This may come as a surprise to you but the slow carb diet was not an invention by Tim Ferriss. In fact it has been around for a long time.<\/p>\n

The idea of a ketogenic diet was actually invented in the 20\u2019s when doctors realized that periods of starvation seemed to be helpful in preventing seizure disorder in children. In lieu of starving kids for fun, researches found that eliminating complex carbohydrates from the diet and inducing a state of ketogenisis, the body was essentially \u201cstarving\u201d yet not!<\/p>\n

This induction of the breakdown of free fatty acids in the body to create ketones through the metabolism of fats without the loss of protein has been studied in great detail. Popularized by Dr. Atkins most recently as a weight loss method it gained even more recognition. But, it was the FDA and their push to reduce fats by increasing fiber and carbohydrates in the diet (I believe in a well intentioned way to help curb heart disease) that really turned the attention away from carbohydrate restriction. In the 80\u2019s and 90\u2019s in an effort to increase lean muscle mass and decrease body fat in weight lifters the idea of a cyclical ketogenic diet was born.<\/p>\n

What was Tim\u2019s contribution in the Four Hour Body? He made this diet and the concepts that define it incredibly easy to follow through the use of his \u201c5 rules\u201d.\u00a0 He also brought the idea of an extremely user friendly way of carbohydrate restriction into the main stream. For this, his book and the way he presents a new mash up of complex ideas is ingenious and in line with his MED (minimum effective dose).<\/p>\n

I am a physician assistant who works in a small community health center where the majority of my patients are either diabetic, on their way to becoming diabetic, or if not either, obese and sedentary. Now this is not everyone, just a large majority. I have spent years trying to get people to accept the American Diabetic Associations\u00a0 low fat high carb diet that we were taught\u00a0 about in medical school. Yet in practice it is a complete failure and, I believe, is designed to be.<\/p>\n

So I began phase one of my \u201cpatient trials\u201d. And I am using Tim\u2019s book as the backbone of my hypothesis: Designing a diet plan that is automated, easy and most of all extremely in line with human behavior will have dramatic effects in a short period of time. Also, I theorize that combining a slow carb diet with medication such as metformin may further enhance the weight loss by moving glucose into muscle cells and preventing their conversion into fat: especially on cheat days. Do we have a cure for our diabetic and pre-diabetic woes?<\/p>\n

I have a unique opportunity that many of you trying these principles from the Four Hour Body may not have:<\/p>\n

1. A very large database of people with whom to test my theories.<\/p>\n

2. The ability to perform laboratory tests among various subgroups of people, such as diabetics, morbidly obese, hypertensive patients, those with cholesterol problems and even healthy individuals in search of more lean muscle mass and less fat.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I can tell you thus far the results have been extremely promising. I will be listing many of those here. How does a slow carb diet plan work for preventing or even curing diabetes? How does one titrate their current med\u2019s when initiating this kind of diet? How do we sustain this diet in the long run, and is there a way to modify this diet after we have achieved our desired weight loss ? Is there a way to use targeted carbohydrates at specific times in order to increase performance for athletes while still maintaining a ketotic state?<\/p>\n

Does (or rather can) Tim Ferriss’ slow carb diet induce a ketogenic state in most patients, and do the use of diabetic medications alter this in any way?<\/p>\n

Look for many of these questions to be answered here in the coming weeks. I hope that anyone out there who may also be testing these concepts in their own lives feels free to comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This may come as a surprise to you but the slow carb diet was not an invention by Tim Ferriss. In fact it has been around for a long time. The idea of a ketogenic diet was actually invented in the 20\u2019s when doctors realized that periods of starvation seemed to be helpful in preventing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[39,3],"tags":[22,21,25,231,324,74,1122,24,323,23,322,321,26],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1tiSR-B","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.4hourlife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37"}],"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=37"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.4hourlife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.4hourlife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.4hourlife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.4hourlife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}