Slow Carb Diet

When you ask someone what their fitness goals are, the majority of the time they will tell you they want to lose weight.  One of the best diets for fat loss is the Slow Carb Diet, which I read about in The Four Hour Body, by Tim Ferriss.  None of the CAB (Certified Awesome Blog) writers use this diet, but that's just because we have different goals.  This diet is not the best way to get big, build muscle, or get stronger. It is, however, one of the best and quickest ways to lose weight in a healthy way. Here are the guidelines of the diet:

  

Avoid white carbs 

This mean no rice, potatoes, flour, fried foods, breading or bread.  The only exception is within 1.5 hours after training.

Eat as much as you want of these foods

Protein

Egg whites with one whole egg for flavor

Chicken breast or thigh

Grass-feed organic beef

Pork

Legumes

Lentils

Black beans

Pinto beans

Vegetables

Spinach

Peas

Asparagus

Mixed vegetables

When eating out ask if you can substitute salad or vegetables for fries or potatoes.  The best fast food that fits this diet would be Mexican food, just ask for vegetables instead of rice. Since white carbs are being eliminated most people find a severe loss of energy when dieting.  Half a cup of rice is 300 calories while half a cup of spinach is only 15 calories.  It takes an ungodly amount of vegetables to equal the calories lost from eliminating the white carbs, that's why the legumes are so important.  

Also many say you should eat 6 or more meals a day.  This is pretty hard especially someone working a 9-5 job or say someone who makes sauce 12 hours a day, 6 days a week (inside joke).  Your metabolism won't be affected unless you deprive your body of calories for at least 24 hours.  Try to eat 4 meals; breakfast, lunch, small snack, dinner.

Don't drink calories

Drink tons of water and as much unsweetened iced tea, tea, coffee (no cream), or other no-calorie/low calorie beverages as you'd like.  No milk, regular soft drinks, or fruit juice.  You can have a glass of wine a day, Tim actually found that this aids sports recovery and fat-loss.

Take one day off per week

Have a scheduled cheat day, try to keep it the same day every week.  Eat ANYTHING YOU WANT. Ice cream, candy, pizza, whatever, go for it.  The spike in calories once a week actually helps you lose weight by making sure your metabolism doesn't get to used to the same amount of caloric intake.  

Once again this is strictly for weight loss.  Remember no diet or fitness plan is perfect.  Can I guarantee this will work for everyone? NO, but people have taken the time to do the research and this is probably your best bet.  Don't take everything you read or hear as gospel.  Ask questions, find the facts.

Dare to be awesome!