Tim Ferris’s book, The 4-Hour Workweek
, is one of my favorite books under the business category. When I heard he wrote another book called The 4-Hour Body
on fitness and lifestyle topics that I am obviously interested in, I placed a pre-order for the book and couldn’t wait to see what is inside.The 4-Hour Body is written in Tim’s fun to read style with stories of his adventures in life-hacking. After reading the book, I decided to put his Slow Carb Diet to the test.
The Slow Carb Diet in a Nutshell
The Slow Carb Diet is based on 5 basic rules and is very similar to Paleo Diet.
The five rules are…
#1 Avoid “White Carbohydrates” – Which means All bread, rice, cereal, potatoes, pasta, tortillas, and fried foods with breading.
#2 Eat the same few meals over and over again - Construct each meal with one pick from each of the three groups – Proteins, Legumes, Vegetables
#3 Don’t drink calories
#4 Don’t eat fruit
#5 Take One Day off per Week – Pick one day a week to eat whatever you’re craving.
My Results
Originally, I was going to do this diet for 4 weeks but leg cramps caused me to stop the diet early ~ I’ll explain later.
The Slow Carb Diet did work. My start weight equaled 180lbs and after three weeks my end weight equaled 173.5lbs. I loss 2% in body fat and using the dumbbell swing protocol given in the book, I gained 2lbs of muscle.
Pretty impressive results!
Advantages of the Slow Carb Diet
Besides being effective, I believe this diet has some significant positives.
1. Simple Rules - Makes planning easy and limit your options. This is important in a diet because in my experience, people tend to stretch allowable food items and convince themselves that it’s ok.
2. Excellent Energy Level throughout the day – I use this test for most diets by asking “Do I feel energetic throughout the day?” This diet passes the test.
3. Never hungry – This was the first diet that I tested in which I felt like I was eating too much. I felt like I was stuffing myself at every meal and didn’t have the craving to snack.
4. Four meals per day – Most another similar diets require 5 to 6 small meal per day. Eating four times per day is much more manageable.
5. Economical - Since this diet is all natural foods and doesn't require expense protein supplements, this diet is one of the cheapest diets that I've experienced. In fact, my grocery bill was way lower than my normal grocery bill.
Disadvantages of the Slow Carb Diet
1. Limited Options – Ok, I called this an advantage above. Well, this is also a disadvantage because it can get boring. It didn’t bother me because I tend to make one thing and eat it all week, but for some, this may be difficulty.
2. Calf Cramping – I experienced significant calf cramping from a possible nutrimental deficiency. You may want to take vitamins with this diet. I don’t particularly like diets for the long haul if they are not well balanced and require vitamin supplements.
Conclusion
I learned a lot about cooking beans which I realize now that I often negotiated in my eating. It made me research recipes and I will definitely add more bean recipes to my eating in the future.
These results were similar to the results that I received on the Body for Life and Zone Diet plan.
One thing to expect when starting this diet is that most of us have a sugar addiction and the first few days expect to go through sugar withdraw which includes symptoms like headaches. Make sure you drink a lot of water these first few days to counteract the effects.
Sensei Tim Rosanelli
Maximum Impact Karate
(215) 249-3532
www.maximpactkarate.com
timrosanelli.blogspot.com
60situpschallenge.blogspot.com
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