Weigh-in: 5 March, 2011

Today's Weight: 146.1 kg (322 lbs)

Change: -1.3 kg (2.8 lbs)

Total Loss: 49.4 kg (108.9 lbs)

A good result today, and I think a pretty damned good result for the whole experiment. 9.4 kilos, or 20.7 pounds, lost in a month. The primary claim of Ferriss' 4 Hour Body Slow Carb diet is that you can "lose 20 pounds in 30 days without exercise".  Well, I lost the 20 pounds. Could I have done it without exercise? Maybe so, but I'm perfectly happy with my decision to exercise as well as change my eating habits. 

One thing that I've learned from this experiment is that my diet was overloaded with carbs, and falling short in terms of vegetables. So that'll be something to keep an eye on as I add the carbs back into my meals. 

It'll be interesting to see if the weight loss continues at roughly the same rate, as long as I keep the calories about the same and keep exercising, whether I'm eating the faster-burning carbs or not. I expect that will be the case, but I don't think that means the whole slow carb thing is a waste of time. I think if you don't want to worry about tracking your calories, then one easy way to keep the calories down is to avoid sweets (including fruit and fruit juice), and starchy vegetables. Because if you're mostly eating just meat, eggs, and vegetables, you're going to have to put in some serious effort to get fat. I'm sure it can be done, but you're going to have to work at it. 

So after trying it for a month, I'm saying that the Slow Carb diet worked for me, and I think it'll probably work for most people, too. 

Slow Carb Diet Day 27:

Daily weigh-in: 145.9 kg; -1.1 kg.

Wow, if I'd known that sitting on my ass instead of spending an hour a day on the cross-trainer would help me start losing weight again, I would've done that ages ago. But honestly, I don't have the slightest clue why I stopped losing and now I've started again, but I'm glad it's working out that way. Hopefully it's not because my scales are on the blink or something. I guess I'll find out tomorrow when I get my official number at the meeting.

Today I had the usual breakfast (405 calories), then a hamburger steak and mixed veggies for lunch (505 calories), and then a chicken breast and mixed veggies for dinner (450 calories), and a total of 1435 calories today. Again, no exercise because this cold (or whatever) is getting worse. It's in my head, and it's in my chest, and I figured huffing and puffing on the cross-trainer probably wasn't a smart move.

And now it's 12:30 and I've got to get up in 6 hours, so I'd better get my ass to bed. I'm really hoping these last few weigh-ins have been accurate, and I come in somewhere under 146 kg tomorrow. I'm getting so close to that 145.5 kg mini-goal.

Slow carb Diet Day 26: So Near, and Yet...

Morning Weigh-in: 147.0 kg; -1.6kg.

No, it doesn't make any sense to me, and no, it didn't remotivate me. I'm definitely ready for a break from the Slow Carb Diet. I'm not knocking it, because I'm definitely in the ball-park for the amount of weight-loss he claimed was doable, and I also feel a lot more fit and healthy than I did a month ago.

And while I getting pretty burned out on the limited food choices (and I totally admit that I haven't put a lot of thought or creativity into coming up with more meals), I will definitely think about carbs a lot more than I did before. In fact, even though I'm officially ending my little Slow Carb experiment at the end of the week, I've pretty much bought the same food again, and will keep eating the same sorts of meals for at least another week, but with a few slices of bread and maybe some potatoes or pasta thrown in every now and then.

Again, my meals were eggs and beans for breakfast, then soup for lunch and dinner. The difference between today and yesterday is that I didn't do any exercise today. Partly because I'm lazy, partly because I'm bait overly all,and partly because I'm getting a cold and feel kind of crappy. Update:  That's a total of 1330 calories today.

But I'm glad to see a bit of weight-loss happening again. I may not be going out with a bang, but at least it's more than a whimper.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Slow Carb Diet Day 25: Slowing Down in the Home Stretch

Damn, I'm way behind on my posts, but I'm going to try to catch up now, and then I'll go back and adjust the dates of the posts so that they all make sense. I hope.

Okay, first things second. My morning weigh-in.

Morning weigh-in: 148.6 kg; no change.

So that's a bit of a bummer, and I guess it's part of the reason why I haven't been blogging the last couple of days. Now that I've done this for nearly a month, I think I'm pretty much over it. I suppose it's easier to maintain the enthusiasm when you're dropping a half a kilo (around a pound) a day, but even so, eating the same stuff over and over again gets old.

Today I had my usual eggs and beans for breakfast (405 calories). It's the one meal I'm not getting tired of. Then I had soup for lunch and again for dinner at work (425 calories each). I'll have to come back and update the calories, but with a half hour on the cross-trainer (-475 calories), I'm sure they were pretty close to the types of numbers I've been averaging for the last couple of weeks. Update: My daily totals were 1330 calories in, minus 475 burned, for a net of 855 calories.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Slow Carb Diet Day 24: Another Gain

Morning weigh-in: 148.6 kg; +0.1 kg

Another gain. Which has happened before on a Tuesday, but honestly, I really didn't expect it this week. The weight-gain this week, up two kg from 146.6 last Friday, is really throwing me for a loop. I don't get it. I was thinking today that it might help if I could track my percentage of body fat, instead of relying pretty much just on weight. I don't really have an accurate way to measure my body fat, but I do have another set of bathroom scales that says it does it. So I think I'm going to start checking and tracking it, and see if it provides any useful info.

At one point I was tempted to just skip the cross-trainer today. But the thing is, it's not just about the numbers. They only tell part of the story. So I had my usual breakfast of two fried eggs and my bean & corn mix (385 calories), then did two sessions on the cross-trainer (5.1 km and 5.4 km; -240 calories each).

Lunch was a grilled chicken breast with mixed veggies and salsa. And corn chips. Yep, for the first time since I started this slow carb thing, I intentionally broke the rules. Maybe it's because I'm disappointed about the weight-gain. Maybe it's because I'm getting bored with the restricted food options. But for whatever reason, I ate 'em, and they were good.

Dinner was the leftover meat from my nachos the other night, mixed with a can of kidney beans and some mixed veggies (480 calories).

My daily total was 1675 calories in,  475 burned, for a net of 1200. I had planned to do at least another half hour on the cross-trainer, but I'm just not feeling motivated at all.

Slow Carb Diet Day 23: Fail to Plan...

Morning weigh-in: 148.5 kg; -0.3 kg

Three hundred grams is a start, but unless that increases drastically, I'm not going to hit my 145.5 kg mini-goal this week. I really wish I could figure out why I'm suddenly putting on weight instead of losing. But in any case, the important thing is that despite the occasional gain and the slower rate of loss, the general trend is down. If I don't hit my mini-goal again this week, then surely I'll hit in next week, or maybe the one after that. But I will make it, and then I'll keep going past it towards the next goal.

Breakfast was two eggs, bacon and coffee (255 calories), and then I did a 15-minute workout (5.4 km; -238 calories), took a 5(ish)-minute break, and then did another 15-minute workout (5.2 km; -238 calories).

Lunch was a bit of left-over soup (85 cals), some left-over stir fry pork (60 cals), and a can of borlotti (pinto) beans (255 cals). Then dinner was meat loaf (480 cals) and mixed veggies (110 cals). Somewhere in there I had a couple of handfuls of beer nuts (280 cals) and various cups of coffee and tea (90 cals).

I also did two more 15-minute workouts (5.2 km and 5.6 km; 240 cals each), once before lunch and one after dinner. I was going to try to work in one more, but that last one kicked my ass. But I added another 0.1 km to my 15 minutes, so I hope it was worth it.

I finished up the day with a total of 1605 calories, minus 955 calories burned, for a net of 650.

My calories were a little high today because I was basically just eating whatever left-overs I could find in the fridge. I didn't have anything ready to go, and my usual stand-by (bacon and eggs) wasn't really an option because I'm running low. Still, 1600 isn't bad, and it's a lot less than I was regularly eating just a week or two ago. But clearly things are easier when I've got more options readily available.

Slow Carb Diet Day 22: Still Going Up

Morning weigh-in: 148.8 kg; +1.4 kg

This is a bit of a guess, because I only weighed myself undressed this morning. Oops! But it ought to be pretty close, and it fits in with the usual Sunday gain. The difference this week is that this is the third day in a row that I've gained weight. Today, I only weigh 0.3 kg less than I did last Saturday. That's fucked up.

I (and everybody else except Jack) slept in until 9:00, then had breakfast--two eggs, some bacon, and a cup of coffee (278 calories). After that, I got on the cross-trainer for an hour (20.6 km; -953 calories) and nearly made myself late for work. Lunch was some chicken, a little bean & corn mix, and a salad (328 calories). Then dinner was a stir fry with pork and veggies and a couple of fried eggs (426 calories).

I was really happy with that hour on the cross-trainer. Staying on for the full hour was the plan, but keeping the 20 kph pace wasn't. My last two sessions were both for an hour, but today I made it 20.6 km, compared to 18.5 km on Friday. And before that, it was 16.7 km in an hour back on the 13th. Less than eight weeks ago I was making a big deal about staying on the thing for 10 minutes without stopping to rest. Less than 7 weeks ago I managed 7 km in a half an hour. Apart from the weight loss, this is another important sign of progress.

My daily total was 1080 calories, and I burned 955 on the cross-trainer, for a net of 125 for the day. Hopefully that's going to help reverse this gaining trend.

26 February, 2011: Eat Whatever I Want Day # 4

It'd definitely harder to pig out on a work day, but I managed to do pretty well. I had bacon and eggs for breakfast, with buttered toast and coffee, then I had a pizza for lunch. Then I went to work, and was limited to a few biscuits from the office biscuit tin. Then when I came home, the pigging out got going for realz.

Dinner was a big plate of nachos (white corn chips, seasoned ground beef, lettuce, tomato, onion, olives, salsa, guacamole, sour cream, and jalapenos) and a couple of ice-cold Cantinas to wash them down. I don't know why the picture turned out so blurry. Maybe it was the beer.

Then after dinner, we watched The Prince of Persia (possibly the worst movie we've seen since 10,000 BC) and I ate most of a bag of Thai Sweet Chili flavored potato chips, and then later some coffee-flavored ice cream with chocolate-covered almonds and Grand Marnier. Unlike last week, I didn't eat the whole freaking container, and I ended up with an estimated daily total of around 7000 calories. The block of Green & Black's milk chocolate with roasted almonds will have to wait until next week. I just couldn't fit it in.

It feels good to be back at work, and it feels good to be another week closer to my goal. Now all I've got to do is get busy making up for my day of excess.

Weigh-in: 26 February, 2011

Today's Weight: 147.4 kg (325 lbs)

Change: -1.3 kg (2.8 lbs)

Total Loss: 48.1 kg (106 lbs)

There's something I didn't expect. Weight gain. After staying at 146.6 kg from Thursday to Friday, I then went up 0.9 kg for today. So I finished the week with a 1.3 kg loss, which is good, but two days ago I was fairly sure that I was headed for a 2+ kg loss for the week. What the hell happened? I've got no idea.

Sure, I've exercised a little less than I wanted to the last couple of days. But my average net calories this week was pretty damned low. Based on the standard 3500 calories = 1 lb of fat, I should've lost over 2k (5 lbs). So either something is going seriously screwy with my metabolism (which I doubt, because I feel fine), somebody is giving me olive oil enemas in my sleep, or I'm putting on muscle and that's screwing around with my weight loss numbers.



I'm not going to get too hung up on the numbers, but I have to say that I'm thinking that Tim Ferriss' Slow Carb diet isn't anything special. I'm not knocking it, mind you, because I've been doing it for 3 1/2 weeks and I've lost 8.1 kg (17.8 lbs). But the bottom line is that I've limited my caloric intake and burned more calories through exercise. So it's no surprise that I've lost weight.

But I can see that his Slow Carb rules might work better for people who don't want to count calories, check their weight daily, etc. Restrict your diet to lean meat, eggs, vegetables, and beans and unless you're doing something really stupidly, you're going to lose weight.

I'm going to keep doing it for at least another week, and maybe more after that, but I'm very interested in seeing what happens as I start adding some carbs back into my diet.

Slow Carb Diet Day 20: While the Gettin's Good

Morning Weigh-in: 146.6; no loss

Wow, that was a bit of a shock. After the 0.9 kg loss yesterday, plus the fact that I didn't exercise as much as I normally do, I thought it might be a less-than-average loss today. But no loss? I definitely didn't see that one coming.

Oh well, shit happens. With all this tracking, it's easy to get hung up on the numbers in general, and on the day-to-day minutiae, but there's really no point in getting too excited or too bummed out about any one particular number. The important thing is the trend. Sure, it would've been great to hit my -50 kg goal this week. It'll be great to hit it next week, too.

I can see already that unless I come up with some new ways of doing things, fitting everything in now that I'm back at work is going to be tough. I didn't get manage to get in all my exercise yesterday, and now today I'm already behind. Rolled out of bed at 6:30 this morning, then dealt with the grocery delivery, getting the kids off to school, etc., just finished breakfast (two fried eggs, 50g of bacon, beans & corn mix, 438 calories) at 9am, and I haven't done any exercise, and it's probably going to be at least another hour before I do.

For now, I'm off to the shops to pick up the things I either didn't order yesterday, or they didn't deliver because they were out of stock.

Update: Ok, I got back from that quick little mini-shop, gave Tom his morning snack (Karen baked cookies!), and then did an hour on the cross-trainer. Not at the new 20 km/hr pace I've been doing with the shorter sessions, but I did 18.5 km and burned 955 calories, and I'm pretty happy with that. I figured that if things get busy later in the day and I don't have time to get out there, then at least I've done that hour.

Then I've just finished another bowl of the soup I took to work last night (427 calories). For being nothing much more than ground meat, a can of beans, and some frozen veggies, it's actually pretty good.

Update: And now it's 10:42 and just about time for bed. With the general nuttiness involved in having 6 boys running around here today, I didn't manage to get any more exercise done. Dinner was some grilled chicken breast and some mixed veggies with a few beans thrown in (579 calories). My total for the day was 1535, minus the 955 for the hour-long workout, for a net of 580. I really would've liked to get in a little more exercise today, but it just didn't work out that way.

And I've got to admit, tonight was the first time I was really, really tempted to cheat. Even though tomorrow is my day to eat whatever the hell I want, tonight I wanted some of the freshly-baked cookies the boys were enjoying after school, and some of the pizza they were eating for dinner. I mean yeah, it was just Pizza Hut, but it was still pretty damned tempting. Then when they all started eating ice cream while we watched a movie, I nearly caved.

But I didn't. I can eat pizza and ice cream and cookies tomorrow. Today, I ate soup. And chicken. And veggies. And now I'm going to bed before I'm tempted to do something I shouldn't. I mean technically, my Eat-Whatever-I-Want Day starts in an hour and ten minutes, right?

Slow Carb Diet Day 19: So Little Time

Morning weigh-in: 146.6 kg; -0.9 kg

Wow, nearly another kilo gone. Again, I'm not going to count my chickens until I see the number tomorrow. But for now I'm, uh, cautiously optimistic. :)

I'm off to a bit of a slow start this morning, because when that alarm went off at 6:15, I hit the button and went right back to sleep. Woke up again at 6:41 and I've been hustling my ass ever since.

Breakfast was two fried eggs, three pieces of bacon, and a mix of borlotti (pinto) beans, corn, spinach, onions, and salsa. That and a couple of cups of coffee came to 428 calories. Then I jumped on the cross-trainer for 15 minutes and burned 239 calories.

I'm wondering about that 0.9 kg loss, and if it's in any way connected to the changes in my exercise routine. If it's true that exercising earlier in the day results in more weight loss throughout the rest of the day (and that must be true, because I read it on the Internet), then I guess it makes sense that I lost more weight after getting my usual amount of exercise done earlier in the day.

It might also have something to do with the sessions being closer together, and a few of them going for longer than the usual 15 minutes. I mean, all the calorie-counting programs say I burn the same amount of calories doing 30 minutes of exercise, regardless of whether I do it all at once, in two 15-minute sessions, three 10-minute sessions, etc., but that doesn't take into account the intensity of the effort involved.

In any case, I don't think I'm likely to see a repeat tomorrow morning. I'm not even sure I can get all my exercise done today, because it's noon and I haven't done any more since that first 15-minute session. Ordering the groceries, which I thought might take a half an hour, has ended up taking nearly 3 freaking hours. Between problems with the grocery store website and everybody not being clear about what they wanted me to order, it's taken all morning. :(

Oh well. I'll get done what I can get done.

Update:  Ok, what I could get done turned out to be one 30-minute session on the cross-trainer (10.4 k; -478 calories), and that's it. It was a good, hard workout, but unfortunately I ran out of time and didn't get to do any more.

Then I had grilled chicken breast and a veggie-lentil mix for lunch (456 calories), and a hastily-prepared soup (427 calories) that consisted of beef mince (ground beef), crushed garlic, mixed veggies, a can of diced tomatoes, and a half a jar of tomato puree (tomato sauce), plus a few herbs and spices to flavor it up a little. I'd thought I had enough chicken to take to work, but I was wrong.

Luckily, it turned out to be pretty damned good, and it gave me a chance to use my Thermos for the first time. I got it for my birthday last year, but it's just been sitting in a cupboard all this time. But it worked brilliantly! Five hours in the fridge at work, and the soup was still hot enough to eat without re-heating.

So all up my total calories for the day was 1380, minus 715 burned, for a net of 660. Hopefully, since I've eaten fewer calories than normal and kept my net for the day about the same, I'll still get a close-to-average loss for the day.