Not Me
About three months ago, I tried out a few of the suggestions in the book: The 4-Hour Body. I adopted the Slow Carb Diet, started photographing my food, took a couple of the suggested herbal supplements* and even a experimented with few of Tim’s exercise tips. While my experiment is still ongoing, I think enough time has passed to give some preliminary results. ( *things like green tea extract not those other kind of supplements ;)
First I need to address some slippages on my part. Even though I started this project at the end of June, I had some personal events that derailed my motivation to adhere to the diet for about a month and kept me from the exercise program for a few weeks (which should hint at the ease of this new workout approach). I also did a poor job keeping up the food photo journal. I just couldn’t seem to remember to whip out the iphone and snag the pic when need. Not a big loss as “diet aid” in my opinion but it needed mentioning. Anyway, the results:
Even though I essentially did the slow carb diet for a month, then off a month, then on a month – I am down 8 lbs. Which isn’t bad as my goal is ten total. In real terms, I have gone from tight 34 inch pants to normal fit 32s. And this was with most weeks involving several cheat meals in addition to my cheat day. Yes this diet works.
However, more impressive for me are the strength gains that I’ve made while losing weight. As most athletes know, it is difficult to do both at the same time. So here are few of my gains in workout weigh and the associated 1 rep max estimate:
| July 6th | October 6th | |
| Close-Grip Suppinated Pull-Down (Machine Chin Up) |
160 lb x 12 est max: 230 lb |
260 x 11 est max: 360 lb |
| Machine Shoulder Press |
90 lb x 12 est max: 130 lb |
200 x 13 est max: 300 lb |
| Machine Slight Decline Bench |
140 lb x 9 est max: 180 lb |
210 x 16 est max: 360 lb |
Now in the interest of full disclosure, I need to point out that my machine is a Bowflex and “Bowflex lbs” are not quite as difficult as free-weight lbs because of the bow-like resistance (which is much safer for maxing out without a spotter). However, the relative increases are real: a 56% increase in my pull-downs and doubling my shoulder and bench strength. That my new workout works is obvious, but I’m interested to see just how far the rabbit hole goes. That is, can I continue these gains over the next 3 months? We’ll soon see. :)