Rating: 
Summary: Good before and after you get started
Review: A few years ago I lost a fair amount of weight going low carb, but due to not knowing much about eating LC, I was inadvertently cheating the diet. My weight loss stopped, I became disillusioned, and went back to my old ways of eating. This past fall my doctor instructed me to go on a low carb diet (he had lost 35 lbs on LC eating). He was serious: My weight was affecting my health. I decided to do as much learning as I could about the LC lifestyle -- it gets a lot of criticism in the medical community, and with my wife and several friends in the medical field, I figured I better get as many medical perspectives as I could in order to dialog intelligently on the subject. The gold mine was struck when I came across Laura Richard's book. Laura Richard is a registered nurse -- that's the 4-year degree-type -- and she also holds a master's degree in healthcare administration. She no dummy when it comes to the medical field. This is what impressed me first: Her Credibility. I bought the book for what seemed like too low a price (it's way inexpensive), and dug in. I was immediately impressed with Richard's organization of the subject matter. Not much rambling in this book, but it's not a dry read in any way. Quite the contrary. What makes this book so appealing is a genuine, down-to-earth writing style. It captures you and you want to keep reading. She uses easy-to-understand analogies to explain difficult concepts. I don't see how anyone could not understand the material she presents. As has been previously posted in reviews of this book, Laura Richard does a fine job of consolidating what was no doubt hundreds of hours participating on Internet message boards and discussion groups. She includes a "voice of low carb experience" section at the end of most topical discussions. In other words, not only does she do a great job of outlining various "expert" opinions with a fair and balanced approach, she ties it all together with a dose of reality expressed by hundreds of others from her experience participating in discussion groups. This book is both a primer and a bible for low carbers (and for those who want to support their LC family and friends). In addition to the well-organized contrast and compare section on all the LC diet philosophies and all the great tips and education throughout the book, Richard includes a fairly comprehensive resource section at the back of the book -- which I've found quite helpful. Even as good as this book is, it obviously can't cover everything, so joining a low carb forum online is helping to "fill in a few gaps" in my learning. I probably wouldn't have joined such a group on my own, but as Richard has shown, "the voice of low carb experience" can be quite helpful at times. In essence, this book is not only informational, it's transformational. If you could only have one book to explain the whys and wherefores of the LC lifestyle, this should be it. I've read it twice, and it's one of the few that's going onto my "read it every year" bookshelf. I'd pay ten times the cover price for the wealth of information this book presents. Five Stars. Excellent. Highly Recommended. Easy Read. You won't want to put it down.
Rating:
Summary: This book explains it all!
Review: Convinced that low carb diets are the answer for me, but confused about why my diet has frequent stalls, I purchased Laura Richard's book. This book summarizes several versions of the low-carb diet, without subjectivity. Richard creates a nice comparison chart of the most common low carb diets. She offers great advice on how to prevent and get through stalls and various support resources for low carb dieters. A MUST read for low carb dieters or those who can't decide on a low carb program. The only downfall is small print..
Rating:
Summary: This book explains it all!
Review: Convinced that low carb diets are the answer for me, but confused about why my diet has frequent stalls, I purchased Laura Richard's book. This book summarizes several versions of the low-carb diet, without subjectivity. Richard creates a nice comparison chart of the most common low carb diets. She offers great advice on how to prevent and get through stalls and various support resources for low carb dieters. A MUST read for low carb dieters or those who can't decide on a low carb program. The only downfall is small print..
Rating:
Summary: easy reading .. very informative
Review: I found this book very easy reading... having read it in just 3 days. Jam packed with all kids of tips to keep the scale dropping... and reasons it isnt dropping... I will read it again and again... I would recommend this book to anyone considering or on a low carb diet... easiest and best diet I've been on in years!!!
Rating:
Summary: Well worth the time to read it
Review: I have been doing a low carb diet for a long time, but I learned a lot from this book anyway. It is so full of tips on how to do low carb dieting better, that I will be trying them for a long time to come. I wish I had this book when I was first starting the diet because I think I would not have made as many mistakes. I spent a lot of money buying a bunch of low carb books trying to figure the diet out and I wish I would have had this book first. I think it would have saved a lot of time and money because it is all in this book.
Rating:
Summary: I highly recommend this book
Review: I have been low carbing for about 2 months and I was having mixed results before I read this book. The first chapter that compares all the different plans helped me select a plan that was much better for me than the one I was on originally. This book also helped me discover 2 important things that I was doing that slowed my weight loss. The combination of choosing another plan and tossing out my stallers, my weight loss sped up a great deal. Absolutely worth the $7.00 I paid for it.
Rating:
Summary: I highly recommend this book
Review: I have been low carbing for about 2 months and I was having mixed results before I read this book. The first chapter that compares all the different plans helped me select a plan that was much better for me than the one I was on originally. This book also helped me discover 2 important things that I was doing that slowed my weight loss. The combination of choosing another plan and tossing out my stallers, my weight loss sped up a great deal. Absolutely worth the $7.00 I paid for it.
Rating:
Summary: A good companion book
Review: I really enjoyed this book. I have been doing the Atkins diet for a while and I am thinking of switching to another low carb diet. I really appreciated that the first chapter of this book gave such good summaries of all the low carb diets that I was interested in learning about. I saved a lot of time by reading the explanations of the low carb diets in this chapter. I also liked all the tips and advice she gives in the rest of the book. I have been doing the Atkins diet for 2 months and thought I had it all figured out, but I learned so much from this book. It is going to take quite a while to do everthing she advises!
Rating:
Summary: Do not pass this one up
Review: If you are a lo-carb convert and are looking for a way to make this way of eating a lifestyle, I highly recommend you read this book. It is particularly helpful in diagnosing stalls in weight loss, many of which are subtle but can pose a barrier to success. Before reading this book I had the big picture. Now I have the find points and can see that Lo-carb is not just about losing weight but gaining health.
Rating:
Summary: Changed my diet plan!
Review: Ms. Richard made it so much easier for me in this round of low-carb dieting. She compares and contrasts all the low-carb plans knowledgeably and usefully. She helped me see how I could approach my low-carb diet plan in a way that is tailored to me alone without feeling that I had fallen off the low-carb wagon. She helped me to re-establish my priorities and I can now offer good advice to my dieting friends, thanks to her. Wish I could sell my copy since it's not available, but I'm afraid I'll be sharing it with my friends for months (if not years) to come. Well worth the price.
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