Low Carb Program app

The Low Carb Program app is a 16-week course aiming to help you improve your diet, lose weight and improve risk factors related to type 2 diabetes.

• The program includes education delivered by video and with an extensive library of handouts, recipes and meal plans mainly on carbohydrate reduction. It's based around a very low carb/keto approach with a focus on reducing sugary and processed foods, increasing whole foods and cooking more at home. The content is staggered and made available every few days so that you can learn as you progress through the program.
• The program includes topics such as type 2 diabetes and diet, controlling portion sizes, real vs processed foods, healthy and unhealthy fats, etc. At the end of each module there are ‘action points’ which are simple goals to support behaviour change. You can choose the action point most relevant to you. 
• To help you track your progress, the app allows tracking of various health indicators such as weight, HbA1c, mood, sleep and activity levels and displays these as graphs to show progress over time.

The Low Carb Program has been designed for people with pre-diabetes, type 2 diabetes and excess weight. It suggests it may also be suitable if you have polycystic ovarian syndrome, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease or risk factors like high cholesterol or high blood pressure (hypertension) but there doesn’t appear to be specific content for these groups. It may be useful if you want to access a program from the comfort of your home and is suited to people who want everything in one place including education, recipes, health tracking and community support.

For the complete app description, go to the app website(external link), Google Play(external link), App Store(external link) or, for a more detailed review, see Reviews. It is also available in other formats via the website, Apple and Android watch, and Amazon Alexa.

Clinical review

Reviewer: Lily Henderson, New Zealand Registered Dietitian
Date of review: May 2025
Platform: Apple
Version: 12.7.8
Comments: The Low Carb Program is a 16-week course of video lessons, handouts, recipes and a moderated discussion forum for support. It gives clear video explanations of what type 2 diabetes is and a positive message about changing lifestyle for improving control of type 2 diabetes, with a wealth of practical advice and tips. The app acknowledges that change takes time and encourages progress tracking with food diaries, exercise plans, personal measurements and blood glucose testing.
There is however some unsafe dietary information related to carbs and dietary fat that is inconsistent with national guidelines, and it would be ideal if this was replaced with evidence-based advice. As the app is UK-based, there are limitations in some of the content (food diary, handouts where food or takeaway brands are referred to, anything related to the cost of foods) for NZ users. For anyone looking to use this app, I would recommend seeing your health professional to check the safety and suitability of making dietary changes to reduce carbs based on individual needs and current medications. A low carb diet may increase the risk of high cholesterol and nutrient deficiencies, and a health professional should be seen before starting and throughout. 
Safety concerns: The major safety concern with the Low Carb Program is that some dietary advice on fats is not consistent with the NZ Ministry of Health guidelines or latest NZSSD guidelines. This includes encouraging fats high in saturated fat (eg, lard, ghee, coconut oil etc) and other foods high in saturated fat (coconut cream, cream, fatty meats etc). 
The registration process has a strong recommendation to contact your health professional before making any major dietary changes and following a low carb diet. There is a downloadable letter to take to your GP (particularly for people taking diabetes medications, such as insulin, sulfonylureas and empagliflozin). However, this isn’t moderated or controlled. In addition, the app doesn’t appear to have any safe-guarding features, eg, when a weight is entered that indicates a significant loss compared with the previous entry there is no warning or red flag.
New Zealand relevance: Not all features are relevant to NZ users. You can include your country when signing up and there are people on the app from other countries but most of the information and content is UK-specific. The food database for the food diary feature is based on UK foods and there are differences in the composition of certain foods and therefore the accuracy of the data may impact on your ability to manage their your condition. Medications referred to in the app may not be relevant to a NZ context. Seasonality means the current news/content is not as relevant to the NZ audience eg, bank holiday weekend, BBQ recipes featured in July etc. The app has no relevance to the population groups in NZ who are most affected by diabetes (ie, Māori, Pasifika, South Asian).