Okay.
We know you are all very curious to hear more about this
whole
4-Hour Body thing that we shared with you on
this post. You
have been asking us a lot of questions, voicing a lot of opinions, and shocking
us with your interest in the 4-Hour Body.
We want you to fully understand what this
program/diet/thing is all about, so we will give you some of the basics from our
diet.
First of all, the book is big. The author,
Tim Ferriss,
does not recommend reading it all at once. He suggests choosing a few of the
sections to read and focus on, depending on how you want to improve your body.
We chose to do "The Slow Carb Diet" and "Building the Perfect
Posterier" (gaining muscle/strength). For now, we will just try to
unravel the Slow Carb Diet chapter for you.
The
Slow Carb Diet:
RULE
#1: NO WHITE CARBOHYDRATES
prohibited: all bread, rice (including
brown), cereal, potatoes, pasta, tortillas, and fried food with breading. Tim
Ferris says, "don't eat white stuff unless you want to get fatter"
RULE
#2: EAT THE SAME FEW MEALS OVER AND OVER AGAIN
"The
most successful dieters, regardless of whether their goal is muscle gain or
fat-loss, eat the same few meals over and over again. There are 47,000 products
in the average U.S. grocery store, but only a handful of them won't make you
fat.
Mix and match from the following list, constructing each meal with one pick
from each of the three groups. I've starred the choices that produce the
fastest fat-loss for me" - Tim Ferriss
Proteins
*Egg whites with 1–2 whole eggs for flavor (or, if organic, 2–5 whole eggs,
including yolks)
*Chicken breast or thigh
*Black beans
*Beef (preferably grass-fed)
Pork
*Fish
Legumes
*Lentils (also called "dal" or "daal")
Pinto beans
Red beans
Soybeans
Vegetables
*Spinach
*Mixed vegetables (including broccoli, cauliflower, or any other cruciferous
vegetables)
*Sauerkraut, kimchee (full explanation of these later in "Damage
Control")
Asparagus
Peas
Broccoli
Green beans
Ferriss also suggests eating a lot of these foods. He
usually does 5 meals a day with four hours in between each meal.
RULE
#3: DON'T DRINK CALORIES
"Drink massive
quantities of water and as much unsweetened tea, coffee (with no more than two
tablespoons of cream; I suggest using cinnamon instead), or other
no-calorie/low-calorie beverages as you like. Do not drink milk (including soy
milk), normal soft drinks, or fruit juice. Limit diet soft drinks to no more
than 16 ounces per day if you can, as the aspartame can stimulate weight gain.
I'm
a wine fanatic and have one to two glasses of red wine almost every evening. It
doesn't appear to have any negative impact on my rate of fat-loss. Red wine is
by no means required for this diet to work, but it's 100% allowed (unlike white
wines and beer, both of which should be avoided). Up to two glasses of red per
night, no more."
RULE
#4: DON'T EAT FRUIT
"Humans don't need fruit six days a
week, and they certainly don't need it year-round. If your ancestors were from
Europe, for example, how much fruit did they eat in the winter 500 years ago?
Think they had Florida oranges in December? Not a chance. But you're still
here, so the lineage somehow survived.
The only exceptions to the no-fruit rule are
tomatoes and avocadoes, and the latter should be eaten in moderation (no more
than one cup or one meal per day). Otherwise, just say no to fruit and its
principal sugar, fructose, which is converted to glycerol phosphate more efficiently
than almost all other carbohydrates. Glycerol phosphate p triglycerides (via
the liver) p fat storage. There are a few biochemical exceptions to this, but
avoiding fruit six days per week is the most reliable policy.
But what's this "six days a week"
business? It's the seventh day that allows you, if you so desire, to eat peach crepes
and banana bread until you go into a coma."
RULE
#5: TAKE ONE DAY OFF PER WEEK
"I recommend Saturdays as your Dieters Gone Wild (DGW) day. I
am allowed to eat whatever I want on Saturdays, and I go out of my way to eat
ice cream, Snickers, Take 5, and all of my other vices in excess. If I drank
beer, I'd have a few pints of Paulaner Hefe-Weizen.
I make myself a little sick each Saturday and don't want to look at any junk
for the rest of the week. Paradoxically, dramatically spiking caloric intake in
this way once per week increases fat-loss by ensuring that your metabolic rate
(thyroid function and conversion of T4 to T3, etc.) doesn't downshift from
extended caloric restriction.
That's right: eating pure crap can help you lose fat. Welcome to Utopia. There
are no limits or boundaries during this day of gluttonous enjoyment. There is
absolutely no calorie counting on this diet, on this day or any other.
Start the diet at least five days before your designated cheat day. If you
choose Saturday, for example, I would suggest starting your diet on a Monday.
That's All, Folks!
If the founding fathers could sum up our government in a six-page
constitution, the above is all we need to summarize rapid fat-loss for 99.99%
of the population. Followed to the letter, I've never seen it fail.
Never."
So there it is. We have already lost pounds and inches of fat, we
feel healthier than ever, and we look forward to cheat day (Saturday) every
week :)
What do you think of the Slow Carb Diet? Are you skeptical? It's okay,
most people are. All I can say is, don't judge it until you try it. This
Tim Ferriss guys knows his stuff.
