Slow Carb Diet
The 4-Hour Body is a book by Tim Ferriss that includes a diet plan called the “Slow Carb Diet.” (Chapters 8 & 9) The Slow Carb Diet focuses on consuming
- No White food (Limiting carbohydrates and sugar)
- Protein with fat meat (Tim Ferris recommends lean – See below why I don’t agree)
- legumes
- non-starchy vegetables
- no fruits (Tomatoes and avocado is ok)
- Don’t drink calorie
- one cheat day per week to balance the missing nutrients to keep our hormones in harmony
The idea behind this diet is to reduce insulin levels and increase fat burning, leading to weight loss. The diet is designed to be low maintenance, easy to follow and promote rapid weight loss.
FOOD
Menu A
- Normal days
- Breakfast : 2 Half Boiled Eggs + Bacon / Ham /sausage + Cherry tomatoes
- Lunch : Chicken Ceasar Salad + Chicken
- 6PM Dinner : Pork Steak + Broccoli & Carrots
- Saturday Cheat Days
- Breakfast : Fruits + Cereal / Porridge
- Lunch : XXXXXX
- Dinner : XXXXXXX
Menu B (Legume based)
Red Bean/Lentil(a.ka.Dhall)/Edamame
ACTIVITY
- Drink 0.5L of water after waking up.
- 30 Minutes: then measure your weight and body fat. (I use the Withing body+ weighing machine)
- 30 minutes of exercise 4 days a week. Alternate between these
- HITT Exercise
- Aerobic Zone
- Strength
- 20x5sets push ups
- after you can do push ups easily add x
- Eat breakfast 1 hour after waking up.
MEASURE
How to measure target heart rate
The formula for 85% -95% Maximum Heart Rate Range
M = Maximum heart rate (220-age)
R = Resting heart rate (Measure while you are resting)
85% of maximum heart rate = ( (M – R )*85% ) + R
95% of maximum heart rate = ( (M – R )*95% ) + R
You could just use an online calculator.
HITT exercise
https://www.menshealth.com/fitness/a25424850/best-hiit-exercises-workout/
Aerobic zone
Aerobic exercise gets your lungs and heart pumping to deliver the oxygen to your muscle cells, which use it to pro-duce energy. You can use your heart rate to find the level of exercise that gets you in the aerobic zone and enhance cardiovascular fitness. Subtract your age from 220 to roughly approximate your maximum heart rate during exercise. Exercising at between 60% and 70% of your estimated maximum heart rate is sufficient to build cardiovascular fitness. If you can gradually condition your way up to 80%, the fitness gains will be even more noticeable. Using a wearable heart rate monitor can help you stay in the aerobic zone and show the benefits as your fitness improves.
Measure your progress as body composition
Fat VS Muscle Mass
Don’t just depend on weight as your measurement, add a bioimpedance fat measurement tool to measure the composition of fat vs muscle in your weight. The bioelectrical impedance measurement device is easily affected by water so drink consistently before measurement. The easiest way to do this is drink 2L ( I decided to dial this down to 0.5L because our kidneys can only process 0.8-1L of water per hour) of waters in the morning wait 30 minutes, urinate then take measurement.
Circumference
Measure the circumference of your waist at navel level, both upper arms mid-bicep, hips at the widest point below the waist and both legs mid-thigh. Total this measurement as your total circumference.
TIPS
- Chapter 11, titled “The Little-Known Science of Fat Loss: Cold Thermogenesis.”
- Swimming increases calorie burn because the body needs to generate heat from the loss from the water.
I added my beliefs
Eating breakfast 1 hours after waking up
Tim Ferriss recommends eating breakfast one hour after waking up as part of his “Slow-Carb Diet.” The idea behind this recommendation is to allow the body to fully enter a state of fat-burning mode by waiting to eat until insulin levels have dropped. Insulin is a hormone produced by the pancreas that regulates blood sugar levels, and high insulin levels can interfere with the body’s ability to burn fat.
Ferriss argues that by waiting to eat breakfast until one hour after waking up, the body has time to fully utilize its stored fat for energy and enter a state of ketosis, where it begins to burn fat for fuel. He believes that this approach can help individuals lose weight and improve their overall health by reducing insulin resistance, improving metabolism, and reducing inflammation.
Prior to waking up, Glucagon and cortisol are released by your liver to dump sugar into your bloodstream in the morning to kickstart your body. The release of glucagon and cortisol in response to waking up is a complex and dynamic process that is influenced by a number of factors, including the individual’s circadian rhythm, stress levels, and diet.
Typically, cortisol levels peak in the morning, approximately 30 minutes to an hour after waking up, and gradually decline throughout the day. Glucagon, on the other hand, is released in response to low blood sugar levels and can be influenced by a number of factors, including the timing and content of meals.
Insulin is released by your body if there is too much sugar in your bloodstream to store the excess sugar. so don’t add more sugar into your body in the morning with early breakfast which will trigger the insulin release to store the sugar.
Exercise can reduce insulin secretion as your body knows you are using energy.
So my own personal conclusion for this is to exercise in the morning and then eat 1 hour+ after waking up. To use up all the energy given to startup your body then have breakfast. But since your body takes time to absorb the food. 1 hour as Tim Ferris has experimented makes sense.
Michael Pollan manifesto
Eat real food. Not too much. Mostly Plants. (Based on this I feel Tim Ferris is too dependent on meat)
No Dairy
We are not meant to drink other animals’ milk.
Yes, it is true that cow’s milk contains a naturally occurring opioid peptide called casomorphin, which has been suggested to have addictive properties. Casomorphin is formed from the breakdown of the protein casein, which is found in cow’s milk and other dairy products. Some studies have suggested that casomorphin may bind to the opioid receptors in the brain and have a similar effect to opiate drugs such as morphine, leading to a pleasurable sensation and cravings for more dairy.
- “The opioid receptor-like 1 receptor is involved in the regulation of food intake in mice.” by Koda et al. (2008)
- “Casomorphins, milk-derived bioactive peptides, stimulate the release of dopamine in the nucleus accumbens of rats.” by Tomaselli et al. (1997)
- “Exorphins and casomorphins in milk and dairy products: a review.” by König et al. (2012)
Intermittent Fasting not more than 12 hours
Fat is not bad. Lean meat is bad.
The Big Fat Surprise – Nina Techolz
Photo by Karsten Winegeart on Unsplash
