Low-Carb Diet

  The TLC diet focuses on the "low-carb lifestyle" of your choice. They support the Atkins diet mentality, but also teach you the skills to maintain a healthy diet. I found this site to be extremely helpful in understanding exactly what foods are allowed on low-carb diets and the pitfalls to avoid. It recommends any foods that are less than 10% carbohydrates. To be completely honest, I would use this site if I wanted to go on a low-carb diet. I like the way that this site sets challenges for its members and is very personable. It is not the most high tech, but I found it to be the most reasonable one to start on. I think that sometimes "Atkins" or the "South Beach Diet" can be intimidating but the TLC diet is a great way to introduce low carb foods into your diet.

   I had two favorite sections of this site that I enjoyed alot. The first was the "common mistakes" section and the second was the "tips"section. The site's "common mistakes to avoid" include:

• The 14-day diet contains no fruit, bread, grains, starchy vegetables, dairy products other than cheese, cream or butter.
• Avoid diet products unless they specifically state "no carbohydrates". Most dietetic foods are for fat-restricted, not carbohydrate-restricted diets.
• The word "sugarless" is not sufficient. The products must state the carbohydrate content, and that's what you go by.
• Many products you do not normally think of as foods such as chewing gum, cough syrups, and cough drops are filled with sugar and other caloric sweeteners and must be avoided.

The "tips" section includes:

• Set small goals, dont say " I have 100 pounds to lose" say " I am going to lose 5 pounds or 10 pounds" then once you reach that goal reward yourself with a non food item.
• Keep a diary along the way to show yourself how far you have come.
• As soon as you see your self falling off track, GET BACK ON!
• Measure yourself, and then once again the same time every month, some months you may not lose that much but you will see the inches going away.
• Drink lots of water
• Practice the diet with a friend- support is extremely important

   One of my favorite aspects of this diet regimen is that it encourages you to bring together other diet plans. I think this is important because these dieters have many more choices (as long as they stay under 10% carbohydrates) because they offer meal plans from each diet. You also have the option to join other "low-carbers" on teams that have similar goals to yours and you can participate in seasonal challenges designed for you to set goals and reach them. If you get discouraged along the way, you will have plenty of teammates to turn to for encouragement. I think this is a wonderful motivational tool and I think it would be very helpful if I was going on a diet.

Additional materials:

• This article from WebMD compares the low-carb diets and is very informative.
• Here is an interesting study about the effects of a low-carb diet for obese diabetics.
• This article reviews a study that shows how very low-carb diets take off the pounds