The 4-Hour Body: Week 1, Not So Fun

For those of you who don’t know, I’ve been reading the book The 4-Hour Body by Tim Ferris  and I’ve been following the diet and lifestyle plan in this book.

For those of you who don’t know what The 4-Hour Body is this is the excerpt:

THINNER, BIGGER, FASTER, STRONGER… which 150 pages will you read?

Is it possible to:
Reach your genetic potential in 6 months?
Sleep 2 hours per day and perform better than on 8 hours?
Lose more fat than a marathoner by bingeing?

Indeed, and much more. This is not just another diet and fitness book.

The 4-Hour Body is the result of an obsessive quest, spanning more than a decade, to hack the human body. It contains the collective wisdom of hundreds of elite athletes, dozens of MDs, and thousands of hours of jaw-dropping personal experimentation. From Olympic training centers to black-market laboratories, from Silicon Valley to South Africa, Tim Ferriss, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The 4-Hour Workweek, fixated on one life-changing question:

Thousands of tests later, this book contains the answers for both men and women.From the gym to the bedroom, it’s all here, and it all works.

For all things physical, what are the tiniest changes that produce the biggest results?

YOU WILL LEARN (in less than 30 minutes each):

• How to lose those last 5-10 pounds (or 100+ pounds) with odd combinations of food and safe chemical cocktails.
• How to prevent fat gain while bingeing (X-mas, holidays, weekends)
• How to increase fat-loss 300% using temperature manipulation
• How Tim gained 34 pounds of muscle in 28 days, without steroids, and in four hours of total gym time
• How to sleep 2 hours per day and feel fully rested
• How to produce 15-minute female orgasms
• How to triple testosterone and double sperm count
• How to go from running 5 kilometers to 50 kilometers in 12 weeks
• How to reverse permanent injuries
• How to add 150+ pounds to your lifts in 6 months
• How to pay for a beach vacation with one hospital visit

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. There are more than 50 topics covered, all with real-world experiments, many including more than 200 test subjects.
You don’t need better genetics or more discipline. You need immediate results that compel you to continue.
That’s exactly what The 4-Hour Body delivers.

Since the day I first heard about this book back in November, I was very excited to read it. I kept putting it off since it’s release in December because I wanted to finish Tim’s other book first. After reading several reviews and after finding out that one of my favorite bloggers Katy, had read the book and was doing the diet, I decided (after an epiphany) that I needed to read this book and try it out.

I knew the plan was VERY strict and there was no cheating to be had by me, so before starting it I ate nothing but crap for 4 days and recorded it all in a video I call “Video Diary of a Fast Food Fool“. Check it out and see my own shortened version of Super Size Me.

Below are the notes I wrote as I went through week one.

Day 1

• Didn’t like my breakfast, don’t like beans and I couldn’t force them down.
• My body is use to eating every 2 hours, it’s not liking the adjustment to eating every 4 hours.
• Insulin levels aren’t great right now. I can’t focus. I’m cranky and I’m hungry.
• I miss milk and sugar in my coffee.
• Need to increase portion sizes of my meals. I’m starving!
• Workout was good! Did the Kiwi workout.
• Found a way to eat beans cooked a way i like them;  Black beans, refried, done myself.
• Increased portion size with my supper and was full for the first time all day.
• Prepped all my meals for the next day which saved lots of time in the morning
• Didn’t prep enough or research recipes, food wasn’t good.
• Took first cold shower. A lot of screaming like a little girl.

Day 2

• REALLY enjoyed breakfast. Eggs and egg whites. Side pan with lentils, diced tomatoes, orange peppers, fresh spinach cooked in olive oil, salt and pepper.
• Did not enjoy my second cold shower any more than the first. More cursing and screaming.
• Cold showers = cursing, screaming and shrinkage.
• Learning to like my coffee black with some cinnamon.
• Still not eating enough at breakfast. My body is use to eating every 2 hours, I’m hungry at 10 where I would usually have a snack.
• Drinking lots of water. Peeing every 2 minutes
• Lunch was amazing. Homemade chili.
• Still getting hungry at about 2 hrs.
• Fiber kicking in!  Belly is super upset. Gasy and can’t use the bathroom.

Day 3

• Still not a fan of beans/lentis in the morning but i’ve figured out tomato/spinach/eggs with runny yolk is good.
• VERY upset stomach! Can’t use the washroom. I thought fiber was suppose to do the opposite!
• Getting sick of the food already.
• Missing bread and fruit, looking forward to cheat day!
• Not liking green veggies like broccoli, spinach, brussel sprouts, aspargus makes this very hard.
• Not liking beans makes it even harder.

Day 4

• I keep increasing the amount of food I’m eating in the AM and I’m still not getting full or I’m still starving within 2 hours. I’ve been told by a lot of the forms and on twitter I need to increase my beans/fiber but I can’t force anymore down in the morning.
• Lunch was good. Chili for the 4th day and a chicken breast. Added some guac to try and add some good fats to fill me up more.
• Having a junk food craving so I had a diet Pepsi and it curbed that a bit. It worked.

Day 5

• Actually woke up feeling great! Had an amazing breakfast, lentils, eggs, spinach, tomato, turkey bacon… the usual. Was full and it lasted almost the proper amount of time.
• Eating to the point of being over full and wanting to throw up, but it’s only keeping me full for about 2 hrs and I then begin to feel the hypoglycemia kicking in and I can’t think and I get very very cranky.
• Not really feeling like myself this week.  My body is trying to adjust to the new diet and eating plan of every 4 hours instead of every 2 hours.
• Brain. No. Smart. Good. Scott. No. Think.

Binge Day (Cheat Day)

A lot of what I read by other people on their blogs and on Twitter was that they were HATING their cheat day and that they felt like shit after doing it. Personally, I LOVED my cheat day!! Every second of it!

I ate 12 chocolate chip cookies, a pizza, 1o dark beer, bagels, bacon… Oh man, I’m drooling right now just thinking about it.

All of this is just a quick breakdown of my week and how I felt as I went along.  To be honest, I haven’t liked this plan at all.  My body has felt really “off” all week but I’m hoping that was just the adjustment to my meals and the timing at which I eat. I haven’t seen a lot of movement on the scale (after my cheat day I’m back up to 182.4lbs)  or with inches around my waist either but I’m going to give it another week to see what happens.

Not every meal plan works for everyone. I can see the science behind this book and I think it’s great, but with my hypogycemia, it may not be the proper plan for me.

I’m not the type to give up on something, I’m too stubborn for that, so I’m giving week two a go and seeing how that feels and if I like the whole thing any better.

Wish me luck!

		13-Feb	Feb-18 AM	Feb-18 PM	19-Feb
	Weight	184.1	178.3	180.8	177.6
	Right arm	14	13.75	13.75	13.75
	Left arm	13.75	13.75	13.75	13.75
	Waist	37.5	35.5	36.5	36
	Hips	39.25	38.25	38.5	38
	Right thigh	23.25	22.5	23	22.5
	Left Thigh	23.25	22.25	22.5	22.25
	Chest	40.25	41.75	41
	Body Fat %		13.10%