Thursday, August 18, 2011

Week 10 Progress, PAGG Stack, Supplements

Today marks week 10 of my Four Hour Body Slow Carb Diet experiment. If you've read my previous posts you'll already know that I have been sticking to the Slow Carb diet since June, and have been doing the exercise routine in the "Perfect Posterior" 3 times a week on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays as suggested by Tim Ferris after the 3rd week of starting the diet. So it has officially been 7 weeks on the exercise routine. I have also now started my PAGG stack supplementation as of August 8th, 2011 along with a Calcium & Magnesium pill at bedtime, and a B Complex Vitamin at 4PM daily along with the PAGG, also suggested by the author.

Implementing the 3 components separately one at a time I believe has given me accurate data on how each one is performing for me. I have been keeping a detailed meal diary (with photos) of every meal taken in the last 10 weeks, as well as weight, bodyfat, bodymass, and BMI recording. This in conjunction with the circumference US Navy Bodyfat measurement test once a week, I have quite a bit of interesting data on how I have been doing following the Rapid Fat Loss stream of the book.

Before I post my results so far, I have to note which exact supplements I am now taking. Remember I went through weeks 1 through 9 without PAGG, just doing the diet and exercise, with only a Multi Vitamin & Calcium/Magnesium Pill taken 3 times a week to fill any missing gaps from the new diet. I will write about the details on my personal PAGG stack later on.

(NOTE: I have zero affiliation with any of the supplement companies I am using, there is NO hidden agenda whatsoever I want to make that perfectly clear as many people out there are pushing PAGG for commissions which is fine business practice, but leads to very BIASED opinions if your reviewing them!)

Ok here are my results thus far.

Week 10 results:

Weight Loss: 16.8lbs
Inches off Waist: 3
Inches off Hip: 2.0
Inches off Neck: 0.2
TOTAL BODYFAT Lost: 5%
(using the circumference US NAVY Method)



As you can see from the charts above, other then a few spikes, there has been significant loss of total weight and overall BMI. The Body Mass measurements have been erratic however and I take that from the gain/loss of water within my body as well as the nature of the measurements. I am sure if I were to get real body mass tests I would see the same gradual mass gains. How much muscle gain however will only be measured by my progress photos which I will be posting at the end of this experiment. I have taken photos of myself before and at 1 month intervals which I will compile into one photo to show visual example of my progress. I have to admit that I am not very impressed with the muscle gains thus far, and plan to implement some P90X exercise programs into the Four Hour Body workout to create a hybrid of sorts. I however won't be doing that until I finish this experiment fully to show true data.

Next post will be in detail on my PAGG stack! Along with exact costs I accrued and more real-time data so I can analyze the results of taking PAGG as the final step to this personal experiment! I have high hopes for PAGG as a natural supplement plan to take, lets hope the extra investment is worth it!

For now here is a picture showing exactly what products I chose, and the costs.
As you can see other than the Garlic, my PAGG stack is exactly what Tim Ferriss recommends and links to in his book. I have noticed he sometimes changes the links to different products as they become unavailable but as of right now I am accurately taking the Policosanol, Alpha Lipoic Acid, and Green Tea extract according to Tim. My only change was to the Garlic as the quantity I wanted was to match closest to 1 month supply. As most people who are going to try PAGG for the first time as a test will only want to try it for 1 month as it is expensive. (NOTE: Don't buy the Garlic-Gold product that I used, it has a very strong garlic odor and I highly recommend trying a different product. Stick to what Tim Ferriss links to at fourhourbody.com/garlic if you want to try a safe odor-less garlic)

It's only been less than 2 weeks since starting PAGG, so I will be collecting more data, sticking to the diet and exercise routines within the book as usual, so I can write a more complete review on PAGG and how all 3 aspects worked for me, diet/exercise/supplements.

Saturday, July 30, 2011

Week 7, Day 3 - Adjustments & Binging

Short post, it's Saturday night, usually I would be wolfing down a Whopper Poutine Combo or a Pizza /w a Coke right now, but I have decided to delay my binge day from Saturday to Sunday as I have a big BBQ tomorrow and I'd like to binge like there's no tomorrow on Burgers & Dogs /w Ice cold beer! Can't wait. I have to say I am almost 2 months into this project and I am still loving it! I inputted the data I have been recording on my weight and made a chart so track my progress, I will be updating this chart as I go along mostly for myself as an encouragement. Its amazing how working out so little (about 15mins 3 times a week) and eating a healthy diet can make such consistent progress, even with my crazy binge eating once a week.

Here are my results (after 7 weeks & 3 days on slow-carb):
Weight Loss: 14.4lbs
Inches off Waist: 2.5
Inches off Hip: 2.0
Inches off Neck: 0.2
TOTAL BODYFAT Lost: 4%
(using the circumference US NAVY Method) 

*Note the spike in weight in the above chart is during a week I got shell fish poisoning, I was sick an entire day from having some shrimp in Dim Sum on one of my binge days. So I was not able to binge or eat regularly that day. Its very cool to have all this recorded data on my eating habits so I can look back on it like a black box and see what was going on exactly according to the graph. I guess food poisoning + weight loss doesn't work!


Not taking into account the added muscle I have been getting from the workouts, just these numbers alone are looking very decent. Not as fast as P90X or other intense interval training programs, but those programs were just not sustainable for me. I had no life other then work and exercise when I was on those types of programs. This slow-carb life is most definitely the easiest weight loss system I have done so far. And I have tried my share of programs trust me!



Anyway here is what I usually eat on my binge days:
Wake Up: Protein Shake
Breakfast: Eggs, Beans, Vegetables (Slow-Carb)
Lunch: Burger King Whopper Poutine Combo or equivilant fatty fast food combo
Dinner: Pizza, or Chinese food, always something I saw during the week that I wanted but couldn't have. (I believe this is a great psychological tool that helps you never to break the diet during the week)
Snacks throughout the day: A bag of chips, Reese's peanut butter cups, Coke, and some sort of pastry.

I can say I always end up gaining a couple pounds after a day of eating like this. And it feels great and the next day I don't feel the need to eat any junk food for another week as I always get a full binge day worth of goodies. 24-48 hours after my binge days all the extra weight is gone after being back on the slow-carb diet FYI.

If I had one word of advice for the binge day on the slow-carb diet. Have fun with it! Research a few really popular tasty (and fatty) restaurants or burger joints near you, grab a friend or two and have a little junk food quest that day. Ever wondered who makes the best burger in your neighbourhood? Go find out! Eat the stuff you love with zero guilt, eat all the things you've watched people eat during your non-binge days and enjoy. I put a lot of research and thought into my binge days sometimes, and make a whole day of it trying out new foods and restaurants I would normally never try.

Can you guess I'm very excited to grab some sun, some beers, and BBQ with my buddies tomorrow. It's gonna be a good day to binge. As part of my diet!