The 4-Hour Body: An Uncommon Guide to Rapid Fat-Loss, Incredible Sex, and Becoming Superhuman [Abridged, Audiobook] [Audio CD]

I bought this book on recommendation from a friend who had experimented with a few chapters from the book with great results. The book is a collection of experiments and research that the author has completed over the past ten years on the human body. Much of it challanges regular thinking and explores doing things easier or smarter. The key difference with this book is it's not a back to front read, instead it is more a 'pick a chapter and have a go'. Some chapters will appeal, others may not.

I particularly liked the Chapter on slow carb dieting, this is really working for me right now and isn't much of a challange. The Kettlebell swings section is also really cool and there are also a couple of other fun chapters on Sleep and sex which are fun.

The overall vibe of the book is to have a go and see what works for you, the book doesn't take itself too seriously but it is based on science, research and a better understanding of how the body works without boring you to tears. So if you are looking to make some tweaks and changes to your lifestyle to get fitter and healthier but you aren't quite ready to overhaul your way of life for a six pack then this is for you. You'll see results quickly in any area you decide to pick up on and you won't have to wade through 400 pages of theory before you get there. 30 minutes and you'll be taking content away and using it.

Losing fat
Gaining muscle
Improving sex
Improving quality of sleep
getting a six pack
Controlling body using temperature

... and more. Like i say not every chapter will float your boat but they are all independent and don't form part of an overall regime.

Fun, digestible, manageable, readable, informative and just plain better than every other book I've read on the body.

It's all about results and getting them fast.

The first thing the author of this book tells us is that The Four Hour Body is to be treated like an encyclopedia. You're not meant to just pick it up and read it all the way through. Indeed, he expressly advises against this. What he does suggest is that you read the introduction to establish a certain base level of knowledge, and that from there on you just pick and choose which of the remaining sections are relevant to you.

Okay then.

The book has specific sections on losing fat, gaining muscle, improving sex, perfecting sleep, reversing injuries, running, getting stronger, living longer, plus a section entitled "from swimming to swinging", which covers a grab-bag of topics. Personally I focused on fat loss, so that's what I'm going to focus on in this review.

The section on fat loss begins with a chapter entitled "The Slow-Carb Diet I: How to Lose 20 pounds in 30 Days Without Exercising". Pretty spectacular stuff, huh? In fact, most authorities agree that weight loss that rapid is not actually healthy, so before I began, I decided that if this program truly lived up to its hype, I'd only stick to it for a couple of weeks before going back to a slower weight loss program. Unfortunately - or fortunately, depending on how you look at it - that never became an issue.

The diet prescribed is broken down into five rules:

1. Avoid "white" carbohydrates (e.g. sugar, white rice, white bread, potatoes).
2. Eat the same few meals over and over again.
3. Don't drink calories.
4. Don't eat fruit.
5. Take one day off per week and go nuts.

The author also advises dieters to emphasize high protein foods, legumes, and vegetables.

During my time on the weight loss diet, I followed the stated program to the letter with only one deviation: I did continue to eat 20 grams per day of 85% cocoa dark chocolate. I did this because of the established heart-health benefits of doing so. Bear in mind though that this represents less than 3 grams of sugar per day. For those of you who don't think in metric, that means less than one single teaspoonful. In response to a comment I've already received on this review, I feel I should further add that although this is technically a violation of the no sugar rule, dark chocolate is actually a low glycemic index (GI) food. Thus, I absolutely was eating "slow carb".

What I actually ate on my non-binge days was:

Breakfast: 2 cans of Old El Passo "Mexe-Beans" plus raw baby spinach.

Lunch: Either kangaroo keema (yes, made with real kangaroo - I live in Australia) with optional green salad with olive oil & vinegar dressing; OR beef steak with grilled tomato and optional steamed broccoli.

Dinner: 20 gm of 85% cocoa dark chocolate plus 20 gm of sunflower seeds plus optional green vegetables (raw baby cucumbers or celery, or steamed broccoli).

In keeping with the rule "don't drink calories" I drank only mineral water, diet sodas, and a very occasional cup of black, unsweetened coffee. In keeping with a further suggestion of the author's, I also drank two litres (4.2 pints) of chilled water per day.

I occasionally skipped a meal, but I never added anything. As stressed in the book, I was always careful to eat my high protein breakfast within an hour of waking up, and never skipped that particular meal.

For about a week before going on this diet, knowing that I was about to restrict I have to admit I overindulged a bit. Well, okay: quite a bit! As a result my weight "spiked" by 3.4 kg (7.5 pounds). After five days on the diet I reached the day of my first "binge" - the one day per week when the author actually encourages you to "go nuts". Personally I picked Thursdays. By this point all of the added poundage I gained when my weight spiked had come off. Literally, all of it: I ended up at exactly where I started. Since the author of this book can hardly be held responsible for what I did the week before going on his diet, a weight loss of 1.5 pounds per day must surely be considered a triumph for his system. Unfortunately that's where the good news ends. In the three weeks after that I lost a grand total of just 1.3 kilograms (2.9 pounds). That's right: on a diet billed as causing weight loss of 20 pounds in 30 days, I actually lost less than 3 pounds in 3 weeks. At this point I decided it wasn't worth continuing.

My body fat percentage, which I measured using a Tanita scale, did not change significantly during my time on the diet. It did end up very marginally higher than it was when I started, but the difference was well within my normal daily fluctuations. I did not go quite so far as to use the more rigorous body fat measuring protocols suggested in this book, but I did make it a point to use the scale at the same time each day: immediately upon awakening, after using the bathroom but before eating or drinking anything.

On the plus side, if you not unreasonably take the view that Mr. Ferriss is not responsible for what I did to myself in the week before going on this diet, you could say that I lost 10.4 pounds. On the other hand, if you factor in the reality that - as any experienced dieter knows - weight gained during these "final" binges usually comes off very quickly anyway once you get on any sort of even halfway sensible program, what we are left with is a decidedly unremarkable loss of less than one pound per week.

As a personal aside, when I ran the weight loss program by a nurse friend of mine she predicted that it wouldn't work: that each week I'd just regain what I'd lost in my weekly binge. This is one of those friends with an unfortunate tendency to be right. As it turns out, this time she was only *almost* right. Each week I regained almost, but not quite all that I had lost. Hence the very slow net weight loss I did in fact achieve.

So much for my personal experiment in fat loss. How about the rest of the book?

Well, as stated, the author does explicitly advise against reading this book through from cover to cover, so I can cheerfully admit that I did actually follow his advice. Nevertheless, there are two other sections I wish to comment on.

First, "Adding Muscle". Ferriss is an advocate of Arthur Jones style high intensity training, or "HIT". As with his weight loss program, Ferriss has no problem advertising truly spectacular results, titling one chapter in this section "From Geek to Freak: How to Gain 34 pounds in 28 days". I do actually agree that HIT training deserves far more attention than it gets in popular publications on muscle building, but long story short, there are better, more realistic manuals on HIT out there. Just do a book search here on Amazon on "High Intensity Training" or simply "Mike Mentzer" and you'll get some good suggestions.

Similarly, while Mr. Ferriss entitled his chapter on living longer "Living Forever: Vaccines, Bleeding, and Other Fun", a lot of the science behind this chapter on "Living Forever" is highly debatable. Those of us who have followed the scientific literature on life extension have learned to our sadness that there is wisdom in applying a little skepticism. We know all too well the experience of seeing seemingly promising supplements and theories rise again and yet again only to be ultimately shot down in flames. Here also I would advise that there are simply better, more scientifically grounded and more realistic books on this topic out there. I personally suggest starting with Dr. Roy Walford's Beyond the 120 Year Diet : How to Double Your Vital Years and the CR society website. On a more conservative front, Jack LaLane's Live Young Forever: 12 Steps to Optimum Health, Fitness and Longevity is also well worth a look.

Finally, to conclude what is quite possibly the longest review I have ever written, I would like to comment on the number of five star reviews this book has garnered over on Amazon's US website. If you have been so patient as to read all the way to the end of this review, you surely deserve to know that the author of this book has a hugely popular website and quite a devoted following, based in part on a previous bestseller he wrote: The 4-Hour Workweek. This may also explain the truly massive number of helpful votes the current "Most Helpful" review has achieved (at the time of posting, it has over 2,000 helpful votes).

In fact, having seen a number of other reviewers claim that this book gained a suspiciously high number of positive reviews rather too quickly, I decided to do a little detective work myself. By sorting the reviews from oldest first, I very easily verified that 110 reviews of this book were posted on the 14th of December 2010. Of these 110 reviews, all but 5 gave the book five stars. Of the 5 reviews that didn't give the book five stars, all but one gave it four stars. Obviously it's now equally easy for you in turn to verify all this for yourself; provided, that is, you don't mind counting to 110! Curiously, a disturbingly large number of reviews (again, almost all five star) also happened to appear on April 26 2011. I've no idea why April 26 2011 was the magic day, but if you do happen to know, then please leave a comment on this review letting me in on the secret. I'm quite curious myself! Again, all this applies to Amazon's US website, not the UK one.

In the end I can only say that I went into this with an open mind. I did actually buy the book, and I didn't throw away that money just so I could write a nasty review. Read more ›

I have been 4-5 stone overweight for the last 7 years since the worsening of mobility problems following a car accident. No diet worked for long due to multiple food intolerances, lack of ability to exercise, living under extreme stress and lots of other excuses.

I read this big brick of a book in a few days, devoured it like I used to devour carbs. Tim's advice to add beans and lentils to protein meals is the reason I can actually do this way of eating. Before, when I tried higher protein diets, I experienced such side-effects, such as headaches, fatigue and low mood, that I couldn't continue.

I am losing 5-6lbs a week, feeling great and am experiencing a sensation of confidence and well-being that I haven't had since I was 10 years old running down a big hill with a backwind behind me.

The eating plan is only one part of the book, though. I've also discovered that I can manage some of the exercises Tim recommends (sitting down for me but still very effective) and that lots of expensive equipment isn't necessary. I'm dropping pounds quickly and easily using a piece of equipment I picked up in Argos for under £15.

I skipped one of the chapters (on how to have a better sex life), but my emerging hour-glass figure may mean that I'll have cause to return to it one day!

One odd thing is that I am losing the most weight from my middle - I've got a waist again! I don't know if that happens to everyone but it's lovely. The only problem was that it took a while to start going from my hips so my apple shape turned into a pear for a while. Now I'm looking a bit more like Nigella before she discovered how to cook.

Can't recommend this book highly enough. As a vegetarian, I particularly appreciated the section at the end on how vegetarians/vegans could implement the plan.

I've now started his other book, the 4-Hours Work Week.