Where'd All The Low-Carb Magazines Go?

This Fall, SheKnows Diet & Fitness Magazine will feature low-carb

Remember not that long ago when you were checking out at your local grocery or big-box chain store and saw all these great low-carb magazines to choose from? The shelves could hardly contain them all!

I vividly remember during my 180-pound low-carb weight loss in 2004 when I first discovered Low-Carb Living magazine at Wal-Mart, I just about did the breakdance on the floor right then and there (of course, I resisted the urge to completely embarrass myself!). :)

Of course, I proudly bought a copy of that magazine and read it from cover to cover when I got home thinking to myself, "Man, what a great concept -- a LOW-CARB magazine!" I immediately contacted them and expressed my appreciation for what they were doing with their magazine. I also told them about my weight loss success on low-carb and they wrote me back stating that they were interested in my story. In fact, it was supposed to run in their magazine one year ago this month.

But then...DUM-DUM-DUMMMMMMMM...Low-Carb Living just went away! Eeeeeek! Now what?

Soon thereafter, in my search for magazines about low-carb, I came across another excellent low-carb magazine called Low-Carb Energy. Again, the stories and features in this magazine had my eyes popping out with excitement and I was elated to find a source for low-carb information. In fact, I was very surprised when they named my blog one of the top three low-carb blogs of 2005 in their Fall 2005 issue.

However, they decided in January 2006 to change their name to SheKnows Low-Carb. In fact, I was asked by the editors of that magazine if I would like to start writing columns for SheKnows Low-Carb and, of course, I agreed.

My first article to be published is in the current Summer 2006 issue of the magazine as a two-page spread about my weight loss success story, book, and blog. Some of you have already told me you have seen the article, but I haven't even seen it yet! I wrote it, so I know what it says, but I'd like to see the layout which I hear is beautiful.

So, on my lunch break today, I drove to SIX different stores on this list where the magazine is supposedly carried trying to find SheKnows Low-Carb magazine, including Wal-Mart, Barnes & Noble, Eckerd, Walgreen's, Target, and Ingles.

Can you believe not a single one of the stores had it on their shelf?!

Frankly, I was SHOCKED Barnes & Noble didn't carry it since they have just about every other magazine known to man on their wall of magazines. But when I asked the magazine expert there if she could help me, she quite candidly replied, "Well, we're waiting for them to make up their minds what they are going to call this magazine before we stock it again!" Oooookay, that seems a little strange as an excuse for NOT carrying it, but anywho.

However, the more I thought about it, she did have a point. Last year, the magazine was called Low-Carb Energy; in 2006, it's called SheKnows Low-Carb. But, hold the presses, though, because the name is changing...yet AGAIN!

In a continuation of the gradual move away from the term "low-carb," the magazine formerly known as Low-Carb Energy and then SheKnows Low-Carb will now be rolled into the pages of the magazine SheKnows Diet & Fitness.

While this will leave ZERO magazines on the market with "low-carb" in the title (not surprising!), I am pleased that the SheKnows Network has dedicated a good portion of their general diet magazine to the subject of low-carb. That at least shows they are interested in providing information to the multitude of low-carb consumers that still exist despite the whitewashing of "low-carb" from our society.

In fact, my "Livin' La Vida Low-Carb" column will be featured in the SheKnows Diet & Fitness magazine beginning in the Fall 2006 issue (actually, my next THREE columns have already been written for them!).

If you can find the Summer 2006 issue of SheKnows Low-Carb on the shelf of your local drugstore, bookstore, or grocery store, then be sure to pick it up to read my story. But it will also be a historical issue since it will be the very last copy of a fully-dedicated low-carb magazine ever!

That is, unless the low-carb lifestyle makes another big comeback in a few years and the magazines are reborn. It could happen. In the meantime, you can read SheKnows Diet & Fitness in each quarterly issue for updates on low-carb and, of course, all the great low-carb blogs and web sites that are still out there to serve us low-carbers. As long as there is an audience, there will continue to be places to get information on low-carb living. I'm not going anywhere anytime soon. :D

5-17-06 UPDATE: I heard back from one of the editors at Diet & Fitness magazine today and she wanted me to let you know that their publication actually comes out every other month so you get 2 MORE issues than what the low-carb magazine used to offer.

The editor I heard from also assured me that they are doing their "very best to make the low carb subscribers happy" with the move to Diet & Fitness magazine.

"Our survey of our Diet & Fitness readers tells us that 22.6% of them are on a low carb diet! So low-carb is still going strong and we will make sure those readers are happy!"

Which makes you wonder why they would stop making a magazine devoted exclusively to low-carb if one out of four readers is a low-carber! Oh well, I don't pretend to understand such decisions. But I am VERY excited that my "Livin' La Vida Low-Carb" column will be featured in Diet & Fitness magazine! This shows they are committed to bringing real low-carbers into the fray and not just someone giving lip service to it. I'll write for them just like I write here at my blog -- straight from the heart and never holding back! :D