Thread: The 4-Hour Body diet?

Anyone read the 4-Hour body by Tim Ferriss? The diet revolves around protein and no white carbs, just meats and beans and veg. Anyone had experience or results?

Sounds like a whole foods diet to me.

Yea I did this diet for awhile - it's nothing revolutionary though. Just lots of protein, low glycemic load fibrous carbs. But he doesn't count calories and in most cases this isn't a big deal. It will certainly get you to a very healthy body ratio, but for me I have to count calories if I want to really take my body fat levels below 15%.

Read his 4-hour workweek and this one, his latest. He is into pushing the body to extremes through adopting somewhat bizarre regimens. One angle mentioned is to drink ice water and take ice-water baths for fat loss. Another unconventional, but not bizarre approach to fat loss, is outlined in Sally Fallon and Mary Enig Ph.D.'s excellent and deeply-researched, scientific work, "Eat Fat, Lose Fat," which I highly recommend. Check Amazon's reader reviews if interested.

There is way too much obsession with protein in the modern diet.

Incidentally, I found no writings of his published in any peer-reviewed literature (do a quick search on google scholar if you doubt it); which is unsurprising seeing as what he says goes against what many sports nutritionists generally recommend as far as protein/lipid/CHO consumption goes.

Originally Posted by Ordo

There is way too much obsession with protein in the modern diet.

Incidentally, I found no writings of his published in any peer-reviewed literature (do a quick search on google scholar if you doubt it); which is unsurprising seeing as what he says goes against what many sports nutritionists generally recommend as far as protein/lipid/CHO consumption goes.

Huh? I certainly don't see any obsessions with protein in the modern diet. I do see it with athletes and bodybuilders and very active people, but not in general populations. The one thing I do see consistently is the need to demonize one of the 3 macros (fat, carbs, protein) when it comes to losing weight and eating a healthy diet. There always seems to be this need to make one of them the bad guy and minimize it to lose weight. The body needs all 3 - in varying amounts and ratios depending on the person, lifestyle, activity, sensitivities etc etc. That's just a fact.

Also if you read Tim's book you will understand why trying to reconcile his findings with peer reviewed research is silly. If you want to understand then you have to read the book. I'm not saying I agree with everything he claims or does, but you have to really read the book to understand his POV.

Peer-reviewed research? The man is not a scientist...