Week 6 Results! Changes and Consequence

So,
It seems weight loss has slowed and overall BF% and total inch losses have slowed as well. Adjustments I have made in the last week to the 4HB plan have most certainly had an effect. I'll detail below what I have changed in the 4HB plan and the edits I will make going forward to kick start weight loss again. I am still away from my end goal of 195lb and 12% so I'll continue to make the adjustments necessary. I think once I'm there, I can make more adjustments to maintain stable weight, BF% and inches.

For the week over week results, my 5DRA weight was down 0.8lb to 196.7, BF% down 0.3% to 16% and total inches down 0.5" to 149". It was a good week to experiment and see what the adjustments would bring. Still some gains and made a dip under the 195lb mark on Saturday.

Next week I will be traveling so I'll have spotty data but will try to hold as closely to the 4HB program as I can. Last time I was away for business travel my weight and BF% decrease slowed a bit so I expect the same.

Changes made:

1. Added more diet coke to diet - I will adjust to lower to 20oz. per day
   
2. Added more cream (6-9 little half and halfs per day) and stevia to coffee in the morning - I will lower the cream amount and remove the stevia
   
3. Stopped PAGG - considering restarting PAGG but unsure yet
4. Eating later in the morning - will work to eat earlier in the day
5. Did not follow 4HB plan strictly on day after cheat day - Will make sure to tightly follow 4HB plan on day after cheat day
   

Sunday Oct. 30th, Weight - 198.0lb, BF% - 15.8%
Monday Oct. 31st, Weight - 199.8lb, BF% - 16.3%
Tuesday Nov. 1st, Weight - 198.2lb, BF% - 16.3%
Wednesday Nov. 2nd, Weight - 198.6lb, BF% - 16.1%

Thursday Nov. 3rd, Weight - 196.2lb, BF% - 15.9%

Friday Nov. 4th, Weight - 197.2lb, BF% - 15.7%
Saturday Nov. 5th, Weight - 193.4lb, BF% - 15.9%

4HB Summary Part 4 of 4: Next Steps and 4HB

4HB Summary Part 4 of 4: Next Steps and 4HB

*Note* today I was 195.8lb and 16% BF on the scale. I'm pretty stoked about that! My post below was written on the 30th day of the program so a bit of time has elapsed since then.

NEXT STEPS

From here, I have debated where to go next. I am very happy with my weight at 198.5lb and my BF at about 16.5%. My target is around 195lb and about 12% BF which will take some work no doubt. These goals are somewhat arbitrary with no real solid reason behind them. I am more scared of regression than I am excited about further progress.

One challenge I am facing is coming to a maintenance phase in the diet. I am really unsure about how to proceed with this step. I really didn’t have any trouble with weight maintenance before I started 4HB so I might move back toward my old eating habits a little but probably not much.

Whatever I change, I will be sure to updated in weekly posts and let you know what was changed and the impact of those changes. I plan on staying with the 4HB diet for at least 2 more weeks I might go so far as up to 90 days. It really depends on where I'm at with my goals and how I feel at the time.
To wrap up, I have experienced more weight loss and BF loss doing 4HB in one month than I have in years of trying different exercise and diet routines. The results I have experienced are definitely worth the 30 days of work I have put into the 4HB plan. I think the monetary cost and the time commitment are really so low if you are at all interested in it, I would buy the book, try it AND BLOG ABOUT IT!

Thanks so much! Stay tuned for results from week 5 and a *New Graph!* (I know, such a nerd..)

4HB Summary Part 3 of 4: Energy Level and 4HB

4HB Summary Part 3 of 4: Energy Level and 4HB

ENERGY

During the 4HB diet, be ready for your energy level to take some hits. I have been somewhat low energy throughout the diet with some real low energy spots in the last 2 weeks. I haven't been exercising as much as I normally would due to an MCL sprain. In retrospect, 4HB would have required me to lower my exercise quantity quite a bit and I might lower it considerably anyway as I continue on with the 4HB diet. Personally, my body seems to respond best to weight loss efforts with a 90% focus on diet and 10% focus on exercise.

That was an important realization for me, (again for me) exercising has little or no impact on my weight, only diet does. That doesn't mean I'll abandon working out but given an extra hour in the day to work out or plan meals, I feel the time is better spent planning meals if the goal is weight management.

Two 30min exercise sessions per week might be a good amount of exercise with this diet without over taxing you and making you too tired. I’ll probably end up at two 30min weight sessions and two jiu jitsu sessions and some yoga mixed in per week. Also, one good thing I have experienced is the complete absence of blood sugar crashes. I get one or two of these a month and I have not had one in the last 30 days. If you experience these heinous things, this is another benefit to 4HB.

All in all, lowered energy levels are worth the results and not having to deal with blood sugar crashes is a very nice benefit along with the drop in weight and BF%. Be wary of your energy level though. I feel that a failure point for many folks on a diet plan has to do with feeling too tired and trying to do so much exercise that they eventually need more energy from foods not a part of their diet plan. I would recommend skipping a work out or greatly toning down the workout before deviating from the 4HB diet plan. Again, almost all of my losses came with very little exercise and close adherence to the 4HB diet plan.

Thanks for reading!

4HB Summary Part 2 of 4: Feasibility of 4HB

4HB Summary Part 2 of 4: Feasibility of 4HB

Today's post is part 2 of 4 of my 4HB summary. The post really focuses on the feasibility of the program and has some good pointers that I believe are big keys to success.

FEASIBILITY

One thing to think about when choosing a diet/weight loss program is the ability to actually DO the program as written. I really find this to be the problem with a program like P90X, a dude with a day job and family with twin babies can't handle 60+ minutes of exercise every day in addition to cooking every meal and ensuring you meet all aspects of the diet. P90X works, no doubt, but it’s tough and I admire those that can make it through that program. That said, my life is a bit crazier than most and I think the 4HB is quite manageable. In the section below, I’ll talk about doing the 4HB diet with kids and family, work travel and visitors all trying to interfere with your best laid 4HB plans.

With kids, you may already thinking ahead to meals if you cook at home, what to get out of the fridge, what you have in the fridge and what the kids will like to eat. I'm pretty fortunate there as my twinkies are good tiny eaters and devour most anything. With 4HB, you really need to think ahead to meals, that means, in order to succeed with the least amount of hassle, think a few meals ahead. After dinner, as the evening is winding down, think about what you want to eat for breakfast, get some things out for dinner the next night (defrost meats for instance) and maybe think about what you’d like to take for lunch tomorrow at work. This is maybe the biggest key to success for 4HB, the better you get at planning ahead, the better set up you are for success. One last nice thing about 4HB is it is fairly healthy-family compatible, you can cook 4HB meals and add whole wheat pasta or dinner rolls to the meals as sides for others in the family to round out the meal for everyone at the table.

If you travel, this diet becomes tougher because you don’t have all the consistent things at home you can normally rely on. It’s much harder to pre-plan for meals on the road. So, eat when you can. You see a Qdoba/Chipotle restaurant that is handy and you have time, go in and just get lunch. Also pack some snacks. I looked to low sugar jerky and mixed nuts just to act as small meal substitutions while on the road. 4HB can be done on the road, pre-planning is now more a function of having some decent snacks available and taking advantage of opportunities to eat at places that comply with the diet. It is less a function of pre-planning meals because you don’t know really what will be available when travelling.

One last note about travel, the 2 glasses of wine can be very handy at business dinners. You have the latitude to fit in for a drink with clients before and during dinner and a glass of wine can also allow a substitute for desert allowing you to stay and enjoy the conversation with folks without missing out on a post dinner treat.

Visitors can really throw a wrench in a diet plan. Folks that come into town want to have a good time and celebrate and that’s great! Save your cheat day for when those travelers are in town. You’ll want to have a day where you can let loose and enjoy your visitors uninhibited by your diet plan. Also, save your glasses of wine for times when others want to have a drink with dinner on days that aren't your cheat day. Also be plain about your diet once and plan for some questions about it, that way you can answer the curiosity and then move on. I also cooked for my folks as well when they were in town. This allowed me, for a couple of meals, to have a little more control over my diet. If you go out to dinner, choose somewhere like Mexican or Thai where you can get a meal that fits in with the 4HB diet plan. It is tough for sure and it won't be perfect but you can manage it if you game plan your visitors stay.

Treats are nice to have throughout the day and its good to time when you get these little treats, if you can call them that. I would pace out my coffee with a bit of cream, fruit tea, diet coke and wine throughout the day so that if I needed a little something, I could fall back on these and not raid my co-workers chocolate stash. I would typically have a cup or two of coffee in the morning, pomegranate tea in the afternoon then diet coke for the drive home, a glass of wine upon arriving home then maybe one more with dinner. It worked for me and kept me on track.
I touched on this earlier concerning business travel but I’ll speak to it again here. The 2 glasses of wine can be very handy in a social situation. On 4HB you and your friends can go to happy hour, enjoy a couple of glasses of wine and good conversation without disrupting your diet plans. I find many diets like Atkins and P90X somewhat cut you off from your social circle and invite too many questions and conversations about food and diet. Invariably, if you go out with your friends and you are known to enjoy a drink and you get seltzer water, men, your friends torment you, ladies, everyone will think your eggo is prego.

A note on the financial aspect of 4HB, it is quite cheap. Cooking at home is cheap, beans are cheap, and the supplements can be a little spendy but are not necessary. You might already have some of the equipment like a scale and a measuring tape. I think a BF% measurement tool is ok as a relative scale to track progress but I don’t know that I trust the accuracy of the one I have. I spent a total of about $140 on the book, gear and supplements.

To wrap up, 4HB is quite feasible and for 30 days, if you plan your meals out, you’ll have a high likelihood at success at this diet. I have to add one final note before I end the feasibility section. My wife did not like this diet, it did not work well for her, she didn’t tolerate the beans well and was very low energy, she gave it up after about 25 days. It was quite discouraging but my friend at work who is also doing the 4HB program with me is down about 10lbs as well. So be aware that it didn’t work for one person. However, I feel like if you follow the plan closely, you’ll have a very high chance at success.

Thanks for reading!

4HB Summary Part 1 of 4: Final Results After 30 Days!

4HB 30-day Wrap-Up Part 1-4

Hi All!

Thank you for reading my blog for the last 30 days and participating in on my 30-day 4-Hour Body (4HB) experiment, I really appreciate it! I want to write a 4-part summary post that wraps up all of my thoughts about the 4HB diet and of course summarizes the results. So we’ll get to it!

RESULTS

I am going to use my 5-Day Rolling Average (5DRA) as the *official* results but I will also offer some high-low data as well for more perspective as well. The 5DRA numbers are very conservative and because my weight would change so quickly sometimes I felt the average gave me a better idea of where I really stood. Looking at the high/low numbers and the 5DRA numbers, I think the actual results are somewhere in between. I wanted to include these averages so I could rule out any big changes due to water weight loss or cheat day gains.

I am very happy with the results especially in light of some of the lifestyle challenges I have with kiddos, work travel, etc. that will really interfere with diet plans. It should also be noted that these results were achieved with very little exercise due to my MCL sprain, low energy from the diet would have definitely lowered the amount of exercise I would do. I’ll touch on that in the ENERGY section.

Enjoy!

Here is a breakdown of the results:
Start high weight – 211.0lb End low weight – 197.4lb Total Lost – 13.6lb
Start 5DRA weight – 208.4lb End 5DRA weight – 198.7lb Total Lost – 9.7lb
Start high BF% – 18.4% End low BF% - 16.2% Total Lost – 2.2%
Start 5DRA BF% – 18.2% End 5DRA BF% - 16.4% Total Lost – 1.8%
Start Total Inches - 159" End Total Inches - 151" Total Lost - 8"

Before and After Photos (after photo is the top one):

Graphs of 5DRA Weight and BF%

Week 5 Results!

Hi All!

So I have implemented some minor changes to my diet and I don't think I have impeded progress so far. I've included a bit of stevia and some more cream to my coffee in the morning, I'm eating a bit later in the morning, usually withing an hour and a half of waking now. I'm also drinking a bit more diet coke too, haha!

Exercise this week was right back on track with what I had been doing, two 1hr jiu jitsu sessions this week with two 30min gym sessions using Tim's maximal weight program (lots of deadlifts and bench with plyometrics).

My rolling 5DRA, BF% and total inches are all down so the adjustments I have made do not seem to have had a huge impact on progress it may have slowed progress down a bit. Also touched 195.8lb on scale on Saturday which is my goal weight, very exciting!

I've added a few things below to the blog. 1st you'll find my day to day results for last week. second, you'll see week to week graphs since day one of 5DRA, BF% and Total Inches showing progress since the start of the 4HB program.

Day to Day results for Week 5:
Sunday, Oct. 23rd, Weight - 198.4lb BF - 16.4%
Monday, Oct. 24th, Weight - 198.8lb BF - 16.4%
Tuesday, Oct. 25th, Weight - 199.4lb BF - 16.8%
Wednesday, Oct. 26th, Weight - 197.8lb BF - 16.6%
Thursday, Oct. 27th, Weight - 197.0lb BF - 16.5%
Friday, Oct. 28th, Weight - 197.6lb BF - 15.8%
Saturday, Oct. 28th, Weight - 195.8lb BF - 16%

Weekly 5DRA Weight, BF% and Total Inches Graphs

Day 30 - Last Day!

Weight - 199.4lb BF - 16.8%

Mood - Don't feel great today...felt better in the afternoon

Well, today is the last full day of my 1st 30 days on 4HB! I'll be posting in a 4-part blog (its pretty long) detailing my experience with 4HB including the final results, feasibility, energy and next steps from here. I hope you find it interesting and helpful if you choose to give 4HB a shot.

I went to lunch today with my sister and we had a great time, I had a really great carne asada steak at Azul, a local Mexican bistro.

Next steps are still in the air for me but I really enjoy seeing the progress and I think I might stick with this another 2 weeks until November 4th. I'm in town for the next 2 weeks and then off to a week of travel, I think I'll try to maintain until Thanksgiving but I'll reevaluate after 2 more weeks. I really want to get to 195lb and 12% and there is more work to be done!

I've decided on a couple of minor adjustments that I'll make now. I'm going to add a little stevia to my coffee with some cream in the mornings. I'm going to eat breakfast at the cafe at work, I usually always get to work within about 1hr of waking and I'm going to have one 20oz bottle of diet coke a day. Those are my adjustments for the next 2 weeks, other than that, everything will remain the same. We will see if this stymies weight loss progress. Final note, from now on I'll just be posting weekly summary blogs with weight and BF results day-to-day and some thoughts on how the ongoing progress is going with adjustments I have made.

Thanks so much for following! Final results tomorrow!

Meals

730am - avacado and fresh tomato and coffee

12pm - carne asada with grilled green beans and black beans
7pm - dinner was a nice acorn squash with chicken and curry and a glass of wine

Day 29 - 1 day left!

Weight - 198.8lb BF - 16.4%

Mood - Very good today, got great sleep!

Today I'm wearing pants that are a size 34 waist. I *was* able to do this 30 days ago but it took some serious trust in the button and zipper strength and wasn't too comfortable through the day! Now, quite comfortable!

I feel very nice today, weathered the 1st big holiday party of they year with the 4HB diet! The holiday season is coming and its good to have a game plan and cleverly plan your cheat days around parties so you can enjoy them with friends and family.

I worked out today and used the workout in 4HB, the Maximal Strength workout, very easy to get in and get out for a lunch time workout. It consists mainly of bench press and dead lifts coupled with some plyometrics directly after the lifts.

Meals

8am - fried egg with ham and coffee

12am - lunch of veggies to snack on with some cashews

6pm - dinner was baked chicken with a squash sauce (from Costco, the sauce is great) veggies and refried beans on the side with a glass of wine

Day 28 - 2 days to go!

Weight - 198.4lb BF - 16.4%

Mood - very tired

Had a great time at the party last night and had loads of tasty drinks courtesy of my friends Ben and Sarah! Halloween is a really fun time of the year and with the holidays coming, the cheat days come in handy for celebrating with friends in the full spirit of the event. That said, I'm pretty hung over today. I've been in recovery mode most of the day.

I was encouraged to see that my weight did not go up after cheat day but I think that is due to some pretty good dehydration going on but I'll take it! There are only a couple of more days on the 1st 30-days of 4HB. I'll do a summary of all of my thoughts about 4HB and then you can read and decide if it would be a good diet to try for yourself.

Meals

Breakfast - scrambled eggs

Lunch - chickpea patty with steamed broccoli

Dinner - cashew chicken with extra veggies instead of rice from local thai restaurant

Day 27 - Week 4 Results!

Cheat day!

Week 4 Results - Weight 199.4lb, BF - 16.%, total inches 153"

Mood - ready for cheat day!

So my weight is going up just a bit which is slightly discouraging but really I could have done better this week. It was a tough week at work and I probably drank more than I should have on a night or two. All in all, still under 200lb and the rolling average is down to 198.6lb (down 2lb from last week) and 16.8% BF (down 0.2% from last week) and my total inches are down another 1.5" as well. So again, the measurable-s continue to move in the right direction!

I only have a few days left of the first 30days of 4HB and I am still trying to decide what to do, hell I might just buck up for another 30 days, the 1st 30 really weren't all that bad. It wasn't boot camp or anything! Haha!

I'm going to go ahead and post this a little early tonight, I'm going to a fun Halloween party this evening and some drinking will most likely be did so I better wrap this one up lest I go drunk blogging like I did in week 2.

Cheers!

Meals

Breakfast - smoothies with PB, Greek yogurt and frozen fruit with coffee

Lunch - ham and cheese grilled sandwich with a diet coke and a snickers
Late lunch - mac and cheese and some plum cake
Dinner - 6" subway sandwich and mimosas, also a subway cookie.

Day 26 - Can I break 16%?

Weight - 197.6lb BF - 16.2%

Mood - pretty good, little low energy today

BF went very low today which is cool and encouraging but weight increased 0.2lb. I had some edamame last night with soy sauce so it might be a salt thing. I also had a bit too much wine last night too and be ever warned about drinking lots while on the 4HB diet. It will mess you up, I'm telling you.

I've been thinking more about life after the 30 day experiment and I feel like with just a few minor tweaks I should be able to sustain the 4HB diet and close in on my goals without reversing progress. I'll be doing some research in the next few days to figure out what types of things I can add to make breakfast a little more interesting.I really don't mind lunch at this point and dinner has had good enough variety to keep me interested as well. Just breakfast needs a little work!

Meals

9am - bacon and eggs at the work cafe

12am - veggies from the salad bar and a couple of HB eggs

630pm - fried tofu with green beans and cashews with a glass of wine

Day 25 - The Nitty Gritty

Weight - 197.4lb BF - 16.8%

Mood - feeling quite good in the morning

Crazy talk, rolling 5-day weight is under 200lb, CRAZY TALK! It's at 199.9lb and thats 8.5lbs lost (off the rolling average) in 25 days, that ain't bad. If you want to talk about high/low, the weight lost is 13.6lbs. I think the actual weight lost is somewhere between that but I choose to go the conservative route when it comes to reporting, it give you (dear reader) a better estimate of what you might expect from 4HB and sets reasonable expectations for you.

So, it was a hectic morning for me, I had an early conference call and had to scamper out of the house quickly so I could be to the office in time and have my puter all booted up and ready to go for the call. A couple of hard boiled eggs really comes in handy if you need to get something on the fly and you dont have a few minutes to cook breakfast.

Cooking breakfast is a pain but it really doesnt take too long if you have the ingredients and have everything ready to go the night before. I set all my pans and bowls and find what I want to cook for breakfast in the fridge the night before then all I have to do in the morning when I'm zombie-fied is turn on the oven range, grab the fixins out of the fridge and go. You really have to treat 4HB like a hobby and be more diligent and prepare more than just day to day. So far, for me, the results have been worth the prep and effort.

Meals

8am - breakfast - 2HB Eggs

130pm - lunch - Qdoba burrito bowl with extra chicken and guacamole

Day 24 - 35, not 28

Weight - 198.8lb BF - 16.7%

Mood - Felt very good in the morning with mood worsening throughout the day.

Have you ever looked forward to hopping on the scale in the morning? EVER?

I was kind of excited to get on the scale this morning and have a look at the progress. At this point, I know what to expect, it takes about 2 days to start advancing past the jump in weight after a cheat day and then my weight progresses downhill the remainder of the week. It is really pretty exciting.

Went to the gym today for a light workout, someone asked how old I was, they guessed 28, I'm 35.

Meals
730am - Breakfast - fried eggs with 1/4 avocado

1pm - Lunch - mixed veggies from the salad bar
6pm - made a steak salad with the leftover sirloin from last night with olives, tomatoes and guacamole on it as well.

Day 23 - Under 2 Bills Again

Weight - 199.8lb (feels good to type that!) BF - 17.1%

Mood - better this morning but still feeling slow

My brain feels like its not working correctly, not that it does really well anyway...

I'm happy to see a 1 as the 1st digit in my weight again, definitely makes the work worth it. Today is going well, even with a bit of slow brain this morning. I wonder if this is because I am drinking less coffee or a result of 4HB, I think its because of less coffee at the end of the day.

Things did pick up this afternoon but I would be ready for a tough go your last 10 days of this program. It has definitely seemed to turn into more of a slog. I think the one thing I need to do is research some more breakfast options. I'm not being too creative and it seems that eggs in one way shape or form are the easiest option for this diet. I need to add something else in, leftovers can be good as well for breakfast. I'd love to be able to make a protein shake or smoothie once in a while to mix it up. But again, for 30 days, you can handle anything.

Meals:

Breakfast - 2 HB eggs and refried beans

Lunch - Qdoba burrito bowl with black beans, extra chicken, salsa and guacamole. I love these things, total lifesaver.

Dinner - grilled sirloin steak with steamed broccoli and grilled tomatoes.

Day 22 - Last Full Week of the 1st 30 days

Weight - 202.4lb BF 17.2%

Mood - slow start but picking up

I expected a some damage from a visit from my folks on my BF and weight this week as they like to have a lot of fun and celebrate when they are in town. 202.4lb is a good starting point for me this week. Its about 2lbs less than where I was last Monday, the week I broke through 200lb and 17% BF. I do expect my weight loss to slow down and I'm interested to see what the last full week of 4HB will yield. My 5-day rolling average is down to 200.7lb and my rolling BF is 16.9%.

As the week moves on, I'm going to have to decide where I choose to go from here. I'd love to end up at 195lb and really get my BF down into the low teens, like twelveteen, haha! Also, I might loosen up, week by week on some of the day to day stuff to make 4HB the perfect lifestyle change for me. Might try a little more diet coke, some whole grain bread in the morning or some stevia and cream with the coffee as well or eating breakfast a bit later.

That said, I plan on only implementing one of these changes at a time as I don't want to stall weight loss out or reverse progress. I think by isolating the changes and tracking them, I'll have a good idea of what changes I can make and which ones hinder progress. The weight loss while doing 4HB has been very fast so I am willing (in month 2) to sacrifice some of the speed for a little more comfort during the week as long as I'm continuing to progress toward my goals.

Meals

730am - Huevos Rancheros with refried beans

12pm - veggies and hard boiled eggs - not much of an appetite so I just got a load of veggies from our salad bar and snacked on them with some hb eggs for lunch.

7pm - had baked cod with sun dried tomatoes and olives on top. Also had a nice salad with fresh tomatoes and oil and vinegar dressing.

Day 21 - Parents

Weight - 201.2lb BF - 16.7%
Mood - pretty down in the AM got better throughout the day

My folks were in town for one last day this weekend and we had lots planned including a little birthday party for my girls and cooking a home cooked meal for dinner. Today was another rough day mood wise, it's very high energy and fun having my folks in town but with the twins too, it's a lot to handle for my wife and I.

We took the girls to the zoo and I tried to hold as well as I could to the 4HB diet during the day and did a good job. This was definitely the most challenging week so far of 4HB. But that is part of the overall experiment, to see how real life can get in the way of some of your plans.

730am - fried eggs and refried beans

130pm - Chinese BBQ pork and Caesar salad

7pm - traditional S African sausage called Boordevoorst (sp?) with salad and wine.

9pm - tea and 1/2 of a cupcake (sorry, a fail I know)

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Day 20 - Week 3 Results!

Weight - 200.2lb BF - 16.4%, Total inches - 153.5"
Mood - great! Feelin' good!

So the week rounded up with a couple of good milestones! I broke both the 200lb mark and the 17% BF mark. Very good news showing solid progress while on the 4HB diet.

I have an extra special challenge this weekend as my parents are in town. Today is my cheat day and we'll be partying it up at the UW Husky football game. Another really nice reason to have the cheat day is for occasions like having visitors. You can really pay attention to your visitors and go with the flow without having to be mindful of your diet.

Mmmmmmm PB&J


12pm - Lunch was a Reuben sandwich from specialties cafe

5pm - had dinner of pizza and beer with the family as well tonight after UWs big win

8pm - kicking it watching the ducks and devils game enjoying a diet coke

Walked a load today and hopefully that will slow the damage done by cheat day but I don't think it will. One thing I think I've discovered about weight loss is that it's about 85% diet and about 15% exercise. I can work like an animal in the gym and on the mat for 6 days a week and not lose a pound but I lost 5+lbs by changing my diet and not exercising at all. It seems that (at least for me) if you're going to invest your energy in losing weight, focus on the diet much more than the exercise.

Have a good evening!

Day 19 - Guest Post and Big News!

Weight 199.8lb BF - 17.0%

Mood - low energy but elated at the progress!

Would you look at that! under 200lb for the 1st time in years! Literally like 10 years. BF is also down again too. So I think its a good time to reflect and update on how things are going with 4HB. I'll also posting a guest post from my friend Mike at DeckonFood he's a P90X advocate and someone who is a real foodie and a hobbiest nutritionist. So make sure to check that out!

So 4HB, how is it going? One of my friends who routinely reads my blog noted he could tell by my posts that I've been a little low energy. He was curious about my impressions about how things are going so I'll definitely talk to how the diet goes. I'm good to add a note about my mood to the top of the post each day so you can get a snapshot of how I'm feeling every day.

I think the 4HB diet is a good one and it works. And it works fast. I've seen consistent steady progress and I've seen my friend Matt and my wife also see progress on the diet too, so I do believe it is reproduceable. I think a good diet for folks in the real world breaks down into 3 main pieces:

• Feasibility - can a real live person do 4HB?


• Energy Level - will my family/friends still want to be near me as I do 4HB?


• Results! - are the results worth the effort?

I'm going to talk about all of these things as I wrap up the 30-day 4HB diet experiment at the end of next week. I will say my impressions of 4HB are quite good and it does translate to real life better than many diets out there despite the restrictions. Your mood and energy level will take a beating and you'll have to treat 4HB as more of a hobby than just eating passively. Its a more active engagement. But more on that later, now, on to Mike's P90X post and hop over to his blog, DeckonFood to see his amazing results! (my meals can be noted below Mike's post at the bottom of the blog if you are curious):

By Michael Decklever - DeckonFood.com

About four months ago I stood in front of a bathroom mirror in a hotel somewhere in the U.S. barely recognizing the guy staring back at me (well except for the 5 o’clock shadow and receding hairline…). I had been traveling a lot for work which meant a lot of dinners and a lot of drinks. It meant a lot of making excuses for not working out as well. So I took a deep breath, looked at the guy in the mirror, and told him we’re done. Two weeks later, I started P90X and for three months I sweated and ached and cursed and bled and ate my way to a completely new person. Now when I look in the mirror, I actually smile at the guy looking back, even though he still has that same damn hairline problem.

When I was wrapping up my 3-month conversion, Nick came to me and told me that he had something he wanted to try…the 4-Hour Body. As someone that completely understood the desire to do something to improve myself, I was definitely supportive. And even though I was probably more skeptical than him going in (seriously, I just spent 3 months killing myself in exercise and diet to drop 30 and he was going to lose 20 in 30 days by eating beans??), I appreciated that he had done the research to find something that fit with his and his family’s lifestyle. And when he asked me to write a guest post for his blog on some of the differences between the two programs, I jumped at the chance (well I wouldn’t say jumped as it has taken me like a week to actually pull this together because I do all original work, but I definitely agreed quickly).

I think it is good to start by looking simply at how the programs compare, and then at the end I’ll editorialize a little (that’s my new favorite term for expressing my own opinion which is obviously the only correct one). My qualifications to comment are that I’ve completed P90X, am a foodie, am enrolled in a Sports Nutrition program, and am just generally accepted as badass when it comes to food. Also, keep in mind that I have not done 4HB, so am offering this as an outsider looking in.

There are two components to really look at with the two programs; exercise and diet. We could toss in duration as well, but that’s a short discussion (P90X is 90 days, 4HB is 30…done). We’ll start with exercise.

4HB: From what I understand, the name “4-Hour Body” comes from the amount of exercise required in a month to accomplish the weight-loss objective. Most of it is swinging a kettlebell to exhaustion and you are done. Do it a couple times a week, and that’s sufficient.
P90X: Exercise is essential in this program. In fact you hit 4 hours of exercise 30 minutes into your day 4 workout. In a given week, if you do the exercises as you are supposed to, you will do 8 hours and 15 minutes of exercise (this includes doing an hour of stretching on your one “rest” day). The shortest workout in the program is a one-hour plyometrics work out that even 3 months after starting still leaves me grabbing my knees by the halfway point (though I no longer pause the DVD). In the entire program I did 107 hours of exercise, and that doesn’t include any of the runs I would take outside the program.

The one similarity though is that neither of the programs necessarily require a gym. Kettlebell work can be done anywhere, and it doesn’t have to be a kettlebell. Something with some weight to it that you can swing. In P90X, the resistance exercises utilize body weight as much as possible (think pull ups, lunges, squats). For those that need more resistance, exercise bands are really all that is needed. I spent a good 30 of the 90 days of the program on the road and was able to keep up with all of my workouts in my hotel room.

Moving on to the nutrition plan. Both of the programs definitely rely on adjusting your diet in order to achieve results. And both require planning in order to be successful; both meal planning and shopping. In fact, I would recommend for either plan that at the beginning of each week, you sit down and map out what you are going to eat for the week, and then make a grocery list to support that. Having a little more structure makes it easier to make it all the way through. The other similarity is that both require a lot of planning when traveling. Picking out suitable restaurants, packing snacks, and utilizing supplements all may be necessary in order to stick to the plan. Now that being said, let’s look at some of the differences (again, as I understand them).

4HB: The 4HB diet is a basic low-carb diet, low-fat diet. The goal is to remove fruits, sugars and breads from the diet…things that tend to be high in simple carbohydrates as well as dairy products. Instead, the person on the program is encouraged to eat beans (as the primary source of carbs), leafy green vegetables and lean meats. It is based on 3 full meals, 4 hours apart throughout the day. There are a couple of nice other things too, such as two glasses of red wine per night, and a “cheat day” once a week. Throw all caution to the wind and eat whatever you want.
P90X: While many people think of P90X as an exercise program, the diet is just as important for the success. It is what I would call an evolutionary diet in that it changes each month of the program. The diet plan is broken into 9 components; Protein, Carbs (defined as whole grains and legumes), Fruit, Vegetables, Dairy, Condiments, Snacks, Fats, and Water. There are 3 levels depending on the current weight and goals of the person exercising (I was a Level 2 or about 2,400 calories per day). There are really two options for following it. The first is a meal calendar that has been created and laid out. The second is a portion approach where you have X number of portions of each of the categories (a comprehensive list of what qualifies is also provided). I chose the portion approach for flexibility. It starts as high-protein and high-vegetables, not too dissimilar to 4HB. Fruits and carbs are limited to one serving each per day for the first month, though 3 servings of dairy are recommended. Additionally, P90X encourages a post workout recovery drink that is high in carbs, a protein bar at some point during the day, and a snack. You basically eat every 2 – 3 hours. In the second month, protein and dairy decrease, carbs and fruit increase. In the third month, protein decreases again, carbs increase, and the protein bar is removed leaving a fairly balanced diet of meat, carbs, fruit and vegetables. There is no alcohol recommendation either way, but with only one serving of carbs, I decided to completely omit it for the duration of the program. Also, there are no cheat days…just like with the exercises.

I wouldn’t say that one diet plan is more difficult to maintain than the other. They both require modification of the day-to-day diet of most people. The first phase of P90X is definitely difficult trying to get that much protein. I had to supplement with protein powder to get there. The last two phases were doable with no additional supplementation.

So for those of you looking for just a comparison, there you go. I think that both programs allow you to make some changes, though they are a bit different. 4HB is more for weight loss whereas P90X is more for truly getting into shape by building and toning muscle as well as losing weight. Both do require some discipline, though P90X requires much more (as well as time). 4HB is definitely less expensive as you just have to buy the book as opposed to the P90X DVD set (and any workout equipment you don’t already have). I’m definitely partial to P90X, but I respect anyone trying to make a change.

Now, if you want to keep reading, I know offer you my opinion of the two programs in a much less edited way (hopefully Nick doesn’t cut this part out). I’m not going to call 4HB “quackery” (which is the technical term by the way…seriously) as there is a little truth to the ideas, but I am going to raise the BS card. Will you see results on 4HB? Yes, Nick is proof of that. But are you really going to get in shape by doing almost no work and eating beans? No, I don’t think so. I think that 4HB was designed to capitalize on the “quick fix with no effort” desire for most Americans. There will definitely be an initial weight drop simply in water weight, and a little bit more that has a little bit more to do with a decrease in caloric intake than anything else. But I don’t believe that it is sustainable in the long run. It’s not really teaching better eating habits, especially with a cheat day that actually encourages worse eating (you only get to do it once a week, take advantage!), and I think a lot of people will fall back into old habits at the end of 30 days.

I could continue to go on about the diet. The foodie in me cringes every time I hear canned beans (there are 8 ingredients in Bush’s Black Beans including the ever-vague “natural flavor” and “spices”), but that’s not the part that I find most discouraging about 4HB. It’s the complete lack of exercise. We already have a problem with a very sedentary lifestyle, and in a way this promotes it. Don’t work out, lose weight, you’ll be fine. As someone that has worked extremely hard to get where I am, I get discouraged about the easy way out. Now I will say that I know Nick isn’t doing that as he is actually working out more than the recommended amount (which will actually lead to better results than he would achieve otherwise). And I know that committing to an hour a day every day for 3 months is more than most people can do. But find a middle ground.

Now, I’m not sitting here and saying that P90X is absolutely the way to go and people that don’t do it are fools. In fact, I think I’m a bit of a fool for putting myself through it. And to be honest, I’m not sure I’m 100% on board with the nutrition plan. But I do think it leads to improved habits that make the results sustainable over the longer term. And it makes real noticeable changes that you see in the mirror that encourage you to keep going. And, most important to me, there are no tricks or gimmicks or get their fast messages to it. It’s all about good old-fashioned hard work. Even though I’ve finished it, I’m still going because I like the progress, but I’m not final. And that’s actually discussed…how to keep going after you have used P90X to start yourself down the path to a healthier lifestyle.

I’ll end it with this…a free sneak peek into the “Deck on Food Secret to Losing Weight and Looking Better”. It’s really quite simple. Step 1, eat real food. Avoid processed crap, buy lots of fruits and vegetables, eat whole grains, get good cuts of meat (not cheap), and manage your portions. Step 2, exercise. Find something you enjoy and do it 60 minutes a day for 3-4 days a week. These programs are good only if you use them to learn about ways to improve yourself going forward. If all you want is a quick fix, in 3 months you’ll be right back where you were, or worse, and will be dumping money into the next quick fix fad that comes about. And let’s be honest, if you are going to dump money into something, dump it into good food. I’m not going to go into the whole cheap calorie discussion (I’ve written enough), but spend a little more on better quality food, and you will see results.

Meals today:

730am - Scrambled eggs with ham and coffee

1pm - after about 20-30min of plyometrics, I got a burrito bowl at Qdoba, nummers.

730pm - had grilled chicken with a romaine salad and a bean salad as well, very tasty!

Good night!

Day 18 - Slog

Weight - 200.2lb BF - 17.1%

Coming up on 2 milestones that will be very exciting, the first will be breaking the 200lb barrier (which I thought would be today, maybe tomorrow!) and the second is breaking past 17% BF.

That said, today is feeling like a slog. Might be just tired from last nights jiu jitsu training but I'm pretty low energy today.

Good news though, my friend Mike who writes DeckonFood.com and is a P90X vet will be guest posting tomorrow talking about some of the differences in the 2 programs and offering some editorial as well. So in case you wanted to hear it from another point of view, you'll get it from him!

Meals went like this today:

730am - I had leftover chili today and some coffee for bfast

1130am - Had a salad today of spinach and mixed veggies. I had canola and vinegar on the side and thank god, that tastes terrible. That was all they had since they cafe was out of olive oil and balsalmic vinegar.

2pm - raw almonds and a diet coke snack

630pm - had a nice salad tonight for dinner with eggs, chopped nuts, kalamata olives, and artichoke hearts.

Good night all!

Day 17 - I Heart Progress!

Weight - 200.4lb BF - 17.2%

Progress seems to motivate me, I thought that this would be a better week for progress than last week and it seems to be true! This is my lowest 1-day weight and 5-day rolling average (202.3lb) in a lot of years. Also my lowest BF in a lot of years as well. I am really excited to see a 1 as the first digit in my weight instead of a 2! There is still a lot of time left in the 4HB diet so I'm sure I will get there, just need to continue to plug away.

730am - Gotta love leftovers, grabbing a quick bowl of chili before the nuggets got up this morning with some coffee. Not the most traditional way to start the day but a good meal.

12pm - Had a burrito bowl at Qdoba for lunch today with guacamole, pretty tasty and easy.

5pm - 1hr of jiu jitsu, my knee held up pretty well so that is encouraging, good to get some exercise

7pm - Made a big salad with hard boiled egg, kalamata olives, artichoke hearts chopped pecans and some oil and vinegar dressing.

Short post today but am staying motivated!
Good night!

Day 16 - Getting Closer

Weight - 202.2lb BF - 17.3%

Good news today, lowest BF to date and rolling 5 day averages are both down. My rolling 5 day weight ave is below 203lb which is very encouraging and BF is slower to move but is still trending downward.

A couple of nice things I've noted, I have not had a blood sugar crash since starting the 4HB diet which is very nice, I am quite prone to these. Also, while my energy has been a bit low, I had plenty of energy for jiu jitsu last night. Many thanks to my BJJ partners for taking it easy on me my 1st night yesterday.

730am - had fried eggs with tomatoes and coffee for breakfast this morning, very fast and easy!

1230pm - went to lunch with some co-workers today and had Mexican for lunch which was great, I had a carne asada steak, with black beans and string beans cooked in soy and garlic I think. Very tasty.

7pm - Nice dinner of chili and a glass of vino tonight. Leftovers are so nice because I don't have to prepare anything for breakfast the next day!

Have a good night!

Day 15 - Half Way Done!

Weight - 204.2lb BF - 17.9%

730am - breakfast was scrambled eggs with ham on the side with coffee and some water

So off to the second half of the 4HB experiment! I'll give you the quick results as of TODAY for the 1st 14 days. I'm using my rolling 5 day weight and BF (just an average of the last 5 days) to help get a better estimate of my progress and to dial out some of the large swings in weight I typically see. Here we go:

• Start weight and BF - 208.4lb and 18.3%




• current weight and BF - 203.3lb and 17.8%




• difference in wt. and BF - 5.1lb and 0.5%

So this is about as conservative as I can make this, again using rolling 5 day averages, I've lost 5.1lb and 0.5%BF. Again to be noted, this is with virtually zero gym time (I did one 30min workout last week) so this is entirely a product of diet adjustment. Also, I am normally super active and will be getting back to my normal routine of a couple of gym visits, a couple of jiu jitsu practices and a couple of yoga sessions a week.

2pm - Ate very late today and had a Qdoba burrito bowl with pintos, chicken, guacamole and salsa. Very tasty but a bit on the salty side.

430pm - had a snack of pepperoni before leaving work. Needed a quick snack because I will be eating dinner late tonight.

530pm - did about 1hr of jiu jitsu tonight and felt pretty good. The knee held up and I got a good workout in. I took it very easy though but it was nice to be working out again.

7pm - had a good dinner of leftover bean salad and baked salmon.

Have a good evening!

Day 14 - Back to Work

Weight - 203.2lb BF - 17.9%

Just a mild increase in weight and BF after a cheat day. Very encouraging as 203.2lb is a great start to the week and is real motivation to stick closely to the diet and push under 200lb. I think this will be a week of big gains (losses?). I think week 3 will be a good one.

830am - breakfast was eggs with onions, coffee and some ham cooked on the skillet.

12pm - lunch was leftover spinach soup with black beans, spices and andouille sausage

Went to Blue Man Group at the Paramount, kickass.

330pm - had a glass of wine at 6 arms on The Hill.

430pm - had a 7oz bag of pistachios while watching the Seahawks triumph over the NY Giants, my fairytale football team also cruising to victory, also kickass.

630pm - Sister came over for dinner, we had salad with vinaigrette, grilled chicken, a bean salad I made up and a couple of glasses of wine.

I checked the results of the voting so far and 17 people have voted and 40% of them think that I will be 200lb or over at the end of the experiment. Part of me is pissed at this and will use it as motivation to keep me on track. But part of me is very confident (and if you have any interest in trying this 4HB diet) that the numbers bear out and that for me to get under 200lb and close to 195lb is a very real possibility.

See you all tomorrow! I'll get back to photoing as well, was a slacker today.

Day 13 - Deja Vu All Over Again - Week 2 Results

Cheat day!
Weight 201.6lb, BF 17.5%, Total Inches - 155.5"

So, this is almost exactly what I measured last week at this time. Everything is exactly the same except BF% which is up 0.1%. I'm encouraged by the numbers, 201.6lb is a great place for me to be although my expectations for this week were to be below 200lb. I feel like I have been spending all week making up the ground I lost for last week's cheat day.

That said, I do believe that traveling did slow me down a bit. I ate lots of nuts, and had a few more glasses of vino and not as much water as I should have. An interesting note, neither my wife nor my friend Matt who are also working on this diet with me lost anything either. We have all stalled out. I talked with both of them and they are still in it for the next 2 weeks to ride this thing out to the end.

Today is cheat day though and in the spirit of holding to the diet, I had a big glass of milk for breakfast and some plum cake, finally finished that off. I also had some Greek style yogurt and coffee with cream and splenda.

We are having some friends over as well today so I'm sure some eating and drinking will get done later today as well!

I am optimistic all in all and I do think there will be significant losses this week. 8lbs in 13 days is still unbelievable to me even if it's been a bit of a roller coaster ride to get there. If I lose another 8lbs in the next 2 weeks, that would put me at about 193lb and that's just silly.

I also plan on taking up exercise again this week. I have only worked out ONCE in the past 3 weeks due to my MCL sprain but I'm gearing up to get back into full action this week and that should also help to kick start things as well!

Fine, y'all caught me, it's my cheat day and my ice cream cake so you just go on and get your own cheat day and ice cream cake now. Haha!

930pm - ok, so, I'm drunk. yep. had many coronas, had many whiskeys, had many enchiladas and blew it up pretty good. was fun though and man, thank god for a cheat day, because sometimes the crazy eastern european next door neighbor and the friend from grad school just show up and all hell breaks loose and thats just how it goes! you know? and this is good sometimes, nice to take a break from all the beans and water and tracking everything and stuff like that. we'll hit it hard tomorrow, start off proper again. good week, solid week. good times.

mahalo!

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Day 12 - Man vs. Airport

8am - Breakfast in Dallas of eggs with GREAT salsa and bacon with black coffee at the hotel buffet. Easy easy!

I'm excited to get home and see my lil family as well as see what progress/damage the trip has done. I've held pretty close while I've been traveling so I expect modest gains.

One nice thing I've noted about this diet is the allowance for a couple of glasses of wine. This makes it nice to go out for a mid week happy hour or have a glass of wine with co-workers without blowing your diet or inviting all sorts of questions regarding why you're ordering soda water at the bar. It's a nice touch to the diet that adds to the real world 'live-ability' of the diet.

12pm - I got this wonderful salad at TGIFridays in the airport so that I could eat something decent prior to my flight and it kind of threw me a curve ball, it had lots of shredded cheese and some tortilla chips in it too. So not the best option for this diet but I think it was better than just eating nuts all day and I got some avocado and veggies out of the deal as well as some grilled chicken. I tried to eat around the stuff not part of the 4HB plan but the airport has struck again! Just something to be aware of, read those menus carefully!

5pm - On the flight home, I ate a bag of jerky and some mixed nuts as a snack again denying the awesome warm cookie that they hand out on Frontier flights.

8pm - My wife had made ups a really cool black bean, spinach and andouille sausage soup that was great, we also had a small salad too.

I'm beat but excited for week 2 results and cheat day tomorrow!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Day 11 - Flying Blind!

No weight and BF today!

I really don't like not having my data points! Energy-wise I feel much better today than many days on 4HB, I really have a ton of energy today, nice!

7am - early start, had eggs and bacon and coffee this morning. Hotel morning buffets have good low carb options, may not have the veggies and beans for 4HB but still not a bad option for breakfast.

1130am - had a nice stir fry lunch of beef and broccoli, really tasty, the sauce may have had sugar in it though, I am uncertain.




8pm - dinner was a steak with grilled veggies and red sauce. I'm not sure if the red sauce had a lot of sugar in it or not but I didn't think so. Also, I had 2 glasses of vino and a beer with dinner. I held tight to the diet plan other than the beer today.

Energy all day has been very good which has been nice, I have felt lethargic at times over the course of the 4HB diet but on the whole, I have felt very steady as far as how my blood sugar feels. Not sure if that makes any sense but if any of you have blood sugar crashes, you get what I mean.

I'm headed home tomorrow and the airports and airplanes are the biggest challenge to the diet overall and the biggest challenge a business traveller will face while trying to stick to 4HB. Some snacks handy will stave off hunger if an appropriate meal is not available which is very likely on a long flight.

Nite!


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Day 10 - Dallas

Weight 204lb BF 18.1%

So I'm 10 days in and about 1/3 done with the 30 day run of 4HB, been a fun ride so far!

Today I'm on my way to Dallas for work until the end of the week so I won't be able to weigh in of check BF while I'm traveling. Flying blind!

Also it presents a bigger challenge with regards to what and where to eat.

7am - I made sure to eat some leftover chili for breakfast at about 7am so I didn't leave the house empty.

So we'll see how 'durable' 4HB is on the road for you road warrior business travelers!

10am - plane isn't selling anything that would really qualify for 4HB, I bought a 3.5oz bag of almonds as a snack.

1pm - short layover an no time for lunch, had low sugar jerky as a snack. It's a must to try to get a big breakfast in on travel day.

2pm - fucking blog, I had to turn down a warm cookie for fear it would mess up the results. I had a handful of lightly salted mixed nuts instead. Haha!

5pm - finally a decent dinner, went to a mexican restaurant and had flank steak with guacamole and retried beans with a glass of wine, very nice.


745pm - going to go have a glass of vino then hit the hay for tomorrow's big day.

Cheers!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Day 9 - Graphs?!

Weight 205lb BF 17.9%

730am Had leftover chili this morning for breakfast, good eating. Some cold water and coffee too. No pic needed, same thing as last nights dinner!

1145am - For lunch, I pillaged the salad bar for all sorts of veggies and hard boiled eggs for a change of pace from the spinach salad with oil and vinegar, etc. I also had some tillamook pepperoni as well for a little more salty protein too, the best kind!

I thought a lot more about my weight fluctuations and I have decided (because I'm a nerd) to build a spreadsheet that graphs a 5 day rolling average of weight and BF%. This will help display the general trends of the 4HB diet. This will help temper the discouragement on high weight days and the craziness of low weight days.

Here are a couple of shots of the graphs since starting the 4HB diet I have so far graphing the 5-day rolling average. The images are pretty poor, sorry about that and ignore the steep drop-off at the end of the data, I haven't recorded those dates yet, of course. If anyone would like a copy of my nerdiness, I will certainly send it your way.

1pm - Just got done with my 1st workout in about 3 weeks (due to MCL sprain) and the knee feels pretty darn good! I'll take it easy the rest of the week then back to full time working out and jiu jitsu as well as yoga! One interesting thing to note, the energy level is pretty far down. I felt spent the entire workout. I'm not sure if I've lost a bit of cardio or its the diet, I suspect its a bit of both.

The gym I go to will help develop workouts for you and they pulled together a cross-fit-esque workout for me, lots of jumping and pushing big old tires, waving ropes around and other ridiculous stuff but it was a fun workout!


7pm - Dinner was a really nice tilapia brushed with olive oil, then rubbed with a special seasoning and baked at 400deg for about 30min. I also made fresh guacamole and heated up some frozen lima beans to complete the meal.
Tomorrow I travel for work to Dallas. I have a few things packed with me so I have some snacks but I'll see how mindful I can be of the diet while on the road. This will be a challenge for sure!

Good night!

Day 8 - Still Recovering From Cheat Day

730am - weight 205.4lb BF - 18%

Sometimes it all has to do with how you got there.

If you were to have told me that week over week, I would have been down about 2.5lb with steady losses, I would have been pretty happy with that! After seeing the 201 on the scale and the lower BF% at the end of week 1, I'm a bit discouraged at the numbers.

That said, I know my weight varies a lot so the up swings in weight should be taken with the same grain of salt as the down swings in weight I have also experienced. I just have to get used to the fact that my weight will swing a lot and to stay the course as the general trend in BF%, weight and inches is all in the positive direction.

I've seen more positive outcomes from 4HB than any other diet I have tried before so I am continuing on with the 4HB experiment and not getting too wrapped up in the day to day numbers.

730am - breakfast with 2 eggs, ham, green onions with fresh tomato on the side and black coffee.

1130am - spinach salad for lunch with eggs, peas, other veggies and oil and vinegar dressing.


330pm - snack of pecans later in the day



7pm - had chili for dinner with some red wine. Had some salted nuts to snack on later in the evening but not too much. I'm becoming more conscious of the amount of nuts I'm eating and will make sure to reduce that to an amount more in line with what the 4HB diet specifies. Other than that, I've held very close to the diet guidelines and hope to see some progress tomorrow!
Good night!

Day 7 - Damage Done

7am - weight 206.4lb BF 17.7%

So cheat day did about 4.8lbs of damage and 0.3%BF damage but I'll get most of that back today I think as it's back to work on the 4HB!

I hope to be back down to the 201lb range by Tuesday or Wednesday morning and breaking the 200lb barrier later this week. The numbers hurt this morning but the cheat day was a good mental break from 4HB and while I didn't necessarily need it week 1, I feel like I'll definitely need it end of weeks 3 & 4.

**2 special notes, my friend Matt, who is also doing this diet with me was down 7lbs last week and my wifey, Jess, is down 1.5lb as well so we're all moving in the right direction!**

7am - Breaky today, 2 fried eggs, coffee, a bit of beans and some ham cooked in the skillet. Sorry no pic but it ain't nothin' you haven't seen before!

1130am - had a mexicanish lunch, refried beans, guacamole and diced up chicken I had in the fridge. Pretty good football food.
7pm - I didn't photo my dinner but it was a pretty simple dish of roasted chicken I bought at the grocery store and some brussels sprouts. Nothing too thrilling! I had a snack earlier of a glass of wine and pepperoni earlier in the day.

Why this photo? One thing I thought I'd just touch on is *preparation*. That has been pretty key for me during the 4HB diet and it is critical to prepare to make this diet easier on you. It only takes me a few minutes to think about what to have for dinner the next day and get most of the utensils out for breakfast tomorrow.

This way, when I get up in the morning, I can get a cup of Joe, grab some eggs, green onions, tomatoes and some Virginia ham, chop it all up on the cutting board, mix it in with the eggs in the bowl and have the skillet heated up and ready to go. This really minimizes breakfast time.

Thought I would put this out there as preparing the night before for the next day's breakfast and dinner is something that has helped a lot.

See you Monday!

Day 6 - Week 1 Results! Don't toy with my emotions...

Cheat day baby, cheat day

8am - 201.6lb 17.4%BF
Total inches - 155.5"

Whoa! So at this point I'm excited. I have tried really hard, REALLY hard to push my weight under 203lb and nothing has worked but hey, this morning, I was down to 201.6pm BF 17.4%, pretty incredible. I will take the conservative approach to the week's numbers calling my starting point 208lb and 18.2%BF.

In 6 days I have lost 6.4lb and 0.8%BF and 3.5 total inches. All the metrics are moving in right direction.

I'm starting to believe my body has a very high affinity for beans! Haha!

So to celebrate, I ate 2 pieces of a wonderful plum turnover cake that my mother in law made for us and coffee with milk and splenda. The splenda didn't taste so good surprisingly and I just had coffee with milk after that. I will be diet coking like a fiend later today.

I'm taking full advantage of cheat day with a vanilla latte as a snack.

Lunch was Johnny Rocket's with O-rings
Ice cream birthday cake are you kidding me?
Thai food for dinner!
Clearly I am trying to undo all of the good work I did this week but at the end of the day, I'm ready to get back to work and it feels nice to have a day off. I am looking forward to breaking the 200lb mark next week!

See you all tomorrow!

Day 5 - Modest gains...or losses

Weight 204.6lb BF 18.1%

So, some more interesting news today. Down 0.2lb and 0.1%BF so that is the good news. Bad news is I would have to say I'm hungover today. My college rugby friends would be very disappointed with me as I went crazy and had 3 glasses of wine.

Yep, 3.

Be warned though, its like drinking on an empty stomach so take it easy on even small amounts of wine can make you feel rough. This diet is pretty hard so you don't want any more challenges than you already have!

730am - Breaky was eggs with ham and some coffee and AGG. Pretty easy and tasty.

1130am - Still feeling pretty bad, what a lightweight I am. Have to get some lunch soon.

12:15 - Having mixed nuts for lunch as I feel le yuk still. 1 cup per the photo. And you might be wondering what kind of nerd keeps measuring cups at their desk? Only enginerds keep measuring cups at their desk...


330pm - Had a snack of beans and more nuts which is way more than you are supposed to have but its about all I had appetite for. Tasted pretty good though.

630pm - Tonight for dinner, it was a very light meal, just has an artichoke with mayo and some tea. Not very thrilling but I'm going to save leftover chili for another day when I have more appetite.
Looking forward to cheat day tomorrow, been a very interesting week! I'll post measurements as well tomorrow. I'll take them 1st thing in the morning with weight and BF measure.

Week 1 in the books!

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Day 4 - Coming Back to Earth

Weight 204.8lb BF 18.4%

So my weight loss has hit a temporary snag but I'm not too worried and I'm not too surprised. Like I said, my weight fluctuates a lot so I'm not going to get too excited until we press under 203lb and closer to 200lb. BF is effectively steady with a slight increase of 0.2%.

Had leftover chili for breakfast 1st thing with AGG and coffee as well. Good start to the day! Feeling pretty good, I was very lethargic yesterday so I'm hoping I feel more energetic today. We'll see!

A note about my activity. I'm still laid up from any hard lifting and exercising because of my sprained MCL. I think I'll be back in action next week full time with a couple of days of yoga and a couple of days of jiu jitsu.

I want to stitch in the Occam's Protocol workout as well over lunchtime a couple of days a week and see how that goes. We train with kettle-bells at my MMA school occasionally I think they are great.

One thing I do that is a little different than most is I stand at work, all day, every day. Read up on it, its great for men and burns lots more calories throughout the day:

LiveStrong's Benefits of Standing Link

So my activity level should pick up in weeks 2 and 3 of the 4HB diet for sure.

12pm - Lunch was a spinach salad with egg, oil and vinegar and assorted veggies. That's my standard for lunch more often than not. I also added some Tillamook pepperoni as well, this is heavy on the salt but low on sugar, most jerkys have a lot of sugar in them so I passed on them.

Had dinner with a friend tonight and subjected her to my 4HB dieting ways and she was impressed! We had grilled chicken with Mexican flavored beans and steamed broccoli. She said it was great to eat a healthy meal and she said it tasted good too!

I took the AGG supplement before dinner but forgot to take it before lunch. Had a couple of glasses of wine too which substitute for my dessert basically.
Not as lethargic today as yesterday but still pretty slow going today. Eating more at lunch definitely helped matters.

1 more day until cheat day!

Day 3, Interesting Results...

Day 3
Weight - 204.8lb BF 18.2%

Interesting results! Down again to 204.8lb but my BF has remained the same. So I believe the majority of my weight loss has been water weight but how can I not be happy with the results so far!

Really though, my weight swings like crazy. I'll start getting excited when we get closer to the big 200lb mark. I would like to believe that I'm one of these freaky people that responds very well to this eating habit but I REALLY don't think I'm that lucky!

Breakfast, quick and easy, 2 fried eggs, big bottle of water, some pAGG supplement and a couple of slices of ham I put in the pan and cooked up. Made breakfast for wife and I in about 10min. All within 1/2hr of waking up. Then the twins woke up!


1030am - I got hungry so I went down to our work cafe and got a snack. All they had left out from breakfast were some sausage patties and links so I ate a sausage link and patty and felt much better.

11AM - Went for a quick walk and I must say that I feel like I'm going to have a blood sugar crash but I don't think that is going to happen, just feels that way.

12pm - had a nice spinach salad for lunch with egg, ham, tomatoes, peas, onion, oil and vinegar and pepper on it. Took pAGG as well before eating, feeling pretty good although today has been a harder day as far as feelings of fatigue go.


7pm - Tonight I had a great dinner of a mole chili my wife made with beans, ground beef, tomatoes, spices including unsweetened cocoa. I have been quite low energy all day and this is really a pick me up at the end of the day! Also took AGG as well. I had a snack of pistachios before dinner as well to tie me over while the chili finished up!


Couple of glasses of red wine to wrap up the night and I'll see you tomorrow!

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Day 2 Off to a Good Start!

7am weight 207lb BF 18.2%

This is an amazing diet! I dropped 4lbs in 1 day! At this pace I should be at my stretch goal of 185lb in about 5 days, BRILLIANT! Haha!

So my weight did exactly like I thought and came right back to 207lb. So no, not too amazing YET. Although at 20lbs in 30 days, I should expect a weight loss of about 0.67lb/day. For me, I'll call my baseline weight 208lb, so by the end of the week, if tracking correctly I would be at about
204lb.

For breakfast this morning I started 1st thing with 1/2L of cold water then 2 eggs with ham scrambled in with coffee and a bit of cinnamon. Nothing fancy but took all of about 10min to whip up.

Found another great 4HB blog from ANOTHER Nick, Nick Momrik, who is 7 weeks into the 4HB diet and is showing impressive results from the graph below I took from his blog. Great stuff!

http://nickmomrik.com/2011/03/06/4-hour-body-week-7/

12pm - For lunch I went to Qdoba and had a burrito bowl with shredded beef, black beans, guacamole and fajita veggies. Really tasty and something to get when the gang wants to go out for lunch.
5pm
A can of diet coke for the drive home, ahh... Small reward for making through the work day.

6pm
Tonight had a dinner of leftovers, had a nice steak salad with pinto beans and some red wine.
Also received the pAGG supplement in the mail and I'll start that tonight as well. I think it is early enough in the month that I can add it in and not worry about changing the results.

Good night everyone!

Day 1 of 4HB!

7am Weight 211lb BF 18.2%

Day 1

Hey All,

Woke up this morning and it is so much easier to get up early and cook versus work out. Haha! I had everything set up to make breakfast for my wife and I so in about 10min before the twins woke up, I fired up 2 fried eggs for us and some re fried beans with black coffee too.

My weight is way up to 211lb but again, this is normal as I went on a beer and salty peanut bender yesterday watching my beloved Seahawks squeak out a win over the hated Zonie Cardinals. I'd be very surprised if my weight didn't come right back down to 207lb in 2-3 days, like it always does!

We ate this within 1/2hr of waking up per Tim's instructions and I also had 1/2L of cold water to start as well. If you read the book, he talks a bit about how cold water early in the morning can kick start your metabolism more.

Below you will also see an quite flattering photo of me sans tan at 7am this morning. For the record, I'm not unhappy with how I look at all, I'm quite satisfied but I'm very interested in if this 4HB diet will work.




1130am

Lunch today consisted of a nice spinach salad (0.7lb on the cafe's scale) that has hard boiled egg, peas, ham and broccoli with oil and vinegar dressing.

145pm
I got hungry, I don't think I ate enough lunch so I went on search for a snack. I went and got some water and a small bag of salted peanuts (15g protein). Tomorrow I will definitely up the size of lunch I think. Tim calls peanuts a domino food which people will over-snack on them. I'll be very aware of this but I want to be as straight forward as I can regarding how I feel while on the 4HB diet so you can know what to expect.

Well I have a buddy now, my friend Matt is on board on this adventure and will be starting up directly. We are splitting a 30-day supply of Athletic Greens noted in the 4HB. If it is good stuff, we will order another supply but in the mean time, its a great way to keep the costs low. That should help keep things on-track for sure.

By the way, don't add too much cinnamon to your coffee, it turns into nasty congealed mess at the bottom of your cup. Nasty like a honey badger.

4pm

Looking forward to my can of diet coke. Feeling pretty good other than that, going to grill up some nice steak with some kidney beans or something like that and eat a salad for dinner. Should be pretty good eatin'.

8pm

Dinner was great and we're winding down day 1. All good so far, don't feel any weirdness in my blood sugar so that is very nice. I'm full but it's very clear that my body is lacking carbs and is curious where they all went! Till tomorrow, good night!