Monday, February 25, 2013

The Slow Carb Diet - Tim Ferriss's the 4 hour body.

First things first, I must give credit to the original author.  And here's a link to his original blog post:
http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2007/04/06/how-to-lose-20-lbs-of-fat-in-30-days-without-doing-any-exercise/

Now we have that out of the way.  Here's the program with the fat trimmed.  (This is aimed specifically at one friend of mine, who's having trouble, uh... swallowing the plan.  I suppose I am too.)  This is trimmed down from about 30 pages from Ferriss's 4 hour body book. 

Follow all of this six days in a row:

Rule 1: Avoid white carbohydrates.  Or anything that can be white.  (potatoes, bread, rice, etc..)

Rule 2: Eat the same few meals over and over again. 

Rule 3: Don't drink calories.  Also, stay away from aspartame, as that can trick the body into acting as if something sweet was eaten.

Rule 4: Don't eat fruit. 

And on the seventh day, go nuts.  Eat a case of oranges.  Eat everything in sight.  Importantly, you CAN NOT skip the weekly cheat day.  It's important to keep your body from switching to starvation mode, and attempting to store calories again.

Some important notes: 

Since you're consuming mostly veggies and meat, you'll run into some problems.  First, protien, and veggies are less calorie dense.  A slice of bread is 75-150 calories, while a similar serving of spinach is more like 7 calories.  If you don't eat enough, you'll feel lazy, and tired.

Fat an salt are ok to consume. 

You will gain weight on your cheat day.  As much as 12lbs.  Most of it is water weight, and water that gets pulled in to process the mass of carbohydrates you sucked in.  If you feel the need, positive progress can be made if you have two cheat days a week.  Progress will be slower, but you will most likely still see progress

How about a quick list of foods that are ok:

Meat, anything really.  Pork, Beef, Chicken, Fish.  Breading is a no-no.  Sweet sauces are a no-no. 
Eggs, ideally organic. 

Veggies: Spinach, Asparagus, Peas, Green Beans, Broccoli, Carrots, Cauliflower, Sauerkraut, Kimchee, Avocados, Tomatoes, Onion.

Beans: Lentils (Dal, Daal), Pinto Beans, Black beans, Red Beans, Soybeans

Some sample meals from Tim:
Breakfast: Pourable egg whites, with one real egg, black beans, and mixed veggies heated and scrambled in a pyrex container.
Lunch: (Mexican restaurant) Beef, pinto beans, mixed veggies, and a lot of guacamole.
Dinner: A cut of organic beef, lentils, mixed veggies. 

A specific example that was brought to my attention was subway.  I can't say I have a recommendation for there, but along the same lines Jimmy Johns has their Unwich, which you could potentially order that doesn't have the bread.  Sadly, you'd need to order two if you planned on not having a hunger strike before the end of the day. 

A Chipolte meal:  Fajita Bol - peppers, onions, steak, tomato salsa, green tomatillo salsa, cheese, sour cream, guacamole, lettuce.  (For the reader in question... take a Lactaid pill first.) 

And.. I'll add my specific recipes to this as I get going.  My friend wants to lose his gut, I want to be competitive on the bicycle.  Both would be solved by following this diet... I think.

While we at it, here's the Wikipedia link.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slow-Carb_Diet

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