Slow - Carb Diet (SCD)

Slow - Carb Diet (SCD)

My Birthday is December 1. I am not sure if I am navigating through a life-crisis, or if this is just… life. They told me I was an ‘adult’ when I turned 18. I was not. What does this have to do with nutrition? I guess I never thought much about it, I just went along even if I was eating processed frozen or deep fried crap.  

What I do know: I had lived 37 years of life without giving a second thought to what I put into my body regarding food, alcohol, quantity or quality. I maintained reasonably good health, have always been active and was not overweight.

I must give credit to Tim Ferriss (@tferriss) for rocking my boat. I had just come across the first chapters of 4-hour body. I was intrigued by the concepts:

Small changes for big results. Even I could make small changes.

Minimum Effective Dose. Why would I do more than needed?

As I mentioned here I took to ‘Alternative Training’ methods in hopes of getting a personal best time in a race that never ultimately happened. I have continued to incorporate a mix of methods from 4-hour body.

As I read about Tim’s version of the SCD it seemed like something I could do. On paper, the magnitude of some of the changes seems diminished. The diet is ‘simple’ more than easy. There’s only 4 rules:

1. Avoid ‘White’ Carbs

2. Repeat Same Meals

3. Don’t Drink Calories

4. Take a Cheat Day!

Easy, right? In reality, yes, if you want to do it. So, before I delve too deeply into my experience, I will touch on a couple things I learned and would consider.

First, my wife does a majority of the cooking in our house. Also, she is a bit of a foodie and likes being able to create for us in the kitchen. I hatched this plan on my own, and sorta just jumped in.

Second, we had just gone grocery shopping. Not usually a big deal (although we live in a rural area, so only ‘stock up’ every 2 weeks or so) unless having carbs around will become a temptation, OR if eating group/family meals and the slow-carb meal options are limited.

Initially this created some anger and frustration as well as a feeling of additional work. My wife felt like she had to cook a separate meal for me (and the kids can be picky). She ended up feeling like a short-order cook. Of course you may ask why wouldn’t she just try it? Again I will say it is easy IF you WANT to do it. To this day, she has little interest in giving up her bread.

Tim talks about some of these things, having the right foods around for planned meals. Having partners/roommates know your idea is good for support and understanding. Having a dedicated time window is another key element.

Week One

In Tim’s first chapter he talks about a 20-lb reshape. With this in mind I was to begin a fat-loss regimen, followed by a 10-week Occam’s Protocol. The fat loss regimen was mostly based of the SCD, but I also looked to ice water.

One of the keys of SCD is:

Eat within 1-hour of waking, ideally 30 minutes.

One fat-loss aid he also mentions in his book is cold. Shivering, ice baths or drinking ice water. Specifically drinking 1 L of cold (35F or less) water on an empty stomach can help to burn fat.

My routine was to wake early, drink the cold liter of water I had in the fridge. Then start my eggs and bacon. I went with this because I can eat it every day (Rule 2). I would usually make 3 pieces of bacon, 1 egg/egg white and beans with veggies. I added cut/frozen peppers and onions or spinach with either pinto or black beans and salsa or hot sauce.

Another ‘rule’ is no dairy. Although dairy has a low glycemic index, it is a high ‘insulemic’ index. To start I had coffee with heavy cream (more saturated fat, less lactose), stevia and cinnamon. This was a tough one, I love cream with my coffee. I never fully barred dairy from my diet. In fact, I began relying on dairy to meet my caloric requirements once on Occam’s Protocol. Ultimately I have switched to sugar free powdered creamer.  

I also take a psyllium husk fiber supplement each morning. I switched this to sugar free, and began using ground flax in addition to this (followed with a probiotic from Probiotic America).

My mid-morning hunger was acute. To combat this I started with various frozen vegetables. Peas are one of my favorites. Going with foods that can be frequently repeated pays off. I would have peas and carrots, corn, broccoli, green beans or lima beans. Now I have a serving of peas and lima beans daily.

I almost always have nuts around me now. Tim mentions to limit nuts as a snack. I am active enough that overall caloric intake is not the concern. Mostly the type of calories I consume matters. During the first week I went through jars of peanuts. Now peanuts are almost unbearable to me. I continue to eat mixed nuts regularly but only get without peanuts (or different flavors of Blue Diamond Almonds).

Another advantage is gained through eating frequently, and with at least 30-minute duration. With calorically ‘less-dense’ foods I ended up eating continuously. My mid-morning veggies filled me up for ‘lunch.’ My lunch happened at 2-3 o’clock. After grazing through my day I had to force dinner which was some form of lean protein and beans. (Another household dynamic: My wife started to feel as if I didn’t like her food. In reality I was stuffed full of frickin’ nuts and beans!)

I started this December 14, 2016. It was a Wednesday. I had decided Sunday would be my cheat day. Tim advises you start shortly before a cheat day to ease the transition. I can definitely say I noticed a difference. Cognitively I felt a like I was in a cloud. The first few days my energy levels were hit and miss. Focus was limited. Before I started the SCD I was told my mid-morning headache was from too much sugar (I would eat a banana at 10 AM or so). Now I felt like I had the opposite problem; if I didn’t eat my peas ‘on time’ I would get head-achey.

My first cheat day was welcome. I can’t really recall what I ate, I just remember it was a relief:

For my first week(s) of SCD I found that I had to think before I ate.

This was new to me. I was used to drinking the last bit of my kid’s apple juice, or eating their leftover fruit. Chips left in the bag? I knew what to do with that. It actually happened more than once where I put something in my mouth only to think ‘I can’t eat this’!

Cheat day was back to no thinking. I had free license to eat whatever I wanted, and however much. I noticed I didn’t really ‘go big.’ It was more like an old ‘normal’ day of eating. There were a few things I missed, and made sure to have (cereal, potato chips). I noticed the thought of eating certain things may actually be better than putting them in my body.

Ongoing Diet

After my first cheat day it was back to work. I am (still) working a M-F 9-5 gig. Monday morning at work, I was not that hungry. Energy was medium, sort of normal for a Monday. Generally my activity level was somewhat low at this time in my life. I definitely noticed a sort of ‘big’ feeling. I could feel the water retention, and general ‘carb hangover.’

I remember I was not really weighing myself at this point. I started the whole experiment at about 185 lbs, 18% bodyfat. I wanted to end up about the same weight with about 11% bodyfat (coupled with Occam’s Protocol). Ultimately, this never really happened. What did happen is after the first week, I had to tighten my belt.

I definitely began to shed pounds. I likely ‘bottomed out’ close to 175. I began Occam’s protocol within about a week, and had to add calories (in the form of protein shakes mixed with milk, and spoonfuls of peanut or almond butter, sometimes cheese). I remained vigilant of my diet throughout this process, and did well to gain mostly lean muscle. At age 37 to gain any muscle was a welcome surprise, I’ll write considerably more on this in a post about Occam’s protocol.

My wife believed I would be on the SCD for life. I know that I am changeable and also that I love to eat. Almost a year later I notice I have certainly strayed. I maintained a fully slow-carb existence for at least 2-3 months. After that I began running more (remember, my whole idea was minimal training for maximum change in order to run a 25k). During times I was running I would usually add a serving of brown rice with dinner.

My overall transformation was that I actually gained a few lbs. I am currently around 188lbs or so. Based on my last Dexa scan I am about 15% bodyfat (down from 18%). Most importantly the first Dexa scan showed I had about 1 lb. of ‘bad’ fat around my abdomen. While that’s not much, storing fat in those areas greatly increases risks of many chronic health problems (from Diabetes to Heart disease).

Currently I am mostly ‘off the wagon.’ I start my days on the SCD but beer and bread tend to creep into my nights. Sometimes this creates a cascade and I turn to sweets. The good news is my body tends to reject these things, meaning: Now I feel like crap when I eat like crap. That is a deterrent. Also being mindful of food has become second nature.

Bottom line is I know within a week or two I can control how my body reacts to food and whether or not it will be storing fat. As I mentioned earlier my wife is a foodie. She has wanted to lose about 20lbs for a while (we have two young girls, so the baby weight has been hard to fully kick). She’s reluctant but I may try to convince her to go fully SCD for January. I believe if I do I will easily sink below 12% bodyfat.

Stay tuned for more updates on my ‘4-hour’ experiences!

Interested in more Alternative Training? Check out my posts on Slow-Carb Diet, Occam’s Protocol, NOBLE running form and more!