g net carbs, because they consist of about 11 g dietary fiber and up to 15 g sugar alcohols. The bars are fortified with vitamins and minerals, with 10 to 15 g protein and up to 11 g fat, including 7 g saturated fat. Some of the flavors are chocolate peanut butter, chocolate chip cookie dough, caramel fudge brownie, and marshmallow mudslide, and they are all acceptable for each of the phases of the Atkins diet.
Considerations
Atkins does not require you to count calories, but to lose weight, you need to expend more calories than you eat. You may be able to fit Atkins Advantage bars or shakes into your low-carbohydrate diet plan, but remember that they do add calories as well as carbohydrates. If you eat them in addition to oversized portions of high-calorie meats and fats, you may have trouble losing weight. Another concern with bars and shakes is that they do not provide some of the healthy phytonutrients found in plant-based foods such as whole grains, fruits and vegetables.
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