How I Lost 30 Pounds on the Slow Carb Diet (And Kept It Off for Over a Decade)

Quick Summary: A personal account of losing 30 pounds on the Slow Carb Diet (aka 4-Hour Body Diet by Tim Ferriss) and maintaining that weight loss for over ten years; including what the diet phase actually looked like, what I stopped doing once I hit my goal, and what maintenance looks like now as a farmer who still cooks this way for the most part.

Jump to: My Personal Journey | Rules | The Last 5 Pounds | Sustaining It | My Current Lifestyle | Tips That Withstand the Test of Time | Further Resources | FAQ

My Personal Journey

I started the Slow Carb Diet in 2013 at 180 pounds (5’8″) lost 30 pounds in 24 weeks, and have maintained that weight for over 10 years (see photos over time below).

It wasn’t dramatic or fast, averaging about a pound per week, but it was consistent. What made it sustainable for me was the cheat day. As someone who made jam and syrup to sell at farmers markets during that period, and as an avid cookie-lover, I needed the weekly release valve.

Once the weight was lost, I was able to ease up on all the tracking, but I made sure to monitor my situation and became vigilant about returning to the rules if I passed my “red flag limit” of a 5-pound gain. Coaching helped me identify what was needed to sustain weight loss over the years, and I developed this Maintenance Plan for the Slow Carb Diet to help you if you are in the maintenance phase of your diet/lifestyle. Prep: ongoing | Serves: one stubborn farmer who loves cookies

I went on to coach a very diverse range of over 400 people through this diet between 2015 and 2020. I’m not coaching anymore, but I still follow the basic principles,

I grow a lot of the food (berries, beans, peppers, tomatoes, squash and herbs) on my farm in Minnesota, and still think this is one of the more honest approaches to sustainable fat loss out there. Notice I said “fat loss” rather than “weight loss”, as I came to realize the huge distinction between these two concepts.

What I can offer now isn’t a coaching program, but rather it’s a decade of lived experience on the other side of the fat loss goal.

What My 30-Pound Loss Actually Looked Like

The results in Ferriss’s book are more dramatic than what most people experience. A lot of that depends on your starting weight and your individual body. My loss averaged about a pound a week; slow enough to be discouraging at first, but consistent enough to keep me going.

Twenty-one weeks to lose 30 pounds is not a headline number. It’s just what sustainable fat loss looks like for most people.

A few things that made the difference for me specifically:

• I weighed myself daily. The book doesn’t require this, but the constant feedback kept me honest. A discouraging number would make me angry and determined to change it. An encouraging number would provide motivation. A pound a week can feel really slow, but tracking allows you to look back and judge the progress over time. It also allows you to note what was happening in your life at each month. Perseverance is the key here.
• I didn’t follow Rule #2 (eat the same meals over and over). After about a month, the repetition was going to end me. Instead I learned to cook within the constraints (high protein, legumes, vegetables, good fats) with enough variety to actually enjoy it. That’s where most of the slow carb and low carb recipes on this site came from.
• I was serious about cheat day. As someone who makes jam and syrup and genuinely loves cookies, I needed the weekly release valve. I planned my cheat day foods in advance and enjoyed them without guilt. Before long the cravings stopped focusing on sugary treats and leaned more toward wonderful breads and great fruit desserts. That psychological safety made the other six days manageable.

It took me 24 weeks on Tim Ferris’s Slow Carb Diet to lose the 30 pounds I had set as a goal. It was fairly painless all-in-all, and part of that was due to the delayed gratification of a cheat day.

This category of slow carb dinners is probably the most popular collection but if you have a sweet tooth be sure and check out these low carb desserts.

The One Thing That Got Me Past the Last Five Pounds

Intermittent fasting was the shift that got me over the last 5 stubborn pounds. Ferriss acknowledged it as an option after the book came out, and it was what finally moved the last few pounds for me.

I opted for 16:8 intermittent fasting, (eating within an 8-hour window), which for me meant skipping breakfast. In the book Ferriss recommends eating 30 grams of protein within 30 minutes of waking. That rule made sense for people coming off a high-carb breakfast habit, but it didn’t make sense for me anymore once I’d rebuilt my relationship with food.

If you’re stalled near your goal and you’ve been strict on everything else, this is worth trying.

What I Actually Stopped Doing After I Hit My Goal

The diet phase is finite. What comes after is what most people don’t talk about.

I stopped tracking macros. I stopped counting anything. I kept the core principles of eating protein and vegetables first, limiting refined carbs and sugar, and staying active, but I relaxed the strict boundaries. Fruit came back. Some complex carbs came back occasionally, and cheat day shrank to a cheat meal, or sometimes just a good dessert.

I did pretty much delete ultra-processed foods from my diet and kept sugary treats to a minimum.

I also shifted toward what I’d describe as a Pesco Mediterranean approach; lots of fish, vegetables, legumes, olive oil, and some whole grains. That’s not a formal diet, it’s just what felt right after years of paying attention to how food affects my energy and weight.

The thing that kept it stable was continuing to weigh in. Not obsessively, but usually once a week. If the number went up more than three to five pounds, I paid attention and changed something specific rather than overhauling everything. I call it my red flag limit and you can read more about this approach on the Maintenance Plan for a Slow Carb Diet.

In 2021 I gained five pounds back and traced it directly to two or three glasses of wine most evenings and way too many nuts. Cutting those nuts and going to one glass a night brought it back off quickly.

What Maintenance Looks Like as a Small Farmer

Small scale farming is essentially gardening and growing your own food. It can take the place of the gym if you have access to a garden plot. If you are a city dweller, just make sure you get some strength building in, as that will keep your fat loss more sustainable than just aerobic exercise.

Tending my small farm and selling at the farmers markets certainly helps keep me strong (and I’m getting pretty old now), but I manage to get in a class at the Y that focuses on those all important squats, lunges and pushups (the trifecta for staying strong).

The other nice thing about gardening of course, is the fresh organic food you can produce. It’s definitely healthy, but growing your own food has the added benefit of the self-esteem you get from successfully growing your own produce.

I have shared many guides on growing your own food on this site, from starting a beginners kitchen garden, to a small balcony garden, to growing specific crops like blueberries.

I also have 90-plus slow carb and low carb recipes on this site that you can peruse. I developed many of these recipes to help clients when I was coaching, but they are simple and tasty enough that they appeal to anyone, diet or not.

Probably the two most important factors in making this diet work for you are:

• track your macros and sugar for at least 6 weeks, or until you are comfortable with understanding portion sizes and hidden carbs
• Learn to cook at home. Restaurant food and fast food are loaded with hidden carbs. You will be amazed at how easy it is to lose weight when you cook at home. Save the restaurant for special occasions. It’s difficult for my husband and I to go out anymore, not because we mind the cost, but we just like our own cooking so much better lol.

Tips That Still Hold Up After a Decade

These are the six things from my coaching years that I still think are impactful:

• Weigh yourself daily during the diet phase. The trend line matters, not any single number.
• Read labels, particularly on protein powder and protein bars. Some have as many carbs as a granola bar. This cost me two slow weeks early on.
• Cook at home as much as possible. Restaurants have improved on low-carb options, but you still can’t control what’s in the food. Cooking at home allows you to really know what is in your food, especially when it comes to added sugars.
• Take cheat day seriously. Not as permission to binge on junk food, but as a genuine reset. Plan the foods you actually want and enjoy them. The guilt-free delayed gratification part matters when it comes to sustainability and perserverance.
• Find your sustainable version. Ferriss’s rules are a starting point, not a permanent prescription. After a few months you’ll know which ones you need strictly and which ones you can relax. He has many passages in his book where he tells you to experiment on your own body.
• Get enough calories and protein to keep your energy level up.  That is why Ferriss promotes beans even though they are fairly high in “complex” carbs.  Protein and good fats are very satiating, as opposed to refined carbs.
• Watch out for “domino foods” (like nuts). While they are allowed on this diet, they are often high in calories and can be easily overdone.
• When traveling or dining out, plan ahead of time. Getting the menu online and deciding what you will have can help you decide on healthy options.