Housecleaning and Clarifications: Blog Content, 4HB Corrections, Competition Winners, Slow-Carb Mistakes, and More 1,980 Comments

1,980 Responses to “Housecleaning and Clarifications: Blog Content, 4HB Corrections, Competition Winners, Slow-Carb Mistakes, and More”

• Aaron
  January 25th, 2012
  11:17 am
  

  It’s not about carb speed, it’s about carb quantity…

  It’s same glucose in the end, so stick with the tasty carbs :)

  Reply
• Becky M.
  January 31st, 2012
  1:58 pm
  

  So I started the slow carb lifestyle again about 3 weeks ago, and I feel great, but just as before,I wish I was getting results. I lost inches when I did slow carb last winter, but slowly. I am female, 29, 180 lbs. My menu is as follows ( i follow it as strictly as possible):
  B:
  1/2 c. egg whites
  1/2 c. green veg.
  1 tsp. macademia nut oil
  1/2 c. beans
  1/2 c. cottage cheese
  L:

  4 oz. lean protein (chicken,beef,salmon)
  1/2 c. beans
  1 c. green veg.
  1 tsp. oil
  2nd small lunch:

  2 eggs
  OR
  3 oz. chicken,beef,salmon
  D:

  6 oz. chicken,beef,salmon
  1 c. green veg.
  I do excercise,body weight stuff shown in the book and some cardio,horseback riding, yoga.
  Any thoughts? Thanks!

  Reply
• Skippygirl
  February 1st, 2012
  3:48 am
  

  Well I am coming up to the one year anniversary of starting the SCD – on Feb 8th last year I changed my whole eating regime to SCD.

  I am at my wit’s end trying to hack it to work. 48 year old mother of two, started at 72 kg, now 66kg and going nowhere.

  I lost 6kg in the first 8 weeks and nothing since. I now suspect it was really only water due to the severely reduced carb intake.

  I did the exercises and 8kg kettlebell swings at home initially and then in September I started with a personal trainer doing 2 sessions a week of 45 mins high intensity/interval Girevoy style training. I now use the 12kg kettlebell. I do the abs workout etc at home.

  I have tried tweeking everything and nothing changes. According to the DEXA scan I had on Feb 17 last year when I had lost a few kgs, I had 7kg of fat I could safely lose.

  Since then the scales just do not change and neither do my measurements, and I still have the (smaller) spare tire just above the hips so not much has changed visibly either.

  I’ve tried:
  No alcohol – no difference
  Alcholol – no difference
  Adding heaps more beans – no difference
  Upping chicken and fish and reducing red meat – no difference
  On PAGG – no difference
  No PAGG – no difference

  I am certainly fitter and my legs are now rock hard, I can see some tone and muscle around the biceps and shoulders but still the layers of fat are there and my measurements are not reducing.

  I’m going back for a 2nd DEXA scan in a week or so and I’m pretty confident my body composition and fat ratio are not changed much.

  Does anyone at all have any ideas??? Have any women successfully taken off around 12kg and got their bodyfat ratio right down to where they are lean and strong?

  In the absence of any ideas or suggestions I really can’t keep going without getting any results. I had hoped it would be “rapid fat loss” but it hasn’t been so I will have to hit the research and try another approach.

  My daily calorie intake averages 1200, and carbs total around 75-100 most days. I drink 1.5 litres of water a day on average.

  I really only have a binge meal on Saturday nights rather than a binge day. I certainly can’t eat much junk or sugar anymore. “Binge” really means I have a cafe latte and a bread roll, rice and maybe Thai food.

  Thanks in advance.

  Reply
  • etienne taylor
    February 3rd, 2012
    1:47 pm
    

    Hi there Skippy(gir)

    I am a middle aged guy who used Tim’s SCD with a few modifications (no beans, no cheat days) and lost +/- 70 lbs. (My guess is that you may not be consuming enough protein.)

    SCD can be tweaked in other ways of course. Several have worked for me but this is exactly what I do. (based on a post from Chris @ Athletic Greens)

    1. Aim for a DAILY intake of 1 gram of protein per lb of bodyweight or more. Break this protein intake over each of your daily meals and make getting in that quota your priority at every meal. Eat your protein until you are about 75-80% of the way to satiety, check for fats, fill up on veges.

    2. Fat SECOND. After you get your real food protein down, ensure you are getting some healthy, quality, FATS at every meal.

    If you cook in coconut oil, limit omega 6 intake, eat little or no chicken and nothing for protein (careful whey protein consumption is okay) but grass fed meat, wild caught fish such as salmon, anchovies, and sardines, game meats and wild fowl, and vegetables, you are probably good to go without any supplementation other then half the recommended high dose of fish oil.

    You are aiming for a 1:1 to 1:3 ratio (you need a LOT more omega 3 and a lot LESS omega 6 to get this balance). We do this two ways. 1) LIMIT Omega 6 intake. 2) TOP up Omega 3 intake.

    To top up Omega 3, do the following….

    Take down a tablespoon or a handful of fish oil caps (liquid is much more convenient for me, pills when I travel only) with every meal. Work up to 10-50 GRAMS per DAY.

    Daily amount as follows:

    50 grams if you are more than 30lbs overweight, any of your joints hurt, or you suffer any form of auto-immune or inflammatory disease. If you are anywhere in between, I recommend you continually build up towards 50 grams until you CAN see your abs, then drop back down to the 10 grams per day level.

    Divide your daily intake across your meals equally.

    Cook in coconut oil (low to high heat), or in the animal’s own fat (or rendered lard from grass-fed animals, if you can find it).

    3. Veges THIRD. Yes, third. Fill up (keep going until you achieve satiety) with green, nutrient dense veges.

    Just close out the meal and keep chomping until you are no longer hungry.

    Limit fruit, eat NO carbs at all other than those naturally occurring in your vegetable selection, and only drink sugar-free, unsweetened beverages.

    4. SUPPLEMENTS: Fish oil for Omega 3s and to combat inflammation, and Vitamin D3, ALA, NAC, Magnesium and Iodine

    Chris’s “Don’t Ever” list follows:

    NO GLUTEN. Remember the “no anti-nutrients”? Gluten is the king of anti-nutrients. So that means not today, not on a cheat day, not once in the next 30 days, and ideally not ever. You are welcome.
    NO GRAINS, NO CEREALS and NO LEGUMES. Sorry, they are OUT for my version of the fat loss cure. While legumes are by far a “lessor evil” when compared to gluten, the anti-nutrient content (lignans, lectin, saponins) plus the carb content rules them out. All cereals and all grains out means no quinoa, no oats, no brown rice.
    NO JUICE. No juice….no juice. NOT ONCE.
    NO DAIRY: including milk, cheese, whey protein, cottage cheese or anything else.
    LIMIT FRUIT to post work out only, one serving or less (on average) per workout, until you are lean. Best choices are melons or berries. Limit means exactly that.

    NOTES:

    What about eating grain fed meat? Avoid it whenever budget and availability allow, those cows are unhealthy and have a messed up omega 3 to omega 6 ratio (omega 6 heavy, frequently higher than 1:20), but if you have to, go for the leanest cut you can (the fat on grain fed meat is BAD). PLUS automatic 10 grams of fish oil, every time.

    Any meal that is made up of grass fed meat, wild salmon, anchovies, or sardines, you can halve the fish oil.

    You do this for 30 to 60 days, then back fish oil down to 25 +/- grams per day

    I eat a lot of egg whites, I do consume high quality whey protein powder and do NOT eat much chicken or fowl.

    Lastly. Sleep. If you are not getting your sleep it is very hard to lose weight or even be healthy. (Tim’s bit on sleep is great)

    Good luck

    Best

    Etienne

    Reply
    • Skippygirl
      February 3rd, 2012
      8:34 pm
      

      Thank you Etienne,

      I very much appreciate you taking the time to help me.

      From reading your post I am going to make these changes:

      1. Start tracking protein intake – I’ll need 145g per day based on your ratio.
      2. Cut out chicken. This means I’ll be having grass fed beef, lamb and pork, white fish and salmon. (I can’t do anchovies).
      3. I’ll switch my macadamia oil for cooking to coconut oil if I can find it. Not common here in Australia.
      4. I’ll start the fish oil tables or liquid.
      5. No cereal, legumes, grain etc all sounds a bit like Paleo (which I just read). At the moment I only have a bread roll for lunch on Saturdays and maybe some pasta or rice at Saturday dinner. I’ll try to cut them out for 4 weeks and judge the results. The thing I liked about SCD was it’s sustainable. I’m not sure that no grains etc is sustainable long term. But I’ll try it.

      I’ve begun a written food diary now to get the stats on daily calorie intake, carb intake and protein intake.

      Thanks again. I am determined to get this fat off. I just have to keep modifying the plan until something starts to move it.

      Cheers

      Skippy

  • Marci
    April 27th, 2012
    11:22 am
    

    Hi Skippygirl,

    Thanks for all the info. I’m Marci and your daily menu looks really close to mine. Except my doc has advised to limit my water to 2 slurpy-sized glasses since too much water was flooding out my elecro-lites-(easy cure is Gatorade or Propell).

    Anyway, I’m going in circles too so if you receive any advice would you please forward same to me.

    THANKS. I’m hanging in for another month and then things gotta change.

    Reply
    • Skippygirl
      April 27th, 2012
      7:46 pm
      

      Hi Marci,

      A fellow plateau-er! How much do you need to lose?

      I adopted the changes I listed after reading Etienne’s post, and managed to drop 1kg, but cannot get any lower than 65kg and in fact most days I’m between 65 and 66kg. I was gobbling handfuls of fish oil tabs, which filled me up on their own haha.
      I started using the MyFitnessPal iPhone app to track my daily nutrition intake and it confirmed that I have 1200 cals every day, but I found it hard to reach 145g of protein every day. I just couldn’t eat that much beef, pork, lamb, fish or eggs.
      I had another DEXA scan just after my post, and at least I had some good news. It was almost a year to the day since I had the first one, and even though the scales had not changed much it showed I had lost about 3% body fat, 2.4kg of actual fat, and gained 0.8kg of muscle.
      I was delighted at the fat loss (even though it had taken a year) but a bit disappointed with the muscle gain. Even my personal trainer was surprised because with the twice-weekly Girevoy kettle bell training (and it’s bloody hard 16kg or 12kg work, I almost vomit from 16kg deep squats!) I do now have very toned and muscly shoulders and arms (with a little fat layer over the top but if I flex I look awesome!), my legs are really hard and my bum has lifted a bit.
      I just still have this layer of fat around the torso that is driving me crazy as it won’t go. My pot belly is gone ad I have a general slimmish profile, but there is no definition because the fat is still there.
      Most frustrating I see no change to measurements since a year ago.
      The DEXA scan said I was now in the “normal” range, but I could lose 4-7kg of fat and be in the “lean” range. All I want is the 4kg off at least.
      So I’ve decided to give Etienne’s theory another 4 week crack, and have added at an-home-on-Sunday 30 min kettle bell swing workout with the 12kg (I got Tracy Reifkind’s book for her 30 min workout plans) to try to add an effective cardio session. Somehow I am just not burning fat so that is the next hack I am trying.
      Let me know how you go, what works for you, any ideas.
      S

• William Reid
  February 3rd, 2012
  9:40 pm
  

  Well this is interesting/disturbing:

  http://www.sharkpatrol.co.nz/blog/2011/04/promoter-of-property-schemes-to-pay-reparation-for-fair-trading-act-breaches/

  Seems the front man for Athletic Greens and BrainQuicken has some issues. Perhaps Tim et al would be willing to comment. It is ironic, since I found this only after signing up to buy the Greens. Are we being scammed?

  Reply
  • etienne taylor
    February 4th, 2012
    12:18 am
    

    William,

    I know Chris a little bit. He has gone out of his way to help me through a sports injury and answered the many follow up questions I had without ever asking me for anything.

    As it happens I don’t use Athletic Greens but I will vouch for Chris Ashenden personally.

    Thank you

    Etienne Taylor

    Reply
    • William Reid
      February 4th, 2012
      1:00 pm
      

      Thanks for that, Etienne. I certainly hope your impression is accurate.

• Alison
  February 5th, 2012
  11:41 am
  

  Becky M. and Skippygirl,

  When a low to no carb diet isn’t working it is often a good idea to have one’s thyroid and adrenals checked out by a Naturopath (preferably) or MD. I recently had a client who was following the slow carb diet and she just could not shed the pounds. I sent her to a naturopath and she came back with the diagnosis of hypothyroidism. Issues with the thyroid are becoming more and more prevalent as toxins in our environment and food continue to stress and deplete our bodies.

  Also, I sponsor a facebook page called The Four Hour Body for Women. I started this page b/c women often have issues that aren’t as common in men (namely hormones) and want to discuss more personal issues. So feel free to join us there! You may run into other women with similar struggles.

  Reply
  • Skippygirl
    April 27th, 2012
    7:31 pm
    

    Thanks Alison I’ll give your FB page a read.

    Reply
• Alison
  February 5th, 2012
  11:55 am
  

  Really what Etienne has described here is a healing the gut diet. 80% of our health lies in our gut and if that isn’t working properly then all hell breaks loose. Many people are diagnosed as gluten intolerant, or allergic to gluten, but in truth, they need to cut out all grains, all legumes, all dairy, all coffee (even decaf), and caffeinated tea and let their gut heal. This can take as little as 6 months and as long as 2 years, depending on how bad the damage is and how strict you are on the diet.

  You can also treat this as an “elimination diet” where you cut out all of these things for 2-4 weeks and then add foods back. I’m currently doing this. Next week (hopefully) I’ll be adding back wheat on one day, waiting to see if I have any reactions (bloating, intestinal distress, allergies, inflammation) and then after 2 days I’ll be trying out eggs, waiting for a day or two to see if I have any reactions, and go on from there.

  If you want more information you can search for GAPS diet and elimination diet or you can find Healthnutnation on Facebook and I’ll send you the links directly.

  Reply
• Liz
  February 6th, 2012
  7:51 pm
  

  Thanks for all the 4HB clarifications Tim. This is my second time on the 4HB (1st was just prior to xmas 2010, going to (strictly) 1st week in Feb. Just in that time both myself & my partner had happy success on the 4HB) and I’m already seeing progress after 9 days. (I don’t *see* it, my tape measure tells me!) I have all the rules on sticky notes next to my computer at work. This time around is easier, if only because I’m NOT working at a cafe/bakery like last time! Oh, all the temptation!!

  At the moment, I’m struggling with getting to sleep every odd night, and bloating during the day, although this seems to settle of an evening.

  I’m hesitantly drinking a whey protein shake within 1/2 hour of waking of a morning, if only because I have an hour long commute (not in a train, driving) and eating breakfast & driving doesn’t really go together. I’m slightly concerned about the ingredients in the shake, but am going to see if it inhibits my weight loss before giving it up completely. It IS providing me with 33g protein within 1/2 of waking, which is super important.

  THANKS SO MUCH TIM.

  Reply
• B.M.
  February 7th, 2012
  4:40 pm
  

  My cheat days are on Sundays-I follow instructions from the book. I hold mt water from the day until about Wednesday I notice, wondering what other people’s experience is. Thank you

  Reply
• Crystal
  February 14th, 2012
  3:41 pm
  

  Does anyone have suggestions for breakfast other than cooking something all the time? I would love if we could have a shake to drink while I am getting ready…

  Reply
  • Crystal
    February 15th, 2012
    10:08 am
    

    I just have to say, I love this diet. I started it on Monday after having a pig out day on Sunday, and I am already down two pounds after following it strictly for 2 days. This morning was tough as I did not have time to cook breakfast before having to leave the house, but did find someone’s suggestion for a Protein shake with unsweetened Whey and unsweetened cocoa powder that looks great. I can’t wait for Monday’s weigh in!!

    Reply
• Alison
  February 15th, 2012
  1:28 pm
  

  A couple of things:

  Crystal, welcome! A quick suggestion that you take some time and read earlier posts. We’ve taken the time to answer a lot of questions (many over and over) throughout the past year that I think you will find helpful.

  If you click on my name it will take you to my website which has a couple of videos with 4 hour body recipes, one of which is a smoothie/shake. You can also find it on Youtube on healthnutnation channel.

  Mercola recently put out an article on brown fat and how using ice therapy revs up the metabolism and increases fat burning. The Four Hour body is mentioned in his article. I never know if his links will work for others as you may have to subscribe to view it. Here’s the link anyway: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/02/13/scientists-find-brown-fat-to-help-lose-weight.aspx?e_cid=20120213_DNL_art_1

  Reply
  • Crystal
    February 16th, 2012
    9:49 am
    

    Thank you Alison. I did read most of the old posts, but there were so many in just this portion of the blog alone it was hard to get through them all in less than 3 days.

    One more question I have not seen answered. I chew gum or suck on a mint (for fresh breath) all the time. Is that detrimental?

    Reply
• David
  February 28th, 2012
  5:09 am
  

  Tim

  Maybe something left out here in your book??

  Didn’t see it in your typos section above or in the comments:

  Regarding the training plan for the ultramarathon I have been wondering how you achieve 800m on 2:30 (week 2) or even on 2:00 (week 3). Of course, you are supposedly “super human” but are you really that fast?? Now in week 3, I realized that this maybe is supposed to be ‘on 2:30 rest’ or ‘on 2:00 rest’, respectively, since that’s how it is stated on Tuesday in week 3 for the 10x200m sprints.

  Can you confirm? Because if ’800m on 2:00′ is supposed to mean: “if you finish earlier than 2:00 then the remaining time up to 2:00 is rest”, then this is BS. Sorry to say so, but I am assuming that we’re talking here about people who have -like you- never ran a marathon before or even hate running and do the training mostly for the ‘bucket list’. How can someone like that, or even you despite being ‘Super Human’, run 4x800m on 2:00 and still have time left for a minimal recovery? :)

  Regards from Greece, where I am following your plan for a 66k alpine run and where I also report to my blog readers about the progress once a week,

  David

  Reply
• Larry
  March 2nd, 2012
  9:40 am
  

  Tim/ folks – Got the 4HrBody from my cardiologist (!) and it’s a game changer for me, in the dialogue and the clarity – thank you.

  Now on 2nd day of Slow Carb Diet (LOVE it, and THANK YOU Tim) – HOWEVER, I bought a couple bags of frozen mixed “vegetables” and couldn’t help but notice that CORN dominates each bag – after reading the section on Fructose, I thought “heck is corn even really a vegetable?” I know it’s the basis for high fructose corn syrup, and it’s the number one ingredient in most bad things out there today, and if you just look at it, it looks and positions an awful lot like FRUIT…

  I googled, and it is NOT! Corn is technically a grain, specifically a dried fruit. So, (1) I’m guessing if someone is struggling, and corn finds its way into your Slow Carb setup, perhaps you should pull it (like I’m going to do) and see what happens.

  Tim – great book, breakthrough thinking – what do YOU think of this?

  Reply
• Rebecca
  March 6th, 2012
  9:08 am
  

  I really want to thank Tim for writing the 4hb! This book has changed my life, and the lives of many of my friends. Last year I saw him on the Dr Oz show, and the diet just made sense, so I tried it. I eventually lost 40lbs before going into a plateau.

  I gave it to my co-worker who was running five miles a day and not losing weight, and he lost 50 or so pounds by the end of the summer. He gave it to his dad and mom, and his wife, with varied results. So, it works!

  What I absolutely love about it is the simplicity. People tend to want to make everything seem very complicated (look at a fair amount of books on homebrewing), but really, if it’s overly complicated then 99% of people won’t do it. On top of that, Tim makes you responsible for your results. I plateaued last year. I didn’t know why, so I ended up stopping the diet. I started it back up again a few weeks ago and have not had the same results as last time (1-2lbs per week loss instead of 5lbs+ per week). SO, like Tim said, I took a good hard look at what I was eating/drinking now that was different from last year.
  My conclusion? Around the time my weight plateaued last year I started drinking 0sugar 0carb energy drinks. I figured “hey, it’s 16oz, it’s sugar free… should be ok”. What have I been drinking lately? Sugar free carb free energy drinks. Conclusion? Cut them out for a few weeks and see if my hypothesis is correct.

  So, thank you Tim. Even if I’m wrong, I’m still eating much healthier than before. On top of that, trying to find out what I’m doing wrong is making me be more aware of what I’m ingesting.

  Reply
• Tim Ferriss
  March 8th, 2012
  6:02 pm
  

  Thank you for the wonderful report, Rebecca! Totally made my day.

  I would definitely suspect the artificial sweeteners and so on in the drink, as you hypothesized. Keep us posted!

  All the best,

  Tim

  Reply
• NLI
  March 17th, 2012
  12:37 pm
  

  My husband started your diet 2 months ago and I wanted to join in on his guilt-free Saturday splurge day. I’m a healthy, lean 55 yr old female, trying to add muscle mass so I can be physically active the next 50 years. My only health problem is that I have a low thyroid (I’m on a daily 75 mcg of levothyroxine). Will this be a problem with your diet?

  Enjoyed your book!

  Reply
  • Alison
    March 19th, 2012
    8:54 pm
    

    There are quite a few previous posts on the subject of thyroid issues that you may want to check out.

    Reply
• Alison
  March 19th, 2012
  8:57 pm
  

  Previously there’s been quite a bit of discussion around protein powder so I thought I’d let you all know that I’ve recently posted a video on whey protein concentrate vs. whey protein isolate that lists the pros and cons. It’s meant to be informational, not definitive (meaning you still need to decide for yourself which one is best for you). Click on my name to view.
  Enjoy!

  Reply
• David
  March 25th, 2012
  7:27 am
  

  something missing in the ultra training plan?

  Tim

  In week 6 on Tuesday it says: “1 min on 3 min x 5″… What’s that supposed to be? In case indeed something’s missing here then also the German translators didn’t really care of finding out what’s missing here because the DE translation has an exact (incomplete?) translation of the EN.

  Thanks in advance for the update, although this week is alreadyover for me so I had to skip that exersice.

  Regards from Greece,
  David

  Reply
• Jack
  March 30th, 2012
  9:38 am
  

  Anyone know what the status of the paid forum is? I’d be well up for paying the tenner a month

  Reply
• Marci
  April 10th, 2012
  11:37 am
  

  Thanks Tim for the 4HB lifestyle. I’m using your book information as a start here point and continue to develope what works/not works for me. Ex – I can’t get away with a glass of wine BUT I have no problem and actually loose better with (cap) 4 oz of cheese daily (any natural). WHICH PROVES EVERY BODY’S NEEDS ARE A LITTLE DIFFERENT. Thank you for the main blue print so I can figure what works for me. Each day I eat regular meals of 40+% protein and whenever I want to munch I (priorly set up a 3 cup bowl of seasoned/roasted garbonzo beans) get a 1/2 cup of the garbonzos (they travel well). I use my ‘cheat’ day to eat any cravings and consume fruit. All is going well.

  Reply
• Brendan W.
  April 14th, 2012
  2:30 pm
  

  Hi Tim (and other smart people)

  I’m a little confused with recommendations related to cholesterol. In the PAGG chapter, Policosanol is a supplement that reduces that cholesterol, but in the Sex Machine I chapter, it seems that reducing cholesterol also reduces testosterone. Does that mean that using Policosanol will ultimately reduce testosterone? I know there’s a difference between dietary cholesterol and body cholesterol levels, in Sex Machine you make the comment that you “had obsessed over lowering my total cholesterol”, which I took to mean body cholesterol levels. Can you clarify?

  BTW, have lost 60 lbs. on slow carb and added a ton of muscle. I look and feel better at 30 years old than I did at 20. Can’t wait for 40. Thanks!

  Reply
• heather rokus
  April 26th, 2012
  7:47 pm
  

  Tim,

  You seem like an awesome person and boy people are critical! Typo smypo, who cares?!

  Your book & diet are great. Guess nobody heard of doing their own research.

  Keep up the good work!

  H

  Reply
• Marci
  April 27th, 2012
  11:02 am
  

  What’s wrong with the following weekly menu. I,m in a circle – what I loose is gained bact on “cheat day”. I’m only loosiing 4 lbs/month.

  OMLETTE
  ALL BREAKFASTS (batch 1/6th) Fat Carb Prot Fiber
  egg (3) x 6 81.0 18.0 108.0 0.0
  onion-pepper-mush 1 cup 0.0 28.0 9.0 8.0
  bacon (2 Tbs) x 6 18.0 0.0 36.0 0.0
  TOMATO raw (1 oz) x 6 0.0 6.0 0.0 9.6
  BEANS garbanzos (1/4 cup) x6 6.0 54.0 18.0 18.0
  TOTALS 105.0 106.0 171.0 35.6
  Balance 25.1% 25.4% 40.9% 8.5%
  6 17.5 17.7 28.5 5.9

  HAM & BEANS w/TOMATILLO
  ALL LUNCHES (batch 1/6th) Fat Carb Prot Fiber
  BEANS navy (1 cup) x6 0.0 228.0 60.0 72.0
  onion 1 cup 0.0 15.0 2.0 3.0
  ADD ham (4 oz each) x 6 12.0 0.0 288.0 0.0
  tomatillo 4 oz 0.0 4.0 0.0 6.4

  TOTALS 12.0 247.0 350.0 81.4
  Balance 1.7% 35.8% 50.7% 11.8%
  6 2.0 41.2 58.3 13.6

  FISH, b-sprouts, gabanzo
  DINNER MONDAY Fat Carb Prot Fiber
  fish tilapia 3 ct 4.5 0.0 69.0 0.0
  BRUSSEL SPROUTS 15 ct 0.0 24.0 9.0 9.0
  BEANS garbanzos 1/2 cup 2.0 18.0 6.0 6.0

  TOTALS 6.5 42.0 84.0 15.0
  Balance 4.4% 28.5% 56.9% 10.2%
  1 6.5 42.0 84.0 15.0

  STEAK, cauliflower, lima
  DINNER TUESDAY Fat Carb Prot Fiber
  steak rib-eye 8 oz 24.0 0.0 48.0 0.0
  cauliflower 2.5 cups 0.0 10.0 2.5 2.5
  BEANS lima 1/2 cup 0.5 17.0 4.0 4.0

  TOTALS 24.5 27.0 54.5 6.5
  Balance 21.8% 24.0% 48.4% 5.8%
  1 24.5 27.0 54.5 6.5

  SALMON, broccoli, garbanzo
  DINNER WEDNESDAY Fat Carb Prot Fiber
  salmon blackened 6 oz 19.0 7.0 34.0 0.0
  BRUSSEL SPROUTS 10 0.0 16.0 6.0 6.0
  BEANS garbanzos 1/2 cup 2.0 18.0 6.0 6.0

  TOTALS 21.0 41.0 46.0 12.0
  Balance 17.5% 34.2% 38.3% 10.0%
  1 21.0 41.0 46.0 12.0

  HAMBURGER + PMO
  DINNER THURSDAY Fat Carb Prot Fiber
  sirloin lean 8 oz 22.0 0.0 46.0 0.0
  onion 1/4 cup 0.0 4.0 0.5 0.8
  pickles 6 avg 0.0 3.0 0.0 0.0
  BEANS garbanzos 1/2 cup 2.0 18.0 6.0 6.0

  TOTALS 24.0 25.0 52.5 6.8
  Balance 22.2% 23.1% 48.5% 6.2%
  1 24.0 25.0 52.5 6.8

  SHRIMP, broccoli, garbanzo
  DINNER FRIDAY Fat Carb Prot Fiber
  shrimp 12 oz 4.0 0.0 72.0 0.0
  BROCCOLI 1 box 0.0 12.0 3.0 6.0
  BEANS garbanzos 1/2 cup 2.0 18.0 6.0 6.0

  TOTALS 6.0 30.0 81.0 12.0
  Balance 4.6% 23.3% 62.8% 9.3%
  1 6.0 30.0 81.0 12.0

  PIZZA CHICKEN w/ZUCCHINI
  DINNER SATURDAY Fat Carb Prot Fiber
  chicken 6 oz 6.0 0.0 48.0 0.0
  ZUCCHINI 13 oz 0.0 13.0 0.0 16.9
  onion 1 cup 0.0 15.0 2.0 3.0
  pizza sauce 1/4 cup 1.5 4.0 1.0 1.0
  BEANS garbanzos 1/4 cup 1.0 9.0 3.0 3.0
  TOTALS 8.5 41.0 54.0 23.9
  Balance 6.7% 32.2% 42.4% 18.8%
  1 8.5 41.0 54.0 23.9

  FREE DAY SUNDAY

  THANKS FOR ANY AND ALL HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  Reply
  • etienne taylor
    April 27th, 2012
    11:36 am
    

    Marci,

    You have a healthy diet. Without knowing more I couldn’t say for sure why you’ve stalled. I’d suspect a few too many beans. I’d cut those out altogether and replace them with veggies. Maybe try a healthy breakfast on your cheat day as well. He is a recycled post that has know worked to for the 8-9 people I’ve been able to encourage to follow it.
    ———-
    I am a middle aged guy who used Tim’s SCD with a few modifications (no beans, no cheat days) and lost +/- 70 lbs.

    SCD can be tweaked in other ways of course. Several have worked for me but this is exactly what I do. (based on a post from Chris @ Athletic Greens)

    1. Aim for a DAILY intake of 1 gram of protein per lb of bodyweight or more. Break this protein intake over each of your daily meals and make getting in that quota your priority at every meal. Eat your protein until you are about 75-80% of the way to satiety, check for fats, fill up on veges.

    2. Fat SECOND(fish oil). After you get your real food protein down, ensure you are getting some healthy, quality, FATS at every meal.

    If you cook in coconut oil, limit omega 6 intake, eat little or no chicken and nothing for protein (careful whey protein consumption is okay) but grass fed meat, wild caught fish such as salmon, anchovies, and sardines, game meats and wild fowl, and vegetables, you are probably good to go without any supplementation other then half the recommended high dose of fish oil.

    You are aiming for a 1:1 to 1:3 ratio (you need a LOT more omega 3 and a lot LESS omega 6 to get this balance). We do this two ways. 1) LIMIT Omega 6 intake. 2) TOP up Omega 3 intake.

    To top up Omega 3, do the following….

    Take down a tablespoon or a handful of fish oil caps (liquid is much more convenient for me, pills when I travel only) with every meal. Work up to 10-50 GRAMS per DAY.

    Daily amount as follows:

    50 grams if you are more than 30lbs overweight, any of your joints hurt, or you suffer any form of auto-immune or inflammatory disease. If you are anywhere in between, I recommend you continually build up towards 50 grams until you CAN see your abs, then drop back down to the 10 grams per day level.

    Divide your daily intake across your meals equally.

    Cook in coconut oil (low to high heat), or in the animal’s own fat (or rendered lard from grass-fed animals, if you can find it).

    3. Veges THIRD. Yes, third. Fill up (keep going until you achieve satiety) with green, nutrient dense veges.

    Just close out the meal and keep chomping until you are no longer hungry.

    Limit fruit, eat NO carbs at all other than those naturally occurring in your vegetable selection, and only drink sugar-free, unsweetened beverages.

    4. SUPPLEMENTS: Fish oil for Omega 3s and to combat inflammation, and Vitamin D3, ALA, NAC, Magnesium and Iodine

    Chris’s “Don’t Ever” list follows:

    NO GLUTEN. Remember the “no anti-nutrients”? Gluten is the king of anti-nutrients. So that means not today, not on a cheat day, not once in the next 30 days, and ideally not ever. You are welcome.
    NO GRAINS, NO CEREALS and NO LEGUMES. Sorry, they are OUT for my version of the fat loss cure. While legumes are by far a “lessor evil” when compared to gluten, the anti-nutrient content (lignans, lectin, saponins) plus the carb content rules them out. All cereals and all grains out means no quinoa, no oats, no brown rice.
    NO JUICE. No juice….no juice. NOT ONCE.
    NO DAIRY: including milk, cheese, whey protein, cottage cheese or anything else.
    LIMIT FRUIT to post work out only, one serving or less (on average) per workout, until you are lean. Best choices are melons or berries. Limit means exactly that.

    NOTES:

    What about eating grain fed meat? Avoid it whenever budget and availability allow, those cows are unhealthy and have a messed up omega 3 to omega 6 ratio (omega 6 heavy, frequently higher than 1:20), but if you have to, go for the leanest cut you can (the fat on grain fed meat is BAD). PLUS automatic 10 grams of fish oil, every time.

    Any meal that is made up of grass fed meat, wild salmon, anchovies, or sardines, you can halve the fish oil.

    You do this for 30 to 60 days, then back fish oil down to 25 +/- grams per day

    I eat a lot of egg whites, I do consume high quality whey protein powder and do NOT eat much chicken or fowl.

    Lastly. Sleep. If you are not getting your sleep it is very hard to lose weight or even be healthy. (Tim’s bit on sleep is great)

    Good luck

    Best

    Etienne

    Reply
    • Jake
      April 27th, 2012
      12:07 pm
      

      Etienne,
      I’ve been reading this comments section for quite some time and i have to say, 1g of protein per lb of bodyweight seems like a crazy amount. For me at my current weight, I’d have to try and find a way to get 270g protein per day. Even if I weighed 200lbs, that would seem like a lot.

      How do you manage to get all that protein daily?
      I’m using whey protein powder some mornings as is, but i may be getting around 80-90g on a good day.

      I’d appreciate any direction you or others would recommend.

  • pdxhollym
    April 27th, 2012
    8:53 pm
    

    Marci,

    As a women approaching 50 and doing this and tweaking it for a long time, I can tell you if I were you, I would cut the beans and increase the natural fat. I eat mostly meat, fish, eggs, veggies, & natural fats from good sources (grass fed/pastured/wild caught/organic). No industrial seed oils, no gluten ever, cheat MEAL once a week. I had been “stuck” for a while and did that plus I do a “bulletproof coffee” for breakfast rather than the protein shake. I feel SO much better not eating SO much protein but adding more natural fat. We are all a bit different and need to tweak and body hack just as Tim did to find our “sweet spot”. Good luck!

    Reply
    • pdxhollym
      April 27th, 2012
      8:55 pm
      

      oops, please excuse my typos!

    • pdxhollym
      April 27th, 2012
      8:56 pm
      

      p.s. Bulletproof coffee can be found online-do a Google search.

• etienne taylor
  April 30th, 2012
  1:34 pm
  

  Hey Jake,

  200lbs grams of protein a day for a 200lbs man is an awful lot. It is hard to tweak a normal high sugar diet and land land there. You do have to sort of start over and build your meals around a protein source. Protein comes naturally packed with high quality healthy fat (if you don’t eat commercially raised meats or fish). Eating protein and fat until you are about 75% full and then moving on to your veggies should do the trick without having to count)

  Even still I cheat and consume 25 (sometimes 50) grams of protein in a whey shake within a 1/2 hour of waking. An hour or an hour and a half later I’ll have an omelette with another 100 grams of protein.

  Everyday at lunch I’ll have a salad as big as my head (I have a big head) with an avocado, beets, onion, tomatoes, shredded carrots, sprouts, radish, dried tart cherries, cucumber, red pepper and fresh blueberries/strawberries/pomegranate. (Dressing: FRESH lemon juice, balsamic, olive oil and mustard) + 1lbs of wild caught fish (Salmon, Ahi, etc.)

  Dinner is ANOTHER salad + more fish or grass fed meat.

  I only work out twice a week. I lift heavy and swing around an 80lbs kettle-bell. On those days I consume an addition 50 grams of protein in pre and post workout drinks.

  Dense salads, no beans and a couple pounds of protein from wild fish and/or “clean” meat sources + an indecent amount of fish oil and Bob’s your Uncle.

  I hope that this helps.

  Thank you

  Etienne

  Reply
• Marci
  May 3rd, 2012
  1:16 pm
  

  Eitenne, Thanks – I’ll try doing my base B-Fast on CDay.

  pdxhollym, Thanks – Need the beans for digestive reasons (per nutritionist & doc). I agree about upping the fats by adding some avocados and walnuts/pistachios. I’m going to check out the Bullet Proof Coffee.

  THANKS to both of you for your help!!!!!!

  Reply
• Marci
  May 3rd, 2012
  1:20 pm
  

  Sorry Etienne for mis-spelling your name. I have a bad habit of typing too fast and not checking.

  Reply
• morgan
  May 7th, 2012
  3:57 pm
  

  Love what you’re doing Tim! I hope to meet you one day. You’re really helping a lot of people while you are making tons of money. That’s the ultimate success story.

  I only have 2 issues so far with 4 hour body.
  #1- Many of us having been getting really into raw organic coconut oil these past few years, and your chart showing it with so much more saturated fat than the others is probably misleading and putting many people off but as you know, all fat is not bad fat. I would love to hear your take on coconut oil (green pastures has just come out with a new line of coconut oil that is incredible as well as their codliver/butter oil products which you already know about)
  #2- Microwave? really? Its very commonly known in the health food world that microwaving your food destroys all nutritional value completely. I can’t imagine “nuking” my food. If you are ‘nuking’ your sauerkraut, for example, you are not getting the live enyzmes you definitely want to be getting. I can’t believe people are still using microwaves in 2012. Its like Japan saying “we have no plans to stop building nuclear power plants, or change our nuclear policy”. HUH?
  Those things just crept into the mainstream over the past few decades and are just commonly accepted nowadays, but that doesn’t make them ‘smart’ or even ‘ok’. That’s not to say that microwaves are as big as problem as the ongoing nuclear threat in Japan, but in the context of a health protocol the microwave really should be removed completely I suspect.

  Reply

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