Getting started on the Slow Carb Diet.
Prepared for the readers of /r/4HourBodySlowCarb on reddit.
Written by likwidtek
Revision 1.0
Started 5/12/2014
Last updated: 6/30/2014
For more information, a great community, and awesome discussion about the Slow Carb Diet, feel free to hang out here: http://www.reddit.com/r/4hourbodyslowcarb/
Intro: Is this document for you?
This document is intended for readers of /r/4HourBodySlowCarb on reddit who are currently obese and whose primary goal is fat loss. We will not be focusing on building muscle or heavy exercise. If you are already considered a healthy weight or have a “normal” BMI, then this document will probably not fit your needs, but it should still have some good information about the Slow Carb Diet in general. This is being written from the perspective of an obese sedentary man and woman who wanted to get to a healthy weight at a fairly fast pace. Nothing in this document is to be taken as medical advice. You very much need to consult your doctor if you have any medical related questions. Before starting anything that affects your health or body, you should consult your Doctor. This document’s purpose is to serve as a primer to help you get started on the Slow Carb Diet and teach you a little bit about what my wife and I have learned from all of the information and discussion in the /r/4HourBodySlowCarb subreddit as well as many of our own personal findings. Please subscribe to http://www.reddit.com/r/4hourbodyslowcarb/ to get involved and ask questions. If you do not wish to use reddit, feel free to email me directly. My email address is likwidtek@gmail.com
I do not profit from this but I’ve had many requests to send a paypal tip so if you’d like to donate, you can send me a cheat day beer here. Not expected but very much appreciated. I do get lots of email questions and do not mind answering them all.
Donate and buy me a cheat day beer!
Table of contents
Intro: Is this document for you?
Is slow carb right for you? Here are all the gotcha’s.
What you will need to get started on the Slow Carb Diet.
2.) A reliable digital scale - your measurements
3.) Something great to track and chart your weight goal and weight loss progress.
5.) An understanding of all of your options
Experimentation - the right way
Don’t panic - You will gain some weight on cheat day.
The book that started it all.
Before we start, let me say, please read the book that Tim Ferriss wrote called “The 4 Hour Body”. This book is what birthed the Slow Carb Diet and it would be super helpful if you had a deeper understanding of it. I know not everyone has time to read. I understand that not everyone can afford a book. So again, if you can, please buy the book that started this diet and read it. It’s a HUGE book but you’ll more than likely only need to read about 150 pages of it. Right off the bat the book will tell you what chapters you need to read for which particular goal. It will give you a much better understanding of this document as well as the Slow Carb Diet in general. I do not in any way shape or form benefit or profit from you buying the book, reading this document, subscribing to /r/4HourBodySlowCarb or losing weight. I’m doing this because it’s worked for my wife and I as well as some close personal friends. I just want to help. You can google how to buy the book by clicking this link.
If you absolutely cannot stand to read a book or even this document, at the very least check out this TL;DR version of The 4-Hour Body.
I do not profit from this but I’ve had many requests to send a paypal tip so if you’d like to donate, you can send me a cheat day beer here. Not expected but very much appreciated. I do get lots of email questions and do not mind answering them all.
Donate and buy me a cheat day beer!
First thing - why you should read this, and what makes this document different than other blogs or supposed experts on the internet.
So you’ve heard about slow carb, saw /r/4HourBodySlowCarb linked somewhere, you read about it, saw the 4 hour body book, or know someone who had success with the diet. No matter how you heard about it, maybe you’re not sure where to start? Hopefully this will give you the CliffsNotes version of the Slow Carb Diet. Or at least, my wife and I’s version of the diet that has worked insanely well for us.
There are lots of blogs and guides out there and I hope that this document isn’t too redundant. I am writing this simply because there is a ton of advice and information out there from 1.) People who’ve only had a very short amount of time on the diet or 2.) People who failed on the diet and gave up and 3.) People who do not follow the diet strictly and are losing fat at a very slow pace. I’m hoping to give you the perspective of a man and a woman in their 30s, who both started out as obese, and who’ve also both lost a significant amount of weight on the Slow Carb Diet in a fairly short amount of time. So first, let me show you that we know what we’re talking about so that you know we’re not just some arm chair experts who don’t know how to walk the walk. Hopefully from here out you do not accept advice from anyone unless you’re sure they know what they’re talking about and can prove it by showing you their results. So please allow me to qualify my advice to you by showing you the results my wife and I have achieved in such a short amount of time. I don’t want you to believe everything I say but hopefully it points you in the right direction. Research things yourself, ask questions in the /r/4HourBodySlowCarb subreddit and let’s all discuss it and figure it out together.
Me:
As of 5/16/2014 these are my stats.
Male, 33 years old, 5’11”, start weight of 275 pounds. I’ve lost 65.5 pounds in 208 days. That’s an average of 2.19 pounds per week and a total of 23.82% of my original body mass gone. I’ve done no heavy exercise other very light stuff like walking and occasional sets of wall presses or air squats but to be honest these are fairly rare. I have not yet hit my goal but I am well on my way. I have 11.5 pounds left to go.
My wife:
As of 5/16/2014 these are her stats.
Female, 31 years old, 5’7”, start weight of 220 pounds. She has lost 52 pounds in 208 days. That’s an average of 1.74 pounds per week and a total of 23.64% of her original body mass gone. She also has done no heavy exercise other than being a teacher and on her feet every day. She also does the occasional walk and very rarely will do some air squats, but again, these are fairly rare. She has not yet hit her goal but she is well on her way. She has 8 pounds left to go.
This sounds very braggy, I know. I am super proud of our progress but again, I’m simply trying to qualify my advice to you. Meaning, very basically, we know what we’re talking about, and these are the methods that worked for us. We’ve experimented with a good number of things and have some lessons learned that will help you be successful. We did this without buying a gym membership, a personal trainer, expensive powders and supplements, without any gimmicks. No club memberships or fees. No prepackaged diet meals. No point or calorie counting. We did this only with food. Regular food that you can get at any grocery store and nearly every sit down restaurant. Next are some of our before and after pics. More bragging!!
Me Before! Me After! | Her Before! Her After! |
Do you like data? Here are the charts! What’s this? More bragging?? You betcha.
Here’s mine.
Here’s hers.
So, all bragging aside, hopefully you understand that we have been successful on this diet long-term, shown results for nearly 7 months (at the time of writing this), and are both losing near 2 pounds per week average. We have the results to back up our advice! We have added almost no exercise aside from walking. We binge eat on all the crap we want once a week. We usually take major holidays off. And we STILL have very good results. Now understand, this is mine and my wife’s second attempt at slow carb. We made it about 3 months the first time and eventually wandered too far away. We failed. But when we decided to do it again, we sat down and had a long talk about why we failed. We made a list of things we’d have to do different this time to make it stick. We learned our lessons and hopefully you get it right the first time.
If you’re still curious about the Slow Carb Diet and would like to get started, keep reading.
My goal for this document will be to:
- Help you understand if slow carb is right for you
- Give you some tools and resources to help track your progress
- Provide you a basic set of rules to follow until you hit your stride
- Show you the basic do’s and don’ts of the Slow Carb Diet
- Point you in the right direction on how to plan your meals
- Show you all about “plan B meals” - quick, lazy, and easy meals
- Show you how to find some good recipes
- Teach you how to experiment the right way
- Help you learn from our mistakes
- And all the while, hopefully dispel as many slow carb myths and debunk as much bad info as I can.
Still with me? Read on!
Is slow carb right for you? Here are all the gotcha’s.
So let’s just get right down to it. No matter how effective a diet is, if you just can’t or won’t be able to stick to it long term, just don’t bother wasting your time. Keep in mind, most of the “suck” of this diet is 6 days a week. 1 day a week you get to eat as much of whatever the hell you want. Cheat days are awesome. That said, here’s the suck. Can you live with these things 6 days a week until you hit your goal?
- You are going to have to prepare the majority of your meals
- You will need to buy the majority of your food from the grocery store
- While you can still eat out, your options will be limited
- Most of you will eat a lot of the same stuff over and over
- You will need to eat a high protein breakfast every morning
- You will need to take a few inexpensive vitamins every day
- You will need to quit drinking alcohol 6 days a week.
- Until you hit your goal weight, 6 days a week you will choose not to consume
- Carbs! Specifically WHITE and/or refined carbs. That means things like, breads, flours, wheat, oats, cake, tortillas, rice, pasta, whole grains, potatoes, etc
- Sugars, corn syrup, candy, sweeteners, ice cream, diet sodas.
- Cheese. Not even hard cheeses. No cottage cheese.
- Dairy. With very few exceptions, No milk or dairy products.
- Fruit. Fruit is sugar. You can have it on cheat day.
- Booze. Sorry, not even wine. Not even “low carb” booze. No alcohol until cheat day.
- You will be forced to break your addiction to carbs and sugar
- You must dig deep and grow the willpower that we have all lacked that got us here in the first place.
- You will need to get a reliable digital scale
- You must log and track your weight without fail at least once a week
Is the list above even possible for you? Now, keep in mind, you’re not asking yourself “Is this going to be fun?” Just ask, “Can I do it?”. Are you physically capable of doing this? Can you stick with this until you hit your goal without breaking the rules? Do you want a healthy weight more than you want anything that the list above denies you? If something in your life prevents you from doing anything in the list above, then this may not be for you. At the very least, you may have slower progress or a higher risk of quitting.
Commonly, people ask me “Well what CAN YOU EAT?”, or they’ll say “Wait, you can’t have FRUIT?”, “I can’t have CHEESE?!?! I can’t live without cheese!”. I totally understand. TOTALLY. But here is the mantra that will get you through this diet. It works so well for me, and if you are serious about being successful on slow carb, you need to memorize this way of thinking.
You never tell yourself, “No, I can’t have that.” You tell yourself, “I’m going to have that on cheat day!”.
That’s the thing about the big list of gotchas. They only apply 6 days a week. 1 day each week, you get to go nuts. This is amazing for a diet. You never have to tell yourself no to anything ever again. You simply have to have the self control to save it for your cheat day. For example, our cheat day is every Saturday. (You can pick which ever day you want, however you don’t want to switch it around often. Keep it consistent.) Every week when I’m at work people bring in all kinds of treats. Cookies, candy, cake, donuts, you name it. It was really REALLY hard when I started this diet. But I learned the best trick ever. If I really wanted it, I’d get a little ziplock, bag it up and take it home. Someone brings in some oreos, YOINK! Yup, I’m going to get down on these bad boys on Saturday. Aside from the biological benefits of the cheat day, there are so many mental benefits to it. You can totally indulge on fruit, cheese, cake, beer, whatever the hell you want. You just have to learn the willpower and patience to put it off until Saturday. We’ll talk more about cheat day later.
Now this list of gotchas conflicts with some information out there. For example, the book says you can have a glass of red wine every night. The book also mentions eating cottage cheese on the diet. Some people swear you can have low lactose cheese with no problems. Here’s the thing. You can absolutely choose to add in whatever you wish. It’s your diet. Simply put, I am going to give you the information that gives you the sturdy foundation to build your food choices around. We will talk about experimentation later. But in the beginning, and honestly I’d say until you get at least 3 months of strict Slow Carb Diet in, I would not deviate much from these foundational rules. The reason being, these items WILL slow your progress. Some, not much, others, much more. Some items may not cause a problem by themselves but combined with another item, bam, problems. Even some of the items that don’t cause too many problems at all can be fine but they may put you on a dangerous path. It’s a slippery slope adding in items that can stall your progress. These items start to add up and next thing you know you’ve plateaued. Just keep this in mind. You should totally experiment down the road, just make sure you know how. We’ll cover this later.
This diet is very interesting. It is so forgiving in the beginning. You’ll often hear people say they’ve lost 10 pounds in the first week!! Others, maybe 3. Some people none at all. But most often, assuming you are already obese, your first month or two will be your record months. Most of this I assume is water weight. Now for larger folks, you will see the hugest numbers right out the gate. If you’re 350 pounds and you’re used to eating 5-6,000 calories a day and go on this diet, you might see HUGE weight loss numbers compared to someone who is 250 pounds who maybe is only used to taking in 3-4,000 calories a day. So no matter what your starting size, just know, in the beginning you’re going to see record loss numbers. Don’t get used to these numbers because as you shrink, so will your weekly loss numbers. This is totally expected and we will talk later about how to stay on track, not get discouraged and how to stay flexible so that you keep losing weight.
Also know that as you progress on the diet that what you may have gotten away with eating in the beginning; could cause you problems down the road. Stay flexible and open minded and you’ll do great. Keep this in mind and don’t kid yourself; the Slow Carb Diet is a highly restrictive diet. This isn’t like Weight Watchers where you can supposedly “eat whatever you want just in moderation” type of diet. There’s some secret sauce to this diet and if you cheat on the diet, you’re going to have a bad week. So no matter what you hear, yes, this is a restrictive diet. It’s restrictive, but it’s fast, effective, and flexible. Don’t forget, you get one day off per week.
OK, so now you know the gotchas. You know what sucks about the diet. Go back and read that list one more time and come back. I’ll wait.
So, can you live with this diet until you hit your goal weight? Can you deal with all of those gotchas? Can you commit to making some big changes in your life to get healthier? If so, let’s move on.
What you will need to get started on the Slow Carb Diet.
1.) The rules
- Rule 1: Avoid “white carbohydrates”
- Bread, rice, potatoes, cereal, pasta, tortillas, grains, quinoa, etc
- This includes sugar, corn syrup, sucrose, fructose, dextrose (avoid stuff that ends in --ose)
- Rule 2: Eat the same few meals over and over
- Create meals by mixing these ingredients but nothing else. Tim’s favorites are marked with an *
- Proteins: eggs* (without yolk unless organic), chicken*, beef*, fish*, pork
- Legumes: lentils*, black beans*, pinto beans, red beans
- Vegetables: spinach*, mixed vegetables*, sauerkraut*, asparagus, broccoli, green beans
- Eat as much as you like but keep meals simple
- Pick 3 or 4 meals and repeat them
- If you have to ask, just don’t eat it.
- Rule 3: Don’t drink calories
- Drink water and unsweetened coffee/tea
- No milk, soft drinks, fruit juice
- Limit diet (light) soft drinks to 16 ounces (500 mL) a day since the sweeteners can stimulate weight gain - your goal is to totally cut them if possible. WARNING: Just because it says diet, still, check ingredients for sugar or corn syrup.
- Rule 4: Don’t eat fruit
- Avoid it six days a week
- Tomato and avocado are ok in moderation
- Rule 5: Take one day off per week
- Schedule one set day (e.g. Saturday) on which you can eat whatever you want in whatever quantity.
2.) A reliable digital scale - your measurements
Previously, we had a scale that was kinda wonky. Each time you stepped on it, it would give you a slightly different reading. It just wasn’t reliable. We didn’t do any fancy research on a new scale. We just ran over to target and got this scale: http://www.amazon.com/Conair-WW52N-Weight-Watchers-Stainless/dp/B004CLBWG4 (Again, I do not profit from anything linked, there are no partnership or affiliate links, I’m simply sharing information).
Another one of our awesome members ( /u/rmarsack ) has had great results with this one: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0032TNPOE
Our scale was around $40, digital, said it had some rudimentary body fat % measuring, had a resolution up to the 1/10 of a pound and seemed nice. Now it has some really poor Amazon reviews but we’ve had great experience with it. So get what you want, but whatever you get, make sure it’s the only thing that you use to weigh yourself from here out. Be consistent with your measuring tools.
You will also need to get your accurate height. ACCURATE. Funny story: I’ve been living a lie. Almost all of my adult life I thought I was 6’0” to 6’1”. Nope. 5’11”. I blame my male ego. You need to do this. You need to either go to the doctor and have yourself professionally measure WITHOUT SHOES. Or just follow this genius method: http://www.wikihow.com/Measure-Your-Height-by-Yourself If that link no longer works, simply Google “how to properly measure your height”. This is very important to know before you begin. You will need to know your exact height to help estimate your BMI, your resting metabolism and other fun facts that may help you troubleshoot stalls later on down the road.
I recommend taking all of your measurements (waist, arms, belly, thighs, neck, butt, chest) before starting the diet. I don’t chart this information (more on that in a second) but it’s really good to have down the road if you’re troubleshooting a plateau or just curious. Google how to do this. It is very easy but very powerful information to have later on.
So here’s the thing. You’re going to weigh yourself AT LEAST once a week. It’s crucial that you weigh yourself the same way each time. Consistency is key here. So for example, I weigh myself every cheat day morning before we have our first meal. I wait until I’m ready to wake up for the day. Use the bathroom and then step on the scale. This is my recorded weight for the week. What you don’t want to do is weigh yourself in the morning one week and then next week weigh yourself in the middle of the day. I would make sure that if you drink a glass of water in the morning do it the exact same way each week or simply wait until after you weigh yourself. Another example would be weighing yourself on a Saturday morning one week and a Friday morning the next. Or weighing yourself before a shower one day, and after a shower another. What ever system you choose, make it the same every week. Stay consistent.
3.) Something great to track and chart your weight goal and weight loss progress.
There are apps for this everywhere. Programs, spreadsheets, gadgets, apps, you name it. I don’t care what you use but use something. I’ve used a few apps and websites to do my weight tracking and they just didn’t give me the information that I needed to tickle my brain the way that I like it tickled. I want to know answers to these questions:
- I weigh 275 pounds and want to get to 198, how long will it take me if I lose 2 pounds per week average? Or 1.5 pounds, etc
- How much have I lost so far?
- How much am I losing per day?
- How much am I losing per week?
- Am I above or below where I should be right now?
- If I keep losing at this pace, what date will I ACTUALLY hit my goal?
- How many pounds until I hit my goal?
- How long have I been on this weight loss journey?
- How many more days until I hit my goal?
I wanted all of this information at a glance and pretty to look at. I know it's not an app or super fancy but if you're like me, enjoy seeing this kind of data, and making the information visible helps you stay accountable, this will help you as much as it helped me. If you like, you can use the weight tracker that I made. You’ll need a Google account for it to work but aside from that, it’s just a nice spreadsheet that gives you a pretty chart to look at.
This is more or less what the chart will look like:
This link will take you the Google Spreadsheet that I made to help you do these things and explains it in detail. It’s very easy and you do not need to be a spreadsheet nerd to know how to work it. It’s all automatic and works extremely well for lots of people. http://www.reddit.com/r/4hourbodyslowcarb/comments/24hukd/i_made_you_guys_something_likwidteks_epic_weight/
Short link: http://goo.gl/aE1jIQ
If you don’t use this chart, that’s fine, just make sure you use something. The reason why this chart has helped me is I get immediate visual feedback to tell me if I’m following my goal or not. That blue line has kept me more motivated than ANYTHING else. Ever. Seriously, it was so important to me to know exactly how I was doing. I wanted to know the answers to all of those questions above. I truly believe that making the data visible is THE SINGLE most important thing you can do in trying to fix anything. Finances, weight, gas mileage, time management. You name it. The book has an amazing quote. “What gets measured gets managed." - Peter Drucker This is so very true. When my wife and I failed the first time on the Slow Carb Diet, the first warning sign was when we stopped weighing ourselves and stopped logging our weight every week. Why? More than likely because we didn’t want to see the information. We knew we were screwing up. Force yourself to see the information. Log your food if you want. Apps like my fitness pal or just the “notes” column from the weight loss spreadsheet work perfectly. You could even use the idea from the book and simply take a picture of everything that you put in your mouth. Whatever you do you, at the very least track your results and you will be more successful. Don't commit to something you can't stick with though. This diet was built to be VERY easy and simple. Don't over complicate it with a bunch of routines and rituals that you just can't follow through with long term.
4.) Managed expectations
So you read somewhere that you can lose 20 - 30 pounds in a month on the Slow Carb Diet. Well by my math, I should be averaging what… 7 pounds a week right? Hell that means I’ll be able to lose 60 pounds in 3 months at the latest! Right??
Yeah, no.
A very important thing for you to do right now would be to first set your goal weight. Make your goal something achievable. So here’s my example. I’m 5’11 and I started at 275 pounds. My goal wasn’t 160 pounds and ripped. I just needed to prove to myself that I could see what I look like below 200 pounds. So I set the goal of 198 pounds. Is that 160 pounds and ripped? Nope. Is that even a “Normal” BMI? Nope. It’s still considered overweight. But is it a goal high enough that it makes me daydream, “Man, I wonder what I would look like… I don’t think I’ve weighed that since high school.” But low enough that I felt I could actually do it.
So you've picked your goal weight. Now, you need to pick the rate of weight loss that you want to hold yourself too. This is the tricky part. You need to do the research yourself. Look up what a healthy number of pounds a week to lose for your age, gender, weight, etc. Do not pick a goal that will make you feel defeated for the next year, six months or whatever. Pick a realistic goal.
My wife and I thought about this, did a fair amount of research and reflected back on what our loss average was the first time we attempted slow carb. We decided that a long term average of 2 pounds per week for me, and 1.5 pounds per week for her was aggressive yet doable. I'm glad I picked this goal. At first I remember myself saying, "You know if I do this SUPER HARD, I *KNOW* that I can crush 3 pounds a week!". But then I thought to myself, yeah, I should lower that a bit. I thought, if anything, I'll just CRUSH a lower goal and I'll feel really good about that! So I lowered it to 2 pounds per week. I'm pretty glad I did. I've been able to average just a LITTLE above 2 pounds per week, and I feel like I'm more strict and obsessed than most. heh. Hell, I'm writing this document aren't I? Look, you have to give yourself room for life. We didn't think about extra holidays or irritating plateaus or stalls. Life happens, things sometimes slow down. You just roll with it.
Use this information, research your own fat loss plan and use everything to help you discover what you want your average lost pounds per week to be and what your goal weight should be. Pick something sane, something you can actually stick to. Consistently track and monitor your weight and keep yourself in check by ensuring you're losing what you should be every week. Pick that goal and stick to it. You got this.
5.) An understanding of all of your options
Every diet is going to give you different loss results. Some are quick, some are slow, and some just don’t work for everyone. I think it's really important to research some other ways of losing weight. The last thing you want is to have 3 months of success, hit a plateau, and suddenly come down with a case of the-grass-is-always-greener-itus. (I'm pretty sure that's a real itus.) It's important that you're aware of what each method can and can't do, what the successes and failures look like, and know what you're possibly up against. The last thing you want to do is to quit because you heard somewhere that this other newfangled diet will give you better results. Research your options, stick with it and be consistent. It's always awesome to be educated. Now, for us, we've looked into lots of them. We tried slow carb, then quit, tried Weight Watchers, tried a clean eating detox thing for a while, looked into some others and finally landed back at slow carb with a stiffer upper lip, and a bit more resolve. You gotta find what works for you but I promise you, if you're similar to us, then this will work for you. It's not magical. There is no soulmate diet out there for you. Assuming you have no medical issues, thyroid disease, hormonal issues or similar, (again check with your doctor), damn near any diet should work. You simply can't cheat on your diet and you have to follow the rules.
The Slow Carb Diet is pretty similar to some other highly restrictive diets. (And again, don't kid yourself, slow carb is a very restrictive diet) For example, Paleo and Keto. The three are pretty similar. I’d say that Keto has the reputation for being the absolute fastest weight loss method out there-- assuming you can hold to it in its most strictest form. Keto and Slow Carb for example are very close brothers. With these two diets, carbs and sugar are the enemies while veggies, meat, and fat are welcomed. There are some differences though. For example, with Keto you can have cheese, but you get no cheat days like you get with slow carb. With slow carb you are allowed carbs from veggies and beans however in Keto you cannot have beans and must be careful not to take in too many carbs from vegetables. The main difference for my wife and I, and why we choose slow carb over keto is simply put: Cheat. Day. I know it sounds silly but it’s like a mini holiday every week. It helps us stay successful for a very long period of time, and to be honest, the average loss results aren’t too different. I took a very brief and very unscientific survey over at /r/keto and found that while one guy was averaging 3.59 lbs a week (keep in mind his starting weight was 470 pounds), keto guys were experiencing loss result averages over long periods of time of almost exactly 2 pounds. 15 other people replied with their results. These people all had at least a couple months worth of success on the diet and they all averaged almost exactly 2 pounds. Very similar number to what we see on slow carb. Here’s a link describing the very short and unscientific survey:
I do not want this to be taken as keto hate. In fact, it’s the opposite. Keto has some seriously amazing and fast results. I just mean this as a “Hey, us too!” comment. Looking around it seems as if the strictest of ketoers, and I mean, never messing up ..ever, can get faster losses than most other restrictive diets. But from what I can tell, with the average Joe, the weight loss averages are fairly similar between the two diets. With that in mind, I feel that slow carb is better suited to transition back into something that my wife and I can do for life. We plan on adding cheese and fruit back into our diet when we hit our final goals and go into maintenance mode. We might also allow ourselves cheats in the week instead of taking an actual cheat day. Honestly, we just don’t know yet. It just seems like it would be harder for us to do keto for life. Not only that, it seems the average loss per week on slow carb is pretty in line with the other heavy hitting diets out there.
I'm not as familiar with Paleo. Feel free to check them out over at /r/paleo to get some more information. It's very similar to slow carb and the governing rules seem to be things that are obviously good for you: whole foods. Stay away from modern processed crap. Eat the same stuff our cavemen ancestors would have eaten. Meat, veggies, sometimes fruits. No flour and other types of processed food. It seems like a no brainer that this would be good for you. I'm not familiar with actual loss per week averages on this style of eating but I think it's worth a look.
Finally you have counting diets. Weight Watchers, calorie counting, etc. I've been there. It was hard and slow mainly due to behaviors that would lead me towards crap food, even if I was getting the “right” number of calories. I've learned time after time that a calorie is NOT just a calorie. 1000 calories from sugar is different than 1000 calories of protein is different than 1000 calories of fat. I really recommend you read this NY Times article about food. This does a pretty great job in explaining why I feel we're finding such success with the Slow Carb Diet and how the American diet is really stacked against us.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/18/opinion/sunday/always-hungry-heres-why.html?_r=4
I know plenty of people who find success in counting diets, and if you choose something like this, at the very least apply some of the knowledge from this document and that NY Times article in whatever you do. Insulin, carbs and sugar make you fat. Period. Eat smart and avoid the processed crap as much as you can. Get good amounts of fat, protein and vegetables. Pull back processed foods, stay away from sugar and carbs when you can and eat as many whole foods as possible.
6.) Willpower
So here it is folks. The show stopper. The one thing you have to come to terms with. You need to want to be at a healthy weight more than you want the off-diet foods. You are going to have to dig deep to find that willpower. No one can give it to you. You’ve just gotta find some strength and actually want this bad enough to get through the first month. If you read the book, there’s this story about the “harajuku moment”. I’m not going to tell the story again but I’ll tell you basically what it means, what mine was, and help you find yours.
A harajuku moment is basically that breaking point where you realize that you need to make a change and it’s just plain silly for you to keep making excuses. A quick Google officially defines it: “The Harajuku moment was coined by Malcolm Gladwell, as a moment in time where you have a revelation that must happen now, and fast. In "The 4-Hour Body", Ferriss described the Harajuku moment as "an epiphany that turns a nice-to-have into a must-have." I can relate this sort of thinking to anything. For example, I used to smoke cigarettes. I tried quitting loads of times and was often unsuccessful. The only time I was truly successful was when I wanted to not smoke more than I wanted to smoke and it just didn’t make sense to continue on that road anymore. Sounds incredibly simple and obvious but it’s funny how important and overlooked this is. My smoking harajuku moment was a combination of a few things. I live in Arizona where it is HOT during the summer. Nothing is more miserable than going outside in 115 degree weather to puff on a hot, very unrefreshing smokey treat. It’s honestly so stupid when I think back to how much miserable time I spent cooking in the heat just to get a puff. In addition to that, I was getting sick of stinking all of the time, so frustrated with myself how much time I was wasting by going outside to smoke and most of all, as soon as I calculated how much money I was spending, it punched me in the gut and made me realize that I just didn’t want to anymore. So I found a way to stop and I stopped. Not because I was being nagged, not because of any other reason than I wanted to. I finally hit my breaking point.
My harajuku moment for weight loss was a bit different. Alright, well it ain’t pretty but here it goes. I don’t want to die. I mean honestly isn’t that the king of all harajuku moments? I’ve always been bigger. Chubby at least but always a “fat kid”. It was just part of my nerdy identity and I never thought I had power to change it. Genetics right?? I’ve been healthy most of my life but things started getting really bad. I started getting really bad acid reflux. To the point of waking up in the middle of the night choking on stomach acid that got into my lungs. Waking up multiple times a night to chew on tums and take Zantac. I had almost no energy most of the time. Constantly tired. The pounds kept packing on, I kept convincing myself that my clothes were shrinking, I kept buying bigger clothes, and finally, if all of that wasn’t enough, I went and got my eyes checked. They took my blood pressure and the girl said “Whaow..”. Well, that’s not a good sign. She asked me if I knew that I had really high blood pressure and told her that I didn’t. Bring on the panic. This really started worrying me. If high blood pressure isn’t scary enough, the realisation that my mother died at age 50 of heart failure sure will set your ass in gear. Or so you’d think. I panicked about it here and there. Even tried a little bit of “watching what I eat”. But nothing serious. We tried some weight watchers point counting but I’d find myself with a good amount of points at the end of the night. How would I spend them? Oh you know, chocolate, ice cream, cereal, cookies, candy. All before bedtime. Obviously I wasn’t scared enough. I must have thought to myself, “It’s a vision center, their equipment was probably wrong. Maybe I was just stressed that day, I bet I’m fine”. Until I had to go to urgent care for a sinus infection. Bam, double confirmation. Stage 1 hypertension.
I don’t want to die. This wasn’t just my harajuku moment but it was my wife’s too. We realized that if we didn’t make a change together, we would not have as much time together as we both want. We decided we had to do this and we couldn’t give up. Something had to give. Right around that time we met up with our friend who had also been on the Slow Carb Diet. He lost something like 200+ pounds. I mean, holy crap, what a difference. Seeing him again reminded us that we really did have good results on slow carb but we just made too many excuses. We didn’t want it bad enough. He wanted it bad enough. I won’t go into his story but it was similar. He simply had to make a change.
So that’s the secret to willpower for me. You have to want the change so bad that the willpower just comes. You need to want the positive results more than you want the pasta. If you don’t find your willpower from a make or break type deal like I did, do something. Something that really makes you want it. Take a picture of your big butt in a speedo, print an 8x10 of it and hang it up on the bathroom mirror. Go to your doctor, have them do your blood work and give you some candid advice about your weight and what your future looks like. Something. But you should sit down and have a very serious talk with yourself to see if you really want this and if you can go all in and make some serious and permanent changes.
Now, it’s not all dark and scary. I can tell you that as soon as you drop that first 20 pounds, man… this stuff starts getting REALLY addictive. People start giving you raised eyebrows, “Holy crap! Are you losing weight??”. You start getting really excited when you get to start digging into what I like to think of as the “clothes pile of shame”. You know the one. The bag or pile of clothes in your closet that you convinced yourself “shrunk” in the dryer? Yeah. When those start to fit again, hoo boy… You will have the willpower of the GODS. Give it a month. The results themselves are so addictive that a snowball effect occurs. You start to realize, holy crap. I’m doing this. Maybe I can actually be one of those normal sized people. Heck, I might be able to buy clothes at regular people stores without feeling frustrated or disgusted. I’m doing it.
Give it a month of sticking to the basics. I promise you that the rest will fall into place. You got this.
7.) A food plan.
So you have the desire, you understand the rules, you have most of the tools. Now you need the roadmap. I’m not sure giving you the map is the key. I think giving you the compass, paper and pencil might be the best approach. Regardless, I think I’m going to try and give you both. I’ll give you the basic list of foods that Tim recommends called “The Basics” to give you the basic idea of the foods you can mix and match. Then a slightly bigger list if you just can’t stand eating the same things over and over, and then finally some more advanced recipes. Everyone is different. Personally, if I were single or just did all the cooking myself, I’d keep it stupid simple. I’d mix it up a little but personally, I don’t have the talent to make big elaborate dinners. My wife is a Goddess in the kitchen. She likes that stuff. I usually stick with the super simple very fast foods. Fortunately for me, “The Basics” are pretty dang simple. I’ll try to cover all the bases and you can pick and choose what you’d like to eat depending on your lifestyle. But here’s your basic toolbox.
The Basics:
- Proteins: eggs, chicken, beef, fish, pork
- Legumes: lentils, black beans, pinto beans, red beans, great northern beans
- Vegetables: spinach, mixed vegetables(no corn), sauerkraut, asparagus, green beans, broccoli, cauliflower or any other cruciferous vegetable.
The list seems fairly small but you soon realize these are basically all the meats, veggies and legumes you can get your hands on in an American grocery store. Speaking of grocery stores, when shopping, you’ll realize that the majority of your shopping is done on the outside walls of the grocery store and you spend less time in the aisles. Meaning: more whole fresh foods, less boxed and processed stuff. The exception is usually beans. My wife sometimes soaks and cooks our own beans but mainly we get them from cans. It just depends on your preference. If you’re watching your sodium, you’ll want to try and make your own beans but again, ask your doctor. Canned veggies (assuming they don’t have too much sodium or other added stuff) should be ok, too; but we’ve realized over the past year that the further away from whole and fresh foods we get, the poorer our health, and the slower our weight loss is.
No matter if you get fresh or frozen, canned or garden picked, just do the best you can. Don’t obsess too much about that. Just focus on changing your food habits, growing your willpower and the rest should fall into place over time. If it’s too hard for you to buy fresh, then get frozen and canned. Any change is better than no change and I’d rather see you realize that it’s totally possible to see a good amount of weight fall off even when you’re not being Mr/s. Organic.
Proteins:
So for beef, chicken, pork and fish, it shouldn’t matter much if it’s fresh, frozen, canned or boxed so long as you’re keeping a keen eye on stuff that’s added. For example there’s a difference between factory mulched up, chemically mixed chicken breast shaped product and just plain frozen chicken breast. So just look at the ingredients. From here out never stop looking at the ingredients. The more complex words on the ingredient list, the more you should try to shy away from it. It’s just going to help you out in the long run.
For your proteins another thing for you to consider, if you can: grass fed beef is preferable, but expensive. If you can’t find it or afford it, don’t sweat it. But if you can, try to get it. With eggs, if you’re going to eat the yolk (which my wife and I nearly nearly always do) get organic eggs. If you can’t afford it or find it, try mixing in 3 eggs worth of carton egg whites and just one whole egg for flavor. If it’s gross and you just can’t stand it, just do the best you can with regular eggs. For all other animal protein, if organic is an option try to get it but don’t beat yourself up over it if you just can’t find it or it’s too pricey. My wife and I bounce back and forth and we have pretty good results no matter what. Just keep in mind, the more natural it is, the better for you it will be.
Vegetables:
Frozen, canned or fresh produce. They’re all great options. Pick what works best for you but as always, do your best to stick with the basics for a while. If you’re getting vegetables from a can, make sure you’re paying close attention to the ingredients. Water, veggies and salt should be all you see. Here are a couple of warning signs to start you off. While the book recommends that veggies like peas are just fine, know that peas and carrots are both high sugar veggies and could cause you problems if you eat them too often. Corn is also not a vegetable, it is a grain - so make sure you don’t have it unless it’s cheat day. Cruciferous veggies and green veggies are always amazing choices. Cabbage, collard greens, spinach, kale, bok choy, broccoli, cauliflower. These are some of your go to power foods. Stay away from starchy vegetables like potatoes and parsnips though as they’re packed full of too many carbs. Get in the habit of eating lots of vegetables with all of your meals. My wife and I try to make sure about half the plate is full of vegetables but as long as your plate is divided in thirds, you should be pretty good. Of course if your meal is something like a soup, chili or other mixed concoction, just make sure it’s packed full of veggies. Remember, no fruit on the Slow Carb Diet. However, while avocados are technically a fruit, they are actually allowed on slow carb. They’re very calorically dense so limit them to 1 cup or one meal per day max. Tomatoes are the other fruit exception. Technically the book says that you may have as much tomato as you like however they’re also a high sugar food. I wouldn’t worry about it too much but keep this in mind if you ever need to troubleshoot and are looking for things to cut back on. Peas, carrots, and tomatoes would be the ones that I’d give the squinty eyes first.
Legumes/Beans:
Legumes are pretty straight forward. You can experiment with beans and lentils in different meals and find something that works pretty well for you. Everyone likes different flavors, textures and preparations of beans. You’re going to hear a lot of people talking about cutting beans. Don’t. I’m serious about this, don’t cut them. Not until you’re well into the diet and you really have your hunger and willpower fully locked in. One of our users summed up beans expertly. I’m just going to copy and paste what /u/heavycisugly said:
“Here's the purpose of beans: They are a slow source of carbohydrates that don't spike your blood sugar yet provide you with a steady supply of glucose through the day for your body to use as energy or refill your glycogen stores in muscles and liver. Because they don't spike our blood sugar you don't release excess insulin which allows your body to unlock fatty acids stored in your fat cells and that too can get used as a fuel source. They also have nutrients like minerals, electrolytes and resistant starch which all help on the diet too. Resistant starch is a prebiotic that can only be digested by your gut bacteria. Your gut will thrive on this stuff and it's been shown to help change your gut bacteria ratios from bad to good. This is why some people will get pretty farty for the first couple weeks until their bacteria switches and can handle the resistant starches.
I personally, reduce the amount of beans I eat as I progress in the diet. Once I have 10 lbs left to lose I generally cut them out all together and just eat them when I feel I need some energy. You could probably do without them from the start, but I'm guessing it's going to be a lot harder, and the weight might come off slower.”
The only thing I’ll add to that is that legumes are the magic bullet for ensuring you don’t feel run down and tired. They keep you full until your next meal, keep you from snacking, and give you that “starch” food that most Americans feel they MUST have with every meal. If you grew up like me, you thought that a balanced meal was a meat, a veggie and a starch (bread, pasta, potato or something). The legumes fill that void and help you break that addiction. Don’t cut them. WAY down the road when you’re troubleshooting, sure, let’s talk about it. But for now, try and get them in a couple meals a day.
You have some freedom with picking a bean that works for you. I’d stick to the basics but below is a very interesting article about which beans are better for you. Some beans like cannellini, adzuki and garbanzo (chickpea) are very very high in carbs compared to other beans. I’d treat those very carefully and make them a rare treat with small portions to avoid problems.
Beyond the basics
So let’s pause here for a minute. Here’s some straight talk. The more you deviate from the basics, the slower your weight loss will be. That’s really the long and short of it. The more you start squeezing things in outside of this basic list, the higher the probability that you’re going to add something in that causes you to stall. This isn’t to say that anything outside this list WILL cause problems, but these are the tried and true pillars of slow carb. Anything else is experimentation and could cause you problems. So your mission should be, plain and simple, go as long as you can with this basic yet very flexible toolbox. If you ABSOLUTELY MUST go outside this list, read on.
Later on down the road, you may want to branch out a little and experiment. (We’ll talk more about experimentation later) I won’t go really deep into this list but below is a fairly good list of foods that are outside of the basics but still slow carb friendly. I won’t list them but I’ll put some links here to get you on your way. Additionally, you’ll find some recipes as well. Be cautious but enjoy.
- Fairly exhaustive food list (updated 6/30/2014)
- /u/jessercas’ meal plans, shopping list and recipes
- /r/4HourBodySlowCarb’s recipes
- Slow Carb Cookbook - Warning!!! There are plenty of ingredients in this cookbook that are listed as “optional”. Do not use these ingredients. You’ll often see things listed like corn, cheese, coconut milk, etc. Use this website as a tool to help you learn what you should and shouldn’t eat if you’re in doubt or simply, when in doubt, don’t eat it. You can always post a question on /r/4HourBodySlowCarb to ask as well.
8.) A Plan B
When my wife and I sat down and created our plan for how we’d attack the Slow Carb Diet again, we discovered that we would often cheat on the diet when we got lazy. Personally, I would cheat and make an excuse when “I didn’t have time to make breakfast.” or “Forgot my lunch at work”. We both would cheat when “We’re too tired to cook anything.” So we brainstormed our “Plan B Meals”.
It’s not a complex plan, you just simply create plan b ideas for all the common excuses you have for eating something bad for you. Most of these meals are things you can simply pop in the oven or microwave for a short period of time and bam, food. Make sure you have non-perishable meals at work, or frozen quick dinners that can be tossed together in 15 minutes. It doesn’t have to be gourmet, it just has to be food to keep you from cheating. Here are some examples of our Plan Bs. Also keep in mind, a good number of these Plan Bs deviate from the basics. But if you have your choice of cheating on the diet or having something a little less good for you than the basics, just do the best you can.
Plan B Breakfast
For our quick breakfasts we would pre-make a casserole dish of eggs, meat, veggies, beans. We would make enough for the week and portion out a little each day. Just pop it in the microwave and in under a minute boom, breakfast. The eggy breakfast keeps really well for the week but if you’re grossed out by the idea, Tim Ferriss has a quick 3 minute solution to breakfast: http://fourhourworkweek.com/2008/02/28/beating-the-morning-rush-the-3-minute-slow-carb-breakfast/
Plan B Lunch
Honestly if you’re doing the diet right, you’re more than likely making most of your food at home which means you have a good amount of leftovers. Dinner leftovers have been the majority of our lunches for the past 7 months. It’s the easiest quickest lunch. Tupperware is going to be your friend. If that’s not an option, keeping some cans of low sodium spinach or green beans handy, some canned beans and some sort of microwavable precooked frozen protein is your go to in a pinch. You can get huge bags of pre-cooked frozen chicken breasts to have on hand or to take to work. Put it all on a plate, microwave it and you have a quick healthy lunch. Don’t have a microwave at work? Pack the makings for a good protein cobb salad. Spinach, mixed greens, chicken, egg, a quarter avocado, tomato, small handful of rinsed great northern beans, a little garlic powder, salt and pepper. Yeah buddy, that’s a good salad.
Our favorite lunch trick when we don’t have leftovers is our frozen bag o’ lunch! On a Sunday, we will make a big batch of Creole Cabbage or Turkey Chili, let it cool, measure out 1.5 cup portions in ziplocs in, lay them all flat, and freeze them. They turn out as these flat, square, frozen lunch bricks! I’ll grab one in the morning, take it with me to work, empty the bag into a bowl, nuke it and bam! Lunch! Seriously, I could eat Creole Cabbage every day. It’s my favorite.
Plan B Dinner
If you’re all out of leftovers and nothing in the Plan B Lunch section works for you, pretty much our favorite Plan B dinner is something like a simple frozen hamburger patty, refried beans and a microwaved veggie. Choose whatever protein is quick and easy for you, hamburger patty, chicken breast, something simple. If you have time to fire up the oven, having some frozen fish filets on hand is a good way to mix it up for us. If we are feeling like eating light, we’ll just have a salad. As always, post on /r/4HourBodySlowCarb if you need ideas. We got loads of them.
Plan B On the run
If none of the above will work for you on the run, here are some ideas. If you’re going for a hike and need a lunch, or have to eat something in the car in between meetings there’s always SOMETHING you can eat. There are even options if you’re going out to eat.
For a hike or just an emergency stash of lunch in my bag, I’ll usually have some homemade jerky and handful of nuts. Store bought jerky is dangerous because they all have sugar in them. My wife likes to make her own chicken or beef jerky so if that’s an option for you, it’s good to have on hand. Be careful with the nuts though. They’re really easy to overeat so stick to recommended portion sizes. Don’t allow yourself to eat too many.
There is a short list of places you can go to get a protein salad. Hold the cheese, hold the carbs. Be careful though, nearly every one of the dressings these places carry has either dairy or sugar in it. I will usually ask them to sprinkle a little olive oil and vinegar on it. But usually with a good quality salad, a little salt and pepper is all you need. There’s enough stuff in it to make it not “dry”. You’ll have to see what works for you but beware, when they say they have a vinaigrette or a balsamic dressing, it nearly always has crap in it.
We all are going to eat out at some point. Just keep this in mind, do the best you can. You can’t control everything they add in the kitchen but you still need to ask. Make sure to tell them you can’t have cheese or dairy. Nearly every place you will ever visit has chicken, fish, steak and veggies. If you go to a mexican restaurant, heck, they’ll even have your beans! Places like Chipotle are great in a pinch too. Get a burrito bowl with no rice, get chicken, fajita veggies, small scoop of beans, some guac, pico de gallo and lettuce. Bam. Quick on the run food.
You just have to be resourceful. We eat out with friends ALL of the time. You might get poked fun at but hopefully your friends and coworkers are supportive like ours. It really shouldn’t get in your way so long as you are resourceful and creative.
Your new day
Going the slow carb route is a big change. So you need to allow yourself to be flexible to accept a “new normal”. Most of us are reading this document because we have a lifetime of poor health choices and bad food habits. You’ll need to start shaping your new day and find your new routine. These are some pointers to get you on the right path to being successful on the Slow Carb Diet.
Supplements
I’m not a doctor so you’ll really need to take what I say here with a grain of salt. That goes for me, any other joker on the internet, or let alone any book author. That said, I go with what Tim recommends for vitamins. He recommends taking potassium, calcium and magnesium on this diet. Seeing as how you’re cutting out all fruit, dairy and a good amount of other stuff, these are the things recommended to keep you balanced. There are whole food ways to ensure you’re getting these vitamins, so you can look into that as well. I know some people have hang ups on taking pills, but if you don’t, I’d stick with these three at the very least. In addition, if you experience muscle cramps and charlie horses, you aren’t getting the potassium that your body needs. The magnesium (along with the potassium) will help you sleep better as well as both of them working to keep you regular. Make sure you’re communicating with your doctor about your new food choices and get your blood work done to ensure you aren’t missing out on anything critical.
The book also goes into a good number of other fat burning supplements that you can experiment with. If you’re interested in those things, I would simply get the book and explore those on your own. Aside from the potassium, calcium and magnesium intake, there’s really nothing else that you need to take or put in your body aside from your normal meals. Even if you work out you should know, (again, Tim goes into this in the book) but if your goal is fat loss, and assuming you are not training for endurance competition:
- If you are male and not 12% bodyfat or less, no post-workout carbs.
- If you are female and not 20% bodyfat or less, no post-workout carbs.
In fact, your food intake should not change whatsoever- before, after, or during a workout, if your goal is fat loss. That means no extra meal, snack, shake, sports drink, or calorie beverages. If you find that working out makes you more hungry, you just have to power through it until your next meal or simply schedule your exercise before your next meal. If it drives you to eat more, just cut back on the heavy workouts until you’re able to control your food cravings. This diet does not require heavy exercise to lose fat. You should be active simply because you want to be active. Don’t burn yourself out in the gym trying to lose fat.
Mornings
The biggest and most important change on this diet will be your mornings. Tim has the 30/30 rule: 30 grams of protein within 30 minutes of waking up. This is super hard for some people and I totally get it. All I can tell you is if this comes easy to you then heck yeah. You’re already ahead of the game. If you struggle with eating in the morning, you’re going to have to work on it and figure out a way to get a good protein breakfast in. Now, I’m just going to come out and say it: Don’t have a protein shake for breakfast!!!! It’s a super controversial topic in the subreddit but I hold strong. You need to get whole foods that your body has to work to digest and get your intestinal tract working. The very act of chewing and digesting solid food burns more calories than drinking shakes does, I’ve read (and Tim asserts) that you burn 20% more calories eating solid foods than not. If that’s not enough reason, keep in mind:
1) You need to poop often. You gotta get that food moving through your system. Solid food does the trick. Coffee sure helps too.
2) Those protein shakes and mixes are most often packed full of complex chemicals and ingredients. The more you get into this territory, the harder it will be for you to lose the weight.
3) The shakes simply will not keep you full and you will be driven to eat more calories and/or snack later on.
4) Not only the above three points, but you’re missing out on essential micronutrients that you get from whole natural foods.
Eating natural foods is just a good habit to get into if you possibly can. Experiment sure, but do the best you can.
Now, my wife and I are human too. Not everyone can shoot straight up and get that meal into your belly within 30 minutes. I get that. Just do the best you can. Try for at least within an hour of waking up. Just do your best. Many people will say they just can’t gag anything down. If that’s the case for you, I really don’t know what to tell you. Just make sure you’re being really honest with yourself, aren’t making excuses, aren’t being lazy and give it your best shot. I wasn’t as bad as that but it was a new habit for me to learn. I found that too much spinach in my breakfast caused me to gag. Certain beans would be the same. Over time, we found recipes for breakfast that were tastier and it got much better. We also experimented with salsa and hot sauce and now I get super excited for breakfast. Seriously, and I know this sounds silly but THIS is my all time favorite breakfast. I present… Buffalo Chicken Breakfast. Oh god my mouth is watering.
You’re going to be developing new lifelong habits here. Be flexible and give it a good try if you struggle. Just do the best you can.
Your new lifelong habits
Speaking of new habits. Everything that you read in this document, the book, in the subreddit, everything.. is going under the assumption that you are going to be practicing some very basic healthy choices. These choices have nothing to do with slow carb and just are a requirement for a healthy life in general. Let’s go over some of them:
There are some very basic health facts you're going to have to change for the rest of your life. There's no way around it. No matter if you do slow carb, weight watchers, keto, calorie counting, whatever. These rules will apply. Forever.
- Drink plenty of water. Not water from soda, not water from tea, or coffee. Not flavored water and definitely not energy drinks. You need to get the majority of your hydration from water. If you are not peeing nearly clear through most of the day, you're doing it wrong. For your body to function and for you to lose weight, you have to stay hydrated.
- Sleep well. Don't deprive yourself of sleep. You should be getting between 7 and 9 hours of sleep. If you don't, don't expect to lose as much weight as you should be.
- Don’t over-consume calories. No matter what magical diet you're on, Keto, Slow Carb, anything, you will still need to make sure that you aren't over consuming calories. No, it's not as simple as calories in / calories out. BUT, if you're eating too many calories, even if it's from approved slow carb foods, you're going to slow down in your loss. Just know that 190 pound you should not be eating the same quantity of food that 300 pound you was used to eating. You don’t need to count calories but eventually you’ll be cutting back portions. Keep that in mind.
- Avoid snacking and grazing. If you are finding yourself hungry and needing to snack in between meals, then you aren’t eat enough filling food during your meals. On the slow carb diet the foods that will assist in keeping you full most effectively are natural fats, proteins and legumes. Also, make sure that you know the difference between bored and truly hungry. Many of us are used to eating just to eat. Make sure that your desire for food is true hunger.
- Don't eat close to bedtime. You must give yourself a good amount of time between the last bite and your head hitting the pillow.
- Be active. This doesn't mean busting your ass in the gym 3 times a week. I'm just saying, being on your feet, moving, getting your heart rate up. Do stuff you enjoy, go walking, go running, go play sports, something. This isn't going to make a GIANT difference on slow carb in the beginning, but it's just good for you as a person. Try to be somewhat active. But remember, weight loss is 80% kitchen, 20% gym. Don't burn out in the gym if you don't have your food habits right.
- Be a happy human. Manage your stress, love yourself, love your friends, love your family, love your pets. Do things that make you genuinely happy. Many of us are reading this document because we somehow learned to find happiness at the bottom of a pint of ice cream. If you are like me, you literally need to rewire your brain. Learn to find happiness from being active, being with friends, playing with your kids, watching a movie, having sex with your partner, reading, working around the house. Figure out how to properly deal with the things that add stress to your life and rob you of happiness. Train your brain to release dopamine from healthy things. Relearn how to do this without using food. Do this and your life will be better.
Meals
Plenty of people out there say that you should eat lots of small meals during the day to keep your metabolism up. We aren’t going to debate that but I challenge you to find reputable research to back up the claims that your metabolism slows if you have only 3 meals a day but speeds up by having 5 or 6. Regardless, on the slow carb diet there is no need to do this. Your day will consist of 3-4 meals. If you are just fine with 3 meals a day, go with that. If you just can’t stand the hunger, try increasing the size of your previous meal with filling foods or simply add in one more meal. Focus on the goal of never snacking. Stick to your meals.
Do not cheat on your diet. This sounds simple but you need to ensure that your meals are delicious and filling enough so that you aren’t going to drive past that McDonalds and just say screw it. You need to learn to be satisfied with your food so much that when you’re checking out in the grocery store, that you aren’t going to give in and grab a snickers. (Unless it’s cheat day, then hell yeah, go for it!) Save the cheats for cheat days. If you need to, keep a notepad with you and make a list of foods that you want to plow your face into on cheat day. If that’s what it takes, then do it! Until then, make sure your weekly meals are going to keep you satisfied.
Meals need to be a mix and match combination of the basics. Every meal doesn’t necessarily have to have exactly a legume, a veggie and a protein, however getting started, you’ll need to try and stick with that combination. Personally, I feel at least half of your meal should be veggies, while the rest should be protein and legume. At the very least the plate should consist of thirds. Equal parts legume, veggie and protein. You’ll find a combination that works for you but if you are going to drop something from a meal, I would only recommend dropping the legume, but don’t do this all of the time. Make sure every single one of your meals has veggies, legumes and protein for best results.
Stick with as many whole natural foods as you can. Avoid frankenfoods, too many additives or chemicals, powdered meal replacements, and you should do great. Try to prepare as many of your meals as possible in your own kitchen so that you have more control of the ingredients. Feel free to use nearly any natural spice or flavoring you desire. For toppings and sauces, so long as they don’t contain any dairy, carbs, or sugar-- salsas, hot sauces, vinegars, mustard and the like are slow carb friendly so enjoy. For cooking at low temps, olive oil is perfectly fine. For high temps, Tim recommends macadamia oil. Butter is fine so long as the only ingredients are butter and salt. Tim also mentions ghee as slow carb friendly. There are tons of options to making all of your food really tasty. Experiment and enjoy.
Make exceptions
Life happens. Barbeques, family dinners, holidays, birthdays, you name it. Like I’ve said before, this is a restrictive diet but we still gotta live. I keep preaching over and over in this document, DO NOT CHEAT ON YOUR DIET. And I’m serious, if you cheat, even for one meal outside of your cheat day, more than likely you won’t see any fat loss results that week. This diet is unforgiving. You get your cheat day and I’m sorry to tell ya, that’s it. Outside of your cheat day you have to be Stricty McStricter Pants if you want to lose fat that week.
But. Life happens. Things come up and you just need to allow yourself to enjoy social events and holidays from time to time. Don’t use this as an excuse to impulsively cheat though. And don’t use every single named holiday or friend gathering as an excuse to cheat on your diet. If you have to cheat on this diet, do it so long as it’s premeditated and you understand the damage that you’ll do to that week. For example, my wife and I took off Christmas Eve and Christmas. We did the same for New Years Eve and New Years day. We knew what we were doing, decided beforehand that we’d take the day off and allow ourselves to enjoy the day. Not total absolute cheat day style, but still loosening up and enjoying the day. It’s up to you how you want to do this. You just have to lighten up on yourself a little, understand that it’ll slow up your loss and move past it.
Now there are things you can do help minimize some of the damage. You can try and move your cheat day to the special thing you want to do. Or simply skip your next cheat day. If none of those are an option, just take the hit. Enjoy yourself but don’t binge. Try to keep your choices to diet sodas and slow carb food options but go ahead and enjoy your Mom’s birthday cake. But keep it at just one slice. See what I mean? Just because you’re making a conscious and premeditated choice to cheat on the diet, doesn’t mean you have to go crazy.
You may not be like me but if you are, weeks that show no results on the scale are pretty depressing and demoralizing. So be responsible. Just keep in mind that the more you cheat, the closer you are to quitting the diet so just be careful.
Experimentation - the right way
Some of us are min/maxers. Boundary pushers. Hackers. I can absolutely appreciate that you love and want to experiment. I really enjoy it too. I take it to a level of, what can I do or not do to lose MORE. Some take it to the level of, how much can I push it and still lose SOMETHING. Neither method is right or wrong. I will say though, that in science, the scientific method, experimentation, and troubleshooting the most important thing is your control group data. If you are going to experiment, you need to make sure you have your baseline established first. You need a full understanding of what your NORMAL average loss per week is before you start tossing in different foods and ingredients (variables).
Basically, in troubleshooting you have to strip away every possibly variable. Every single one, and test for your baseline results. Then and only then, add only ONE questionable variable X (wine, cheese, protein powder shakes are some of the most controversial) and test with consistency. This is why the basics are so important. If you start slow carb off on the wrong foot, let’s say by having a rum and diet coke every night to unwind, you’re going into the diet with your control group data already tainted.
Later down the road, if you hit a plateau and can’t figure out what’s going on, you might possibly try to maximize fat loss by possibly pulling back carbs, beans, calories or adding exercise. But your data is still tainted from the alcohol here and there. You have no baseline data to experiment from.
If the experimentation is to be done correctly, and this is my opinion, I would say you need at least 1 month (preferably 2) of pure and strict diet results. That is, again in my opinion, legumes with most meals, portioned the way it is recommended in the book, sticking to the "basics" ingredients. Never dabbling in adding cheese here and there. No shakes for breakfast. No franken-meats. No cheating ever.
That's your benchmark. Your control group data. From there, add in only one variable X. Let's say “How is my fat loss impacted if I cut legumes from dinners?”. Or, “What happens when I replace the normal protein breakfast with protein shakes?” Now measure your results for a couple weeks. See what changes but change nothing else. You can then test with it for Y time, then compare the loss difference.
Lots of us have done these experiments for you already. For example, Tim Ferriss’s book says that you can have 2 glasses of red wine per night. Many of us who’ve experimented with this find the exact opposite. I think what we’ve found is that Tim just really likes red wine. The point is, many of us in this subreddit have already done these types of experiments which is why you'll see many of us tell you wine and all booze isn't recommended if your goal is fat loss. But if there's some way for you to crack the code and discover if there's something we're missing, I know for a fact we'd all love to see that info. But the problem is, without good untainted data, your advice would be merely anecdotal.
Now, this is assuming you're seeking good data to share with others. If you add variable X into your diet right out the gate, you're happy with your results, it works for you and you don't hit a plateau, then awesome! Just be careful recommending that variable X doesn't impact loss when you don’t have sufficient data to back up consistent loss without variable X for Y time and then the same consistent loss with variable X.
BUT, all of the above is a moot point if you simply want to do the diet with variable X no matter the fat loss cost. I'm in no way shape or form trying to convince you that you shouldn't drink, cheat on the diet, have cheese, binge eat on peanut butter before bed or whatever. I'm simply saying that I can guarantee that all things being equal, if you eliminate something like alcohol or cheese for example, you will lose more fat. There's nothing wrong with saying, "Yeah, I know it costs me .X pounds per week, but meh, I like it." That's perfectly ok!
One of the biggest excuses for cheating on the diet that I see on the /r/4HourBodySlowCarb subreddit is “Well, we’re encouraged to experiment!!!”. Don’t confuse cheating with experimenting. If you “experiment” so much that your loss eventually plateaus and you quit the diet out of frustration don’t say, “This diet doesn’t work!”. It just means you deviated too far from the basics. Master the basics, learn how to control your hunger and cravings, cut all your weird food addictions, get a great idea of how many pounds per week you can lose when doing the diet in the purest form… THEN, try a little experimentation.
Cheat Day!!!!!!
I’ve saved the best for last. Cheat day!!!! Or as /u/rmarsack calls it, Faturday. Cheat day is like a little holiday every week. It’s the day, for me, that makes this diet stand apart from all other diets. All week you’ve flexed your willpower. You’ve driven past Taco Bell with not so much as a smirk. You’ve resisted dipping into the candy jar at the receptionist’s desk. You’ve kicked butt on the diet and now it’s time for your reward. You get to eat whatever you want all day.
But it’s interesting, sure it’s a reward but it’s also necessary to sustain long term fat loss on the Slow Carb Diet. Each week you get a little metabolism reset that ensures you stay the course long term. It’s crucial to have a large caloric spike at least once a week and it’s important to make sure that your leptin levels do not get too low. I’m no scientist but what I have read is that this cheat day causes a surge of hormonal changes that improve fat loss and binging helps up-regulate a sluggish metabolism. Top bodybuilders also will cycle calories to prevent hormonal downregulation. Keep in mind though, it’s not only for the biological benefits but the psychological benefits too. Everyone cheats on their diet eventually. This way, it’s controlled and scheduled. When you do it this way, you’re maximizing your long term success.
Enjoy the cheat day. The first couple of cheat days are hard for everyone. They feel guilty and don’t want to wreck their performance. I’m telling you, we’ve never missed out on a cheat day and we’re still losing. It works.
How does it work? Well my friend, let me tell you. It’s easy. In the beginning, you really don’t have to worry about much. You pick the same day every week, (most of us pick Saturday) and within that day from the time you wake up and go to bed, you eat as much of whatever in the world you want, guilt free. Now, don’t cheat by stretching it over two days but “technically” a 24 hour period. This will mess you up. Aside from that, all bets are off. Have pizza and ice cream for lunch. Donuts for breakfast. If you’re like us, in the beginning, you’ll make a list all week of all the crap you want to eat on cheat day. If you’re doing it right, you don’t even want to THINK about food for a few days after. It’s fine, seriously, get it out of your system. For my wife and I it’s fruit and cheese mainly now. But whatever has been calling your name, go to town on it.
Here are some awesome comments from the last cheat day food porn thread.
CHEAT DAY FOOD PORN!!!!
/u/tattooedteacher - “Freaking delicious chicken from Cane's and the best donuts ever!”
/u/tauntology - “I decided to go all out on cheat day.
* Breakfast: 200 grms of cottage cheese
* 2nd breakfast: 3 chocolate croissants
* Lunch: pasta with cheese sauce and roasted chicken leftovers
* Snacks: mikado (pocky), & a chocolate bar, 200 grams of cherries
* Dinner: large bowl of penne pasta with bolognaise sauce
* Snack before bed: small frozen pizza (didn't finish)
* Midnight snack: two "kinder bueno", a chocoalate covered wafer.
It was an insane amount of food. I indulged in every craving I had for the past weeks.
Surprisingly, I'm not sick. “
/u/screwdestiny - “I don't go all out on cheat day because it makes me sick, but cheat day is basically desert day for me.
Breakfast is 2 eggs followed by a second breakfast of an oatmeal cookie and a heavenly blueberry scone on the walk to work.
Lunch: Chicken Wings or Chinese Food
Dinner: CUPCAKES. I have this awesome cupcake truck that's at the subway station T-Th, and it's the sole reason my cheat day is Thursday and not Saturday. The leftovers from lunch or 5 Guys 'cause I have a weakness for fries/potatoes.
Although I may move cheat day over to Friday and save the cupcakes from Thursday, because I like to go to the movies on Friday and sitting there without popcorn is awful.”
/u/jessercas - “I made Oreo butter! 1 1/2 cups roasted salted peanuts 1 tbsp honey 12 Oreos
Place in a food processor and run for 3-4 minutes until peanut butter consistency.
You're welcome everyone”
/u/likwidtek - “Oh sweet god. Man I can't even list everything. Oreos, French toast, grapefruit juice, cheeseburger, cheese Kurds, cream soda, so much beer, hot dogs, chips, my wife made ultimate chexmix (chex chocolate crumbled up peanut butter cups drizzled with chocolate and Carmel) so much chips and crap at a party, tres leches cake, Taco Bell, ugh.
I over did it in a bad way though. I totally made myself sick. Ugh. Not good.”
/u/rmarsack - “We had our regular breakfast - biscuits and gravy , eggs and hashbrowns (and cinnamon toast)... stopped off at Krispy Kreme for the hot donuts ... had Popeye's Chicken with mashed potatoes and noodles and rolls for lunch... then just had a late meal of queso and nachos at Chuy's. Yum.”
I love our cheat day food threads. Awesome.
This is the coolest diet in the world in that you don’t have to deny yourself all the fun parts of food. You simply have to learn control. Every once in a while, eating crap is fine. :) Cheat days should be fun. Seriously guys. Enjoy your cheat day.
Don’t panic - You will gain some weight on cheat day.
Yup. You’re going to make that scale spike. And by spike, I mean, you can gain 8 pounds in a cheat day. My buddy who I mentioned earlier, the one who lost 200+ pounds… yeah… he brags about his 15 pound cheat days. Holy. Crap.
Most of this weight is water weight. And it’ll take a couple days to fall off. Don’t panic. Seriously, you’re fine. Just stay consistent. Now, what’s not water weight is a combination of poo still hanging out in your system and obviously, fat. Again, this is fine, and it will fall back off but here are some things you can do to help prevent fat storage on cheat day. These damage control techniques are aimed to minimize the release of insulin and direct as much glucose directly into your muscles instead of your belly.
Damage Control
- Make sure you keep your cheat day to a 12 - 24 hour period.
- Closer to 12 hours obviously will help more but find something that works for you.
- Drink a small quantity of fructose, fruit sugar, in grapefruit juice before your first cheat meal.
- The fructose dosing blunts the negative effect on blood glucose.
- Drink lots of coffee or yerba mate tea during the day to speed up the poo process throughout the day.
- The faster the junk food leaves your body the less fat your body will gain.
- Have citric juices like lime or lemon juice squirted into your water or onto your food.
- Do a few very easy and fast muscle contractions throughout the cheat day.
- Do 60 - 90 seconds of either air squats, wall presses or chest pulls with an elastic band 1.5 hours after your cheat food adventures.
- You can easily google how to do these easily and quickly.
- If possible also try to do this before the meal too.
- Quote from the book: “This brings glucose to the the muscle cells, opening more gates for the calories to flow into. The more muscular gates we have open before insulin triggers the same response of fat cells, the more we can put in muscle instead of fat.”
- The simplest thing, have fun on cheat day. Go get active. Go for a walk or a hike, go swimming, do something. At the very least you’re having an even better day.
- Not required but you can choose to make your first meal of the day a non-cheat meal.
- Make it high in protein (30 grams) and lots of insoluble fiber from legumes.
- This can be a small meal of 300-500 calories
- This will help control hunger through the day so that you don’t go too crazy if you’re worried about controlling yourself.
Still Paranoid?
If you’re still paranoid about the cheat day, I totally get it. If for some reason you gain too much, plateau or you just get too worried, first, make sure you’re giving it some time. Above all else, make sure you’re following the diet to the letter. No cheating, no shortcuts, be strict. If you’re sure that’s not the issue, then at least give it a couple weeks to make sure you’re not simply getting off to a slow start on the Slow Carb Diet. Also, make sure you’re doing ALL of the damage control steps listed above if you feel you aren’t losing as fast as you should be. If you’ve tried all of these things, THEN, you can change it up a little.
The first thing you can try is to just make sure you eat the standard high protein breakfast. Do this the same way you do during the week every morning. You can then lightly binge for lunch and dinner. You aren’t required to always enjoy cheat day to the point of making yourself sick either. You can go nuts one week, and keep it moderate for the other 3. You’ll find what works for you.
Lastly, if the damage control and/or just taking it easy on the cheat days still isn’t cutting it for you, Super strict cheat day experimentation could be attempted by simply choosing a week and only having one cheat meal. Tim warns that this shouldn’t be done too often by women as menstruation can stop if leptin levels get too low. Some men can get away with this but remember, cheat day IS part of the slow carb diet. As fun as it is, it’s also very necessary. Experiment wisely and don’t make any rash decisions. I’ve hit a few plateaus before but I’ve never skipped a cheat day. You’ll bust through them. Just stay consistent, follow the rules and if need be, follow the damage control rules on cheat days. You got this.
End Game
So this is the end. What do you do when you hit your goal? Honestly, I have my plan of attack, but I’m not sure what it will be EXACTLY. When I started writing this, I was 11.5 pounds away from my goal. Now, I’ve only got 6.9. I’ll be at 198 pounds when I hit my goal. This is lower than I’ve been for so many years. FINALLY! under 200 pounds. I’m almost there and I’ll hit it in the next month for sure. But to be honest, I think I’ll keep going. 198 pounds is amazing and if I flash back 222 days ago when I was trying to set my goals, I kept saying, “77 pounds. Holy crap. I dunno man, that’s a lot. I’m not even going to LOOK like me anymore. I dunno, 198 pounds might be too small. What if I look sickly?“ HAH! Sickly. Now that I’m almost there and I see what I’m capable of, I know that I can get to an ideal body weight. Now, I don’t exactly believe the BMI fits everyone, but if I were to get to “NORMAL” BMI, I’d be less than 175. That seems really low to me. So here’s my plan, I’m more than likely going to keep going but I’m strongly thinking about adding some muscle. I realize that if I do this, the scale more than likely will slow to a crawl or simply not move at all. I’m going to have to think about this a good deal. The last thing I want is to slide back into old habits or become discouraged. So there’s that.
All of that aside, when we decide to switch into maintenance mode, that is, STOP LOSING FAT mode, my plan is to stick with the slow carb way of eating for the most part. More than likely, what we will add in at first are the things we’ve missed the most. Namely, fruit and cheese. That’ll be my first end game experiment. I’ll add in fruit and cheese, I’ll keep everything else exactly the same, change nothing, test and track to see what happens. I anticipate my loss will slow a great deal but not stop totally. Then, and this is the scariest part, more than likely we’ll allow ourselves maybe just 1 cheat meal a week outside of cheat day. Do that for a while, test and track to see what happens. The goal will be to find the way of eating that we can live with the rest of our lives. So, we shall see!
If I’m honest, this document isn’t finished yet. It won’t be for a while, I’m sure. This last section is total speculation. But I will tell you, I’ll be back to finish it. Because I will hit my goal. I will, and so will you. I can’t wait until we both get there.
I hope this document helps you. If you need anything, have any questions, need ideas, inspiration or just need to rant, make a post over at http://www.reddit.com/r/4hourbodyslowcarb. There are lots of great people there waiting to answer your questions and help.
Regardless, I wish you the best of luck! Thanks for reading!
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