Supercharge Your Results with the Carb Manager Community

C.S. Lewis, author of The Chronicles of Narnia, once said, “Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another: ‘What! You too? I thought I was the only one.’”

At Carb Manager, we know that losing weight or trying to improve your health is challenging, and sometimes it can feel really isolating — especially if you’re going it alone. But even one friend who’s walking the same path can make your load a lot lighter.

That’s why we’ve developed a whole suite of community features that make it easier to connect with people you click with so you can give and receive support, create a sense of accountability, and build like-minded friendships. We think it’s important to make connections with other people on a similar journey to yours.

Here’s some more information about the community features we’re most proud of, along with a quick summary of what the science has to say about how plugging into a supportive community can help you meet your health goals.

Friends

Carb Manager Premium comes complete with a built-in social network. In the app, if you hit the Connect tab, you’ll be taken to your personal profile page. Here you can see your feed, write updates, and view your friends list. And don’t worry if it’s looking a little lonely in there — it won’t be for long!

You can invite friends or family to join you in the app by clicking “Add Friends” and entering their email addresses.

Additionally, you can add friends already using the app just by clicking their username and then “Send Friend Request.” We’ll talk more about how you can find these friends in the sections below.

Your friends will be able to like and comment on the items on your feed, such as posts you write, meeting your daily goals, exercising, or hitting milestones. And you can do the same for them too! This is an easy way to share your thoughts, goals, and struggles with people who get it, and an easy way for you to support other people too. 

If you want to edit any part of your profile, like your display name (in case you don’t want to be known as GloriousAvocado12345 😉) or your profile photo, click the settings button on the top left-hand side of the app.

Groups

Anyone on Carb Manager can join groups, which are the best places for you to meet and connect with like-minded people. 

There’s a group for everyone, and if there isn’t, then — as a Premium member — you can create your own new public or private group.

You can find Carb Manager groups by navigating to the Connect tab, then clicking “Groups” on the top menu. Here you can view a list of all public groups sorted from most to least members, search for specific groups, or create a new group. There is also a tab where you can see the list of groups you’re in and a tab where you can manage your group invites.

When you have a moment, give the groups a scroll through and join a few that are a good fit. You can also search for groups based on your location, hobbies, age group, career, religious affiliation, health goals, and more. These groups are a great way to make friends and meet people in Carb Manager. If you’re new to Keto or low carb dieting, you can get advice from long-time Keto-ers, and if you’re a long-time Keto-er yourself, then you can be a valuable resource for people who are just getting started.

You can also access the Carb Manager chat forums through the online web-app here. 

Challenges

If competition is what gets you motivated (even if you’re just competing against yourself), then you’ll love Carb Manager’s weekly challenges. A new challenge starts every Monday and runs for 4 weeks. You can earn up to 130 points each day for tracking your food, hitting your carb and macro goals, drinking enough water, and exercising.

When you join a challenge, you’ll see your progress on the Challenge page (found under the Connect tab). You can earn achievements from collecting enough points and hop in the Challenge Discussion for some healthy competitive banter.

If you’re at the top of the pack, you’ll be featured on the leader board. 

And if you’re a Premium member, you can also easily send friend requests to other Carb Manager users on the leader board or in the Challenge Discussion. 

Keto Academy and Articles

Feeling lost and need a mentor? How about a whole team of mentors? Or how about becoming your own mentor? Any Premium or free member can read Carb Manager’s huge catalog of articles about nearly everything Keto-, low carb-, health and wellness-related. These articles are written and reviewed by Keto experts and credentialed health professionals, so you can rest assured that the info in them is sound and evidence-based.

And if you prefer videos, you can get full access to the Keto Academy as a Premium member. The Keto Academy is a comprehensive, video-based guide to the Keto diet — with all the information you need to be successful (and more). 

Benefits of Community for Your Weight Loss and Health Goals

There has been a fair amount of research on strategies that help people succeed at their weight loss goals and maintain them long-term. In both people who have lost weight and people who have maintained weight loss long term, researchers have found over and over again that accountability and social support were two critical factors to success.[*][*][*]

Researchers have also found that seeing your social group regularly engaging in exercise may make you more likely to engage in exercise also.[*]

Further, a small but growing body of research points to the benefit of virtual social network settings (like the Carb Manager community) when paired with expert advice and guidance (such as what you’ll find in our articles and the Keto Academy).[*]

A small trial of 47 participants in a social media-based weight loss program even found that the more the participants posted, commented, or liked other posts, the more weight they were likely to lose. This same study noted that receiving comments helped to improve participants’ self-efficacy (or their self-motivation).[*]

Similarly, a study on weight loss bloggers found that their readers were a significant source of accountability and motivation. Another study found that weight loss bloggers reported an average weight loss of 42 pounds since beginning their blog. This study also found that a longer time spent blogging was associated with more weight loss.[*] You could easily use your Carb Manager feed as a personal weight loss blog.

Yet another small study found that teaming up with a partner with a similar goal resulted in significant weight loss.[*]

Clearly, community and social support play at least some role in achieving overall wellness and weight-loss success.

Tips for Success with Carb Manager Community Features

Here are five tips to help you get the most out of Carb Manager’s community features:

1. Use your feed as a progress journal. Share your wins, struggles, milestones, favorite Keto meals, scale victories, and non-scale victories on your feed. 
2. Find your people. Groups are a great way to find your people — whether they have similar health goals, are in your area, are into the same things you’re into, or are around the same age. Get connected and make some friends!
3. Get an accountability buddy. Partner up with someone with similar goals so you can motivate each other and keep each other accountable. Send questions, advice, encouragement, and check in with each other regularly about your progress.
4. Gamify it! Join Carb Manager challenges to give yourself a short-term goal to attain, and go for gold! And if you reach gold, give yourself a little prize — like some new running shoes, a new water bottle, or a deposit into your new wardrobe fund for once you reach your goal weight.
5. Be the cheerleader you need. Finally, engage with your friends’ posts and be a source of encouragement for them. Your friends are likely to reciprocate, and you may help others attain their goals while motivating yourself — remember, one study found that people who liked, commented, and posted more lost more weight.

Community is important, and we want to foster that sense of community and camaraderie on Carb Manager. Whether you’re a free or Premium member, there are many ways for you to get plugged in — but of course, we recommend upgrading to Premium so you can add friends. We are also constantly improving these community features based on your feedback, because we want to provide all the tools you need to be successful on your health journey. With Carb Manager, you are not alone!