4-Hour Pweb

[Wind Swept]

I've been on the 4-Hour Body slow-carb diet all of nine days, and I've lost 6.5 lbs. It is proving thus far to be much less unpleasant than I was expecting it to be. I've ditched as many carbs, fructose and dairy as I'm comfortable with, and replaced them with a lot more protein, vegetables (mmm, spinach) and beans.

I present to you my very promising graph, as well as my terribly optimistic projections:

Figure 1. A very promising graph

Figure 2. Terribly optimistic projections

And the best part? On days like today--my first real cheat day (Thanksgiving was a technicality)--I get to eat whatever I want. Such as this entire coffee cake:

Figure 3. Lunch

It's going to be a good day.

[LilBee91]

Good luck! I hope your optimistic projections come true.

Also, that cake looks scrumptious.

[Young Val]

Oh my god, growing up we used to get those exact coffee cakes (switching between apple, raspberry, and the heavenly cheese danish). Even now, having jettisoned all process foods for a good two years running, I could eat every damn bite of that and love it.

[Petra]

I tried Googling this earlier but either was too lazy or too inept to figure it out... I can't remember which...

What does the "4-Hour" part of it mean?

[Wind Swept]

The original title of Tim Ferriss' first book was something like, "Selling Drugs for Fun and Profit," but Walmart said they would refuse to sell it in their stores. So, he ran a few ad campaigns on Google to test titles, and "The 4-Hour Workweek" fared the best. He's taken it on as his brand, hence the 4-Hour Body.

It's not meant literally in either case, it's just a device to sell books.

ETA:

Figure 4. Mmmmmmmmmmmm...

[Ela]

So, did you get his book or are you basically following what's on the website you linked?

I think I would have a hard time ditching as many carbs as he says. I eat mostly vegetarian and very little meat, so I'd be basically eating beans and veggies on that diet. Also, no milk??? Not even skim milk? Wonder why?

I've been on a plateau with my weight for a long time and could stand to lose a little more weight. Probably what I need is more exercise and less stress.

I considered what you linked for about 10 seconds, but I don't think I could realistically do it.

[Wind Swept]

I bought the book. As far as the rules of the diet go, the only difference is an additional rule to avoid most fruits.

However, the book also contains a lot of tips and tricks for making the diet work, as well as a lot of chapters that are unrelated to the diet, but quite interesting. Some other pieces from the book I'm playing with:

Eating at least 30g of protein within 30 minutes of waking up. My chart so far provides correlations between not getting enough protein and not losing weight. 11/27, 12/3 and 12/5 are all days I had less than 30g of protein for breakfast, and I either maintained or gained weight on those days. Could just be coincidence, but are a number of testimonials from the book that illustrated similar results. I'm going to continue experimenting with it.

Brief muscle contractions before and 90 minutes after meals. The concept being to convince your muscles to take some of the glucose that would otherwise end up in fat cells, and is intended as a damage control on cheat days and for less than ideal meals during the week. I've been doing 90 seconds of wall presses and/or air squats in the bathroom before and after lunch. I've no proof that this is helping, but the wall presses leave my shoulders nice and warm and relaxed, and getting some motion in while sitting at a desk all day is probably a plus, so I'll keep it up regardless.

Cold exposure. The book discusses exposure to cold causing the body to burn more fat. The least ridiculous suggestion is to sit with an ice pack on your shoulders for ~30 minutes in the evening. Again, I don't know if it's helping, but it feels quite nice, so I'm going to keep using it while I play video games in the evening.

Another chapter of the book is about "reversing permanent injuries." I read it for the tips on mid- and upper-back pain. The exercises suggested do seem to be reducing the aches I have from sitting at a desk all day.

[Ela]

The eating 30 grams of protein makes sense to me. Protein holds your appetite in check longer than other types of foods, so you're not as tempted to overeat. Fruit is high in sugar, so that makes sense too.

The bits about brief muscle contractions before and after meals and cold exposure sound gimmicky to me. I have a feeling those points are not really evidence-based.

But sounds like the diet is working for you, so that's great. The hard part of diets is keeping the weight off, in my experience. Hope you have equal success there.

[Wind Swept]

All righty, looking at the charts, week two was slightly less successful than week one. A few lessons learned:

- There's no need to overstuff oneself on cheat day. The point is to eat anything you want until you're full, not to continue eating it just because you can. Probably shouldn't have eaten that entire coffee cake and then had a big lunch, as well. I definitely took cheat day too far.

- Always follow the breakfast rule. The day after cheat day I lost very little and on one day I gained. I cooked some disgusting eggs that I didn't eat on the former, and ran out on the latter. Always eat plenty of protein for breakfast.

- Hamburger Helper has no place in this diet. Telling myself I'd just eat a little bit of it was setting myself up for failure.

- KFC's grilled chicken is delicious and surprisingly not the most unhealthy thing in the world.

- Cooked spinach by itself is gross. It is also not helped by adding salsa.

[Wind Swept]

The holidays have set me back about eight pounds. Not that I gained weight, but I didn't lose any either:

Figure 2. Terribly optimistic projections

With the new year comes a new spurt of enthusiasm. I may even try adding some exercise into the mix.