“Are you still doing the Slow Carb Diet?”

For the most part, the answer is no. I reached a bit of a plateau while following it last year and started to change my eating habits over time. I still believe in the principles of the diet and frequently make meal choices based on the SCD, but I don’t follow it as strictly as I did during the 18 week period last year when I was posting weekly updates.

“Are you still training? What are you working on these days?”

Yes, I am still very focused on fitness. Last year right around the time I started to loosen the reigns on the SCD, some friends of mine told me about something called Tough Mudder. If you haven’t heard of it already, check it out at www.toughmudder.com. Their tagline is “probably the toughest event on the planet” and to a large extent it lives up to that statement. In a nutshell, this is Tough Mudder:

1. It is team based and not a race, so finishing the event is the #1 goal
2. It is 10-12 miles of running plus 25-30 of the toughest obstacles you’ve ever faced
3. It is a huge supporter of the Wounded Warrior Project and in the first 2 years of its existence has raised over $2.5 million for the cause

After completing Tough Mudder Tampa in December, I am hooked. I’ve since done a local 5k length obstacle race and plan to run in at least 2 Tough Mudder events this year.

“What’s next?”

Consider me hooked on obstacle racing. I have set a goal for myself to qualify for the 2012 World’s Toughest Mudder event by finishing in the top 5% of one of the Tough Mudder events I plan to run this year. As a part of that journey, I’ll be regularly updating this blog to describe my training approach, provide status updates, and document results. I’ll also be adding some product reviews for the fitness gear I’m using as well as the books I’ve been reading. Here’s a little preview of upcoming topics:

• Heart rate monitor training – a humbling experience
• Ongoing workout plans/results as I build towards upcoming obstacle races
• Book review – Born to Run by Christopher McDougall

Thanks for reading!

What’s Next
I recently had some friends asking me about the Insanity workout regimen. Generally, I prefer to get into the gym for weight training workouts, but decided to have an open mind and do some research. I was most intrigued by the fact that some of the insanity testimonials describe increases in muscle mass, which I generally wouldn’t associate with a heavy, cardio focused workout regimen. I picked up the Insanity program and tried a couple of the workouts this week, and it’s certainly intense. I don’t expect any significant gain in muscle mass, but I do believe my flexibility, agility, and cardiovascular capacity will increase during the 60 day regimen. Since I have a weeklong vacation planned for the end of this month, I won’t be starting the Insanity program in earnest until June. Coming off a 10 day vacation during which my diet will be essentially whatever I decide to eat, I should have a good challenge for the Insanity program to gauge its results in combination with the Slow Carb Diet.

Other Notes:
Since I’ve been consistently at the same weight and measurements for quite some time now, I’m starting to up my post-workout calories to gauge the impact. I’ve been adding some milk to post workout shakes, and also some simple carbs to post workout meals (such as a couple slices of bread). So far, I haven’t seen much in the way of results, but I’ll keep going over the next couple weeks and see how it goes. I’ll keep reporting the results here!

As usual, you can check out my progress picture and measurements at my Bodyspace page.

The good news is, I have continued to stay disciplined in my diet approach throughout. Looking at my measurements and progress pictures which are posted over at my Bodyspace page, I can see that I’ve lost some additional weight and I look a bit more flat from a muscle definition perspective. However, given how hectic these last several weeks have been, I’m extremely happy that the Slow Carb Diet has helped me stay consistent physically.

This diet just keeps being effective. I bounced back very quickly from being sick and have gone right back to feeling great ever since. Inconsistency in the gym has had some negative impact, but that impact is minimal enough that I consider it a positive, since I would expect four inconsistent weeks in the gym + improper nutrition to have a much more significant negative impact.

Prior to getting sick I was planning to start LOMAD + MAX-OT and the Slow Carb Diet to see what results I get. Given the amount of work travel I have coming up to unfamiliar cities as well as scheduled vacations, I won’t be able to give the experiment a legitimate shot before June. In the meantime, I’m going to keep getting to the gym for MAX-OT workouts. I also plan to experiment with some post workout nutrition changes during the next month and documenting my results here, so stay tuned!

In case you’re not familiar with Pareto Nutrition, they’re a company that took Tim’s PAGG stack from The Four Hour Body and developed a fully formulated version so you can get the stack as described by Tim in the book in a pre-measured and pre-formulated version, rather than tracking down each element of the stack separately. There’s a wealth of knowledge over at their site, so I would highly encourage you to head over there and take a look if you’re considering the PAGG stack. They even offer a 110% guarantee!

On the bright side, I stuck with the Slow Carb Diet through my illness and was able to continue to drop body fat. I lost a few more pounds than I would have preferred, but I still prefer the results to the alternative of falling off the wagon and gaining weight simply due to sickness and having an especially busy schedule.

I’ll be working to get back into the swing of things with MAX-OT over the next couple weeks, and will probably take another attempt at LOMAD in May. As always, I’ve uploaded my progress pictures and measurements to my Bodyspace profile.

Thanks for reading!

The good news is, I’ve continued to see consistent improvements over the last two weeks with the combination of the Slow Carb Diet and the MAX-OT workout regimen. Let’s take a look at the progress pictures:

Week 12

Week 10

I am seeing definite improvement in definition and muscle volume over the last two weeks. My measurements, which are posted in full in my Bodyspace profile, seem to be showing continued decrease in body fat % with modest increase in muscle mass.

I have continued to experience strong strength gains under the MAX-OT workout regimen. However, I would like to accelerate muscle gains, so I’m going to take another page out of The Four Hour Body and give it a shot: LOMAD.

What is LOMAD?

LOMAD stands for “Liter of Milk a Day.” Put simply, it means you drink a liter of milk a day. I will be continuing to follow the Slow Carb Diet with the exception of this addition. The idea behind LOMAD is that it adds caloric load in the proper ratio to help encourage weight gain. Since I don’t want to go overboard and start gaining fat, I’ll be going with 2% milk on the days I work out to start with. This works out to around 500 extra calories to fuel muscle growth during my MAX-OT workout days.

This will be an interesting experiment to see how my body reacts to the extra calories. In combination with the high intensity MAX-OT weightlifting regimen, it should yield solid results in muscle gain. The big question in my mind is how much fat gain will I see along with the muscle gain? I’ll be continuing my updates here, so stay tuned to find out!

• What makes this different from the Atkins (or other low carb) diet?
• Why can’t I have dairy?
• No fruit either? You’re kidding right??

What makes this different from the Atkins (or other low carb) diet?

This is a very common mistake of assumption that people make when I explain the diet to them. This is NOT a low carb diet. Hence the term SLOW carb diet. Allow me to explain.

At its core, the Slow Carb Diet consists of meat, vegetables, and legumes at each meal. There is no portion limiting or calorie counting, and the person following the diet is free to adjust the ratio of these three items to find a balance that works well for him or her individually. So where are the carbs? From the legumes, mostly. Here’s an example using data from nutritiondata.self.com. We will assume that you’ve decided to forgo the sandwich with whole wheat bread for lunch and will have black beans instead. The impact on your carbohydrates consumed would be the following:

• 2 slices of whole wheat bread: 47 grams of carbohydrates
• 1 cup of black beans: 41 grams of carbohydrates

In this case, the net impact of your substitution would be that you eat 6 grams less carbohydrates in your meal.You could easily adjust the serving size of black beans to get the ratio of protein/carbohydrates/fat you’re looking for in your meal.

So if you’re getting a similar number of carbohydrates, what is the difference? The difference, as Tim explains in the book, is the TYPE of carbohydrates you are eating. Once again, I consulted my friend Dr. Tobon, MD, a resident physician in Physical Medicine & Rehab/Sports Medicine at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami Beach, FL. He confirmed that the type of carbohydrates a person eats makes a big difference in terms of the body’s response. According to Dr. Tobon, the following benefits are realized when eating slow carbs from legumes and vegetables rather than the fast digesting, simple carbs found in many typical dishes:

1. Digesting the type of carbohydrates you are consuming in the Slow Carb Diet requires more energy to process. This means that you are burning MORE calories simply by digesting the food you ate! The net caloric impact to your body, as a result, is lower than if you had eaten simpler, quicker digesting carbs.
2. Because slow carbs take longer for your body to digest, the release of sugar into your bloodstream is slower as a result. This helps us achieve the steady blood sugar level that we are looking for. The benefits of maintaining a consistent blood sugar level were discussed in Part 1.

As you can see, there are numerous benefits to consuming slow digesting carbs rather than their simple, processed counterparts. Not only will you burn calories more quickly, but you will maintain a consistent energy level while you’re at it.

Why can’t I eat dairy?

The simple answer is: because drinking milk breaks the rule of not drinking calories, and because other dairy products are calorically dense, adding a lot of calories to each meal they are included in. But there’s much more to it than that.

To understand further, I went back to Dr. Tobon. I learned through our discussion that there is plenty of medical evidence to support the reduction or elimination of dairy in a person’s diet if they are attempting to lose weight. He explained that from an evolutionary perspective, the ability to digest dairy into adulthood is a relatively recent genetic acquisition. Simply put, many people just don’t tolerate dairy all that well, because evolutionarily speaking, we are only meant to consume it during childhood. Dairy consumption has been linked to gastritis, colitis, and allergies. For many people, the digestive issues caused by the consumption of dairy simply make it impossible (or nearly so) to lose weight.

The other part of the equation is related to the chemical composition of lactose. Lactose = galactose + glucose. Both galactose and glucose are simple sugars. As a result, your body breaks down lactose into simple sugars within the bloodstream when you consume it. This leads to a spike in blood sugar, release of insulin, and energy (fat) storage. This is counterproductive.

No fruit either? You’re kidding right??

This is consistent with the rest of the diet, in that fruit is restricted due to its high sugar content. Eating fruit = eating lots of sugar, which will result in the insulin spike we are trying to avoid. So, fruit is out.

This is one area where Dr. Tobon was not necessarily in total agreement. While he agrees that consuming fruit will have an impact on your blood sugar, he also pointed out that fruit is full of vitamins and minerals that are beneficial to one’s health. As a compromise, he suggested that a piece of fruit each day should have minimal impact on the effectiveness of the diet. Personally, I haven’t tried reimplementing fruit back into my diet, but may begin to have one piece per day as suggested by Dr. Tobon, after my day’s workout.

Conclusion

I hope the last two posts have helped to shed some light on what makes the Slow Carb Diet effective, while also dispelling some common misunderstandings. At less than twelve weeks in, the Slow Carb Diet has already been the most effective and easy to follow eating plan I’ve ever followed. Thousands of others are finding the same thing. If you are on the fence about trying it out, I hope I’ve helped convince you!

• Is it actually the types of food you eat, or simple caloric reduction that makes people drop fat on this diet?
• What makes this different from the Atkins (or other low carb) diet?
• Why can’t I have dairy?!?
• No fruit either?? You’re kidding right?!

Part 1 – Caloric Reduction versus the Types of Food You Eat

This is an interesting question I’ve been asked many times. You see, in case you’re not aware, there is quite the debate raging amongst fitness experts concerning the calories in/calories out model. The old standby message from nutritionists is that it doesn’t matter what food you eat, only how many calories you consume. If you eat more calories than you burn, you gain weight. Do the opposite, and you lose weight. Easy enough.

However, there’s another group of people who say the type of food you are eating is important as well. In other words, if you consume 2000 calories from fast food french fries and cheeseburgers each day, your body will respond differently than if you consume 2000 calories from freshly prepared whole, non processed foods each day.

But can it be both? I think so. The simple calories in/calories out model ignores other factors such as the impact of what you eat on your metabolism, insulin response, vitamin & mineral stores, and others. It is true that if you burn more calories in a day than you
consume, you will lose weight. But what if the food you’re eating causes your body to respond in a way that slows your metabolism down?

How does this apply to the Slow Carb Diet?

The slow carb diet has proven to be fantastically effective for a great many people. Is it simple caloric reduction or something else? Let’s explore the options.

Caloric Reduction

Caloric reduction certainly has something to do with the great results of the Slow Carb Diet. Let’s take a look at what could very easily be a normal day of eating for me under the Slow Carb Diet:

Breakfast
2 Hard Boiled Eggs: 150 kcal
1/2 Cup Black Beans: 115 kcal
1 Cup Broccoli: 60 kcal

Lunch
6 oz Chicken Breast: 300 kcal
1 Cup White Beans: 300 kcal
1 Cup Cauliflower: 28 kcal

Dinner
10 oz Sirloin Steak: 500 kcal
1 Cup Black Beans: 230 kcal
1 Cup Broccoli: 60 kcal

Total calories for the day: 1743

Considering the estimated number of calories for someone my age/height/weight to maintain my bodyweight is around 2500 calories per day, it makes sense that I’d lose weight eating the foods listed.

Put simply, the types of foods one eats on the Slow Carb Diet are naturally nutrient dense and low in calories. The volume of meat, legumes, and veggies along with the high amount of fiber means one needs to eat fewer calories to be satisfied and feel full.

Other Factors:

Is there more to the story than simple caloric reduction? To learn more, I consulted my friend Dr. Tobon, MD, a resident physician in Physical Medicine & Rehab/Sports Medicine at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami Beach, FL. Here are the key takeaways from our
conversation:

1) The type of food you eat on the slow carb diet is high in protein and fiber. This requires longer and slower digestion, which means you burn more calories in order to digest the food you have eaten.
2) The purpose behind consuming only what Tim calls “slow carbs” is that you are maintaining a consistent blood sugar level and avoiding big spikes in blood sugar and the associated spike of insulin in your blood. When your body releases insulin, it triggers your cells to switch into energy storage mode. In other words, it triggers your body
to begin storing fat. If you keep your blood sugar consistent and avoid large insulin spikes, you avoid tripping that fat storage trigger in your body and continue to burn your food for energy.

As you can see, there is more to the Slow Carb Diet than simple caloric reduction, though that is a part of it. The type of food you are eating helps to keep your metabolism high and blood sugar consistent. In turn, it works to achieve the greatest amount of fat loss possible without feeling like you are depriving yourself.

There is more to the diet than the calories in/calories out model discussed above. Part two will address the remaining frequently asked questions from the beginning of this post. Stay tuned for more!

This past week I made a conscious effort to begin increasing my serving sizes with the goal of accelerating my gains in muscle mass. It seems to be working, as I am beginning to see progress in my measurements. Additionally, a quick look at my day 1 versus day 21 MAX-OT progress pictures shows clear improvements in muscle tone and volume:

MAX-OT Day 1

MAX-OT Day 21

So far, MAX-OT + Slow Carb Diet works! In the three weeks of this combination, my body weight has remained unchanged, but body fat has gone down from 12.2% to 10.3%. In other words, I am replacing fat with muscle – a very good sign! For additional measurements and progress pictures, check out my Bodyspace page.

I’ll be continuing the program unchanged for another week to gauge progress over an entire month. Also, look for additional updates this week as I begin to explain exactly why the Slow Car Diet is so effective.

Thanks for reading!

Week 9 was a GREAT week. If you’ve been following along, you know that my progress during week 8 was much slower than the previous weeks. During week 9, the needle began to move again. My measurements in week 9 showed an additional 1.6% reduction in body fat. I’m getting close to my goal of 10%! Pretty good for only 9 weeks. Here is a quick summary of my results so far:

• Weeks 1-4: Down 12 lbs and 6.2% body fat
• Weeks 5-8: Down 3 lbs and 2.2% body fat
• Week 9: Down 1 lb and 1.6% body fat

For progress pictures and measurements, check out my Bodyspace page.

Some notes on this week:

• If I had any remaining concerns that the Dieters Gone Wild day would hamper further progress at some point, they’re all but gone now. My last DGW day came during the South Beach Food & Wine Festival, during which I ate and drank for four hours straight. I got absolutely stuffed during the first hour there. Then I continued for three more. I don’t even want to try to estimate my caloric intake for that day.
• Focusing on eating more seems to have helped my progress. I know that I’ll need to increase my calorie intake to reach my muscle gain goals, and have been focusing on larger portion sizes over the last week. Ironically, it seems to have increased my rate of fat loss.

MAX-OT 2 week update:

The second week of MAX-OT went well. I am starting to see results already. Specifically, my strength has already begun increasing from the week before. Additionally, I can see better muscle tone and fullness in my progress picture. If you follow the guidelines of this program, it will work.

Coming in the next week:

I’m curious to see what a full month of the Slow Carb Diet and MAX-OT can provide. So, I’ll be continuing with the same program over the next week with no changes.  Keep checking back for more results!

Thanks for reading!