You might’ve heard about the new fitness book that’s causing a stir: It’s called 4-Hour Body by Tim Ferriss. The book isn’t meant to be read cover to cover (though, that’s how most reviewers are treating it). It has various chapters to help readers achieve a variety of goals: Weight loss, muscle gain, a better sex life, a better night’s sleep, running a marathon, etc.
I decided to focus on the weight-loss section first. In the last four years, my body has transformed dramatically. I’ve leaned up quite a bit and put on considerable amount of muscle. But I’ve never been able to really lose those pesky 10 pounds around my middle section (front and back). I decided that Tim’s Slow Carb diet was worth a shot. What’s more, my friend in Atlanta and my sister and her boyfriend were trying it too. My Atlantan friend had already lost between 5-10 pounds in the first few weeks and my sister lost 5 pounds in her first week.
What’s the Slow Carb Diet?
Here’s the rhyming mnemonic device I created for the diet: Proteins, green, and beans. That’s about it. You must eat a protein, a legume, and a vegetable at every meal. And you have to eat breakfast (with protein, beans and greens) within half an hour of waking up. You can eat as much as you want until you’re full three or four times per day. And drink TONS of cold water all day long.
And then there’s a list of thing you are forbidden to eat: anything white (bread, pasta, mayo, milk, soy milk, cheese, garbanzo beans, etc.) artificial sweeteners, nuts, whey protein, most sauces, fruits, juices, and a few other things.
Don’t freak out yet, though. There are a few allowed cheats: up to two doses of aspartame per day (Tim loves his two diet cokes per day), up two tablespoons of almond butter per day, up to two tablespoons of milk or cream in your coffee, and up to two glasses of red wine per night (NOT white wine though). And the best part of all is every Saturday you are required to have a cheat day. It’s not that you can cheat if you want to. No. You must cheat. Eat carbs all day. Eat cookies, drink milk, eat pizza, you get the picture. The idea is that if you eat a carb-free diet for too long, your body will go into conservation mode and will slow down its metabolism, thus reducing the rate of fat loss over time. By slamming your system with carbs once a week, you kick-start the diet each week.
Now this diet is pretty much a ketogenic diet like Atkins. But it’s even more restrictive than Atkins. It’s also not meant to last forever. You go on it to lose weight, not to have fun. And trust me, it’s not very fun. It can be boring as hell eating this stuff. But if losing weight tasted good or was fun, America would be a country of skinny fuckers.
My Experience
Okay, now that you understand the protein, beans, and greens Slow Carb diet, I’ll tell you how I went about it and what my results were. First, I set a goal: approximately 10 pounds of weight loss in 4 weeks. And knowing that I was going to be bored by bland food for only four weeks, it made it much easier to keep on going.
I was extremely religious about sticking to the diet. I ate eggs, egg whites, spinach, and lentils every morning for 4 weeks. I ate beans three times per day (with the help of Beano). I switched to espresso instead of coffee so I could get by with reduced amounts of cream. I switched to no more than a full packet of aspartame per day (instead of 6 packs of Splenda per day). I drank a ton of cold water each day. And I cheated on Saturdays (although, with some moderation).
During the first two weeks I did absolutely no cardio. In fact, I had the flu and was on antibiotics for a sinus infection during the second week. During weeks three and four I did cardio three times per week for 30 minutes each time. That’s it.
Now a little about my dietary handicaps. I’m a pescatarian/vegetarian. This reduced my protein options which meant I got really bored really fast. I also take a few prescription medications that might affect my liver, thus reducing my ability to process fat. And finally, I was only trying to lose 10 pounds. Most people who lose the 5 pounds per week that Ferriss touts in the book, are trying to lose 10, 20, 30, or even 50 or 100 pounds. So my loss was bound to be a little slower.
Okay, enough caveats and explanation. Here are my results:
Weight Loss:
Starting weight: 190
End of Week 1: 187.5
End of Week 2: 186
End of Week 3: 185
End of Week 4: 182.5
Body Fat Loss:
Starting body fat: 13.7%
End of Week 1: 12.1%
End of Week 2: 11.6%
End of Week 3: 11%
End of Week 4: 10%
The cool thing is that 3.7% of my starting weight is roughly 7+ pounds, which means all the weight I lost was fat. Awesome! The fat loss is visibly noticeable. My abs and torso are thinner, my abs are showing, my waist is thinner (I’m now using a notch down on my belts), and my butt it smaller (my pants are baggy in the butt). This is the thinnest I’ve been (as a measure of body fat) in a very long time. And I haven’t been below 185 since the early 2000′s. The only result I’m not ecstatic about is the smaller butt. I’ve always liked my bubble butt. But now I’ll just turn it into a muscle butt instead.
The Next Step
Which brings me to the question, “What’s next?” I’m going to spend two weeks getting used to lifting weights again. (I haven’t lifted weights since early December when I had salmonella and got off track.) And then I’m going to go on a six-week muscle gain regimen at the gym. Followed by two more weeks of this diet to lose any of the fat I might gain while consuming massive amounts of food to gain muscle. Which will get me to May 1st. And then who knows what I’ll do after that. Stay tuned for updates about my progress on the upcoming routine.