THE LAZY MAN CHALLENGE: Fatloss through simplicity (ONGOING)

Ups and downs - it's what every year is made of. We all go through them and they effect us each in a different way. Lately, I've been kind of reckless and I've gone through quite a bit in the last couple months. There's been smiles and there's been some tears. That's life. However, one thing that I've always managed to stick to my diet and routine effortlessly, but the last few months seem to have done it's work and it's been tough. So here is my return to controlled dieting.

Dec 2012: I was almost there. +/-3kg's to go

Now, why the hell would I want to make this public? well, simple. For fear of failure. I've done it before with the DANISH HOSPITAL DIET - which was 13 days of complete hell and 7kg's of weight loss. So here I am again. My long-term diary on my path to being lean...again.



I've never been a lean guy. I've always had strength and I've always managed to pack on a little extra muscle when training properly but I've got my goals - Calisthenics Training and I want to cut, I for once want to be able to show my body again.

This time, I won't fail.  



SIMPLIFIED FAT LOSS?...what?
“If you can't explain it to a six year old, you don't understand it yourself.”
― Albert Einstein 

I've never counted a calorie and I don't intend on doing that anytime soon either. Do calorie counting diets work? well of course they do. There's an abundance of people doing it with good results...however I'm not one of those people. I couldn't think of doing anything more torturous than that. 


Paleo? no...Paleo, to me is flawed after a certain point. I will be eating Paleo styled foods...well most of them but I want results that keep showing. I want something that has been studied, where trials have been run, I want to KNOW that the diet works and works well.


The diet that I will be using and that has helped me cut back fat countless times since I first head about it in 2010, is THE SLOW CARB DIET (SCD) that was written by Timothy Ferriss - with help from many of the worlds leading researchers/doctors/trainers and a lot of test dummies.


Could I explain it to a 6 year old? Yes.

•  No breads, grains, potatoes, pasta - Anything that is WHITE or CAN BE WHITE, is not allowed. No sugars. No dairy.
• What I can eat: Protein, fibrous veggies, black coffee/tea, water. Eat 30g of protein within 30-60mins of waking up. 
• I eat every 3-4 hours and I eat till I'm full.
• Take one day off a week and eat whatever the hell you want

That's the basics. It's easy to explain. I'm not saying that's all there is to it. But, that's it in a nutshell. 

I'm not going to talk about hormonal effects of each calorie cause then you'll be reading a book. 

Let's just say that a calorie isn't a calorie, and yes, they aren't equal and they never will be. If you're over weight, then carbohydrates aren't your friend - that's the way I look at it. I don't care if you don't or if your nutritionist doesn't agree with me. I'm here for results. I don't care if you think 2kgs a week of fat loss is unhealthy, I really don't. 

For the sake of it, take some time to think about this:
"The creator of the “calorie” as we know it, 19th-century chemist Wilbur Olin Atwater, did not
have the technology that we have today. He incinerated foods. Incineration does not equal
human digestion; eating a fireplace log will not store the same number of calories as burning
one will produce. Tummies have trouble with bark, as they do with many things." - Timothy Ferriss

There's a lot I'm not including for the sake of not boring the hell out of everyone. All I can say is, if you can get your hands on THE 4 HOUR BODY by TIMOTHY FERRISS, go get it. 

THE SLOW CARB DIET
The diet is relatively simple. There are certain rules that have to be followed - So let's have a look at them. 

1. NO WHITE CARBOHYDRATES: Breads, pastas, grains, potatoes etc
2. EAT +20g OF PROTEIN FOR BREAKFAST: Breakfast MUST be eaten within an hour of waking up. 30g's within 30mins is optimal.
3. EAT THE SAME FEW MEALS OVER AND OVER: This makes sticking to this lifestyle easier. You don't have to think about it, just prep it and eat it for the day. I usually try stick to the same main food for 2-3 days before swapping it up
4.  DON'T DRINK CALORIES: No juices of any kind. Water, black/green unsweetened coffee/tea - You are allowed, however to have 2 glasses of dry Red Wine each night. Not compulsory, but it's there if you're a wine freak. I'll post more details on that later to ensure you're drinking the right stuff.
5. NO DAIRY: The only exception is Cottage Cheese - I eat quite a bit of this.
6. DON'T EAT FRUIT: You don't need it every day. Fruit is high in fructose which will reach your tryglycerides quicker than almost all other carbohydrates. Treat fruit like sugar sweets. Save them for cheat day.
7. TAKE ONE DAY OFF A WEEK: That's right. You get one day per a week to eat WHATEVER THE HELL YOU WANT. This is a refuel day. No need to feel guilty. It's a rule. 

So those are the rules. Easy. 

SO WHAT CAN YOU EAT?
Protein - in every natural form - along with PROTEIN SHAKES that are low carb
-Chicken Breast
-Steak
-Fish
-Cottage Cheese (the only dairy that's allowed)
-Pork
-Eggs
...anything that used to be running around, you can eat

-Legumes

Vegetables
-All green veggies
-Tomatoes
-Avocado (limited to one a day)
-ALL CRUCIFEROUS VEGETABLES

If you're unsure, feel free to ask in the comments.

You can eat as much of that per a meal as you like. Eat till you are full or enough to sustain you till your next meal in 3-4 hours time.

WHY REFUEL?
One thing people seem to talk about as a "negative" when it comes to this diet is the term "cheat" day and how this has a negative psychological effect and shows that you are unstable - which is absolute rubbish. So for the hell of it, we'll be calling this a TREAT day or REFUEL day. As that's basically what we're doing. We're refueling our bodies and bumping calories.

So why would we want to do this? Well spiking our calories after 5 days of having a reduced intake actually helps ensure that our thyroid regulation doesn't downshift and therefor halt progress.

Everyone cheats at some point or feels like they deserve a reward once in a while, by planning it in advance, you remove the risk of completely going off the walls. It's scheduled, you know how long you have to cheat and you know when to stop. 

I like to call this the Social Diet, because it gives you the freedom to go out and have some fun and not feel bad about it.

BUSTING PLATEAUS
There are 3 main reasons why you'll probably reach a plateau while doing this

1. Not drinking enough water
2. Not eating within one hour of waking
3. Not eating enough protein - remember, minimum of 20g's per a meal
4. Over-consuming artificial/natural sweeteners
5. Hitting the gym too often - reward foods/shakes and overtraining 

FINAL THOUGHTS
So that's a rough of it. 

If you would like to join me on this, I have some rules for you

1. You have to make it public on here. Posting everyday.
2. You have to take a before pic. Don't have to post it. Save it for the end. Show yourself everyday what you used to look like
3. Follow the rules
4. Enjoy the results
5. Enjoy your cheat day 

It's not odd to see on average 1.5-2kg's of fat loss a week with this diet. 

Please contact me and I can explain all the finer points for maximum results. 

CHECK OUT. Real people. Real results.
http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2012/07/12/how-to-lose-100-pounds/ 

DAY 1
STARTING WEIGHT: 66kg
So I woke up at 8:30 am. Breakfast was 4 eggs and 3 rashes of bacon. 

1:30pm Lunch: 1x Chicken breast + fried tomatoes with seasoning
1x spoon of cottage cheese

7:45pm Supper: 300-400g Mince with Fried tomato 
1x spoon of cottage cheese 
1x cup frozen Green Peas

That's what I've had to eat today along with 1x Black Coffee and 2x Black Tea 
Need to get in a decent amount of water before the nights up.

Now to chill and relax.

if anyone has questions, feel free to ask 


DAY 2
So this morning was a bit different. I woke up at 6:30 for some reason, so I got up and had my usual breakfast
4x Eggs
sadly, there was no bacon (sad face) 
after that, I went back and slept for another 2 hours
 
1pm - Lunch
2x Chicken breasts (+/-250g)
1x Spoon Cottage Cheese
1x Cup of Peas (not shown...it's a lot of peas)
and a few little pieces of onion (nothing over the top - uncooked as well)

5pm - Late Lunch
Same as above however without the onion

8:30/8:45pm - Supper
250g Mince
1x Cup of Peas
1x Spoon of Cottage cheese

and that's it for the day.

As you'll have noticed, I have trained yet .Tomorrow, I'm going to take a little weight reading before my training to see how things are going.
OVER AND OUT

DAY 3
So I didn't get around to writing yesterday due to the fact that I had trained and was finished but I'll post what I did and when

8:30am Wake up
Breakfast - yip, you guessed it. 
4x Scrambled eggs

1pm Lunch - 250g Mince 
1x Spoon of Cottage Cheese
1x Cup of Green Peas

5pm Lunch - Same as above

6:30pm - TRAINING
100 pull ups
100 push ups
50 Pistol Squats/ 50x24kg Goblet Squats
100 Dips
100 Mountain Climbers
50 Ab Bike

9pm Supper - +300g White Fish
2x Spoons Cottage Cheese

DAY 4
So today is day 4. Measurements and photo before REFUEL DAY. I will be posting guidelines for how to REFUEL properly with the least gains - what to do, how to feel etc

So far:
8am Breakfast: 4x Scambled eggs
1x Cottage Cheese 

Sleep - wake up at 11am (that training killed me. Everything hurts)

...it's 2pm now and it's time for lunch.

250g mince + 1x Cottage Cheese  
END OF DAY 4
So the rest of the day, I had mince, peas, fried tomato and cottage cheese again at 6pm and followed that up with 120g+ of chicken and fried tomato cottage cheese now the MAIN thing I want to post here is REFUEL DAY GUIDELINES:
THERE IS ONE MAIN RULE:
- Your first meal HAS TO BE A PROTEIN BASED ONE - Eg. My 4 eggs within an hour of waking.

Other things that help:
1) if you have cinnamon, 1.5tsps of it in the morning. Can have it on anything. Usually, I just take a spoon and gulp it down with water - worst idea ever. I would recommend taking it with a coffee

2) Taking in caffeine to help gastric emptying. The more food that goes from your body and straight out, the better. Tea/Coffee with milk and sugar or whatever tickles your fancy. Remember, you can eat/drink what you want. I usually have a coffee after every couple of snacks

3) If you want to work out, go for it. Get those extra calories to your muscles.
Other than that, EAT WHATEVER YOU WANT!

Should you be alarmed at the weight you put on? NO! And here are some more rules:
1) ONLY WEIGH YOURSELF ON WEDNESDAY. NO SOONER!

2) DON'T WORRY WITH HOW MUCH WEIGHT YOU PUT ON. some people have reported putting on well over 5kgs in one day - 5KGS IN ONE DAY! By wednesday, all the water weight is gone and by friday, you'll have lost even more.

3) DON'T STRESS. It's a refuel day. Enjoy it.

WEEKEND CHEAT DAY - mon, tues and wed.
So my weekend was pretty intense and was made up of food such as this

Ingredients:
3x Bacon
3x Salami
3x Different Cheeses (one being feta)
3x Tomato
1x Large Panini
1x tsp Mayo
some cabbage

Total calories?...quite a bit

So my entire menu for saturday was:

2x of the above 
3x Cheese mayo Sandwiches
1x 2l Sprite 
and a whole bunch of drinks with friends on our night out

Sunday, wasn't that controlled either - unfortunately. Bad me. That can't happen again. 

Monday, was an off day. I did a fasting protocol which isn't advised. Rather just get back to normal eating as soon as possible (which should've been sunday)

Tuesday saw my return to proper eating, however I don't think I ate enough food and the gaps between were far to big - sometimes reaching 5 hours between a meal - again, not what we want. Feeding should be every 3-4hrs at most.

Wednesday, I am now back to normal. Had breakfast within 30mins of waking. Had lunch 4hrs later which was.

200g Mince
1 Cup of Peas
1x Tbsp Cottage cheese and chives 

Next up is whatever I have in the fridge. Probably the same as the above meal. Like they say, keep it simple!

Let's see how my misbehaving on sunday and monday effects my results. 

Next cheat day = Saturday the 24th. My birthday. Couldn't ask for more