Your Nashbar aluminum frame is probably about a pound lighter than a Long Haul Trucker frame. Assuming you have a slightly lighter fork, your bike is 1-2 pounds lighter than a steel touring bike, not 7-10.
All the weights I've seen published for the LHT complete bike are in the 30+lb range. That's a 7+lb difference over 22-23lb bike that I built... Granted, that weight difference is spread across the frame, wheels, components, etc.