Dante Carrillo
The slow-carb diet is a weight-loss plan created by entrepreneur and podcaster Timothy Ferriss. It involves eating foods from five food groups: animal protein, legumes, vegetables, fats, and spices. The diet recommends eating the same meals every day, which are repeated from the approved food groups. The diet also suggests drinking plenty of water, unsweetened tea, coffee, and other calorie-free beverages. Fried foods, fruits, dairy, and drinks with calories are not allowed on the diet days. However, the slow-carb diet includes a “cheat day” once a week, where people can eat and drink anything they want. There is no calorie counting on this diet, and it is flexible, taking into account the need for a cheat day.
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What You'll Learn
Calorie-free drinks are encouraged
The slow-carb diet is based on five rules: avoid "white" carbs, repeat the same meals, don't drink calories, don't eat fruits and take one day off per week. This diet does not require calorie counting, but it does encourage drinking plenty of water throughout the day. Calorie-free drinks are encouraged, including unsweetened tea, coffee, and carbonated water.
The diet is based on the principle that beverages provide little to no nutritional value. Therefore, it is recommended to obtain calories only from nutritious foods and not from drinks. Liquid calories are less filling and have very little nutritional value compared to solid calories. This is why it is recommended to avoid drinks such as soda, juice, smoothies, alcohol, and milk. Even though fruits are technically part of a balanced diet, the slow-carb diet suggests that they are not helpful when trying to lose weight. This is because fructose, the sugar in fruits, could delay weight loss by increasing blood fat levels and decreasing fat-burning capacity.
The slow-carb diet is a flexible eating plan that can help you reach your goal weight while taking into account your need for a cheat day. The cheat day is meant to ease the mental stress that often comes with dieting. It is also based on the idea that shifting away from a strict plan for a day and allowing yourself to eat as much as you want may help prevent your metabolic rate from slowing down. This is a side effect that can result from prolonged caloric restriction.
The slow-carb diet focuses on eating foods from the five main food groups that take longer to digest, such as vegetables, legumes, fats, animal protein, and spices. It is important to note that each person digests high-carb foods differently. Eating the same meals over and over again will reduce the pressure of dieting and the risk of overeating.
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No calorie counting
The slow-carb diet is a popular weight-loss plan created by entrepreneur and podcaster Timothy Ferriss. It involves eating meat with legumes and vegetables for almost every meal and swapping refined carbs with "slow carbs", or carbs that take longer to digest. The diet is based on five food groups: protein, legumes, vegetables, fats, and spices.
The slow-carb diet does not require calorie counting. Instead, it focuses on eating whole, unprocessed foods that are naturally filling and tend to be lower in calories. This includes animal protein, such as meat, and plant-based proteins like legumes, as well as low-carb vegetables, healthy fats, and spices.
By focusing on these whole foods, the diet becomes more about the quality of the food rather than the quantity. This naturally leads to a reduction in calorie intake without the need for strict portion control or calorie counting. This approach can help individuals stick to the diet more easily and develop healthier eating habits over time.
In addition, the slow-carb diet recommends drinking plenty of water and unsweetened tea or coffee. These beverages are calorie-free or very low in calories, which further supports the goal of reducing overall calorie intake without counting.
Finally, the slow-carb diet includes a cheat day once a week, where individuals can eat whatever they want without restrictions. This day is designed to prevent metabolic rate from slowing down due to low-calorie consumption and to provide a mental break from the strictness of dieting. During this "cheat day", individuals are not supposed to count calories, allowing them to indulge and satisfy their cravings.
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No fruits
The slow-carb diet is based on five rules: avoid "white" carbohydrates, repeat the same meals, don't drink calories, don't eat fruits, and take one day off per week. This diet recommends drinking plenty of water throughout the day, as well as unsweetened tea, coffee, or other calorie-free beverages. The basis of this rule is that beverages provide little to no nutritional value, so calories should be obtained from nutritious foods, not drinks.
The slow-carb diet suggests that fruits are not helpful when trying to lose weight. This is because fruits contain fructose, a simple sugar that can increase blood fat levels and decrease fat-burning capacity. Fructose can also enhance the absorption of iron and decrease the levels of other minerals like copper. Therefore, the diet recommends refraining from eating any fruit or drinking fruit juice on diet days. Avocados and tomatoes are the only exceptions to this rule as they contain relatively little sugar.
On the slow-carb diet, the "cheat day" is meant to ease the mental stress that often comes with dieting. This is also known as a "refeed" day, which can help increase leptin concentrations and metabolic rate. During this day, you can eat as much as you want of any food and beverages, including fruit, without fear of gaining weight.
It is important to note that the slow-carb diet may restrict your intake of vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients like antioxidants, as well as limit your fiber intake, which could lead to constipation in some people. Therefore, it is recommended to take calcium, magnesium, and potassium supplements, or include foods rich in these minerals.
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No white carbs
The slow-carb diet is based on five rules: avoid "white" carbs, repeat the same meals, don't drink calories, don't eat fruits, and take one day off per week. This diet is based on eating foods that take longer to digest, such as vegetables, legumes, fats, animal protein, and spices. It is important to note that each person digests high-carb foods differently.
"White carbs" refer to "bad carbs" or "refined carbs", which are processed and refined carbohydrates that are usually white in colour. These include white bread, white pasta, white rice, crackers, white flour, sugar, and white potatoes. These foods are considered detrimental to health as they are stripped of their nutrients during the refining process, which involves grinding and removing the bran and outer layer of the grain. This results in a higher glycemic index, leading to rapid sugar absorption and potential weight gain and heart problems.
The slow-carb diet recommends avoiding these "white" carbs to promote weight loss and improve cardiometabolic health. Instead, the diet suggests opting for complex carbohydrates or "good carbs", which are high in fibre and digested slowly. Examples include wholemeal/wholegrain bread and pasta, beans, vegetables, and fruit.
It is worth noting that natural, unprocessed white foods such as onions, cauliflower, turnips, white beans, and some white potatoes are not considered "white carbs". These foods are not stripped of their nutrients and are therefore not included in the category of "white carbs" to be avoided on the slow-carb diet.
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Cheat days
The slow-carb diet is based on five rules: avoid "white" carbs, repeat the same meals, don't drink calories, don't eat fruit, and take one day off per week. On this "cheat day", you can eat anything you want and as much as you want. This day is meant to ease the mental stress of dieting and prevent your metabolic rate from slowing down as a result of low-calorie consumption.
Dieting and restricting calories can damage thyroid function, which can make it harder to lose weight because your body burns fewer calories. The slow-carb "cheat day" is used for its psychological benefits, as well as its influence on hormonal changes that can continue to promote weight loss. Some evidence shows that refeeds could stimulate the metabolic rate and increase blood levels of the hormone leptin, which may reduce hunger.
On your cheat day, you can eat any food you want and as much as you want. While you can choose any day to be your cheat day, most people choose Saturday. It is recommended that you eat slowly, take small bites, and savour the taste of the food you've been craving. For example, instead of a dozen doughnuts, splurge on a wedge of creamy cheesecake.
If you are not seeing progress on a low-carb diet, a cheat day can help. Eating more calories, carbs, and fat one day a week raises leptin levels. A 2020 study in the Journal of Functional Morphology and Kinesiology suggests that following an intermittent energy-restricted diet for five days a week with a two-day "refeeding" period can help preserve muscle mass and prevent the metabolism from slowing.
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Frequently asked questions
The slow-carb diet is a flexible eating plan that focuses on eating foods from the five main food groups that take longer to digest. These include vegetables, legumes, fats, animal protein, and spices. The diet also recommends drinking plenty of water and avoiding "white" carbohydrates, such as processed carbohydrates made from refined flour, starchy foods, and grains.
On the slow-carb diet, you should focus on eating carbs that take longer to digest, such as low-carb vegetables and legumes. You can choose a few go-to recipes that include animal protein, vegetables, legumes, fats, and spices, and mix and match them to create meals for the week. It is important to note that fried foods, fruits, dairy, and alcoholic beverages are not allowed on the diet days.
A "cheat day" is a day once a week, usually on Saturday, where you can eat whatever you want without restrictions. This day is meant to prevent your metabolic rate from slowing down due to low-calorie consumption and to ease the mental stress that comes with dieting.
The slow-carb diet does not involve counting calories. Instead, it focuses on eating whole, nutritious foods and avoiding liquid calories from beverages, which provide little to no nutritional value.
