Maintenance on Slow Carb Diet

Tips for Reaching Your Goal Weight under the Slow Carb Diet

Well, after 21 weeks on Tim Ferris’s Slow Carb Diet, I painlessly (no exercise and never hungry) lost 27 pounds.  As a lover of all kinds of food and as the owner of a jam and syrup-making company, I needed the freedom of a cheat day once a week in order to make this diet a lifestyle change.  

Not only did I reach my goal weight, but I have now maintained that same weight 5 years later, following the principles of nutrition I learned under slow carb.

While moving toward my goal weight loss of 27 pounds,  I was very scrupulous in following the Slow Carb Diet regime and the rules.  The only rule I did not follow strictly was Rule #2: Eat the same few meals over and over again, especially for breakfast and lunch. 

This was simply too boring after about a month, so I tried to develop some recipes that stayed within the strict bounds of the diet, but allowed some variety in textures and flavors (see sidebar for some of the recipes).

Here are a few tips that worked for me:

• Get a good scale and weigh yourself daily.  While the emphasis of this diet is on losing inches and clothing sizes, I find the constant checking of weight keeps you motivated (or honest).  My weight loss was slow, at about 1 pound a week, which was a bit depressing at first.  The book gave much more extreme examples.  It was a consistent pound per week however, so it did keep me going.
• If you use the protein powder for a breakfast drink, make sure and read the label and get the one with the least carbohydrate count.  Some of them have a lot of carbohydrates and I didn’t realize this the first two weeks.  That was my slowest weight loss period.
• Learn to cook a few good high-protein meals.  I found trying to eat out on non-cheat days was pretty abysmal.  Restaurants just aren’t set up to offer flavorful meals without a lot of carbs and sugars.  They are getting much better as ketogenic and low carb diets become mainstream, but cooking at home allows you to really know what is in your food, especially when it comes to added sugars..
• Get enough calories and protein to keep your energy level up.  That is why he promotes beans even though it is fairly high in “complex” carbs.  Protein and good fats are very satiating, as opposed to refined carbs.
• Learn to cherish delayed gratification.  Cheat day can definitely help you through the mental anguish during the week of not having your favorite foods.  I am a cookie fanatic and you can bet I plotted out which cookies I would start with and end with on cheat days.  They were all the more tasty as they were a treasured treat now and not just my standard breakfast fare.
• When traveling I often stay at the Embassy Suites, primarily because they have a free breakfast where they cook omelets to order for you every morning.  All the fresh vegetables and eggs you can eat, rather than muffins, cereal and fruit of the standard continental breakfasts.  (I don’t mean to advertise Embassy Suites and there may be other hotels that do this, but this is the one I’ve found to be in most major cities).