1. I don’t even know how I ended up here, but I thought this post was great.
   I do not know who you are but definitely you are going to a famous blogger
   if you aren’t already 😉 Cheers!

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   • Thanks Milla, much appreciated!

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2. We are a group of volunteers and starting a new scheme in our community.
   Your website offered us with valuable info to work on. You’ve done a formidable
   job and our whole community will be grateful to you.

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3. Hi Alan-

   Just came across this post and subsequent comments and wanted to say kudos to you for how you have handled some of the name-calling/antagonistic comments. Also, I wish you continued success on your quest for better health.

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   • Thanks 🙂

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4. Thanks for the alternative viewpoint Alan, though I kind of agree you weren’t very rigorous in trialling the diet and seem to be finding negatives that could easily apply to most diets.

   You are right on a few points. I had to do a lot of extra googling to find out whether certain foods were ok/not ok/allowed in moderation. An excellent resource has been eslowcarbdiet.com, I seem to use it whenever I’m at the grocery store. I just type in a food and I get a straight answer.

   I’ve been doing it for 5 weeks and losing 1 kg per week on average. The biggest win for me though is that I am feeling better – mind is less foggy and I just feel better. Not sure why this is, may have had a gluten intolerance or something.

   Another point is, it’s recommended you take supplements for calcium, magnesium and potassium. I’ve noticed I’ve had headaches whenever I stop taking calcium and magnesium supplements, so I do recommend them.

   I have also found some awesome recipes such as smoked salmon, kale and pine nut salad .. basically I used to be incredibly lazy in the kitchen and now I am finding new appreciation for the food that is allowed on slow carb. Some respond to limitation by becoming more creative (instead of bored) – I am finding that to be the case with me.

   I intend to go back to a diet that includes some fruit, and the occasional potoato or bowl of rice, as soon as I hit my target weight. Am also finding it really important to weigh myself daily, as it helps indicate what things trigger weight gain, and will definitely help me come off the diet without putting weight back on.

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   • Hi Darren,

     thanks for a great comment, and you’re right… kind of. This was never meant to be a rigorous trial of the diet such that I’m reviewing it for others but rather sharing my experience and my own personal experiment trying the diet (I suppose there’s not much difference in the end but I’m trying to explain my viewpoint when I wrote the article). That being said I did read the book sufficiently to understand the diet (I’ve since gine back and double checked) and I did follow the rules of the diet rigorously with one extremely minor exception (cups of tea) – in the spirit of the diet and without being really anal about it this should have been sufficient to see ‘results’.

     I did deliberately write a controversial headline, however I don’t think anything said above is that far fetched.

     In fact, you raise another reason why this diet is not ideal – that it’s recommended you take supplements for calcium, magnesium and potassium.

     What kind of healthy, balanced diet requires you to take supplements?

     I love your comments though as I actually learned an awful lot from the experience, just like you did – which was actually my goal. I learned to appreciate certain foods just like you did (please read this article if you have time: A Very Simple Thought That Is Helping Me Be More Healthy) and like you, I felt different which was interesting. Also, like you, I became more creative in the kitchen within my new limits (but already knew that would happen from a ‘less is more’ standpoint which I’ve also written extensively about here).

     My main beef was that no fruits are allowed on the diet, so for me the diet is excellent to learn, perhaps to ‘get back on track’ or to test certain things but it’s not really sustainable and adding a few fruits and perhaps some of the more healthy carbs in moderation is the best way to stick with a modified version (which will still work and avoid you needing to take supplements).

     If you do want to try another extreme diet which allows fruits (and one I also would not recommend as a long term option but great for experimenting, take a look at the Paleo diet – and read this: 3 Reasons To Take The Paleo Challenge) – p.s. I found this MUCH harder than the slow-carb diet, but again an interesting experience.

     take care & thanks again for the comment,

     Alan

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   • p.s. great tip about eslowcarbdiet.com – I just checked that out & it’s very good,

     thanks again,
     Alan

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5. Hey I know this is off topic but I was wondering if you knew of
   any widgets I could add to my blog that automatically tweet my newest twitter updates.
   I’ve been looking for a plug-in like this for quite some time and was hoping maybe you would have some experience with something like this. Please let me know if you run into anything. I truly enjoy reading your blog and I look forward to your new updates.

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   • Hi Glenda,

     you could try ‘Tweet Old Post’ – despite the name I think this would be configurable to tweet only your most recent posts – i.e. within a certain period of time. Let me know if this is the kind of thing you were looking for…

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6. Hi Joe,

   first of all I am sorry I’ve clearly angered you with what I’ve written, but please do bear in mind it is just an opinion. Now, to some of your points…

   Yes I did read the book.

   It’s not intended to be a review of the diet as such, I’m just a guy who tried this diet and share my thoughts about it. You’re of course entitled to disagree with them but I’m also entitled to an opinion and that’s all this is – plus a bit of fun. I really think you are taking this all a little too seriously?

   For me this was an experiment and they were my thoughts at the time.

   Overall as far as diets go, I think the best thing is still to eat healthy, eat less and move more. This diet clearly promotes eating as much as you like (limited by certain rules 6 days of the week and limitless on cheat day) and claims to work even with no exercise.

   So I do find this quite an extreme diet but I have to say quite an effective one (it did work for me just, as I said, not as much as I’d expected or it seems as claimed by the book).

   That being said, I’ve learned a lot from the experience and my diet now and taste is modified (for the better) as a result of it.

   … and I did try it for more than a short period of time. I don’t think I said either in the article or in the comments that I tried it for a week (though someone else said that and I corrected them so maybe that’s the comment you read?)

   I am not and never have been fat.

   I only cheated on putting a little milk in my tea. Nobody’s perfect, in fact I seem to recall in the book, Tim himself said something along the lines of bending what he originally intended the diet to look like to accommodate his love for red wine.

   I did mostly start the day with a big breakfast though as the diet said no measuring I didn’t measure if I started with at least XXg of protein. I just had a plateful of omelette, lentils, bacon, sausage, spinach etc – i.e. whatever I had in stock which was allowed accoridng to the diet.

   Aside from a little bit of milk in my tea I didn’t ‘cheat’ outside of cheat day – no I didn’t stuff my face with pasta as you put it or even eat any fruit at all. My point about fruits is that they are natural and there is a lot of goodness in a lot of fruits so it seems a shame to have a blanket ban on them, that’s all. No need to get so worked up about it.

   I will agree whole-heartedly with one thing you said though – it’s not the diets, it’s the people themselves. What I did experience with this diet was mostly positive, I learned a lot, I did lose some weight (despite not being fat in the first place which you seemed to assume I was).

   Anyways, enough said. I’m guessing you’re still going to be upset with me here whatever I say, suffice to say sorry this seems to have upset you so much.

   P.S. I don’t have any competing products with Tim Ferris. Far from it, as I said, I’ve never really been into diets before this little experiment (never needed to either).

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7. This is an intellectually dishonest posting. It’s clear you wrote this in your head way before actually trying it. And by “trying it” I mean, actually read the book that is full of information. Seems kind of important to do before reviewing a diet, no?

   Anyways, the biggest problem with diets/life changes aren’t the diets themselves. It’s the people, especially ones who don’t actually read the information(which is fairly obvious to anyone who has read it, that you’re in this category), who like to pick and choose what parts of the diet they’re ok with and then skip other parts.

   “oh, it SAYS no pasta, but I can’t do that! I just love shoving pasta down my face every day? WHY AM I NOT LOSING WEIGHT?!”
   “Well, it SAYS eat 30g of protein within 30 minutes of waking up, but I’m just going to drink some tea. That’s the same thing, right?”
   “No Fruit?! Yeah, it’s high in sugar but it’s got Vitamin C! I can’t cope!!!”

   It’s all excuses. How about adding that to your 52 actionable tips. “STOP MAKING EXCUSES. You’re not fooling anyone including yourself.”

   There are a multitude of issues with your complaints but I’m not even going to bother going through them all.

   #1 – It’s Boring. It’s only boring because you’ve made it so. I’ve been on it for 6 weeks and haven’t for 1 second have felt bored. Why? Because I’ve decided to make good food that tastes good. I’m eating tastier food in the last 6 out of 7 days for 6 weeks than I do on my cheat day. Why? Because I put a little effort into it. Crazy right?

   #2 – Too many eggs. Again. You can get protein in so many different ways. Why’d you choose eggs if you don’t like them?

   #3 – “Leaks” – You didn’t read the book. Had you, you’d realize you can’t go hog wild on them. Similarly, it’s odd that you mentioned that you cut back on week 2, yet in the comments, you said you only tried it for a week. Intellectual dishonest.

   #4, 5 and 6 are so unbelievably lazy and dishonest that I can’t realistically write about them without getting angry.

   #7 – It’s confusing – Yes, you’re being thick and at least hopefully in your case, you know it. It’s actually fantastically simple.

   #8 – Lack of official info – Well, since you didn’t read the book, I can understand this. There are COUNTLESS sources of information all over the interwebs AND, if you actually tried, you could easily find out for yourself, but like a lot of dieters, you want the information to find you. Doesn’t quite work that way.

   #9 – Unsustainability – It’s unsustainable if you have no will power, which granted, most fat people do not have, which is why they’re looking for the magic “eat pizza and fruit all day” diet pill.

   #10 – Welcome to every diet ever. Oh, and you didn’t read the book. This seems to be a common theme.

   #11 – You didn’t read the book, did you???

   #12 – You’re just making stuff up now… Yes, you need to trick your body into doing certain things, like losing weight, because you’ve tricked your body into thinking it needs a handful of nuts and fruit and horrible carbs and dairy to survive. It doesn’t. But you’ve certainly convinced yourself that it does. Let me repeat. It doesn’t.

   Bottom line is, you didn’t read the book, didn’t ACTUALLY do the diet, you claim to have a diet of your own, which anyone with any bit of integrity would tell you is disingenuous at best, AND you’ve got a competing life-change book. Can you say conflict of interest?

   I’ve copied this just in case you don’t post it, just to show to others who’ll get a laugh at the article itself, and just in case you hid/deleted it. I’m actually afraid to drive your post numbers up considering how bad it is, but anyone who I show it to, will quickly see how much of a joke it is.

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   • You seem like a nice guy, Alan, but I tend to agree with Joe, thought perhaps more softly 🙂 Much of the specifics from the book have been ignored, so I’m actually surprised you had even decent results. It’s really not an “Atkins” look-alike at all, and it seems that you sort of loosely followed that kind of mainly-protein idea. I’d be really interested to know what kind of results you would see if you tried to follow it to the letter – just for science’s sake 🙂

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     • Hi Terry,

       I never claimed to be following the diet perfectly however I do think that I followed it pretty well – and I didn’t say it didn’t work, I just said it didn’t work as well as expected. I recounted my personal experience. I didn’t claim to be an expert.

       So you are entitled to your opinion and so am I.

       I followed the diet for quite a while and I think in the end (though way after writing the above article) I did have a pretty good understanding of it. I also tried the 30 Day Paleo Challenge which you’ll find an article about here: 30 Day Paleo Challenge in case you’re interested. These are my experiences, nothing else.

       Admittedly with this one I did sensationalize the headline a bit.

       My current diet is pretty awesome and very well informed by my experience with both slow-carb and Paleo without being as extreme as either. As an ‘abstainer’ I found the ‘rules’ of both diets helpful – i.e. easier to not eat chocolate at all than to try opening a bar of chocolate and stopping after 1 piece. The most valuable lesson I’ve learned is that there are things for which rules help (again, speaking from personal experience only, not as an expert) for me that’s sweet things, desserts etc but other things which I am able to eat in moderation (bread, pasta, rice) so having tried by now quite a number of different diets (and with the Paleo challenge I definitely did follow it properly and was uber-strict about everything) in the end I heavily restrict carbs except on a kind of cheat day I still have each Saturday, but I don’t cut them out completely (e.g. if eating out at a friends house) nor do I think you really need to – even on Saturdays (cheat day) I eat ‘treats’ but only a little, I still try and eat relatively healthy and just allow myself a few treats, that’s all.

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       • No, I was honestly wondering what you’d have experienced if you’d followed Tim’s advice to the letter 🙂 I JUST read the book and haven’t started so I’m not even a proponent. Was just noticing that Tim has pretty strict guidelines and you followed it a bit more loosely, like the not “exactly” 30 grams of protein for breakfast, and the amount of beans. No offense intended at all!! Thanks for replying so quickly-
         Terry

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         • None taken Terry.

           I don’t know how ‘to the letter’ I was but I think I got pretty close. The problem is that the above article is a point in time and probably the time I really got to understand and follow the diet in the best way was after I’d written this – though beofre some of the comments and my responses to them, which is why I did say in response to one of the comments maybe I should write a follow-up article (with a less controversial headline).

           Of all the diets out there I do like the slow-carb diet the best – particularly because you don’t need to calorie count – that’s kind of the point of it to me. I found it really convenient to eat as much as I liked every day cheat day or non cheat day.

           If the diet is any good I think getting the key points right should be enough.

           For any diet though, drinking plenty of water is going to help because a lot of what we think is hunger (for a lot of people) is actually thirst – in my opinion.

           Though as I said I wouldn’t recommend it (meaning as a long term sustainable diet) I definitely would recommend giving it a try (as you’ll learn lots) and in the end whatever diet you choose is very likely to be informed by your experience (e.g. it probably is a good idea to cut down on sugar and carbs, maybe it is a good idea to have one day per week where you can indulge a little more to make the other days easier).

           On the subject of carbs, I personally find there is a huge difference what kind of carbs we’re talking about. Another way of looking at what’s good and what’s not is whether it’s processed or not. I reckon just avoiding white stuff is not a bad idea too – e.g. if you’re going to have sugar then go for brown sugar, not white, same for bread (maybe better to avoid bread completely but if you are going to eat bread, just a little & go for wholgrain, brown etc instead of white), same for pasta and rice. If it’s bright white it’s probably bleached or very processed – most natural things aren’t bright white in colour.

           In the end natural is best, so is moderation but if like me, you find moderation difficult (I did, not so much any more) then these diets are definitely worth a look to put some rules in place to stop you overdoing things.

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8. Just FWIW, low-fat milk is not allowed (nor is any milk). You are allowed 2 TBSP of heavy cream in your morning tea/coffee. I’m not sure if you had it every day with your tea, but it’s explicitly forbidden.

   (Just wanted to post this in case people looking for the rules come to your site)

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   • Hi Robin,

     thanks for this – I did realize that that was the one tiny exception I was making. I actually recently heard Tim in an interview saying something along the lines of full fat cream being better for you than low-fat milk – because of the lactose which apparently plays havoc…

     take care & best wishes,
     Alan

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     • Hi Alan, gotcha 🙂 It’s counter intuitive, and kind of a drag. You can’t froth heavy cream like you can a good cup of milk 🙂

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       • Yeah – well, I knew anyway, but I do love my tea so that was just a step too far for me. Perhaps I should have tried it with full cream instead.

         I stuck to the diet very strictly in every other aspect though (and limited the number of teas I did drink every day) – and I did see some results, just not to the extent expected. Perhaps the tea was a concession which made more of a difference than I realized…

         I’m going to try Paleo next for 1 month which I’m looking forward to even less – particularly because the one thing I grew really fond of when following the 4-hour body diet was legumes and they’re not allowed on Paleo. I can understand grains but still struggling to understand what’s so bad about chick peas & lentils…

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         • Interesting… I hope you find something that works! Good luck!

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           • Thanks Robin,

             I still tend to think eat healthy, eat less, move more might just be the best formula, but we’ll see 😉

             I’m certainly learning loads along the way with some of these ideas…

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9. You only tried the diet for a week? I would give it a full three or four weeks before deciding how you feel about it. Start off with plenty of protein in the morning and eat good veggies and meat throughout the day. I never count anything except I limit my beans to 1 1/2 cups per day. I’ve lost so much weight and feel great. I feel better at 36 than I did at 20. There’s a website called 4 Hour People that has a great support forum.

   I’ve done a lot of self experimentation with a blood glucose meter and I can assure you that what Tim talks about it correct.

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   • Er, no… I tried it for longer than a week but just posted ‘entries’ for each day for the first week, otherwise 1) it would get a bit boring and 2) that week is probably the most interesting anyway and maybe the hardest in terms of adjustment

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     • i.e. much longer than a week – before and after this article

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10. You ought to double-check your statement that fruits are loaded with vitamins. In fact, they aren’t. Fruits are a good source of phytochemicals (non-essential nutrients that help detox and protect the body). But, if you were to compare the vitamins in100g of fruit to 100g of organ meat, or muscle meat, or eggs, you would find that fruits are actually not very nutrient dense.

    The USDA allows nutritional labels to state Vitamin A in the form of carotenoids found in fruits and vegetables, however carotenoids are not “true” Vitamin A and they must be converted into the bioavailable form of Vitamin A — known as retinol — by the body. Most people, particularly vegetarians, have trouble converting carotenoids into retinol. Therefore, people can be deficient in retinol (true Vitamin A), despite eating buckets of carrots or grapefruit. Only animal meat — particularly organ meat — has true Vitamin A in it. In fact, Liver is the most nutrient-dense food on the planet. And furthermore, the vitamins found in animal products are easily digested by our acid/peptin-based stomachs — making the vitamins found in animal products highly bioavailable.

    So, fruit is really not a very good source of Vitamins. Fruit is a good source of phytochemicals, which are crucial for detoxification, cleansing and protecting the body.

    Hope that clears up a common misconception.

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    • It’s true that the vitamin A in carrots is not in as a bioavailable form as in butter for instance. We mentioned that in our Nature vs Marketing article.

      When it comes to vitamin C, fruits win. For all other vitamins, veggies or meat/dairy products come top. It doesn’t take away from the fact though that fruits are good to eat. They do contain vitamins and minerals, water, phytochemicals, dietary fibres (which are really good for our health). They contain little to no fat. On the negative side, they do contain carbohydrates (sugars). That’s why many nutritionists recommend to eat more veggies than fruits.

      As for liver. Yes, it contains a lot of nutrients, vitamins and minerals. So much so that it is not recommended in high quantities – especially for pregnant women.
      http://www.benefitsofeating.com/liver/

      A good article against 5 a day (but completely misses out on the fibre content which is a very good point in favor of fruits): http://www.zoeharcombe.com/2012/03/five-a-day-the-truth/

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11. I have to agree with you Alan. I have the 4HB book. As a result I detached a muscle in my shoulder doing kettlebell swings back in 2010. Still gives me pain.
    As for the diet, it’s completely arbitrary in some of its food choices and to me it just seems like a variation of Paleo, but substitutes fruit for pulses. I’m sorry but endless lentils are boring and as for eating 30g of protein for breakfast – do me a favour. I have 2 whole eggs and 3Tbsp of egg white scrambled and that only comes to about 15g and that’s enough to satiate me.
    Where I would agree with 4HB and Paleo is in the restriction of wheat/gluten based products (bread, pasta, rice) and starchy vegetables like potatoes.
    I’ve found much more impressive results from restricting calories on two successive days and then enjoying the widest range of foods for the rest of the week, including the occasional risotto, curry and home made pasta. What sparked my interest in this was a BBC documentary http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-19112549
    I think the success (and probably the seeds of its failure long term) is the fact that it’s very simple to follow with the allowed food selection very narrowly defined. I guess this suits some.
    To summarise 4HB, Paleo – very boring.

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    • Hey Jon,

      thanks for a great comment and I’m so sorry to have taken so long to have responded.

      I actually learned a lot from this diet and I do agree it’s a really effective way to lose weight – but if you have enough discipline then I still think moderation is a better approach (& agree with you on the 30g point).

      Basically if we can learn to trust our bodies and understand how to listen to our bodies to understand when we really need food and when we really need water, we should be able to eat just about anything in the right moderate amounts.

      I am still following a lot of the principles from this diet given what it has shown me about carbs & bread – but I still eat bread, pasta, rice and potatoes just in much smaller quantities and I try and cut out sugar in the form of biscuits and sweets almost completely until the weekend.

      I can always tighten the screws again if I find myself slipping – but like you say – boring – then I just get a grip and remind myself to move around (not even any vigorous exercise needed, just walking & everyday stuff), eat in moderation and stop eating when I’m full.

      Really simple but it seems to work for me – like a modified version of slow-carb, no too extreme, with the strict version as a backdrop if I think I’m putting on weight (which I’m not).

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12. I have been on the 4HB diet for 10 weeks. Frankly, breakfast is the most important meal of the day and helps curb the appetite if you eat enough protein and get enough water. I started out at 242 lbs and a 42 inch waist. I’m down to 209 lbs and a 36 inch waist. I did minimal working out the first 8 weeks.

    Although it is recommended that you eat the same thing for your meals (e.g. same breakfast, same lunch,…) it is not necessary as long as you keep the carbs slow and protein adequate and drink enough water. I’m not tired on this diet nor do I experience hunger pains. I started to working out and have good success, but it is not near enough time to see any major or minor results.

    At 50 yo, I find the diet very easy to maintain and I like the foods that I eat. Before this diet, I had tried being a vegetarian for a year and a half. I could not maintain the energy or keep away the cravings and I missed my protein badly. I lost weight, but it was stymied at 240 lbs. I worked out religiously (not over train, mostly cardio and mid weights) and could not get the proteins to my depraved muscles. I was exhausted. I picked up 4HB and decided to try it out.

    My experience is different and I recommend this diet. It shows results.

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    • Hey Charlie,

      thanks so much for this really helpful comment.

      Probably the most succinct and accurate thing I’ve heard when it comes to this diet is your comment:

      as long as you keep the carbs slow and protein adequate and drink enough water

      I never even looked at diets before this but one thing I have learned through this experience and also some other research I did previous to this is that drinking plenty of water is huge. Often people mistake thirst (for water) for hunger and put on weight by consuming calories they didn’t need to – in my view the more they do this the more they are ‘training their body’ (or even their mind) to crave the wrong things.

      I don’t particularly like water but it seems obvious to me that if we consume a lot more of it then it’s great for our health in all kinds of ways.

      Add to this your first two points – keep the carbs slow and the protein adequate and I’d say you’ve just summarized in one easy sentence the best way to approach this particular diet.

      perfect!

      thanks again,
      Alan

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