I’m currently reading Tim Ferriss’ new book, The 4-Hour Body: An Uncommon Guide to Rapid Fat-Loss, Incredible Sex, and Becoming Superhuman. There’s quite a bit of crazy stuff in here, but as with his last book, The 4-Hour Workweek there are quite a few very cool ideas in here as well.

Tim Ferriss is obsessed with self improvement and life hacking.  His upside down fire suggestion has changed the way my husband builds fires forever.

The part of The 4-Hour Body that I am the most intrigued by are the few sections on fat loss.  I have been interested in that subject lately (see my posts on “Fasting Runs“).  I am all about maximizing fat loss.

Tim claims that by following what he calls the Slow Carb Diet, you can accelerate the amount of fat that you lose. I read through the plan and it didn’t seem to be that drastic a change for me. I already eat pretty well.  I’m not going to list the entire plan.  If you are interested, you should read the book because there are a lot of nuances that you will pick up from reading it.  Tim Ferriss is an interesting guy with a unique take on life.

The changes I have to make to how I currently eat in order to follow this plan are:

1. Eat more protein, including eating 30g of protein within 30 minutes of waking up
2. Give up dairy except for a small amount of cream in my coffee
3. Eat more vegetables, legumes and beans
4. Give up all sugar, starches and most processed food

However, and this is a big one, this only applies to 6 days a week. Tim advocates, actually Tim insists, that you have to take a day off once a week and eat whatever you want in order to reset your metabolism.  The trainers on the Biggest Loser also give the contestants a cheat day once a week, so this is not the first time I’ve heard this advice.

I decided that it would not hurt to give this plan a shot. I don’t think the changes I will have to make are very drastic, and psychologically knowing that I am only deferring my cravings not shutting them out completely will make things easier. I mean, who doesn’t cheat on a diet anyway?

I started the Slow Carb Diet yesterday and here is what I ate. It is important to note that calories are not supposed to be counted and you are supposed to eat until full.  (Click image to enlarge)

This listing is the raw ingredients for 3 meals:

1. Breakfast: Omelet muffins (organic: eggs, ham, bacon, tomatoes) and coffee
2. Lunch: Spinach salad with chicken, black beans, avocado and hard boiled egg
3. Dinner: Seafood mix (from Trader Joes frozen aisle) with sides of lentils and spinach

Add to that lots of water and that was it. I ate until I was full at each meal and didn’t snack in between. I honestly wasn’t hungry. I had emotional cravings around 3 PM and again after dinner but I think those were due to my wanting to eat something sweet. I wasn’t hungry. I’m curious to see if those go away in the next few days. I am feeling good so far. The food is healthy and even when I added up the calories they weren’t crazy. The fat content is a bit higher than I am used to having but a huge chunk of that was from the avocado which is a “good” fat.  I’m planning on giving this a try for 30 days to see how it goes.

I am very curious how the lack of fast carbs will effect me when running.   I hope the weather clears up a bit  and it stops snowing long enough for me to find out.

If you’ve read this book, please let me know in the comments.  I’m interested in knowing what you think about it!