All tactics, no excuses.
This post will explain exactly how Briana, a mother of three and reader of this blog, lost 100 pounds. It’s a lot simpler than you might think.
For additional real-world examples and the fundamentals, I suggest reading “How to Lose 100 Pounds on The Slow-Carb Diet.” There are several men and women profiled.
Sidenote: Many of you have been asking for a free 4-Hour Body support group… so I created it here. It’s designed to improve success rates by 50%+. In a recent four-week test, 86% of people who finished lost an average of 8.6 pounds. Many lost more than 20 pounds. If you’re serious about progress, take a look.
Now, onto our post, which was written by Briana herself. I’ve avoided any major edits to preserve her voice.
Please add any questions or tips of your own to the comment. Both Briana and I will jump in to help…
Enter Briana
If you’re meeting me for the first time today, you’d never guess that a little over 1 year ago, I was 100 pounds heavier and the furthest thing from being proud in a bikini.
And if you’d met “the FAT me” a year ago, you probably never would have guessed that the over-weight mother of three was actually an accomplished personal trainer who’d lost 73 pounds years earlier… and gained it all back.
That is really where my introduction to the Slow-Carb Diet (SCD) began.
Five years ago, I was a stay-at-home mom.
I had a husband, two kids, a house in the suburbs with a white picket fence, and a great dane. I was a young mom in my early 20’s, trying to balance everything and be everything to everyone BUT neglecting myself. I made my family the priority, which was great for them, but I lost myself somewhere along the way. Despite numerous failed attempts to lose weight and get in shape, the scale just kept creeping up.
Fat, depressed, and frustrated, I ended up surfing the internet one day for some new nutrition and training inspiration, when I stumbled across Tim’s blog and the post he wrote on How to Lose 20 lbs of Fat in 30 Days… Without Doing Any Exercise. Four paragraphs in, I was HOOKED! I read it, I applied it day-in and day-out, and within 6 months I had not only lost the 73 POUNDS I had gained after having my first two kids, but I had completely transformed my body!
Needless to say, the experience was life-changing. After it, I felt compelled to pursue a career as a certified personal trainer and nutrition specialist. I wanted to empower, educate, and inspire other women to transform their bodies and regain a renewed sense of self — just as I had.
Shortly after I became certified, I went through a devastating divorce. As a newly single-mom, I set out to “4-Hour Workweek” my life, started my own multi-faceted health and wellness company, and spent the last 5 years helping to transform the bodies and lives of hundreds of women around the world in ways they never thought were possible.
Along the way, Tim wrote and released The 4-Hour Body, and my story was featured on national television and throughout numerous editorials, spreads, and fitness publications — the biggest of which was an appearance with Tim on the Dr. Oz show.
And then? I got pregnant with baby #3.
Long story short: despite being a personal trainer and all my previous hard work to be a “weight-loss success story,” I ended up being one of those Mego-Prego women who really went for it! By “went for it” I mean – if my weight gain had been an accurate barometer of my son’s birth weight, I should have given birth to a kindergartner!
From the moment I first found out that I was pregnant I decided to use the “eating for two” excuse. I indulged my cravings, and I packed on the pounds by way of ice-cream, Mexican food, lasagna, and a total break from the adapted SCD nutrition principles I worked so hard to establish in my own life and subsequently teach others.
Needless to say, I exploded over nine months, and by the time I actually gave birth to my 8 lb. 6 oz. bundle of joy, I found myself weighing the heaviest of my life–100 pounds heavier than normal.
So my baby is born… and I find myself asking, “Now what, fatty?”
TRANSFORMATION: ROUND 2
Faced with the depressing reality that the new weight wasn’t “baby weight” and was really ALL ME, I made it my mission to swiftly re-apply the SCD principles to shed the post-partum pounds in record time.
It began with a commitment to change, and a real look in the mirror.
So many of us are miserable over the current condition of our bodies, we get motivated and inspired by reading stories such as mine, but that’s not enough. We need something lasting. Something that will motivate us to walk away from the bread basket, or in my case — back away from the sour cream twice-baked potato!
For me, that motivation came in the form of photos.
Before I began, I committed to document the entire process via a weekly pictorial where I would stand raw, real, and exposed in front of a camera wearing nothing but the same tiny black bikini. When I felt discouraged, or was having a internal struggle over something I shouldn’t eat, I would look at the photos of where indulging got me — FAT.
I took it one day and one meal at a time.
Beginning the day after I gave birth, I followed every slow-carb principle that is outlined — except for the cheat day.
The reason? I was breast-feeding, and through trial and error, it turned out that keeping my diet consistent by eating the same thing (more or less) everyday was much better for my baby (and my sanity), than trying to sooth a horrific colicky newborn 12-24 hours after binge eating on a “cheat day.”
The biggest SCD keys behind my latest post-pregnancy transformation were:
– Structuring every meal around a lean protein
– Meal frequency (eating every three hours)
– Totally avoiding refined, processed, starchy carbohydrates, and wheat (I came up with some wicked slow-carb recipe option substitutes)
– Eliminating dairy
– Completely cutting out fruit, which was my biggest craving during my pregnancy
– Drinking a gallon of water a day
– Upping my daily fish oil to 1 gram per 1% body fat — liquid form. Obviously, that’d otherwise be quite a few pills.
Just with the slow-carb diet ALONE and ZERO exercise (due to some postpartum recovery issues between week 1 and week 8), I lost 36 POUNDS.
(Click here for larger image)
And 12 months after giving birth, I hit my goal and lost 100 pounds (23 pounds of which were pre-pregnancy), and completely transformed my body.
Consistency is key. A typical day on the SCD might look like this:
Breakfast @ 7am
Egg white frittatas (made with veggies like mushrooms, bell pepper, and onion)
Snack @ 10
Veggies with hummus
Lunch @ 11:30
Usually dinner leftovers from the night before (i.e. Bison marinara sauce over zucchini spaghetti; Tuna stuffed avocados; etc.)
Snack @ 2
Small mixed green salad with chicken, cucumbers, green peppers, and tomatoes with a homemade lemon/garlic vinaigrette
Dinner @ 6
Tilapia fillet served over broiled garlic carrots, and coconut “rice” (cauliflower)
Biggest tip: If you fail to plan, you’re planning to fail
As a mom, life can be hectic, and it rarely goes according to plan.
I always prepare ahead of time for those moments with some quick-grab protein snacks. Turkey wrap “roll-ups” with a little hummus and a sliver of bell pepper or cucumber inside is my fave! Or little snack-sized baggies of almonds sprinkled with cinnamon. Hard-boiled “hummus deviled eggs” is another.
Prepare or fail, the choice is yours.
Conclusion
Putting on a bikini 7 days after you give birth is uncomfortable. Some might argue it’s insane.
Standing in front of the bright lights of a professional photographer week-after-week (often times without seeing much change), especially when you’re a personal trainer who is 100 pounds over weight, is humiliating, humbling, and painful.
But transforming my body, documenting the journey, inspiring other mothers, and ultimately founding BikiniBodyMommy.com has been the most empowering 12-month process I’ve ever undergone.
The journey isn’t always easy, but nothing worthwhile ever is.
My name is Briana. I am a 31-year old mother of three, I’ve lost more than 100 pounds on the Slow-Carb Diet, and I work every day to be a success story.
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Odds and Ends: New 4-Hour Body Support Group
The Tim Ferriss Show is one of the most popular podcasts in the world with more than one billion downloads. It has been selected for "Best of Apple Podcasts" three times, it is often the #1 interview podcast across all of Apple Podcasts, and it's been ranked #1 out of 400,000+ podcasts on many occasions. To listen to any of the past episodes for free, check out this page.
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Amazing! I was feeling some baby blues since my daughters birth this past January but its time I shake it off. I need to only lose 30lbs and it doable. Off to open my 4HB and 4HC.
Thank You SO Much Maria! I have no doubt you’ll get that 30 pounds OFF … YOU CAN DO IT! 🙂
Your transformation is amazing and you deserve major props for wrestling the weight loss “bear” to the ground and then making him your b*tch. Weight loss is something that vexes so many people and you conquered it. Congrats!
Side note, overall the diet looks pretty sound until I read that you cut out ALL fruit. I understand why, based on how the diet works, but there are so many nutrients (macro, micro, phytochemicals) that are lost and need to be sourced through pills. Yes, it can be done…but still.
Also, and not a criticism, but as a personal trainer do you feel it is perhaps not the best message, long term, to send to the public that they do not need to exercise in order to lose weight and be healthy?
All the best to you and your family!
Totally amazing. I appreciate so much this site. I’ve learn many stuff here.
Absolutely incredible transformation, Briana!
From all the diet information out there, from SCD to Paleo, (mostly) everyone agrees that processed foods are the culprit for weight gain and illness. As a Paleo guy myself, it’s great to see a Mom incorporate the SCD rules and get healthy.
Truly amazing.
Thank you so much Max for the kind words!
Except her diet didn’t have many legumes, so it looks like paleo minus the fruit.
Congrats though!
Hi MJ… I know the example I gave above didn’t include them, but I actually incorporated legumes regularly into my daily meals
Actually.. hummus is made of chickpeas..which is legume..
What’s up with the cold showers?
Getting coldness into your life helps release a certain type of fat. Cold showering is one way to do this, but there are other ways, like putting an ice pack on your upper back and neck for 20 minutes while watching TV or reading.
Thermogenics, as well as other stuff, but I’m being lazy so will open my copy of 4HB and get back to you later.
I’m off for a cold shower.
Very impressive case study! FYI, the link to Briana’s website in the conclusion doesn’t work.
Stefan
Thank You Stefan! Tim fixed the link 🙂
Does one have to eliminate fruit to be lean?! It just depresses me to think that fruit, the most natural, delicious, wonderful thing to me, has to go in order for fat loss to occur. Is this in fact, the truth? (Serious question.)
Fruits are among the healthiest things can eat. Avocado is a fruit, berries, kiwi,
From the Harvard School of Public Health: http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/vegetables-and-fruits/
Mayo Clinic, you want healthy skin, need to eat fruit, http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/healthy-skin/AN01863
Seriously, nutrition is the most important thing to know in your life. Even more important to health than exercise–which is also very crucial. Good nutrition is the best medicine, it’s very interesting, and not knowing is incredibly dangerous.
Dr. Weill http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQ_bDr7gvbU
Can also check what purchase on Goodguide.com for the healthiest. i.e. TJs yogurt does not have a good rating. Strauss is the best, Fage 2nd. Berries, a scoop of yogurt and walnuts or almond are a very healthy desert. Nor all yogurt is healthy, and soft swirl is almost all full of aspertame…ie cancer food.
They say fruit is processed in your body like a carb, so if weight loss is your goal, it’s best to cut it out or stick to one piece a day. In maintenance, you can reintroduce more frequently and see how your body tolerates it.
Sharon, Fruit isn’t processed like a carb it is a carb. Fruit is fructose one of the main carb classes.
It’s basically a big ball of sugar that is produced in order to entice animals to eat it and therefore spread the seeds of the plant far and wide.
Think back to how humans evolved. Thousands of years ago we usually survived harsh winters by eating stored dried protein. We suspect that humans lost weight all winter long. The only way to survive the next long winter was to gain a lot of weight in the spring and the summer sort of like a bear. And what foods are available in the spring and the summer? Fruit, berries, starchy vegetables, and grains. We’ve evolved to eat carbs which would cause insulin secretion much more than other food classes. Insulin secretion causes hunger. It’s why if you eat a plate of scrambled eggs, you may be full for eight hours or more. If you eat a big plate of pasta and a bowl of ice cream, you may eat twice the calories but in three hours you will be hungry for more. That’s how we gained weight in the summers thousands of years ago. Now with carbohydrates available all year round and us evolved to crave carbs, wt. gain is uncontrolled.
“Sharon, Fruit isn’t processed like a carb it is a carb. Fruit is fructose one of the main carb classes.
It’s basically a big ball of sugar that is produced in order to entice animals to eat it and therefore spread the seeds of the plant far and wide.”
Not exactly. Fruit is composed of sugar AND fibre AND is packed with micronutrients. The last two ingredients are vital for both weight loss and fitness. It is completely disingenuous to dismiss fruits for their sugar content. Fruits are not candy bars or soda, which are almost a 100% sugar with little or no nutrient value. Cutting back on sugar is a good thing, fruits not so much. I really wish the latest trend of dismissing foods in their natural states would stop. We don’t need processed sugars, we do need natural sugars. We don’t need processed carbs, we do need natural carbs. Replace the nutrient here with anything else and repeat it as a mantra. There is no such thing as a BAD group of a food that is found in its natural state.
Also, there is historical evidence that hunter-gatherers who survived on wild game and meat primarily were healthier and fitter than their successors who ate more carbs, but that doesn’t mean that carbs are bad. As long as you get them from natural sources (that is, fruit) and you primarily plan the meal around lean protein, you should be good to go.
Fruit contains antioxidants, especially the berries and select others. However it also contains lots of sugar. While it is natural sugar and arguably the best way to have sugar because of the fiber and nutrients that come along, its still sugar. You can supplement these essential nutrients and vitamins and avoid the sugar all together, not nearly as delicious tho. Like Sharon said above, limit yourself to 1 piece a day, moderation is the key. I believe 80% pure healthy choices and 20% indulgence is a good way to stay healthy and still enjoy your favorite deserts. After all once you are practicing a healthy lifestyle and diet your cravings and tolerance for junk food will decrease.
I love your 80/20 rule Jeff… Personally I apply a 90/10 which I’ve found works best for me and keeping myself in check! 🙂
Remember that if you follow SCD to the letter, you can eat an entire fruit orchard on your designated cheat day every week. And 1 in 7 days is just about an 85/15 split. So incorporating a cheat day, among other reasons, falls perfectly in line with SCD and Pareto’s law.
While the percentages work the same with a daily cheat meal or snack, in terms of moderation, the point of Tim’s diet is ketosis for fat loss. And it will typically take a person 2-3 full days to get their body into that state.
As a physician that deals with a lot of weight problems with patients and myself, i think I can help answer this question.
The question is not whether fruit is healthy or not. In a weight appropriate low body fat individual , fruit is a healthy appropriate part of the diet. There are many important vitamins and nutritional additives that fruit can supply as well as a lot of fiber. It should be a relatively small proportion part of a healthy diet.
When you’re obese however you have to understand that fruit is essentially a large ball of carbohydrates. Carbohydrates are the crack cocaine for the overweight food addict. Robert Atkins was one of the first people to clearly understand this problem in overweight people. To lose significant weight, carbohydrates cannot be even much of a minor part of your diet. There are a number of reasons for this but most importantly carbs. cause significant insulin secretion. Insulin does many many things some life-saving. Two important things it does is turn on the fat storage mechanism and create hunger. This will absolutely sabotage any significant diet efforts.
So let’s just say fruit is healthy but only for people with healthy weights.
Eric in Austin
Dr. Eric,
Thank you for your explanation about the fruit. That makes perfect sense! I’m planning to start this diet and I was trying to understand everything about it first. I need to lose 20 – 30 lbs and hoping this will be the diet to work for me.
Great explanation Eric! Thank you very much for your post…. It completely makes sense.
I’m on this diet, and I eat all the fruits I want on the one cheat day per week. It gives me my fix, and I don’t gain any weight.
Years ago I did a protein and fruit diet (melon group one day, citrus group one day, and berries on one day) … one type of fruit group per day, no mixing.
I lost 15 lbs and 30 inches overall. I leaned out. I worked out (weights) three times a week.
Easiest diet ever since I didn’t have to think about what to eat or cook or mix together.
The problem with fruit is that it has been selectively bred to be sweeter, that is, to have more fructose, which not only causes fat gain but it’s also a poison (google ‘the truth about sugar’ talk). You can minimize these negative effects by sticking to fruits with a low fructose content: Avocados, tomatoes and berries.
Agreed completely.Also lets not forget thanks to modern agriculture,fruit is now available any time of year in unlimited quantities.my modo is eat in season fruits from as local a source you can acquire.
There are a lot of fruits that are lower in sugar, but just as dense in all the good, important nutrients, that are permissible to eat with the SCD. Bell peppers, for example, are technically a fruit (and have more Vit-C than oranges), along with cucumbers, avocados, etc…
Though raw fruit contains necessary nutrients, eliminating the sugary fruits is necessary to reaching your goals with the SCD. Fruit is one of my favorite things as well, which is why I binge on it once per week, every cheat day (aka gluttony day/reverse lent). Last cheat day I had a mango, a coconut, and half a bag of cherries. Next week I’ll probably eat a whole papaya and maybe half a pineapple.
Best of luck, and enjoy!
I followed a SCish diet last year and lost 10 kilos (~25 pounds?), I still ate an apple a day. Now I eat and apple and a banana every day, weight is still off.
It’s technically true that fruit has sugar, and if you follow the SCD for weight loss *only*, then yeah cutting out fruit probably helps. But you will not fail or become obese by squeezing in a couple serves in a day.
The important thing to understand with the SCD is it’s a recipe for *rapid fat burning*.
Fruit is very, good for you.
I am so excited for this! I cant wait to have my girlfriend join this!
Tim, I would like your opinion on something if you have a second. I like repeating the same meals over and over, so I thought I would try to find a breakfast lunch and dinner, that have all the vitamins and minerals that I need every day. I would by the food organically. Then just eat the same meals every day so that I am getting the exact amount of nutrients that I need and they are pesticide free. What are your thoughts? I will forever be a fan and thank you for your time.
First of all Congratulations, a truly inspirational story for those looking to do similarly. I was wondering about your supplements though, besides the fish oil everyday, did you take any other supplements? While a healthy diet is the biggest factor, a strong supplement program can help offset the damage inside our bodies when losing that much weight.
I only took the Fish oil and Multi-vitamin, as I was breastfeeding and extremely leary of things being passed through my breast milk.
All I can say is I am SHOCKED! Please correct me if I am wrong as I have made some assumptions here…That baby does not look breast feed and putting on a bikini a week after giving birth and then deciding on a radical diet is the first sure way to stop milk production…great way to make those mothers out there who do choose to protect the life force that is their milk for the first year of their Childs life feel like shit! EVERY single mother who has had problems with milk production or quality of milk issues that I have meet has been because of radical diets or over excising while breastfeeding. Sure it’s off your butt lady but it’s now permanently on your child. I am sick to death of woman been told they have to get back to picture perfect straight way, I am sick to death of the child been put second and parents been cheered on, what is wrong with this world…why couldn’t you have waited? Wake up people; give your kids a chance at least! Do it when they are weaned!
And Tim I know you’re a guy and might not know every much about these things but I am still shocked that you could encourage such behaviour. Now again I apologies if I am wrong but I would be shocked if I am!
But not every woman chooses to breast feed and also think that even after the breast feed period is over there is till so much time of get in shape for those that wish t do so. So I do not think you are addressing an real relevant point here.
You also said that you are, “sick to death of women been told they have to get back to picture perfect straight way.”
Well you can be sick to death al you want, but you’re worrying yourself over things that are outside of your control. You personally do not have do it if you don’t believe it is right.
And you also said that you are, “sick to death of the child been put second and parents been cheered on.” What? No one is putting the child second. With all due respect, I think you are blowing all this out of proportion (pun intended). this is a mother who decided to get back into shape instead of looking at magazine covers, secretly wishing she was thin, but outwardly blaming it on the magazine covers for making her feel shit, which is what you are doing.
It would be more honest of you if you said, “I’m jealous because it makes me feel like shit” rather than pin point a choice that she has made.
Hope you get back into shape and then you will not be a complainer. Why? Because if you continue to complain like you are doing then it is YOU that is putting your children second instead of instilling their hearts with a ”can do’ attitude instead of ‘let’s complain’ attitude.
Retread the article, she references not doing the cheat day because it made the baby colicky which is because the crappy food was transferring into her breast milk. Also, i am not sure how you can look at a picture of a baby or a mom in a bikini and see they aren’t breast fed.
Additionally, she did this a very healthy way and passed some great nutrients to her child and has set up a healthy lifestyle to share with her kids. I wish when I had given birth I had a support group for moms with people like Brianna. It would have been a lot less stressful.
Finally, as a mother whose child could not breast feed it was often very painful to read about how harmful I was being to my child. In reality, as mothers we need to support each other whether we are breast feeding or bottle feeding. The concept that my child will be an alien as he grows without breast milk is false and wrong. He is a healthy, well adjusted teenager who didn’t breast feed.
Did you not see what she was eating everyday? You’re “SHOCKED” that she ate that many vegetables and lean, good for you protein? What’s the matter with you? Besides the obvious jealousy..
I agree that weight loss through eating high-quality real foods is the only safe way to shed the pounds while breast feeding. My only concern when it comes to breastfeeding and extreme weight loss is the fat-soluble toxins that are released as you shed the weight. They get into your blood stream, and therefore your breast milk. I have a 2.5 year old son who is still breastfed and I really worry about that, even though breast milk only makes up about 25% of his diet now.
The only decent solutions I’ve found are to incorporate gelatinous foods like aloe vera and chia seeds to the diet. Also emphasizing detoxifying veggies and herbs like cilantro.
I’d love to hear if anyone else has suggestions about this. I’d love to try the SCD!
What’s funny here is that you are upset about something that happened exactly the opposite of your assumptions.
“The reason? I was breast-feeding, and through trial and error, it turned out that keeping my diet consistent by eating the same thing (more or less) everyday was much better for my baby (and my sanity), than trying to sooth a horrific colicky newborn 12-24 hours after binge eating on a “cheat day.”
Not only was she breast feeding, but she was careful and caring enough to notice her baby was having a reaction to the part of the diet where ‘bad’ food is allowed. Thank you for a perfect example in micro of society’s general willingness to be shallow and thoughtless. Not to mention the inability to be careful with sanctimony.
….I couldn’t have said it better myself Chris. Thank you for the support 🙂
Hi Diana… Your assumptions are wrong. I breastfed my son almost exclusively until he was 8 1/2 months old. He has been “off the charts” in terms of health and size in all of his check ups since birth. You can read more about my choice to breastfeed during my transformation journey on my blog.
My son breastfed also exclusively until 6 months when he truly desired to start eating solids, and I continued to breast feed until he was about 22 months old. He seems to have benefitted from this, as his height and weight have consistently been 75-90%, and was sick so seldom he almost never saw his doctor between yearly checkups. All this done while eating vegetarian, low-fat, low sugar meals. Not by choice, but because my pregnancy ‘forced’ me to eat that way. Unless I ate purely good choices, and not too much quantity, I threw up. And I threw up every single day of my pregnancy until I got medication to control it. It was almost like my body (and the baby in my body) knew what I needed, working against all the bad habits I had firmly put in place for decades! I actually lost 24 pounds during my pregnancy, but was the healthiest I’ve ever been.
I bootle fed my son only since day one. He was also top of the charts, never sick, his first cold at 2 years, never threw up, slept like a lamb, all check ups perfect. So what is it, breast feeding or bootle feeding…nah..lucky genes more like it. Oh, and I lost my baby weight (25 pounds) in 6 months by simply eating healthily and walking. No extreme diets, no weird supplements, just normal food, carbs and all….
Going on a diet after giving birth wouldn’t necessarily cause the breast milk to stop being produced, or even to slow down.
A big reason why milk production slows/stops when dieting is because women go on crash diets that don’t provide the thyroid necessary to stimulate the production of milk. This diet, however, does stimulate thyroid production.
The cheat day (as I understand it) is supposed to improve thyroid production that would otherwise slow during a diet by giving it a jolt of carbs, starches, lactose, etc. By giving your body something to digest in this category one day a week, your body doesn’t decrease in thyroid production (or enzyme production) as it would if you continued to eat the way you do for the 6 strict days a week.
Also, I believe Briana ate the same even on her cheat days, which goes to show that the slo-carb diet actually allows you to maintain a healthy internal balance when it comes to a working digestive system to maintain homeostasis needs (look it up).
I love this diet. I’ve lost 20lbs so far, and could be on this program forever. Way to go Briana!
I Just had a baby. I am doing the same thing and losing the weight. I breast feed. My baby is healthy and loving life. So I’ll correct you. 🙂 Its possible and healthy.
Diana – Really?? I think that you are just out to disagree with this as it doesn’t really fit in with your beliefs!- please try to be open minded, we can’t all be right all of the time!
My suggestion would be to buy the book and read all of the research and testing that has been done, scientific facts etc and then try it- do your own research to disprove it and then your comments may be taken a little more seriously!
Also eating healthy nutritious organic food after giving birth is what is advised when breast feeding?!
Waiting until breast feeding had finished would have had a poor effect on the lady in questions mental health, surely ” happy mum, happy baby” is the moto?
Wish I had know about this when I was post natal and breast feeding as I would have done it no question!
Briana you truly are an inspiration! We’ll done you!
I will be following in your footsteps….
Lucy x
Great article. Tim, the well placed caption under the photo of you two had me thinking you knocked her up for a second haha.
First off, awesome transformation Briana! I think it takes a lot dedication and consistency to achieve what you have! I think it’s important for people reading this to recognize the bigger picture, which is that “calories in” are less than “calories out”. I think a lot of “Diets” put too much of an emphasis on eliminating macro nutrients altogether which can be hazardous to ones physical and mental health. Some great researchers in this area are @mackinprof(Stuart Phillips) and @BioLayne(Layne Norton). They often dissect the stigma involved with Fad diets as well as assess the best routes to achieve protein synthesis/muscle growth. Tim it also may be worth checking out the 3DMJ youtube channel. I know you and @kevinrose(Kevin Rose) are big into working out and leading healthy lives as per much of what you discuss on the Random Show. I think you’d find the information they provide of use. There natural bodybuilders with a large focus on strength and metabolic health. There information was instrumental in helping me understand my body during my last contest prep. Sorry for the babble! Have a great one!
Justin,
I’m a big fan and believer in IIFYM. I really believe Tim’s ideas of cutting out dairy and fruit etc, is actually just cutting the calories below maintenance.
I bet you if you followed anyone doing the slow-carb diet and counted their calories you’d find it was lower than their TDEE- they just have all these fancy extra rules built in that helped them do that.
IIFYM gives you a cheat day every day and works just as well.
Broken link to her website. You forgot the http:// in wordpress.
Thanks, Lior. It was a formatting issue with copy and pasting from Word. God, I hate Word with a passion. Fixed!
Feel your pain Tim… start writing in Draft, it’s awesome and posts to wordpress, ect.
https://draftin.com/
Big fan and customer!
Wow, fantastic job Briana.
What was the hardest part? The biggest stumbling block?
Cheers
Alex
Hi Alexander! I’d say the most challenging part of my transformation was finding both the time and ENERGY to make my health and nutrition a priority day-in and day-out especially as a single-mother (with a newborn), who was running my own business. The biggest stumbling block would be with regard to “mindset.” Everyone has good days and bad days. Anyone who has attempted to transform their body knows it doesn’t take much for the bad to out-weigh the good! I’d have to say that the way I was able to develop and implementing mindset, motivation, and action step strategies which allowed me to consistently forge ahead, ended up being one of my biggest accomplishments.
That third baby kind of looks like Tim… Oh wait…
What a wonderful story Briana!
Thank you for putting yourself out there and inspiring us all.
What you’ve done obviously works quite well!
Karen
I fully understand how easy it is to start eating bad food: you start by drinking a beer once in a while, then you eat chicken wings and the more you eat unhealthy, the more you crave it. This is especially true in cold Canadian winter when there’s no sport to do in the winter or incentive to look good in a -35 C coat.
Also, I noticed that the more stressed you are, the harder it is to eat well. Do you know of any particular food or supplement or tips that can help reduce stress?
Also from what i’ve heard, it seems like when a pregnant woman really feel the unstoppable urge of eating high carbs food (junk, etc), it’s because she is missing key nutrients that her and the baby needs and the brain is sending the signal to put anything in the mouth and hope the body finds the nutrients it wants.
I actually found a really interesting way (the only one that ever worked for me) to totally stop my craving for chips & energy drinks (my main problem) is by buying them and putting day ALL DAY right up my face. I usually can’t resist having any junk food at home and as long as i can remember, a box of cookies has never lasted the night if it was within my apartment/house. So the trick is that because it’s right in your face you’re *practicing* every minute saying no to eating it. In other words, instead of thinking about it 2 times per day and failing to resist, you’re saying “no” both consciously and subconsciously so many times that you train your brain to ignore the chips and since they are, say, on your table, then you don’t have any reason to go out to buy some and since you’re used of seeing them they also become just like a flower pot, any other objects. And so far, it works amazingly: i haven’t eaten a chip since i started this challenge many weeks ago!
THANK YOU for the inspiration you 2 and congratulation for all the hard work and willpower. Beautiful family by the way 🙂
PS: Talking of inspiration, one of Tim’s previous winner of the 4 Hour Chef trailer, Vince Wong, is currently in my home town of Montreal and he agreed to allow me some time and meet with me next week. Can’t wait to shake hand of a 4HWW success story and be even more inspired. I’m working really hard currently on my current muse (I’m already doing really well, but i have bigger plans) and my current ultimate goal is to be featured also on Tim’s site since this is where all my inspiration comes from and inspire other ppl to go for it. And my story is unique since I’m one of the few selling a service online instead of a product (well, a few product also on the way). This would be the culmination of my accomplishment for pushing so insanely ahard in the last year and living the 4HWW was such an impossible crazy idea 1 year ago! 😉
Joel
Awesome story… Congrats Briana!
FYI – that BikiniBodyMommy link isn’t working (you’re missing a forward slash)
Great job Briana! Congratulations 🙂
All any one needs to do to stay in healthy, slim shape for life without effort is eat an alkalinized organic diet that is mostly green based, predominately raw, and all organic.
There is too much GMO chemicals to eat anything else but organic. There is too much really bad unhealthy things in most packaged commercial foods, all farmed fish, and meat in general.
An alkaline system will keep you pretty much disease free. i.e. cancer can’t grow in a alkaline system. Note: 64% of all US bankruptcies are medical related so a healthy balanced diet that includes the top fruits is providing needed nutrients that can’t get anywhere else.
Veggie isn’t just better for people’s health, it’s better for the planet. Meat/poultry produced for food is one of the most destructive things to the environment.
Some factoids if interested:
1) Veggies include Claudia Schiffer, Jesus Christ, John Lennon, Leonardo Da Vinci, Albert Einstein, Deepak Chopra, Gandhi, Penelope Cruz, Paul McCartney, Angela Bassett, Henry David Thoreau, Jane Goodall, Mark Twain, Mike Farrell, Paul Newman, Plato, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Robert Redford, Saint Frances of Assisi, Vanessa Williams, Voltaire.
2) Want GMO fries to go with that Staph-infected, drug-laced burger? A national study of our food supply by Translational Genomics Research Institute found that food animals are a major source for drug-resistant S. aureus [Staph] bacteria and ‘super-Staph’ that moves from animals to humans.
3) Save health, money and time: Americans spend $110B a year on meat-based fast food. That’s more than on all books, DVDs, CDs, movies, magazines and newspapers combined. Eating meat-based and fast-foot is the highway to obesity, heart disease, cancers and diabetes that leads to endless medical treatments and prescription drugs.
4) Meat-based diets are the #1 factor in environmental degradation: There are 20B head of livestock on the planet, versus 6.6B people. In the U.S. 7-10B animals are raised and slaughtered each year for food. Livestock production consumes 30% + of all raw materials and fossil fuels and generates 18% of greenhouse gases, compared to 13% for all modes of transportation, and 8% from homes and offices.
5) Producing 1-lb of beef wastes enough water for one year of showering: Animal protein expends 8+ times as much fossil-fuel energy over plant protein. The fuel used to produce one hamburger patty is enough to drive 20 miles, and erodes 5-times its weight in topsoil. The carbon emissions created to produce 2.2 lbs of beef is equal to driving a standard car 150 miles. Beef production consumes more water than growing all U.S. fruit and vegetable crops. 26, 500 gallons of water are used for every 2.2 lbs of beef produced. Soybeans, rice, wheat, and potatoes all use between 500-130 gallons of water per 2.2 lbs of food produced. Each year 50% of U.S. and 40% of world grain is fed to livestock rather than humans; while 1/6 of the planet’s people starve. Each year, 41M tons of grain is fed to U.S. livestock to produce 7M tons of animal protein.
6) Reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s: Alzheimer’s rates and Mad Cow Disease outbreaks correlate to the rise of industrialized meat farms and meat consumption. Factory-farmed animals are the most over-medicated creatures on earth. A CDC report noted a 50% rise in the use of growth-rate increasing drugs since 1985. High-density confinement spreads diseases like E. coli and Salmonella. And animal feed is mixed with the brain tissue, blood, bone, and flesh of dead farmed animals.
(also note: blueberries are one of the most beneficial things for brain health)
7) Help clean the planet’s water supply: The equivalent of 20 tons of manure per every U.S. household is dumped into our rivers and streams each year. The pollution to U.S. waterways from this one source is more than all other industrial sources combined. 75% of all water-quality problems are related to factory-farming antibiotics, hormones, chemicals, fertilizers, pesticides, and eroded pasture sediments that account for 33% of all nitrogen and phosphorus loads.
8) Save topsoil erosion that creates ocean dead zones: Billions of acres of once-productive farmland have been eroded due to meat production. In the U.S., 90% of all cropland is losing soil at 13 times above the sustainable rate. Iowa has lost 50% of its topsoil that was thousands of years in formation. Livestock production has also lead to destruction of rain forests for crop and grazing land including 75% of previous Amazon forests (the planet’s lungs).
9) Stop brutalization of industrialized animals: In their short, miserable lives they are castrated, debeaked, dehorned, crammed in inhumane spaces, subjected to hunger, thirst, heat exhaustion, extreme stress, freezing and frequently regain consciousness during slaughter.
10) Be part of the #1 way to save the planet: Organics are #1 in grocery segment growth. There are many delicious ways to be more health giving to our bodies and the planet. Become a vegetarian and please encourage others to do so, too.
I’m sorry, but that was too short to convince me.
If these things are true, particularly points 5 and 8, we should have destroyed the planet 50 years ago and would be living in a worldwide wasteland or something close to it by now. I respect vegans, I really do. But the alarmism and and ‘fire-screaming’ diminish your message, in my opinion.
Allan Savory would argue that both the vegan / vegetarian and the current factory farming and factory animal production practices are detrimental to the environment.
http://www.ted.com/talks/allan_savory_how_to_green_the_world_s_deserts_and_reverse_climate_change.html
I’ve done the baseline work, my body requires more protein than greens and I feel best when I have meals that match my balance.
Everyone is different. Different strokes for different folks.
Cheers,
Josh
Google “vegan baby death” then get back to me on the wisdom of a vegan diet. I did it for 14 years and did not understand health until I began following a paleo type diet. Seriously, I would love to see more people steer clear of this vegan nonsense.
I was a chef for 16 years….cooked anything from high end classical French to raw vegan. My biggest pet peeve is when people get “preachy” about turning the world into a bunch of raw vegans. My wife is vegan when possible, and vegetarian when being vegan doesn’t work for her. In response, I think as long as things are eaten in moderation, (and to be fair all of my beef, chicken, pork, fish are all local and humanely raised…just an FYI), then why not eat meat? Sure factory farming is terrible, but I don’t support it. Don’t assume that everyone who eats meat buys it from a factory farm. Now Ill step off my soapbox. Haha. As a sidebar this “diet”….more of a way of life for me now, is awesome. Kudos to doing what you’ve done! I hope everyone gets a chance to experience their full potential by doing this!! 🙂
What an incredible transformation – congratulations.
I’m not sure I’d call that sample menu ‘SCD’ however – the only show of legumes is the hummus. I think in reality this looks much more like a low carb regime, with moderate healthy fats and high protein.
Regardless, this is an incredible feat and I hope it serves as great inspiration to everyone out there who knows they could be enjoying a more active, energy-filled lifestyle.
All the best to everyone on their journey!
Luke
Inspiring story! I totally see myself in your before picture and just needed a little motivation to do something about it. I’d lost almost all my pregnancy weight a year after my son was born (thanks to the SCD) but fast-forward two years and it’s all back on + more.
Such an inspiring story! Briana, I’m so happy for you. Quick question, I noticed some of your choices incorporated hummus. Did you at all track a daily alotment? I’m wondering what is a reasonable daily limit.
Thanks
Kevin
I’ve never had weight problems myself, but this story is pretty impressive and inspiring nonetheless.
Tim, is there any value in skinny people participating in the 4-hour support group? A control group, so to speak?
Hi Chris,
It depends. A lot of “skinny” people are actually skinny fat. That is, they appear skinny in clothing but actually have high bodyfat % and little muscle mass. For such people, absolutely.
It’s also possible to look skinny but eat refined carbohydrates and have blood work all out of whack. Ditto for such people.
Tim
Congrats Briana!
More than the method, what you proved is for all of us, stopping our excuses. No time, have children…
The “haven’t list” never matters.
Bravo! 😉
Hi Tim,
Hope everything went great in Ethiopia.
If you wanted to measure only 3 to 5 KPI of physical / brain shape, which ones would you choose?
Thanks and hope to see you in creativeLIVE videos again soon 😉
(or any other teaching videos)
Alexandre
Great point. Don’t know why I didn’t even think of that. I first read of the term “skinny fat” in Mark Sisson’s book “The Primal Blueprint” and I’ve actually lectured several people on this concept of body weight vs. body fat percentage haha..
But I’m glad you replied! This potentially means more people might consider participating, which in turn will provide additional data and improve more people’s health.
Tim,
I was wondering what you thought of the supplement Garcinia Cambogia.
I’m skeptical about it, but here’s what the website says. http://www.doctoroz.com/videos/garcinia-cambogia-hca
(Maybe my skepticism comes from the fact the Dr. Oz is highlighting its use.)
“HCA blocks fat by inhibiting a key enzyme that your body needs to make fat from carbohydrates: Citrate lyase. Usually carbohydrates or sugars that are not used immediately or stored in other forms are converted into fats. When HCA inhibits citrate lyase, the fat-making process is halted and the production of LDL (bad cholesterol) and triglycerides decrease.
HCA also suppresses appetite by increasing serotonin levels. Serotonin is a neurotransmitter in your brain that makes you feel good. It’s a target of many antidepressant medications. Having low levels of serotonin may make you feel depressed or anxious; it drives many people into emotional or reactive eating. By increasing serotonin levels, HCA improves mood and suppresses the drive to react to stressful situations with food. As you eat less, your body senses this and it releases stored fat in your fat cells.”
I am less interested in the appetite suppressant aspect of this drug than I am in the serotonin increase. I am currently doing the Kiwi workouts/kettlebell workouts along with the slo-carb diet and ice baths, but would love to increase serotonin during my husbands deployment (doesn’t stress/serotonin increase cause weight gain or something?).
You’re the evil genius I revere, so I thought I’d get your take on it.
Thanks,
Megan
From one of those skinny people – the slow-carb diet works. Here are few results I got in just one month:
1. Fat loss
Bet with my sport doctor it was possible to lose 1% body fat in one month – just by changing a diet.
Doctor’s opinion:
1% body fat loss in a month is too fast for my complexion (S size, not much to lose) and impossible without extensive exercise program.
Result:
went from 19% to 17% body fat overall (calipers measurement, best I could find in Singapore), lost 4% in the target abs area in one month – by following the slow-carb diet, with close to 0 exercise. Never felt hungry, which is a huge advantage compared to other diets I tried before. Introduced amazed doctor to The 4-Hour Body.
2. Fun and discovery
Despite 0.6 waist-to-hip ratio (waist is 6/10 size of the hips), in my case it was abs area with slightly higher fat % than what’s considered healthy. So I tracked abs area as the first priority.
Short after, I asked my friends what would they think was the one part of my body required fat loss. Watched every single one turning red after saying “butt…?”. Each time, we shared a good laugh.
3.Side effect – cooking
I’ve always been the person who said she would never cook. With the slow-carb diet, I started cooking dinners first, then lunches. Now, I always bring my lunch with me to the office – unbelievable!
Thanks Tim! And great story Briana!
Varvara
AWESOME, Briana ! An inspiration for me!
hi 🙂 i just joined the group to experiment and take my fitness to the next level. *really* tighten up. a few quick questions…
how cold of a shower and for how long?
suggestion for best/most accurate way to measure body fat?
are there suggestions anywhere for the slow carb diet?
and is there a help area or forum/group interaction area that i’m missing on lift?
thank you 🙂
excited to see how this experiment rolls…
Buy Tim’s book The 4 Hour Body for all the answers to your questions.
Absolutely incredible. Very inspiring.
hi my weight is 70kg which makes me heavy unconfortable and i dont like it i wanna loose to maybe 50kg can u tell how i can make it
Well, for starters I’m not the type that’s into fitness but this post really inspired me. The picture says it all and shows that anything is possible if you put in some effort.
Inspired to get fit 🙂
Super inspiring! Congratsss Briana! You can be proud. I am sure you’re going to inspire many other amazing mums 😉
xoxo
I thought humus wasn’t allowed in the SCD? Can someone confirm this please? Great story! First week, day 5 and lost 2kg!
Hahaha! Tim, that second photo and caption are pure genius! Kudos.
I saw that and was cracking up! I guess Tim decided to stop freezing his ‘swimmies’ for just in casies…
Amazing progress Briana!
The SCD is great. The sad thing is that it is so easy that many people cannot trust it 🙂
Eat as much as you want – what do you mean?!
But when you think more about it, you can easily see that it guarantees a negative calorie balance without making you starve – which is in fact the key to fat loss.
I’ve never had much weight to lose, but I’ve never had a six pack as well … until now. I didn’t use the SCD but I used something very similar, yet more scientifically explained at T-Nation ( http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/sports_body_training_performance/the_five_principles_of_radical_fat_loss )
If you compare both “diets” (not really diets in my opinion) you will see that they will bring in the same amounts of protein, carbs and fats. The SCD is so much easier to follow though.
I always enjoy reading your blog and books Tim. Keep up the good work!
Briana,
this is amazing. I have started the slow carb diet and lost some weight, but i assume I have made some mistakes.
It is also very expensive after a while,
as a mother of 3 do you have recipies that you found useful when low on cash?
Inspiring
No dairy and no fruit? Where are her balanced nutrients coming from? Thin is fine, but undernourished is no better than obesity. Instead of weight loss, maybe we should be thinking more about ensuring we get the basic vitamins and minerals we need for our bodies to function at optimal capacity within a balanced calorie consumption – burn range. I’m leery of any diet that excludes food groups. Foods within a group– sure. Cutting back on calorie consumption within a food group– absolutely. But to completely cut out necessary vitamins and minerals for the sake of looking good to other people– not so much.
It’s common knowledge that when people go back to eating “normally” after a weight loss plan they gain the weight they’ve lost. Staying with the SCD for the rest of your life means that you will live the rest of your life without necessary nutrients. Wouldn’t that shorten your life, or the quality of your life, just as much as obesity?
To the best of my knowledge, a body can get the same nutrients from dairy from certain green leafy vegetables. Dairy is not a necessary component of a healthy diet, http://www.fitday.com/fitness-articles/nutrition/healthy-eating/12-vegetables-high-in-calcium.html
If you look at what you are eating on SCD, you are not cutting out nutrients. In fact, if you just cut out white foods, you will start to see weight loss without doing anything else. You should read about high glycemic index foods which may explain why cutting certain fruits and dairy is necessary. Also, look up work by Dr. Mark Hyman, he talks about dairy and its affects on the body.
not to mention the high amount of nutrients from locally sourced, properly raised high quality animal proteins.
If you had read the book The 4 Hour Body you would know that 1: all the necessary nutrients are available in the slow carb diet. 2: you only cut out food groups 6 days a week. 3: you only cut out food groups during the fat loss phase of the SCD. Once you achieve your goals some of the foods can be reintroduces in moderation.
I followed the SCD almost religiously from October 2012 to January 2013. Only exceptions were I ate 1 banana a day in my morning protein smoothie, I occassionally had cornbread with my bean-based soup/chili at lunch, and sometimes my meals would be just beans + veggies with no additional lean protein, as I am vegetarian but get tired of eating eggs at every meal and I don’t like eating the processed fake meat substitutes.
I saw great results with that diet and my body fat dropped from 21% to 16%, then last time I checked it was at 15%.
My question is about reintroducing those foods in moderation. Since January I haven’t been strict with the SCD, mainly bc I travelled for 3 weeks abroad with limited food choices and it was hard to get the momentum going again. Now I’m eating more fruits as I like to make green smoothies, and fruits make it more palatable. I don’t really like snacking on fruits on their own anymore as I noticed certain fruits like apples and peaches can be hard on my system. I do occassionally like snacking on fresh summer melons.
Has anyone had success reincorporating foods like fruits and bread back into their diet in moderation after fat loss on the SCD? I am worried that I am going to undo all my progress. But at the same time I think including foods I love, like fruit in smoothies, naan bread with Indian food, etc. make it more sustainable for me to follow a mostly healthy diet based on the general SCD principles. It can get depressing eating the same foods over and over.
I think for now i am going to follow the SCD but occassionally eat Indian food with rice/naan, incorporate a couple pieces of fruit into my daily smoothies (allowing me to get more greens into my diet with my Vitamix), and focus on one thing at a time, which for now is cutting out sugar and curbing my incessant craving for chocolate, especially chocolate covered almonds!
Try comparing nutrient ratios and look for what you think are ‘missing’. Not much. ALL of the nutrients in fruit are available in spades from veggies and dairy is not that great outside of a macro perspective. Especially after the treatment it gets in processing before it gets to the stores.
FYI,
I’ve been on the slow-carb diet for 2 months and have dropped 25 lbs. I’ve gone from 319 lbs to 294 lbs. I also donate platlets (blood) every 2nd week and for what it’s worth my platlet count has gone up with every donation.
Tim,
Great article! Very impressed with Briana’s transformation.
I have an autoimmune issue called sarcoidosis and I’m also overweight with the ‘beer belly’ / stress weight / wheat belly look. The weight and craving carbs is sooo difficult and my struggle – and late night eating.
I started doing the bullet proof coffee concept for about 7 days now, and it’s working rather well (sleeping better, more energy, not as ‘hungry’, waking up energized, even seeing my waist shrink), but if you have any general quick advice for someone with an autoimmune like sarcoidosis, I’d appreciate any quick feedback.
Looking forward to continuing reading the 4 hour blog!
Josh
Time there is another broken link where Briana says:
“….he wrote on How to Lose 20 lbs of Fat in 30 Days… Without Doing Any Exercise. Four paragraphs….”
I did a quick read through on this page to see what it was about and Laughed Out Loud because RIGHT underneath her picture with Tim it says:
“And then? I got pregnant with Baby #3.”
OH YEAH!
Love this story. Gorgeous family pic at the bottom.
Guys, I know the photo placement might suggest otherwise, but it’s not Tim’s baby. LOL!
Tyler I didn’t mean to reply to you. Sorry. This was supposed to be an individual comment.
Congratulations Briana. Congratulations Tim. Incredible Journey. I have lost 72 pounds but am finding the last few hard to shift so will be joining the group. I find your articles very inspiring and great help! Thank you
Any tips on shifting the last few pounds are greatly appreciated!
Alan
Reading this blog led to my buying the audio book, buying the digital book, and subscribing. You gotta love the web and how it makes money
Hi Briana, Congratulations and thanks for sharing your photos with the world! I’m curious what you did for exercise after your post-partum recovery. Did you follow Tim’s Kettlebell exercises or do something else?
I started the Slow Carb Diet 1 month ago, and I’m pretty discouraged. Here are my results: Age 41, 6’0″
Week 1 174# 13.6% body fat
Week 2 171.6# 12.8% body fat
Week 3 170.6# 12.7% body fat
Week 4 171.2# 12.8%body fat
I’m following the diet religiously. I’m eating beans mostly instead of lentils.
My goals is to get to around 10% body fat.
Help, I’m starting to wonder why I’m not eating bread, fruit, and other foods that I really enjoy.
What can I do to get off this plateau?
Hey Scott.
Be patient. Keep at it. Your body goes thru natural plateaus. I’ve had a few going from 252lbs/33%BF in 7 Jan 2012 to 181lbs/19%BF today (24 June 2013) and I know I’m not done.
I added intermittent kettlebell swings (3x week – 75 reps a pop, sometimes in two sets) and that helps break the plateau.
Try the other hacks in the book and see what works for you.
Good luck, mate.
Thank you for your inspiring story. As a mother of three, I have been trying to lose that last 40 lbs for years. As a photographer, I hate getting in front of the camera, but your article gave me the idea to incorporate my love of photography with my weight loss journey. Hey, maybe I will shoot a pin-up photo of myself!
As a mom of two little guys, I am picking up on something that she did not mention. I BET she is feeding her kids a lot better too! If she is not eating junk and carbs, her kids are not either. Not only is she making herself healthy, she is helping her kids eat better.
The transformation is wonderful and I am so inspired! When mom gets in shape and eats better, the family tends to follows just by default.
Alright, here’s my brief story, followed by my big question. I was in awesome shape, size 3, working out all the time, six-pack abs-the works. Then life happened, and I gained a bit. But then life really happened and I had a baby 9.5 months ago. I’m 50 pounds overweight. Wait for it….I just found out, I’m pregnant. What the fig newton???!!!!! So, I’m wondering if the slow-carb diet will allow me to redistribute some fat during this pregnancy, or is this a totally lost cause until after this baby is born?
Fantastic job! I lost 40 lbs, so this system works! My question to you is: how did you tighten up the excess skin? Mine just sort of hangs there…
I have the same question! I haven’t lost all the weight yet but I’m terrified that my skin won’t tighten back up!
I was going to ask same question… Muffin tops sag after weight loss how do you fix that? Tummy tucks for all?
This is GREAT ! My husband and I have lost over 100lbs following the 4-hour body principles. We have kept the weight off , but have been on a plataue for over a year, nothing has budged. Granted , we have lost inches and gained muscle, but we would and could stand to lose 10 lbs. How and why do we plataue and how do we jump start the weight lose again?
we still follow the program but the weight lose has stopped. Thanks for the advice!
Hey Tim,
Great article! Before and after pics are always inspirational. I gained 40lbs (mostly muscle) this year and am in the process of cutting some body fat before going through another round of hypertrophy. This was just the post I needed today 🙂
PS – Not sure if you did it on purpose, but your “Odds and Ends” text at the bottom is really small. It’s pretty hard to read, maybe an html glitch?
Your story was telling and it was courageous given the number of very public failures you managed to make.
The pull to eat old foods lies latent waiting to pop up whenever it can. “Using your pregnancy” to indulge was a fabulous but painful lesson.
Here’s another interesting one. Having lost 100 pounds in 2002 using the Zone diet then exploring many other diets with an experimental rigor and geekiness almost as obsessive as Tim himself I realized last year that I had never tried the SCD.
I had allowed over work to get the best of me, I wasn’t really exercising much, and I had put on about 15 pounds that hung unpleasantly around my middle. I was also developing a muse that is interesting enough that I thought Tim should hear about it. So I decided to do the SCD, photograph myself on the way down, then use the experiment to get Tim’s attention.
By September 15th, 2012 (11 years after I began the process of restoring myself) I was down to about 8% BF and feeling extraordinarily strong from a mixed Kettlebell and HIIT workout.
[Moderator: Link removed.]
I didn’t know it yet, though, but I was also re-addicted to sugars and starches from my extensive explorations on binge day. I had some kick ass binge days.
Within six months I had put the weight back on plus 5 pounds as I was completely unable to stop myself from sugaring out – a problem that I had fully mastered for 10 years. I neither craved sugar nor starches after about 2003 and simply did not eat them. Suddenly I was re-immersed in the constant pull to eat sugar and the associated feelings that went along with it.
It has taken me every bit of 9 months to re-master the cravings. I spent three weeks trying and failing to juice fast them away then finally did a 7 day fast a month ago that kicked them and dropped about ten pounds of fat off of me at the same time. Now I’m slowly re-building my stamina with a short but intense KB workout.
I also still have a project that Tim will find fascinating.
On the way to creating a muse to supplement my income as a yoga studio owner and meditation teacher I accidentally created a paradigm shifting product that will permanently alter cultural thinking on a topic near and dear to his heart.
After first round seed money provided the means to test the device we now know we have a winner. As one of our testers said during their daily feedback sessions, “this is the Holy Grail and it works”. I live in a small town and it has taken me a year to understand that I’m surrounded by people who know how do business in a small way. I believe I need something bigger than that for this project. I’m beginning to seek out and attempt to work with people who have a vision and ability as expansive as mine.
This comment didn’t start out as a pitch, believe it or not, but here it is. It was time.
Thanks for all you have done, Tim. Vet me at my yoga studio website. Let me know if you would like to hear what one person who heard the tale early on and who listens to pitches about once a month said, “that was by far the most interesting story of its kind anyone has ever approached me with”. We are still working with NDAs. Mandatory.
Wow, very impressive.
I know that since I have greatly reduced carbs in my diet I feel much better and am able to maintain my weight. Every once in a while when I take in too many, I wake up the next morning with a “carb hangover.”
This really works.
Wow. Quite a transformation. Excellent job!! I have the four hour chef but i had to put it down because of college. Now that the semester is over I’m ready to start it up again. This is just the push I needed to get things started. Thanks.
Rob
Incredibly inspiring Briana! Thank you for sharing your story.
so, from a recent twit of yours , tim, it appears that really excercise to failure is the real deal now, but is that more like endurance oriented or strengt oriented?
Awesome story Briana! So many people will benefit from this post… Congrats on your hard work & success! Guy
Ps. ‘If you fail to plan, you’re planning to fail’ Love it 🙂
Congrats to her. I think the important thing to remember when it comes to diet is that not one diet works well for every person. For me a diet like this is not sustainable nor practical long term. I’m not stopping my world adventures to eat every 3 hours. For my money nothing beats intermittent fasting, specifically Leangains.
Thank you so much for sharing your story, and being brave enough to pose in a bikini when you were feeling down about your weight. That’s such a hard thing to do, as well as incredibly inspiring!
And thank you Tim, for writing The Four Hour Body, which started me on my journey for better health. The book and your blog posts led me to Paleo, which is the only thing that has gotten weight off, considering that I have Hadhimoto’s and am almost 40. Keep writing & I’ll keep reading. 🙂
Thank you Katrina! I’m so happy to have inspired you!
I really admire all the hard work, planning, and discipline it took to stick to that regimen.
I would love to see the issue of BREAST-FEEDING addressed. Among my friends (who also have small children) and I we joke that breast -feeding is the Eat-anything-you-want-plus-cookies-and-still-lose-weight-diet.
Again, I commend Briana’s hard work but breast-feeding is a massive variable. I’m curious how much is known about how the two work together?
Hey! great post 🙂 I purchased the 4 hour body about a month ago, I was really excited to get started and stuck to it like glue for the first 2 weeks! on the third week I started feeling really sick and later found out that I was pregnant! my question is is the slow carb diet safe for expecting mothers? the exercises seem to be fine and I did read that the four horsemen are not safe. as for the food portion, I am unsure. I lost 8 pounds in the first two weeks and felt great! I would really like to continue on a healthy plan but want to make sure I’m eating the right things for me and the baby. advice?
Thank You!
Angela
Amazing and courageous story! Congrats.
Okay, I now this is a question based on cynicism, but here it goes: why are the before photos taken in stark white light and the after photos are not?
Congrats Briana. Always awesome to hear stuff like this
Thank you Justin for the kind words!
aside from that hummus she had for a snack,, sounds like she did the paleo diet
Wow, what a milf.
Once again, your methods attain amazing results Tim!
I’ve been meaning to ask your expert opinion on a nutritional matter for a while, but now I am writing an article on it for a client and I have a reason to do so:
What effects do genetics and ethnicity have on someone’s slow-carb results?
Eastern cultures have very different diets than Americans and Europeans. I know you’ve written about the French having specific genetic traits that allow them to burn fat more efficiently.
Do you have any further thoughts on this?
For plateaus Tim usually leans on 30g protein within 30 min of waking.
Briana,
Give us a hint about your workouts.
Great question Scott! I actually post all of my workouts on FB for people to follow for free 😉 facebook (.) com / BikiniBodyMommy … look forward to hearing your feedback! 🙂
Tim and any one who will listen!
I have been on the slow carb diet for a month.I have been religious with this diet.The amount of progress I have reached so far is really beginning to frustrate me and make me feel a bit hopeless.In your book I see quotes and stories of people who have lost 20 pounds their first month! I have lost a whopping 3 pounds! Also a total of 3 inches from various places on my body.I take PAGG every day and I do judo and other martial arts for exercise 3 times a week.I take cold showers in the morning and sit with an ice pack on my neck while I read before bed.Please please please help! I don’t know if I am doing something wrong or if I am just being impatient.I understand every one has a different body but I feel very discouraged.HELP!!!! Any advice is greatly appreciated!!!
I would recommend that you start keeping a food journal with calorie intake count. My guess is that you are either unconsiously cheating with non-SCD foods or taking way more calories in than your body-needs. Even though I fully agree with SCD principals for rapid weight-loss, if you consume signfificantly more calories than your needs, you will not loose weight.
Well I do actually keep a food journal,and have been since I started the diet.I don’t think that eating more calories is the problem,seeing that I do judo and jun jitsu for 2 hours 3 to 4 times a week.Someone suggested that it might be that Im not eating ENOUGH calories.I don’t know,I am just frustrated.Breakfast is always egg whites with 2 strips of bacon and spinach,3 hours later its chicken breast and a huge salad without dressing,and I repeat that every three hours. Sometimes I switch it up by eating tuna salad or a protein shake instead of a salad.
It would make sense since eating too few calories can be just as detrimental to your diet as eating too many.
What a great story Tim and thanks for bringing Briana in. I think that stay-at-hone moms always have challenges with losing weight. Because working out is one of the best natural ways to effect changes on the body system.
But I’m amazed that after putting in smart work, she succeeded. Great news for all of us.
THANK YOU!
Are tortilla chips and/or corn tortillas ok on the scd?
No chips are not allowed
Nope.
Briana, thanks for sharing your inspiring story!
Did you use the PAGG-Stack, Tim recommends?
Hi Mark! I would have loved to have incorporated the PAGG-Stack, but I was breast-feeding for the first 8 1/2 months, so it was avoided.
Hey Briana!
What I love about your story is that you tweaked the eating schedule. And that you included snacks.
I’ve lost 70lbs on 4HB since Jan 2012 and feel fantastic. I truly love eating the same thing. It’s the luxury of no choice Tim mentions in the book.
Also, I don’t know if anyone else is finding this out but here in the Caribbean, the Ideal Protein diet has some traction, and restaurants are starting to create special menus for those followers. I get the same thing and 4HB it up with a side of veg beans or just ask for more than the 8oz protein if I feel that it’s not going to be enough.
All the best, 4HBers.
CONGRATS on your transformation thus far Ben — 70 pounds is no small feat! I know you must feel incredible….
Amazing story….and transformation!! keep going…!!
Did the ultra run really happen or was the training not as effective as you would have hoped, my wife and I did the the 3 month programme and we both felt that we were up to the job, but we had both run the distance before. unfortunatlly we both suffered flu like bugs near the end, so trying out the results is temporarily on hold!
started on effortless super human along side out door swimming,cycling and trail running, so when time permits we will have a crack at a long run
Briana, hell ya! Way to do it BIG! Huge congrats.
Awesome post Tim and Briana! It’s pretty interesting though, that right after the pic of her with you, it says “And then? I got pregnant with baby #3.”
Your photos and story have been with me since I first read them. I have completed Week 1. I am excited and happy. 5 pounds gone. But even more is the present place I live in now. I am not in the past or the future. My brain seems to be very very different off of carbs. I knew food was doing weird things to me. But yesterday, my first carb day. Wow I almost feel down after eating plain yogurt with raspberries and honey. Then had coffee (which I never drink) with sugar. I had to throw it out. I was spitting food out because it tasted so odd. I was craving eggs and lentils. I went with the day. By last night I felt like I had smoked a joint (that was 2 decades ago plus). The soporific effect of the carbs was disgusting. It was a major carb coma. Today back on litres of water (which I did yesterday) I had the WORST head ache and my skin was crawling and I felt like crying until this afternoon. My emotions were everywhere! Wow. Loaded in the veggies and protein. Rested and did my squats etc. before my meals and after. Purchased my own copy of 4-Hour Body and I read it every day. I live in that thing. To think that I used to do this to my body continually and couldn’t understand why I couldn’t get away from carbs. My body was craving and in so much need.
I have not been able to lose weight. I have tried everything. I mean everything and nothing has worked. I am treating this as a science project.
I am excited and the emotions around food I usually have not entered into this at all. Write down the numbers, eat good food, have fun. And LET IT GO!
Thanks for your story, your honest, and the photos. I deeply appreciate it!
Great stuff, Briana! I think you looked great before the weight loss … but you look cover-model, unbelievably hot now!
General question about SCD …. how, if at all, is intermittent fasting included in this diet?
Thanks for any thoughts.
Congrats Briana on your fantastic journey and lovely children 🙂
I was inspired by Tim’s 4HB myself and although was never seriously overweight, I lost a good 10 kg of fat within a few weeks of reading the book.
I’d like to add my point to the debate about the role of fruits in diet. I know fruits were one of your biggest cravings Briana and I remember that the slow carb diet limits fruit intake to a small amount. Which is understandable on the one hand, as sugar is carbs even if it comes from fruits, but I’d be cautious about not making a clear distinction between natural and refined sugar for a number of reasons.
We all know we are fallible. Sooner or later, we’ll cheat and binge on sugar. And that’s why Tim says eat whatever you want one day a week. But that’s not enough for most people. We’ll eat a piece of chocolate, a biscuit or something and there is no going back until the bag is empty. And we won’t always wait until cheat day.
That’s why I almost completely eliminated refined sugar from my diet and replaced it with fruits.
As long as I know I have sweets at home, it’s always in the back of my mind… waiting to eat them all up. I don’t have the same sort of craving for fruits (maybe it’s different if you’re a woman and pregnant). And when I eat a banana or an apple, I rarely feel like having five more straightaway. But even if I did, it would be nearly not as bad as eating the equivalent amount of refined sugar.
Fruits are much less addictive than artificial sweets and are a much better option in general.
I’m not saying this based only on my own experience, but there is some science supporting it too. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM
The point is the body deals with refined sugar and sugar accompanied by fiber (ie, fruits) in different ways. The relevant part is around 1:12 but I highly recommend watching the whole video to anyone, can be life changing…
Briana, best of luck with bikinibodymommy.com, Tim, keep bringing the awesome!
Yours,
Zsolt
I participate in a summer mountain bike race series. Is it good to do slow-carb or cheat day on race days for max results?
You advocate a lot of self-punishment and stress-related motivators to get people on the right track and keep them there. What about people who have a hard time dealing with stress? Since its inately punishing to see a picture of yourself, fat, every day, if you have to take it down because you have guests it can obviously be hard to put it back up again. I’m reading a lot about operant conditioning lately and I think there’s a lot of potential for positive reinforcement schemes to be even stronger than punishers, except in specific cases. Ever read “Don’t Shoot the Dog” by Karen Pryor?
I’m really embarrassed! I was worried about how I was going to cope with staying on track when working night, then suddenly realised something blindingly obvious….PLAN FOR IT!!!!
Taking some almond butter to work tonight. Almond butter and celery sticks. Also, going to bag up some other goodies to take with me.
No falling off the wagon for me tonight….or any other night!!!
Really inspired. Thank you for posting this and writing it!
Just what I needed to read. After losing 36 pounds on SCD, then falling off the wagon and gaining it all back, I am starting my journey once again with SCD. Nice to have some inspiration. Thank You.
Great article! Briana- I paid for the ebook and it was not delivered to me. Can you help? I am on my account and there is no link to download it.
I do apologise in advance if my comment isnot in the correct section
But Tim….I thought you may be interested in watching this video…
Its of a teenager who speaks 20 languages
He could be a great interviewee or case study
http://youtu.be/Km9-DiFaxpU
Thanks
this is amazing, and congrats !!!
I have been stuck in the middle i love working out, i would hit the gym 5 times a week if i would be allowed to. I am on my way to benching 300lbs with Timothy plan from his book. But i get frustrated cause everything i read, feels like i can either be strong or be get thin. If i try to do both i wont see results.
the only time i got thin is when i followed the slow carb diet and swam twice a week. but at a loss of muscle as well.
Any suggestions
Thanks
Cedric
Just FYI. 6’4″ 260 BMI 29 .
What kind of research did you do to find an omega oil compatible with breast feeding? Any brand with superior filters/safety that you could recommend?
Hello Tim and Briana,
You have set an example to lead. Awesome!
I want to loose 30 kg and I am a vegetarian means where i m from fish is
Considered meat as well. I am already on page 50 of the 4HWW . I am a baker by profession and love my bread too. Could use some tips. Looking forward to hearing from you.
Regards
Gaurav
This is impressing! I’m not yet married nor I have kids but this is really full of incite. I tried so many routines like exercising regularly but then I usually eat processed can goods, since it’s the most convenient for me.
I will definitely give this a try. Nothing makes you feel better but a healthier life. “Consistency is definitely the key”, I will also have to remember this.
Great story. I am not sure how I could eat every three hours. I wonder if it is a must. I like the advice on planning. I agree that if you fail to plan, anything, you will likely fail.
Inspiring. But I’m confused… Hummus? On Slow- or Low-Carb?
Hello Briana Christine! You r my hero! I feel like we have the same story! After my 2nd child who just turned 3, I lost all 70 lbs that I put on. THEN……. SUPRISE!!! I got pregnant again! 8 weeks later guess what…… TWINS!!!!!!! The boys were born 15 months ago weighing in at 7lbs EACH! I developed gest. diabetes & gained 81lbs. Needless to say my body is shot. Once a size 4 with kick butt abs I am now a fat mess! My question is how much r in the portion size ie cups of veggies & do u really eat the same thing everyday for all 3 meals & snacks? Thank u so much for your time….Fat in Atlanta
Great Story!
I am curious why and where you got the idea of that amount (super high dose) of fish oil? I don’t remember that being part of the slow-carb or 4HB but I could be wrong.
Hi. And congrats on the transformation! That’s awesome:)
I don’t remember fish oil as part of the slow-carb or 4HB plan either. Fish oil has a decent blood-thinning effect. I take 2 grams a day, and at that, every time I get blood drawn, I end up with a huge bruise. I can’t imagine taking “1 gram per 1% body fat.” If my body fat is around 25%, does that mean 25 grams of fish oil? I would never take that much. Sounds like a stroke waiting to happen? Would love to hear some clinical opinions…
I’m sitting at my desk in Shanghai, China after having JUST given a presentation on “Performance Eating” to about 200 youth sport coaches… when I open my laptop and decide (in the spirit of good nutrition) to check Tim’s blog for the first time in a few weeks.
Lo and behold, there is my good friend Briana front and center.
So my comment is really just a congratulations and a confirmation to those who don’t know her personally that B is the real-deal. And, as amazing as her commitment is to her own body and fitness, it pales in comparison to her passion for helping others achieve the same results. And I swear, she could probably help you get a 6-pack just through laughter.
Keep up the great work Briana.
-Rett in Shanghai
Thanks to slow carb diet I lost 8kg (16lb) in less than 2 months with 0 exercise. I wanted to see if its possible to have a normal or above normal caloric intake (2200 -2500kcal), do NO exercise and still loose weight. And it worked like a charm! I sometimes even had 2 cheat days a week. so. Thanks for it! But, theres something I encountered today. A documentary by Horizon with Michael Mosley called “eat, fast and live longer” – which makes a point that high protein intake is one of the most important reasons why people age faster.
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xvdbtt_eat-fast-live-longer-hd_shortfilms#.Ucw5rdK1HEk
In essense theres this hormone IGF1 (insulin growth factor) – which is responsible for telling the cells to reproduce or to repair the damage of the body. consuming more protein is like pushing the accelerator pedal in the car – it raises IGF1 levels and making cells reproduce faster and age faster. With all consequences that come with it – reduced brain capacity, deseases etc. If you scroll to minute 24 on the video its summarised there.
What is your take on this? Did you think slow carb diet can make you age faster? would you be interested in finding out more about this and maybe see if theres something we can alter int he diet? Thanks
Yeah Briana I am showing this to my 13 year old daughter. She started on the 4 hour body diet this week. Her goal is 25 lbs. I have been on it for year and lost 30 lbs of fat and gained 20 lbs of muscle ( Kettle bells and lift to fail) The diet works.
Very interesting picture and caption combination there.
“And then? I got pregnant with baby #3.”
Is this a hint about the father?
What an inspiration! Thank you Tim for this post – Briana is an amazing lady!
I am so inspired by Tim’s book, and Briana’s story. I have been on the diet two days now, and I feel A LOT less sluggish. I am five foot seven and I tipped the scales at 161. Disgusting! I had my 13 year old daughter take pictures of my fat arse, gut, face, legs, etc., and I am going to chronicle my journey from now until I reach my goal weight of 130 pounds. I do not desire to be anorexically skinny, because I want to keep my curves. I WILL do this. Watch me! 🙂
Christy, your words stood out to me! I sincerely hope that you take control of your health but do so in a loving way. You aren’t “disgusting” and referring to your fat butt has to hurt your feelings. I’m working on getting back into shape as well, the past year I gained weight on a previously very slender frame. So I am right there with you but I try to remind myself that I’m still alive, my body is still strong and supports me, (even if it is 20 lbs heavier). Sorry if I come off intrusive, I just worry about how we women treat ourselves so poorly or punish ourselves because of some slip ups.
As an observer of the 80/10/10 diet by Dr. Douglas Graham….I eat almost entirely fruit on my plant-based diet. Good friend Rich Roll introduced my to Plant Based nutrition and it has successfully powered my through my Ultra Running events and day-to-day needs. I just finished a 100 mile ultramarathon in 27 hours on nothing but watermelon juice and apple juice (with kale and lime).
Fruit is your best friend….one one the reasons we see in color….we have evolved to eat it. Does your mouth water when looking at a chicken or a nice ripe piece of fruit? Follow your instincts here…
Wow, huge success. Enter Brianna…hmmm, best choice of words?
Such a great success story, good stuff. Its true the biggest obstacle can be finding time to prepare meals- Congratulations
Tim,
Have you ever had weight problems yourself?
Just curious.
-Daniel
Um can I just say WOW. I am a 33 year old mum to 3 year old twins and work all day and night on the computer and I know I am slowly “letting myself go” Reading your story as inspired me to buy the 4 hour Body. Thanks!