Update

So I know it's been over a month since I updated, sorry about that. It's been a crazy month. I had finals, trips, and started a new term among other things.
It was hard at times to stay on the diet this month, I cheated much more than I had in the first month. I did still see some great results.

                             Start                    4/2            5/7
Waist              41                     37.5            35
Chest              42                       40             39
Arms              12                       12              12
Legs               22                       22              22
Hips               39                        37             36
Total              156                     148.5         144
Weight          194.8                   186            176




I am really happy with these results. Here are my total numbers


Total Lost              
Weight                            18.80  lbs
Fat Percentage                 10%
Body Fat                         22.63 lbs



Not bad for simply changing my diet. I still haven't exercised a ton, I try to but it's hard to find time with school right now.

Obviously the pictures show it better than the numbers. I am overall pleased with the diet. I plan on continuing for a couple more months. My ultimate goal is 155. 

One Month

Well I made it a month. Wasn't too hard to accomplish. I don't think I cheated at all, well at least not intentionally. I am overall pleased with the diet. The results weren't quite what I was hoping for, but successful nonetheless.

                       Start             3/12           3/19          3/26        4/2
Waist              41                 40            39              38            37.5
Chest              42                 41            41              40            40
Arms              12                 12             12              12            12
Legs               22                 22             22              22            22
Hips               39                 38             37              37            37
Total              156               153           151            149        148.5
Weight          194.8            193.6        189.6          185.6       186


Obviously I wasn't extremely happy with the results this week, but I do have an idea as to why I may have gained weight this week. I worked out more this week than I had in previous weeks. I did some strength training, and combining that with the loss in inches, granted only 1/2, makes me think that I did gain some muscle. 


My starting body fat percentage was 30.8%. Taking this with my starting weight my body fat weight was 60 pounds.
My current body fat percentage is 24.71%. This equals 46 pounds of fat. A loss of 14 pounds of fat and over 6% body fat is very encouraging. 
I'm going to continue eating this way....for the most part. I'm going to be a little looser about some things, and I'm going to experiment with certain foods to see if I can add them in. I am obviously still a ways from my goal of 155, but I feel and look better so I really can't complain. I'm also going to try and weight train more over the next month.


Updated pictures:

The pictures are a great showing of the success that I have had so far on the diet. I will continue to update throughout this process.

Week 3

The diet is getting harder and easier at the same time. Harder in that I'm really starting to dislike some of the foods that I am eating. Mainly because I eat them so often. Easier because of the difference I notice when I eat like this compared to how I used to eat.
Every Friday night so far I have looked forward to waking up the next day. Saturday is my cheat day, I'm encouraged to have a huge calorie spike, mostly from carbohydrates, in order to reset metabolism and replenish stores. So I eat whatever I want. Usually not a ton of food, but I do eat quite a bit. The result; every Saturday I have trouble falling asleep because of a stomach ache. Now part of it may be due to the amount of food eaten, but I think the majority of it is from the foods that were eaten.
While on the diet during the week, I feel like I have lots of energy. I haven't had any stomach issues during the week. Yesterday after cheat day, I felt tired all day. I didn't really feel like eating all day, and had to take a pretty long nap.
How much of this has to do with the food that I eat, I don't know. What I do know is that i feel better during the week and am seeing some really good results. If it continues this way I will hit my goal in a lot shorter time than I had hoped.

                      Start             3/12           3/19          3/26
Waist              41                 40            39              38
Chest              42                 41            41              40
Arms              12                 12             12              12
Legs               22                 22             22              22
Hips               39                 38             37              37
Total              156               153           151            149
Weight           194.8            193.6        189.6        185.6




Once again I am really please about this weeks results. I have almost hit 10 pounds lost and should hit it by mid week if not by tomorrow. I look and feel better. I will post updated pictures next week. My body  fat percentage had dropped into a normal range. According to that measurement, I have lost 13 pounds of fat. I don't know how much of that is true, but it is encouraging. 
I don't know how long I'm going to stay strictly on this diet. I will definitely eat more like this than not though. I will probably stay on it at least til I get under 170 (a mark I haven't seen in five years). The results that I have seen are definitely hard to argue with.

Week 2

This was an interesting week. I followed the diet again without fail. I don't have a lot of time to update today as I have finals this week that I have to study for.
Results:

                      Start             4/12        4/19
Waist              41                 40            39
Chest              42                 41            41
Arms              12                 12             12
Legs               22                 22             22
Hips               39                 38             37
Total              156               153            151
Weight           194.8            193.6          189.6

Obviously a lot better result on the scale this week with a total loss of four pounds. Hopefully it continues to be that steady. The way I increased the loss was by eating more food. Sounds weird I know, but before I had lowered my calories so much that it impeded my weight loss. So I ate more protein and more legumes and had a better result.
I did see the scale drop as low as 188.6 on saturday, but gained two pounds on my cheat day. I didn't even eat a ton on Saturday, but oh well. So far I'm very satisfied with the diet and will continue through the end of the month.

Week 1

Week one is in the books. The week wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. I'm the type that eats bread, potatoes, or some type of grain at every meal. Giving that up was not as hard as I thought it would be. I struggled for the first few days, but after that cruised along without any issues. I didn't slip up once and only ate Slow Carb Diet approved foods the entire week. I saw the scale drop as low as 192 before my cheat day.

Then came cheat day. I had planned all these foods that I wanted to eat. Got up had some cereal for breakfast, and then turned to the yogurt. I had been eating yogurt everyday before I started this diet. I started to eat it and didn't even make it through half before I couldn't eat it anymore. It wasn't that I was full, I just couldn't stomach it. I also noticed that I felt nauseated after drinking milk. This is something that I haven't really noticed before. But I do feel that way often. On this diet however, I did not feel that way once. Makes me wonder if I'm a bit lactose intolerant.

The food did get boring on the diet, but that's part of the idea. You start not to think about food, because you know what you are going to eat. Takes a bit of the thinking out, which is a good thing. Now the results:

                     Start             4/12
Waist              41                 40
Chest              42                 41
Arms              12                 12
Legs               22                 22
Hips               39                 38
Total              156               153
Weight           194.8            193.6

Now the results on the scale were disappointing at first. I had expected a three or four pound loss. But this is why you take the other measurements. I began to look at other results. Three total inches lost was great! But doesn't really tell you much. So I looked at body fat percentage. By using this I could calculate how much total fat was lost. I was down over 2%, this shows a total fat loss of over 4 pounds! That is more the result I was looking for. It doesn't show on the scale because some there were muscle gains.

Overall I am pleased with the first week's results. I am going to try some new things this week to see how much of an affect they have on  the measurements.

Before pictures

Start of the Journey

Something happened a couple of weeks ago. I am a 23 year old, recently married man. My wife and I moved soon after our wedding so that I could attend chiropractic school. I hadn't stepped on a scale since the wedding, so I decided to buy one and weigh in. The first weight; 200.2 lbs. This was with shoes and clothes on, but never before had I been big enough to register that much on a scale. I decided then it was time to change.
My name is Richard. I have always been a bit on the bigger side for my height; 5'7". In the last four years, I have not weighed less than 170 lbs. I hit that mark two years ago after a 3 week stint on the HCG diet. It got amazing results, 24 lbs in 21 days ,but I hated every minute of it. This time I was looking for another option, something that promised similar results but had more freedom. I remembered my brother mentioning Four Hour Body this summer and decided it was worth looking into.
I read the book and was intrigued. A promise that you can lose nearly 20 lbs of fat in a month! All without excercie! Could this be the miracle diet everyone hopes for? I decided more research was necessary. I read and watched every clip that I could find and came to this conclusion; this is one diet that is worth proving wrong! If it turns out to not work for me what have I lost besides a few months where I couldn't eat bread or drink milk? For the results that this diet promises, I am willing to sacrifice to see.
The diet is fairly simple.

1. Don't eat "white" carbohydrates, or things that can be white (breads, rice, milk, etc.)
2. Eat the same meals repeatedly
3. Don't drink your calories
4. No eating fruit
5. Take one day off per week (more than just a break, the diet suggests a binge day where you eat anything and everything)

Those are the rules. Each meal is supposed to have at least 20g of protein. Also you are supposed to drink ice cold water as soon as you get out of bed and eat breakfast containg 20-30g within an hour of waking, preferably in the first 30 minutes. The book suggests that the last two alone will cause dramatic, measurable fat loss.
Today is day one for me. The trial will last two months. Starting out I am not going to do everything the book suggests, just the diet. I am not supplementing with everything that Ferriss suggest, that may come later. For now I am just going to follow the diet.
This will affect my wife, as I primarily cook the meals. Thanks to her for supporting me in this. I will report at least every Monday with the previous week's results. Posts may come during the week if I feel like there is something that needs to be said. The purpose of this blog is to make me accountable, and so the journey begins.

Initial Measurements 3/5/2012
Chest- 42"
Waist- 41"
Hips- 39"
Arms- 12"
Legs- 22"
Total- 156"
Weight- 194.8 lbs