How To Get Started On The Slow Carb Diet

Amazing results. Easy to follow. One Binge day a week.

The Slow Carb Diet was named and promoted by best selling 4 Hour Workweek Guru, Tim Ferriss.

Tim Ferriss uses his own body as an experimental petri dish. There is NO end to the things he does to his body in an effort to keep healthy, strong, physically fit and mentally agile. He tracks everything in excruciating detail and provides his fans with the results.

Before he wrote his book The 4-Hour Body: An Uncommon Guide to Rapid Fat-Loss, Incredible Sex, and Becoming Superhuman, he started experimenting with diets (low-carb, Keto, fasting) and he started talking about his “Slow Carb” diet. His fans grabbed onto it and obviously wanted more, so he worked at it and changed things around until he had something that worked for him … and for his followers.

So what IS The Slow Carb Diet?

The Slow Carb Diet is basically a low-carb, almost ketogenic diet with some additional rules or components. Low-carb and keto are not new. None of the components of the diet are unique but the combination of them all adds up to Slow Carb.

Here are the BASICS of the diet.

1. Eat Low-Carb six days of the week.

2. Enjoy a Cheat day or Binge day, once a week.

3. Eat the same thing daily.

4. Eat beans with every meal.

5. Eat protein within 30 minutes of getting up.

Here’s the nutshell version of the Slow Carb Diet, along with additional resources and information on each of the five basics.

1. Eat Low-Carb six days of the week.

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There is nothing new about low-carb diets. And this diet tends toward the low side of the low-carb range.

Here are the basic rules:

Avoid processed foods, including anything made with flour, anything made with potatoes, corn, pasta, cereals, crackers, cookies, breads and rice. Basically if you think “white” and “refined” you will get the idea. If it comes in a box you probably shouldn’t eat it.

No fruits or fruit juices. Even unsweetened fruit juices are filled with natural sugars (fructose) which translates into high carbs and spiking blood sugar levels. You can add fruits back to your eating plan AFTER you have achieved your ideal weight. You can eat fruits on your cheat or binge day.

Drink plenty of water. You can also drink unsweetened teas or coffee. Staying away from diet drinks is a good idea because they increase your cravings for sweet stuff.

Do eat vegetables, especially GREEN vegetables. Do eat protein, including meat, fish and eggs.

On the Slow Carb Ddiet you can eat up to four times a day and eat until you are full. You don’t have to count calories or carbs.

Here is a LIST of Foods that are allowed or restricted on the Slow Carb Diet

2. Enjoy a Cheat day or Binge day — once a week.

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Pick one day of the week as your cheat day or binge day. Though Ferriss calls it a cheat day, that implies you are doing something that is not allowed … and since it is not only allowed, but is part of the diet, I call it a binge day.

Plan for it, dream about it and then eat anything you want on that day. All the pasta, doughnuts, ice cream and fruit you want. In his 4-Hour Body book, Ferriss describes binging to the point of throwing up. That’s probably NOT a good plan. After the gorging experiment, his binges became more moderate and included eating a normal breakfast in the morning.

There are two reasons the cheat day works:

• The cheat day prevents your body from going into starvation mode. If you go into starvation mode, your metabolism will automatically slow down making weight loss even more difficult.
• The cheat day prevents YOU from breaking or quitting your diet. If you have something to look forward to and plan, you are more likely to stay with your diet over a long term. You can put off eating those brownies for 3 more days … “I can wait just until Sunday.” If you look forward to a life time (or months) without brownies it is much easier to cave in … and then give up.

MORE Information About Cheat Days (including info for Diabetics and Keto Dieters) … Pure Indulgence!

3. Eat the same thing daily.

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Yes, eat the same meal over and over again. There’s nothing new about this because people have been doing it for decades.

On the Slow Carb Diet, the idea is to develop one or more meals that fit within the low-carb rules and that are balanced … protein, fats and good carbs such as greens. Once you have a few meals that you like, simply eat them every day. Switch to a different meal after a week, or just keep on going.

Here’s HOW Eating The Same Thing Every Day Works and WHY It Works

4. Eat beans with every meal.

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Even though beans are enormously high carb, Tim Ferriss includes it as an important part of the Slow Carb Diet. One of the reasons for calling the diet “slow” carb is because of the beans. Though Ferris doesn’t go into it in detail, the beans are there to slow down your digestion and the rate at which food is converted into glucose as it enters your body.

Though you eat only a TINY quantity of beans with each meal, the beans slow down the rate at which food enters your body. You feel full for hours.

Here is more information on including beans in your diet … along with a zero carb alternative to beans.

5. Eat protein within 30 minutes of getting up.

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Ferriss swears by this and it is the first thing he checks out if you tell his the diet is not working. Whether you are eating a breakfast of bacon and eggs or a protein shake, the idea is that the protein fuels your body for the morning and sets you up for the day.

Why 30 minutes? Your guess is as good as mine!

I hate breakfast. I hate eating in the morning. If I don’t just ignore this part of the diet, I clug-a-lug 30 grams of protein powder mixed in water and then reward myself with a huge mug or two of coffee.

What about the book … should you buy it? Read it?

The 4-Hour Body: An Uncommon Guide to Rapid Fat-Loss, Incredible Sex, and Becoming Superhuman

This book weighs in at almost 600 pages (7 pages short). About 60 of the pages are devoted to the Slow Carb Diet … the rest of the book covers topics ranging from cold showers to better sex.

If you just want information about the Slow Carb Diet … you just finished reading the basics. Click on the extra resources and you will have everything you need.

BUT there is a lot more in the book. All sorts of tricks to lose weight and build a superhuman body. There are so many things to test out, it will take you years.

My suggestion is to order the paper version of the book, and at the same time get a pack of post-it notes and a pack of highlighter pens. There’s a lot to read and digest … and the only way to know if it works for YOU is to try it!

Though the kindle version of the book is available, it is hard to read and reference. You’ll find the paper version much easier to read and a a much better reference guide.

Does Slow Carb Work?

It has worked for thousands of people, many of whom are raving fans. Of course there are people it hasn’t worked for as with any diet.

My own experience is that it works. I am Diabetic and there were certain parts of the diet that could potentially cause problems for me. I worked out my own hacks until I developed my own modified almost Keto diet, with all of the elements of Slow Carb.

This article was originally published on the Sugar-Free-Zone.com

Melanie Rockett has been a freelance writer for over 40 years. About 15 years ago she was diagnosed with Diabetes — and began a long journey of discovery. Today she lives a sugar-free life and has lost 120 pounds. Her website Sugar-Free-Zone.com is all about living sugar-free and maintaining a healthy lifestyle.

Do YOU want to live sugar-free? Get regular story updates as well as fabulous sugar-free recipes by joining the Sugar Free Zone on Medium newsletter. https://medium.com/sugar-free-zone

Here are the components of the Slow Carb Diet: