The slow carb diet is the best strategy for how to lose weight effectively. It even beats a low carb diet. Here are the recommended foods and what you can expect from them.
Why A Slow Carb Diet?
The main idea behind this approach to eating is to reduce spikes in blood sugar. Hence the name ‘slow carb diet’. By keeping blood sugar in control, a whole cascade of metabolic responses stays in balance. These are mostly centered around certain key protein hormones such as insulin, adiponectin, growth hormone, IGF-1, leptin, and ghrelin. This is a short list that entails an amazing milieu of hormones that respond to what you eat or don’t eat.
The most important premise behind this diet is to avoid starchy or sugary foods and beverages that rapidly spike blood sugar. The more obvious and most common of these are bread and other refined flour products, anything with added sugar, potatoes, and sodas.
On the flip side of this advice are the recommended foods that are most important to eat at every meal. Timothy Ferriss outlines this diet in some detail in his book, ‘The 4-Hour Body’. However, it is handy to have a list like the one below (modified from a comment by ‘4HourBod’ at 4HourPeople.com):
This list of foods would be a great start, and a truly delicious one, for an eating plan that guarantees wonderful results for lifetime weight management.
Recommended:
Eggs
All meat (Beef, pork and poultry NOT treated w/hormones or antibiotics)
Turkey bacon, organic bacon, organic sausages
All fish, seafood (canned is fine)
All beans (chickpeas and peas in moderation)
All vegetables (except potatoes, sweet potatoes, yams)
Hot sauce
Salsa w/o sugar
Any oil (Olive oil, macadamia nut oil, grapeseed oil, coconut oil preferred)
Butter
Spices & herbs
Mustard
Non-creamy low-sugar dressings
Brown rice protein, hemp protein, pea protein
Unflavored whey protein isolate
Unsweetened cocoa
Vanilla extract
Stevia (liquid or powder with little or no carb filler)
Okay in Moderation:
Mayonnaise
Peas
Tomatoes
Avocado (1 cup/day max)
Peanut butter/ almond, and other nut butter (1 TB/day)
Nuts (5-10 per meal)
Hummus, chickpeas/garbanzo beans
Coffee (w/up to 2 TBSP cream)
Unsweetened almond milk or hemp milk
What You Can Expect
Depending on your starting weight, your fasting blood glucose level, and a number of other variables, you can expect to drop up to 20 pounds within the first month on the slow carb diet. However, not everyone achieves this result. The fun comes in solving for variables that slow down or prevent progress, then adapting your strategy accordingly.
The most important step to take is the first one – i.e., getting started on the right foods and eliminating the wrong ones. If you make good progress right away, great! That is wonderful incentive to keep at it. If you hit a plateau, then equally great! That is an opportunity for discovering what it is about your particular metabolism that you still need to address.
For a slow carb diet,
Dr. D
So the only reason to go slow carb is because it takes the body longer to break these foods down there by having an opportunity to burn it off before it can turn it to fat, is that right? I like the idea but it sure does take away a lot of good foods, I know they aren’t good for you but they are good you have to admit. Thanks a bunch for posting this.
You can find numerous articles telling you what not to eat that is for sure but when you want to know what to eat it gets a little more shaded. I just want someone to tell me eat this and exercise that is it don’t eat any of that other stuff. Thank you for posting this I really appreciate it and look forward to more articles from you in the near future.
Thank you for posting a list of foods that aren’t bad for you when you are on a carb restricted diet. I have been doing this for some times now and there are even things on your list that I didn’t realize. I often try to set down with low carb choices and come up with recipes that I can make a whole low carb meal with. It isn’t always easy that’s for sure.
From what I understand you are supposed to eat a lot of greens and things that are very colorful like peppers and things. Is that true? I am liking the list that you put together because I like most of those foods. I am going to give this a try and see how much I can lose by eating this way, it sounds doable so I imagine it will be significant.
There are some any products on the market these days for low carb foods that they made to be specifically low carb, like these tortillas that I buy. Are these things really low carb or are they just trying to sell you something that you think will help you lose weight? Great job on this, really, I would like to see more from you so I will return.
Thank you for posting this I have been doing a low carb diet and getting rather board with it so changing to a slow carb diet might be fun for a change. Thank you for posting this I will try it, maybe start this next week. It sure does leave you with more options of food you can eat. I appreciate the information because like I said the other is getting boring.
Joseph I would like to know that as well because I buy low carb tortillas and if I am eating them because the carb count is supposedly low but they are causing me to gain weight because that is a lie I would really like to know. I wish people would be honest about this stuff it is important to some others that are desperately trying to lose weight.
I understand that by restricting carbohydrates drastically to a mere fraction of that found in the typical American diet, the body goes into a different metabolic state called ketosis. And when the body is in ketosis, you tend to feel less hungry, and thus you’re likely to eat less than you might otherwise. Is this why raspberry ketones have become all the rage?