I would love to say right now that all my patients who have been attempting the slow carb diet are doing exceptionally well. \u00a0This would make me and of course all my patients feel just great. in fact 1 month ago when I had to the opportunity\u00a0 to do my preliminary weigh-ins (30 days into the diet) I thought we were really on to something.<\/p>\n

But, I am afraid much of this may have been the “January effect”<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

In other words: new year, new life new diet can\u2019t loose. Or in this case can loose, but with limitations.<\/p>\n

In total I have about 30 patients\/friends\/family members who are attempting this diet. For each I have created an excel spreadsheet on which to track their progress. Unfortunately, we have broken one (I believe) very big cardinal rule: we have focused\u00a0 on weight loss instead of fat loss.<\/p>\n

This in and of itself would be a great study, as I am convinced, for various reasons, that our dependency on the scale may be one of the limiting factors to success. Body composition is, I am sure, far superior. But, in a rural health center with limited time and resources this was a start.<\/p>\n

For each participant they were given a 5 page supplement of Tim\u2019s book focusing on the 5 rules plus a shopping list and about 20-30 minutes of in-office counseling sessions to get them fired up.<\/p>\n

All were started on Vitamin D 2000-5000 IU per day (depending on their starting blood levels), an Omega 3 fatty acid supplement (in this case I recommended Costco brand Fish oil) and a multivitamin that included B12, Magnesium, Calcium and Potassium.<\/p>\n

Each participant was really excited about the diet, particularly the cheat day.<\/p>\n

I work in a largely Hispanic community whom eat a diet high in beans and meat and vegetables anyway. Giving up carbs came mostly through elimination of tortillas, sweet bread, juices, sodas and to a limited effect, rice.<\/p>\n

We also translated this content into Spanish and gave the same materials to our Spanish speaking participants. It was very well received.<\/p>\n

I had all patients return at 2 weeks and then again at one month, I urged all of them to avoid home weigh ins.<\/p>\n

The results at 30 days<\/span>:<\/p>\n

\n
• Almost all participants followed up for their scheduled weigh-ins.<\/li>\n
• About one half had above average results several achieving greater than 10% loss of body mass in just 30 days. This was limited to 4 people, all of whom initiated a rather intense exercise regimen concurrently with their slow carbohydrate diet.<\/li>\n
• Most people were able to loose an average of 5-7 pounds regardless of starting weight.<\/li>\n
• Several about 25-30% failed to have any weight loss.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

  The results in 60 days<\/span>:<\/p>\n

  \n
  • A good portion of my diet group have failed to attend follow up.<\/li>\n
  • Those that lost weight began to plateau and were unable to avoid temptations which were sure to break the ketogenic state necessary to loose weight.<\/li>\n
  • A good portion (approximately 10-15% gained weight)<\/li>\n
  • of the 4 that had extremely positive results they have continued to loose weight, although not as much as at the beginning: the results have been profound.<\/li>\n
  • I have not yet checked blood markers for follow up: i.e cholesterol, blood sugars, vitamin D3, fasting Insulin.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    My thoughts at day 61<\/span>:<\/p>\n

    \n
    • 5 rules is still one of the easiest, quickest and most effective ways to get people to hone in on fundamental lifestyle changes that can have a profound effect.<\/li>\n
    • The 4 hour body is still troubled by many of the same problems we see with any other \u201cfad\u201ddiet i.e if you don\u2019t want to make a change you just won\u2019t no matter how good the diet.<\/li>\n
    • Weight loss may be less about food and more about a persons situation in life. How about the participants that had the greatest weight loss: I think the graph would looks something like this<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      <\/a><\/p>\n

      My own dad stopped this diet after just 3 weeks and after a 7 lb weight loss claiming that the diet was ineffective. He vowed to return to a moderate carbohydrate diet, but he liked the idea of keeping the cheat day.<\/p>\n

      Folks if this is you, please be advised: Very bad idea!<\/p>\n

      NEXT STEPS<\/span>:<\/p>\n

      \n
      • I would love to figure out a way to implement many of the cheat day<\/a> supplements and exercises that Tim uses under damage control and see if these can help. I am fascinated by the idea of Glut 4 and opening channels in the muscle to be more responsive to insulin.<\/li>\n
      • Closer follow up: I may implement a weekly phone call to help with compliance.<\/li>\n
      • A slow carb diet starter and finisher kit.<\/li>\n
      • Better translations of this content into Spanish.<\/li>\n
      • I may experiment with a two day cheat day to see if this allows better retention rates.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

        On a side note: I have found that participants who were able to maintain moderate ketosis were able to get better results I would recommend experimenting with this: you can find these online at Amazon for a good price.<\/p>\n

        URS Urinalysis Strips For Ketone – 100 each<\/a> (just 9 bucks for 100)<\/p>\n

        I will say this again, in my mind there is no better book to help appreciate low carb or slow carb diets than the\u00a0 Atkins Diabetes Revolution: The Groundbreaking Approach to Preventing and Controlling Type 2 Diabetes<\/a>. I have read a majority of his other books, but diabetes or not this is just the best, in combination with the 4-hour body slow carb diet.<\/p>\n

        Good Luck if you are using the diet and if so remember this: life happiness will surely be a greater predictor of your success with whatever your endeavors, diet related or not. Surely the ability to maintain good weight and feel healthy runs deeper than any body mass index can measure. So make sure you feel good about yourself first, and then start your diet plan!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

        I would love to say right now that all my patients who have been attempting the slow carb diet are doing exceptionally well. \u00a0This would make me and of course all my patients feel just great. in fact 1 month ago when I had to the opportunity\u00a0 to do my preliminary weigh-ins (30 days into […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[39,38,3],"tags":[60],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1tiSR-48","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.4hourlife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.4hourlife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.4hourlife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.4hourlife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.4hourlife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=256"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.4hourlife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.4hourlife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.4hourlife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.4hourlife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}