Here it is, the day of reckoning! We now find out exactly what the last 3 weeks on the Slow Carb Diet has done to my body. Before i give you the rundown of the results, i’d like to state a few things first:

I followed the diet plan to the letter as per ‘The 4 Hour Body’

I DID NOT change my training in any way, i kept the same routine i had been working on previously. This was to ensure that any changes that arose were due to my diet and not a change in exercise.

On cheat days i ate as much as i could physically stomach, with my record being 7300 calories this past Saturday. This was to test if i could eat as much as i possibly could, move as little as i possibly could and still lose weight.

I did slip a couple of times, once when eating out and eating salsa on a piece of fish i had ordered, as to not cause a scene, and the other when finding it hard to find something to eat for lunch in town, i resorted to a soup that contained milk. I decided it couldn’t easily be avoided and went with it, ensuring i stuck to the plan at all other times and not giving up due to one small slip.

I do not know Tim Ferriss, nor am i trying to sell books for him (i think he’s doing mighty fine on his own!), this was purely an experiment to see if his recommendations worked for me, to better enable me to help others in this area.

All bodyweight measurements were taken first thing upon waking up in the morning using the same scales at home.

Bodyfat percentages and mass measurements were performed by Jenny @JennyRFF using skinfold calipers and Anatomical Measuring Tape. Results were taken at least 3 times to ensure accuracy.

Bear in mind, this was a 3 week period. Here we go:

Bodyweight

Bodyweight can be a misleading variable, due to body composition. It may not seem like i have lost much weight, however with my Gym training i have been doing heavy lifting. I observed throughout the process that my strength was increasing and i tested myself in 2 exercises for strength gains – the Dumbbell Chest Press and Barbell Deadlifts. With the chest presses i used 30KG in each hand and performed max reps in 3 sets until i failed. The first week i performed 10, 8 and 6 reps, the 2nd week – 12, 10 and 8 reps, and the 3rd week i performed 13, 10 and 9 reps. I’ve had a goal of getting to double my bodyweight in Barbell Deadlifts for a while and have been working towards it, at the start of the diet i was on 135KG. On the last week of Slow Carb my max Deadlift had shot up to 150KG for 1 rep (a safe x2 bodyweight).

There’s no way i can state for certain that this wouldn’t have happened without changing my diet, however one thing is for certain that my strength did not suffer in the least, it only got better.

So with that in mind, lets look at how my body composition has been affected:

Body Measurements

Grand total – 4.75CM lean muscle gain, 2.25CM fat loss on waist.

Body Fat Measurements (Skinfold)

So overall, in 3 weeks i have reduced my weight, increased my lean muscle mass, reduced my bodyfat and increased my strength. I have to be
completely honest in that my results throughout have been exactly as The 4 Hour Body describes. Does the diet work? Yes it does.

Obviously, this isn’t the only way to do it. My goal has been strength and reducing bodyfat in terms of my body composition, but anyone could
use it as a stand alone plan to lose weight. Bear in mind these results were also with me eating literally as much as i could on cheat days to try and find the limit. I didn’t. You don’t necessarily need to do that, you could have a cheat meal for instance instead of an entire day dedicated to sloth and gluttony. But if you do try it and you eat a lot on cheat day, you don’t need to feel bad about it or feel like you’ve undone all your hard work. You don’t necessarily need to even go for the full diet to begin with like i did, you could start with one meal per day i.e. breakfast of 3 Eggs, Spinach and Lentils.

So what are your thoughts? Feel free to leave comments!

I’m going to come back to you with a conclusion based on all of this, and tips and tricks i have learned through this process. The next phase
of my experiment is to now introduce carbs back into my diet and see how my composition is in 3 weeks again. I do plan to keep to some of the same meal plans, as i really like them, so i won’t be eating as many carbs as i used to, but find a nice balance between the 2 and see how i get on.

Stay tuned!