Buried in a Newbie thread from years ago, someone said he (I think it was a he) was very bloated while in Induction, and another person commented that the reaction wasn't typical.

I just want to say that I was very bloated in Induction, and I was able to pinpoint the two causes. The first was Atkins bars! The ingredient list is a mile long. I knew it couldn't be great diet food, or anytime food, but I was on a business trip with someone else controlling my schedule and I chose to eat them twice a day instead of starve and risk going off the plan. The painful bloating set in within 30 minutes every time.

The worst case of bloating was when I had to eat something with a sauce on it. I drained the sauce as much as possible, but I was certainly consuming some, and I was in a lot of pain for 7 HOURS. So I'm assuming the sauce had ingredients I had long flushed out of my system and that my body was now reacting poorly to.

I'm posting this in hopes that it helps someone else. If you're bloated, don't just examine the main foods in your diet; think about the new subtle ingredients you might be consuming.

FYI, in things like bars or other sugar free products, the key ingredient to watch out for is malitol, a sugar alcohol. It is known for causing bloating. It also tends to spike blood sugars, though the claim is that it does not. I think Atkins bars use malitol, I know most of the sugar free chocolates do.

Other sugar alcohols are not as prone to produce this effect (xylitol, erythritol), but they are not as commonly used in bars and such. Quest bars seem to be ok, but pricey. I use PowerCrunch bars which have more natural ingredients, but do have a bit of sugar.

That cursed Atkins site messes more people up! Bars have no place in induction. Dr. Atkins said, basically: meat, up to 2 oz of cheese, eggs, and 2 cups of loosely packed greens, with a lot of water.

Period. That stupid site took his eating plan and modified it to include their crappy products. Their goal is to make money, not to help people lose weight using LCHF.

LOL, now I'll tell you what I REALLY think about them!

Yes, MickiSue, please don't hold back!

Erythritol messes me up even more than maltitol. No bloating, but you really don't want to know. Quest bars will constipate me after regular consumption of even 1 a day, so I'm not using them for now. (It's the high fiber content, probably)