Well, it appears that I need to figure out the many different ways to eat eggs. I feel like I eat pretty good with one major vice exception, ice cream. I don’t run near as often as I should, but I do get to the gym 2-3 times a week and work to do yoga 3-5 times a week. I am at times fairly sedentary as I work in an office at a desk all day long and am a bit too wiped out to do much but relax with my family after I get home. I am keen to adventure and love to get outside as you can see from various posts here and on my social networks. I tend to dream of the outdoors rather than live in them like I would want to. In an effort to get myself back in shape to more fully enjoy the outdoors I will be more proactive with my time to get out and run, hike, climb & ski, but I will also work to make one simple change – my diet.

The Simple Adjustment

For many losing weight becomes a great task. It usually means etching out time to go to the gym or getting out for a run. This often requires a change in schedule. These are all great things, but unless real passion is there then they don’t prolong very well. One of the most basic and important ways to lose weight is to change your diet. Here is how I plan to do it.

The Four Hour Body

I have taken on being a student of Tim Ferriss, the author of the Four Hour Work Week, Four Hour Body and Four Hour Chef as well as an awesome podcast! He has enlightened me on many things of proficiency as you can see of my love of an app that he recommended for increased productivity called coach.me – you can read my post of the app here. There is a lot to digest from what he professes and teaches.

In the Four Hour Body Tim talks about the slow carb diet, but one thing that I am going to try. The 28 day challenge of eating a slow carb breakfast that contains 30g of protein. He talks about the weight loss benefits of eating a high protein breakfast. Doing this within the first 30 minutes of waking you get the following benefits according to The Four Hour Body.

• Eating protein first decreases your white carbohydrate cravings, which in the morning aren?t usually ideal carbs. Do you often crave a bagel, toast, or donuts in the morning? Wouldn?t it be great to kick that habit?
• While you sleep, your body is doing a ton of maintenance, and part of that means it dips into your fat stores. When you give your body sugar in the morning, it?ll burn the sugar. I don?t know about you, but I prefer continued fat loss.

The keys discussed above are to keep glycemic index low in the morning and to keep burning fat as you wake and get into your day. Protein is also good for the brain and helps to stimulate mindfulness for the day ahead.

Protein Benefits

“The new protein perspective recognizes that adults have a meal threshold for optimum intake to maintain skeletal muscle. The protein threshold requires at least 30 g of high-quality protein at each meal to provide adequate leucine to trigger mPS (muscle protein synthesis). The concept of a protein threshold emphasizes that the meal distribution of protein should be an essential component of understanding adult protein needs.” Dr. Donald K. Lyman

In the Layman Handbook on Nutrition & Food Dr. Donald K. Lyman, Professor of Nutrition at Illinois University, teaches us the following:

“Protein has greater satiety value than either carbohydrates or fats and has the potential to reduce food intake at subsequent meals. Short-term studies repeatedly reveal that subjects consuming higher-protein meals consistently feel fuller longer and with less quantity of food than individuals eating lower-protein, higher-carbohydrate meals. Although these data are derived from acute treatments (i.e., a single higher-protein meal), a higher-protein breakfast meal (>30 g protein) consistently has the greatest effect on satiety and daily energy intake.

The common American meal pattern of limiting protein intake to a single large meal late in the day reduces satiety benefits of dietary protein.”

Here he backs up what Tim has iterated to us about the importance of a quality protein meal just after waking up. I am hoping to put this into practice.

My Determination

With this recent information I am hoping to lose 15-20 pounds over the next month by primarily changing my breakfast routine. As a disclaimer I will say that I will run more often and continue to get out on various adventures. Even when running I have been hovering between 185 and 200 pounds since I did the Zion Traverse last year so I hope to shave down into the 175 range since I am currently weighing in at 194lbs. I challenge anyone that is frustrated with their current weight to join me.

What Will I Eat?

As I begin I stated that I need to learn a variety of ways to eat eggs, well here is why. To get my 30gms of protein each day I will do so with 2 eggs, half a can of black or kidney beans, olive or grapeseed oil, spinach and maybe a very lean protein sausage and some salsa and/or avocado. Doing this Tim states that it is possible to fulfill the dietary needs of protein and hopefully drop the weight. Below are a couple of videos with some recipes that can be utilized. Also, some of Tim’s favorite recipes can be found here.

Additional Resources

Livestrong – Eating 30 grams of protein to lose weight
Livestrong – 14 Protein packed breakfast ideas
Donald K. Layman Chapter on Protein
4 Hour Life Page
Tim Ferriss Egg Recipes
Four Hour Blog Diet Page