Meet Jimmy Moore of Livin' La Vida Low-Carb Fame

Jimmy Moore Interview

If you've done any low-carb web surfing, you certainly have come across the name "Jimmy Moore." You probably won't find a more popular low-carb blog or podcast than his, and his articles appear in many other web publications as well. He has also written a book, Livin' La Vida Low-Carb: My Journey from Flabby Fat to Sensationally Skinny in One Year.

Jimmy's 2004 New Years' Resolution changed his life: he took on a "low-carb lifestyle" that helped him to lose more than 180 pounds. Since then, he has made it his mission to learn as much as possible about low-carb eating and to pass that knowledge along to the huge numbers of people who find him through his various projects. Many have found inspiration in following his ongoing journey as he hits the inevitable difficulties and, using his gift of formidable persistence, finds his way around, over and through challenges. In his search for knowledge, he has interviewed many of the most important researchers and authors in the low-carb arena, as well as some in the broader nutrition field.

Recently, Jimmy graciously consented to answer some questions that I and my readers are curious about:

1. Jimmy, you are such a prolific writer! Did you do a lot of writing before you started writing about low-carb eating? I'm curious about what led up to this career.

Prior to writing about health, I wrote mostly about politics and government, of all things. I had a double major in undergrad — Political Science and English — followed by a Master's Degree in Public Policy. I wrote news stories as well as opinion pieces focused on this subject from 2000 to 2005, when I started my low-carb blog. Writing is indeed a passion of mine, and I've always felt committed to providing quality content as often as I can possibly put it out there.

My posts are mostly my opinions, with facts and information included in them so that others can make informed decisions about what they can use. I have been criticized by some people for daring to share my thoughts, since I don't have any nutritional or medical credentials. However, I never claimed to have these things. I'm simply one man sharing his story about how the healthy low-carb lifestyle has changed his life for the better after years of frustration on every other diet I've ever tried. Anyone who has ever been through the transformation of a changed life will tell you that you can't help but shout from the mountaintops what has happened to you. Low-carbers have even more to share since it is not in the mainstream of diet and health. I have always tried to provide as much information as I can to my readers in an entertaining and informative way.

2. How did you make the transition from "going on a diet" to the "low-carb lifestyle"? What challenges did you find? Did you ever feel tempted to revert back to your old ways?

Regarding the "lifestyle" aspect of my new way of eating that began on January 1, 2004, I think I wanted it to be different this time than ever before. When you've gone on diet after diet with absolutely zero long-term results, it's literally insane to keep putting yourself through that vicious cycle over and over again. But we've all done it. We get so caught up in the allure of losing that 10, 20, 50, 100+ pounds that we merely look at weight loss as a temporal thing. I suppose it's human nature to have this state of mind, but it is arguably the single biggest reason why people who go on a "diet" end up gaining back all of their weight and then some. At the same time, I get nauseous when I see diet product companies putting out marketing lines like "don't go on a diet, make it a lifestyle change" when most of them espouse methods of losing weight that are anything but healthy over the long-term. The new over-the-counter weight loss drug Alli certainly comes to mind. As pathetic as this product is [in] requiring people to eat a very low-fat diet when you are taking it, people fall for it. Why? They want quick weight loss.

This time around I really didn't want to go through all that rigamarole, so the Atkins diet was gonna be a permanent solution to a lifelong problem. I became convinced of that within only a couple of months of eating this way and never feeling hungry ... EVER! That's a switch from all the other diets I'd ever been on. Sure, the biggest challenge was my sugar addiction, which hit me hard the first few days of starting low-carb especially and up to a couple of weeks, but I found substitutions that worked for me and kept me away from sugar. That was my real weakness more than starchy foods, although I could eat my share of potatoes and pasta back in the day. Not anymore.

You discover that you don't really NEED those things when you find an adequate substitution and then you adapt to the new food. Plus, you find new foods that you probably had no idea were so good until you tried them with a new perspective — ones like raw almonds, fresh baby spinach leaves, full-fat nonprocessed cheeses and so much more. When you have such decadent food choices like these as well as full-fat meats, heavy cream, eggs and low-carb chocolates among many other choices, you really don't want to revert back to your old ways again.