The 4 Hour Body – The Ultimate Guide by Tim Ferriss

Are you going to start eating according to a recommendation in a 4 hour body book? Do you want everything to be perfect? You know exactly what your body needs. A meal that will finally work and you will lose excess pounds.

But the book is so big…

No fear, all you need is this post and you can start. Just add it to your favorites and return to it if you need it.

Make sure you get the book, but this post will serve you before it arrives.

slow carbohydrate diet

The instruction below is for a special diet system that Tim Ferriss called “slow carbohydrate diet” and is intended for fat loss. If you want to get muscles, that’s another story. We will keep muscles and burn fat.

Food

The whole idea of fat burning is based on the fact that you can lose weight without any exercise. So what’s left for us? Food.

The truth is that the diet is 70-80% fat burning.

Change eating habits and resolve your overweight. Your body becomes a fat burner. I do not want to write weight loss, because most “weight loss” programs will also prepare you for muscle mass and we do not want to. Slow carbohydrates keep muscle mass and burn fat.

4 hour body – 5 Rules

Tim Ferriss’ slow carbohydrate diet can be summarized in five simple rules.

1. Avoid “white” carbohydrates

Whatever contains or is made from cereals, corn, rice (brown and white), potatoes and stuffed items (fried steak, etc.)

Carbohydrates that are not on the list can be considered as safe. These include white beans and cauliflower. If it’s white and it’s not a pod or a vegetable, avoid it.

2. Eat the same foods over and over again

It’s much easier to plan and get the right habits if you eat the same food over and over again.

It will also help you with time. You spend less time thinking about eating, which is why many people are unable to keep eating restrictions.

3. Do not drink calories! Never!

There are plenty of reasons why not drink sweet drinks. Most importantly, those tons of calories from drinks have zero nutritional weight for your body.

If you want the intake of calories to have nutritional value, just drink water.

Tim Ferriss in the book makes an exception in the form of one glass of red wine a day and a can of diet Coca-Cola. I would avoid dietary drinks with sugar substitutes (Sucralose, Aspartame, Cyclamate, Saccharin, etc.).

In the body, they can do more mischief than we think, although they may seem to have no direct effect on fat burning.

4. Do not eat fruit

Maybe you’re saying what’s stupid? Fruits are healthy. Yes, for a healthy, lean, active person, the fruit is great. For overweight people trying to get rid of fat, the fruit is an obstacle that slows down their path.

This also applies to healthy foods such as sweet potatoes. The carbohydrate content is still too high for you. Carbohydrates are easily digestible and it increases your blood sugar.

High blood sugar is a break for the fat burner. Important hormones will stop working. The growth hormone level is declining and the body can not produce it due to indirect insulin.

Foods like sweet potatoes are omitted, you will enjoy them later.

5. Have a day off

Once a week, get rid of everything and eat whatever you want.

This day is sometimes called “cheating day” or “piggy”. Call it what you want. One day a week roll all four previous rules per head.

Bonus and optional rule

By applying the five rules you get far. Tim Ferriss always stresses in the 4-hour body book that you need to experiment with. Discover how foods such as cottage cheese or parmesan cheese work on your body.

Do you want to try the food?

Always put one, try it for a week, and see what happens. Are you satisfied with the result? Put it on the menu and try another one. If no change occurs in a week, remove the food.

4-Hour Body Food List

It may seem that the list of foods you can eat is very short. That’s good, little is more. See the second rule.

Proteins

• 1 or 2 egg with whites
• chicken breast/thigh
• beef
• fish (tilapia, halibut, salmon)
• pork

Legume

• lens
• different kinds of beans (Pinto, red, soy, black …)

Vegetables

• leaf (spinach, Mangold, cabbage)
• mixed vegetables (beware of frozen pre-fried)
• cabbage
• asparagus
• pea
• cruciferous vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower)
• green beans

Food preparation

Finding what to eat is fairly simple. Whatever the list. Select one food from each category and make food from it. It can be minimalist or extravagant, as you wish. It’s up to you.

In every meal

Be sure to always have protein, legumes, and vegetables. Good fats are also desired to include in the diet.

Breakfast

Tim Ferriss in the book warns you to include 30g of protein in the breakfast and eat it up to 30 minutes after you get up. There is a wide variety of views on this subject and I am convinced that the 30-minute rule may not work for everyone.

If you’re a beginner, you’d advise you to have breakfast in 30 minutes? Try egg with lentils and a half of avocado.

Exercises

At the beginning of this post, I wrote that the whole concept of a 4-hour body is based on burning fat without exercise. I know people who have dropped over 20kg without making a single squat or crunches. I do not mention the exercise because of fat burning.

Our bodies were designed to move. Sure, you’re burning some calories, but burning 900kcal contained in one McDonalds’ chocolate cake would have to run around 10km. The concept of fat burning by exercise is simply nonsense.

Simply move a little more. Park your car away from the office and walk around. Instead of a tram / metro / bus, walk to the station on foot. Imitate children. Climb on four with them.

There are specific types of exercises, that, besides building up muscle mass, can wring the maximum from the body in connection with fat burning. The 20-30% potential to which the exercise has the impact can be maximized, but it is not necessary.

MUD – Minimum effective dose

It is extremely important to realize that too much training is often harmful. Tim Ferriss has a beautiful parable in his book 4-hour body.

When you go on the beach after the winter and spend there 1.5 hours in the sun, you will probably burn yourself. You’ll be as red as a crayfish, and for the next few days, you will not be able to go out.

If you divide the hour and a half into 6 parts of 15 minutes, the effect would be much more interesting. You will not be red, you can sunbathe for the next few days, you will be suntanned.

The key to success in terms of exercise is dosing.

Dietary Supplements

I would almost forget about the accessories. You do not need them. If you eat properly and follow the recommendations, dietary supplements are completely unnecessary.

I do not mean diet supplements for slimming now. You will not lose if you eat the tablets for the amount of the food you eat. Maybe if the only thing you swallow is the pills.

I have supplements in the form of vitamins and minerals. Tim Ferriss recommends adding potassium, magnesium, and calcium. When your diet is varied, you get enough potassium from avocados.

500g of magnesium can help with sleep if you have problems with it. These should be improved mainly by proper diet.

If you want, you can add potassium, magnesium, and calcium, but I personally think it’s not necessary. If I had to recommend some food supplement, it would be vitamin D in the winter and Omega 3 fatty acids, which is fish oil throughout the year.

You can eat all the alkalines and vitamins separately, or you can buy some of the green superfood powders.

Tim Ferriss recommends Athletic Greens, but according to our tests, this is not the best superfood powder on the market. Feel free to check our comparison and chose the best superfood powder according to your needs.

Cheating days

Tim’s book describes in detail how his cheating days look and gives specific tips to prevent possible consequences. It’s almost science, so a few tips.

Good basis

On a cheating day, give yourself the first meal with slow carbohydrates. This will help your digestion.

On the cheating day, you will increase the intake of carbohydrates, unhealthy fats, and chemistry of all kinds. With the right foundation, the body will work more efficiently.

Wait at least 30 minutes to an hour after breakfast with “piglets”. The body will spend a moment. Then give your throat a lot of pleasure and want to consume the whole week.

Minimizing negative impacts

It is best to minimize the negative impact of cheating days on the body. Different kinds of exercises are available in the 4 hour day book to help you. These include squats, wall, or crank pressures. Just do about 30-40 repetitions just before the meal and then the same sometimes in 90 minutes after the meal.

Additionally, energy is used as a fuel for stressed muscles. I definitely recommend trying.

More water

Another way to quickly get rid of the extra weight is to drink more water. You will probably only have a few extra pounds in the water that your body holds. As soon as you begin to drink enough, the body gets rid of retained water and a few pounds is down.

Grapefruit juice (from grape!) And coffee

Tim Ferriss claims that grapefruit juice before eating helps keep your insulin levels lower. Low insulin levels are the key to fat loss. There are a few other foods that have similar properties to grapefruit. And caffeine, on the other hand, helps to accelerate metabolism.

Do you have experience with slow carbohydrates and weight loss?

If so, you have already read a four-hour body. Share your experience in comments.