I have been on the slow-carb diet a few months now. It’s working very well indeed … for me personally. It’s working because I like all the foods on it—it suits my personal tastes—and dropping 15kg in just a few weeks left me feeling enormously better and bouncier, which is strong incentive to keep to it.
Also, the Cheat Day strikes me as genius, just as practical psychology. I expect this to show up in fad diets in the future.
I wrote a long blog post about it, when I feared that telling friends had risked other-pessimising. Basically: a fad diet will work for its inventor, but not necessarily for anyone else—either because it just doesn’t seem to match their metabolism (as you found with the Shangri-La diet) or because the subject finds it near-impossible to keep to (e.g. some friends on the Slow-Carb Diet).
(The real problem is that civilisation has more or less solved the food problem, but our genes don’t know this, so we pack on the fat in anticipation of lean times that never come. To lose weight in a world of abundant food, we need to behave unnaturally. And different people’s metabolisms seem to require different unnatural behaviours.)
It’s plausible that it works for me because, like Ferriss, I have a lot of Scandinavian and particularly Danish ancestry—so stuff that works for him might work well for me too. Worth a try! I have no idea if it works for Ashkenazi Jews, but he doesn’t say it doesn’t …
I haven’t tried the exercise stuff yet, because I am lazy. I have taken to stairs rather than elevators or escalators and to walking a lot, though.
I must recommend strong caution concerning Tim Ferriss’ grasp of what constitutes evidence. I tried tracking down his claim that the ECA stack (which he does correctly describe as a dangerously bad idea) was scientifically proven. When I traced back through the citations he gave—as detailed in my blog post—I ended up at text deleted from an old Wikipedia revision because it was covered in [citation needed]. So assume everything he says works for him, but test personally—any scientific explanation he gives may be correct, may be almost-correct or may be made entirely of magical pink unicorns.
Also, the Cheat Day strikes me as genius, just as practical psychology. I expect this to show up in fad diets in the future.
It is a good indicator of your rationality that you have successfully expected the past. Cheat days are not new, they’ve appeared in fad diets in the past, and will almost certainly do so in the future.
Thank you, I hadn’t heard of these. I’m slightly surprised I hadn’t heard of cheat days before. The reason they strike me as brilliant is that so many people (I don’t know a percentage, just that it’s anecdotally common) break their fad diet then give up, and a cheat day channels the urge nicely for me and may do for others.
The real problem is that civilisation has more or less solved the food problem, but our genes don’t know this, so we pack on the fat in anticipation of lean times that never come.
I’m curious to know how many of us (I raise my own hand here) apparently have genes which do know this.
I’ve never paid much attention to diet beyond “eat what I want when I want”, or exercise beyond “do what I feel like doing” (this does not mean “eat sugar all day and laze around”, but it doesn’t resemble Tim Ferriss’ regime either), yet my weight has been around 120-130 pounds for all of my adult life.
I’ve been following that regimen lately and am 5′10“/5′11” and 130 pounds. I am 19 years old though, there are probably a lot of people my age who manage the same trick. I’ve noticed there seem to be a lot more >6′1“ skinny guys than <6′1”. I’m not sure if that’s just ’cuz better general genetic fitness, specializing in attractiveness, the mechanics of anatomy, halo effect, not-necessarily-genetic racial differences, and/or many other possible factors.
I’m curious to know how many of us (I raise my own hand here) apparently have genes which do know this.
My daughter seems to. Her mother and older sister are both stick figures (the middle sister takes a little more after her father, who was plumpish), and she tends not to eat all of any given meal and never has. (Though on Saturday she ate chocolate until she threw up, and thereby learnt an important lesson about gorging oneself on chocolate … maybe.)
Ferriss also has a suggested plan for skinny guys who want to bulk up, FWIW.
Interesting coincidence, I hadn’t seen this thread when it was posted, and yet I independently decided to go ahead with this and buy the book Monday (June 13) and start it the evening of the next day.
So far I’m just doing the slow-carb diet and the testosterone-promoting protein shake (whole milk + eggs + cinammon + almond butter). I haven’t done the specific exercises he mentioned, but I did do some strength training since he mentioned it’s important to go along with the shake.
No real noticeable progress so far, since I’m only about 3 days into it, but strangely enough (for me) I was able to keep carbs and fruit out completely! Some of the stuff (mainly the shake) made me sick to my stomach a few hours later but didn’t lead to anything further like vomiting. Will keep the group posted.
I have been on the slow-carb diet a few months now. It’s working very well indeed … for me personally. It’s working because I like all the foods on it—it suits my personal tastes—and dropping 15kg in just a few weeks left me feeling enormously better and bouncier, which is strong incentive to keep to it.
Also, the Cheat Day strikes me as genius, just as practical psychology. I expect this to show up in fad diets in the future.
I wrote a long blog post about it, when I feared that telling friends had risked other-pessimising. Basically: a fad diet will work for its inventor, but not necessarily for anyone else—either because it just doesn’t seem to match their metabolism (as you found with the Shangri-La diet) or because the subject finds it near-impossible to keep to (e.g. some friends on the Slow-Carb Diet).
(The real problem is that civilisation has more or less solved the food problem, but our genes don’t know this, so we pack on the fat in anticipation of lean times that never come. To lose weight in a world of abundant food, we need to behave unnaturally. And different people’s metabolisms seem to require different unnatural behaviours.)
It’s plausible that it works for me because, like Ferriss, I have a lot of Scandinavian and particularly Danish ancestry—so stuff that works for him might work well for me too. Worth a try! I have no idea if it works for Ashkenazi Jews, but he doesn’t say it doesn’t …
I haven’t tried the exercise stuff yet, because I am lazy. I have taken to stairs rather than elevators or escalators and to walking a lot, though.
I must recommend strong caution concerning Tim Ferriss’ grasp of what constitutes evidence. I tried tracking down his claim that the ECA stack (which he does correctly describe as a dangerously bad idea) was scientifically proven. When I traced back through the citations he gave—as detailed in my blog post—I ended up at text deleted from an old Wikipedia revision because it was covered in [citation needed]. So assume everything he says works for him, but test personally—any scientific explanation he gives may be correct, may be almost-correct or may be made entirely of magical pink unicorns.
Also, the Cheat Day strikes me as genius, just as practical psychology. I expect this to show up in fad diets in the future.
It is a good indicator of your rationality that you have successfully expected the past. Cheat days are not new, they’ve appeared in fad diets in the past, and will almost certainly do so in the future.
http://www.zonediet.com/forums/aft/4522 http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com/features_julieshealthclub/2008/06/pats-junk-foo-1.html
There are lots of other popular diets with time-restricted indulgence, like for example Ori Hofmekler’s Warrior Diet.
Thank you, I hadn’t heard of these. I’m slightly surprised I hadn’t heard of cheat days before. The reason they strike me as brilliant is that so many people (I don’t know a percentage, just that it’s anecdotally common) break their fad diet then give up, and a cheat day channels the urge nicely for me and may do for others.
I’m curious to know how many of us (I raise my own hand here) apparently have genes which do know this.
I’ve never paid much attention to diet beyond “eat what I want when I want”, or exercise beyond “do what I feel like doing” (this does not mean “eat sugar all day and laze around”, but it doesn’t resemble Tim Ferriss’ regime either), yet my weight has been around 120-130 pounds for all of my adult life.
Probably not appropriate to ask, but how tall are you? 130 pounds is very light I would imagine if you are a man.
It’s hardly a private attribute! I am 5′ 7″. And male, as my name suggests.
Fairly normal it would seem from a BMI(doesn’t account for body composition) context.
I’ve been following that regimen lately and am 5′10“/5′11” and 130 pounds. I am 19 years old though, there are probably a lot of people my age who manage the same trick. I’ve noticed there seem to be a lot more >6′1“ skinny guys than <6′1”. I’m not sure if that’s just ’cuz better general genetic fitness, specializing in attractiveness, the mechanics of anatomy, halo effect, not-necessarily-genetic racial differences, and/or many other possible factors.
Like me! I’m a year younger, but our height/weight stats are incredibly similar (I think you’re a bit taller).
My daughter seems to. Her mother and older sister are both stick figures (the middle sister takes a little more after her father, who was plumpish), and she tends not to eat all of any given meal and never has. (Though on Saturday she ate chocolate until she threw up, and thereby learnt an important lesson about gorging oneself on chocolate … maybe.)
Ferriss also has a suggested plan for skinny guys who want to bulk up, FWIW.
I prefer to address function and let form follow.
Interesting coincidence, I hadn’t seen this thread when it was posted, and yet I independently decided to go ahead with this and buy the book Monday (June 13) and start it the evening of the next day.
So far I’m just doing the slow-carb diet and the testosterone-promoting protein shake (whole milk + eggs + cinammon + almond butter). I haven’t done the specific exercises he mentioned, but I did do some strength training since he mentioned it’s important to go along with the shake.
No real noticeable progress so far, since I’m only about 3 days into it, but strangely enough (for me) I was able to keep carbs and fruit out completely! Some of the stuff (mainly the shake) made me sick to my stomach a few hours later but didn’t lead to anything further like vomiting. Will keep the group posted.