Jack is struggling with his weight. In the past few years, he has been on and off his low-carb diet. The first time he tried the low-carbohydrate diet, it seemed to work. He easily lost 50 pounds, and came to believe that this is the healthiest diet for him.

But since that time, he has "lost control" several times, practically bingeing on high-carbohydrate foods, and now he is heavier than ever. He thinks he needs more willpower to stick to his diet.

Jack has tried the new prepackaged low-carbohydrate foods. He has tried going back to the strictest phase of the diet in an effort to kick-start his weight loss again. He has tried adding some "healthy" carbohydrates to his diet, but since he doesn't believe in portion control, his portions are bigger than ever, and the carbohydrates are really hurting his weight loss.

What is a low-carbohydrate diet?

High-carb foods are those in the starch group. This includes potatoes, bread, and cereals. It also includes any food with sugar in it, such as relish, ketchup and all sweets. Health-giving beans and nuts have carbohydrates. Skim milk is higher in carbohydrates than whole milk.

Heavy cream has practically no carbohydrates. Whole milk is in between in its amount of carbohydrates. Meats, fish, cheese, fats, and many vegetables are considered to be low-carb or carb-free. Most fruits, since they contain a form of sugar, are high-carb foods.

High-carb foods have a high glycemic index. Foods with a high glycemic index serve to elevate your insulin levels too high. The result is that much of the calories contained within high-carb foods are stored as fat on your body rather than burned as fuel. The thinking behind the low-carb diet is that if you avoid these high GI foods, you'll be able to eat all you want and still lose weight because most of it will be burned as fuel.

The most recent reports about the efficacy of low-carb diets has focussed on the lack of education and vigilance on the part of the dieter. Carbohydrates come in many forms and disguises, and it requires close attention to avoid all foods containing them.

As a result, it turns out that many busy low-carb dieters are not really on a low-carbohydrate diet at all. What makes matters even worse is that, believing they are on a low-carb diet, they allow themselves all the food they want.

Another problem that many dieters experience is their body's understandable rebellion against the diet. Many of these dieters find themselves having to summon up more and more willpower to resist carbohydrates. This is unfortunate, since not all carbohydrates are created equal.

Examples of popular low-carb diets

Surviving a low-carb diet

What causes failure on this diet is a combination of taking it to an extreme, ignoring portion control, a misunderstanding about carbohydrates, and beliefs about what is healthy.

No dieter can truly succeed on the low-carbohydrate diet without also addressing his other issues, such as stress eating or compulsive overeating. Given that he is addressing these other problems, there are some measures he can take to survive this kind of diet.

What can Jack do?

The first and most important source of help comes from within. Jack will need to do a little work to shed his food guilt over the "bad" foods. He can do this by incorporating those foods into his diet while adjusting his portion sizes. Jack can set out consciously to rid himself of all those guilty feelings he learned to feel over eating carbohydrates. This comes from adjusting his beliefs about the goodness and badness of foods. The more rational belief for Jack to embrace is "all foods are good in small amounts, according to taste."

In addition, Jack might be interested in subscribing to the free e-mail newsletter, Diet Survivors™ (View a sample without subscribing.)

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Jack might also like to buy the book How to Survive Your Diet and Conquer Your Food Issues Forever by Linda Moran. This book will help him with his thoughts and self-talk as they are directly related to using a formal diet. Learn more.

Lose weight without rigid diets

The "whole grain" component of the low-carb way of life is certainly valid. It is helpful for everyone's health and weight control to reduce their intake of white-flour products and replace them with more whole grain products.

But the real answer to food issues isn't in the food. It's in ourselves. If you're ready to look more deeply inside yourself, then you're ready for How to Survive Your Diet and Conquer Your Food Issues Forever. This warm, personal, fun book will revolutionize the way you think about diets and eating forever.

Stop depriving yourself of entire food groups

Tired of dieting?

How to Survive Your Diet and Conquer Your Food Issues Forever

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What about other diet problems?

To read more about how to solve diet problems, click on Solve your dieting problems. Diet problems are also addressed in How to Survive Your Diet and its companion newsletter, Diet Survivors™.

To learn more about normal eating, read what is normal eating?

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