Posted on by Chris Maloney

Dr. Maloney Does a Diet, Timothy Ferriss Style.

Reproduced from a c.1870s photographer frontis...
Reproduced from a c.1870s photographer frontispiece to Charles Dicken's A Christmas Carol (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Anyone who knows me knows I loathe diets.  They sell books and programs, and leave people dejected and with lower self-esteem than when they started.  The only diet that works is one you can do for life.  But from time to time I put my money where my mouth is and try a new diet to see if it’s different from the rest.  Maybe this author has found the fountain of perpetual weight loss.

For those of you familiar with Tomothy Ferriss, he’s sort of an anti-Tiny Tim (“God bless us everyone.”  The kid with the crutch in Scrooge).  Or he’s a Tiny Tim on ‘roids who’s been gamma blasted and come out with a Brainiac size brain.

So when he writes about dietary experimentation, he’s talking about fairly intense involvement with food.  Tim’s diet in the Four Hour Body lists the foods he eats, and he says just to do what he does.  Besides eating boring food six days a week, Tim eats like a glutton one day a week.

Unfortunately for me, I react poorly to most of what he eats.  Eggs generate noxious fumes in my GI tract.  Pork and I seem to have a long-standing mutual dislike that leaves me with raccoon eyes.  Dairy?  Sorry, can’t do it unless I want to spend the next day in constipated allergy land.

So that pretty much leaves me with chicken and salad.  That’s what I’m allowed to eat on Tim’s diet.  Except nuts are not explicitly  ruled out, so I rule them in.  What I cannot have are any carbs, any sweeteners, or any fruit.  I love fruit.  But if it is the magic weight gainer that Tim says, out goes fruit.

So, what happens eating just chicken and salad?  You get really, really hungry.  I felt amazingly starved for about two days.  But then I cheated one day with some grapes and my weight went back up.  Now I crave meat the way I craved bread before.  But I also just don’t feel full even though I’m full.  Definitely a learning curve with the diet.

I don’t buy the whole day of gluttony.  After the grapes I had a glucose crash the next day (so tired, almost passing out).  Otherwise I’ve been burning protein and fat for the last few days.

Weight loss?  Well, last night I ate about a pound of pistachios and gained two pounds.  Today I didn’t eat and didn’t lose any of the weight despite multiple bathroom breaks.  So salt is still a huge factor for me.

The verdict thus far:  Tim has combined a low-carb diet with monotony.  It works for him because he’s young and he’s  a guy.  The whole day of bingeing is something I could have done up until my mid-thirties, but I can’ even cheat with some grapes or I pay heavily the next day.  So if you happen to be a young guy, Tim’s weight loss program may work.  But without the day of bingeing every week Tim’s just one more monotonous diet that is going to fail the majority of people.

My own journey is going to be going back to carbs and fruit slowly.  It has been interesting to eat lots of chicken, but I don’t think I’ll miss it.  I will give the diet another week to work, but I’m not expecting anything more.

Related articles

One Reply to “”

  1. Pingback: Dr. Oz and Dr. Maloney Agree On Five Weight Loss Myths. « Alternative Holistic Health Answers

Tell me what you think!

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com.