Post: #26

(02-27-2012 12:19 PM)MiXX Wrote:  Anybody here try this, and care to post their reviews/results/comments?

http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/200...-exercise/


Mixx

Here is the low-down on the diet:

The foods are healthy and it is much better than the average Western diet. However, it is a crash diet and should be viewed as such. If you calculate what Ferris eats (he goes into greater detail within his diet book) total calories are around 1200 per day. [Protein intake is generally around 70-100g which is not optimal for muscle gain.] With that sort of calorie defecit one will lose weight fast. However, it should be noted that it is verging on a starvation diet for most men who have a 2000 to 3000 calorie per day need to maintain energy levels and hormone function. This diet will get the job done if viewed as a temporary solution, but expect to feel lethargic, sex drive to drop and - as Aliblahba shows - when coming off you will regain weight very fast. Keep in mind the lack of variety in food choice may be a trigger for breaking it. Also, for someone who may have a lot of weight to drop a weekly cheat day may not be best. If you're fit and focus on nutrition it has an obvious place, if you're overweight and prone to binging it will reinforce old habits. It should also be noted that his 'slow-carb' therory is nonsense and he did not gain muscle on this. Instead he got very lean. A 140lbs, but lean man will look more impressive in pictures than an 180lbs fleshy man even though their lean body mass is identical. This is why Brad Pitt in Fight Club is reguarly called big and muscular. Pitt was 150lbs at 6' in the film.

If you're keen on doing this, it will work. But make sure you view it as a temporary solution (no longer than a month) and have another diet to transition to after. To minimise regain of fat slowly reintroduce calories. If you aren't keen on trying it look at Dr. Mauro Di Pasquale's The Metabolic Diet for a much improved cyclical keto diet.

Keep in mind that Ferris is a snake-oil salesman. While his diet book is filled with some great info, the best of it has been appropriated from other sources. He gives credit of course, but it is a compendium of others work with some wild claims and clever marketing by him. Remember the old adage; if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

Post: #27

(02-27-2012 03:53 PM)gringoed Wrote:  

(02-27-2012 02:07 PM)Hencredible Casanova Wrote:  I'm pretty much doing this right now with a hardcore workout routine. Good link. Tim Ferris is a funny guy. I actually have a good story about him.

I'm a TF fan and I'd love to hear it!

Haha. So yeah. I've seen TF a few times in San Francisco. We know some people in common so I would see him out at different events.

Anyway, TF owns a home in San Jose (a city in Silicon Valley just 35 minutes south of SF) and was looking for an apartment in SF so that he has a place to bring chicks back to when he parties in the "city" on weekends. You would think he's doing well enough to just get his own pad, but for whatever reason, he decided to go on Craigslist and saw an ad my friend put up for a room in his apartment.

My friend lived in a pretty baller part of SF (he works for Google) and had two female roommates. There were four bedrooms in the spot and one was open to rent out.

Tim Ferris came by to check it out and met my friend and the two female roomies. The girls were not feeling this guy at all. Every minute or so he would flex his muscles literally and check himself out. He really admired his body.

Then he inspected the room and came out and told everyone he liked it but the problem was that the bathroom was all the way down the hall. He said he would be having a lot of naked girls over and asked if the roomies would have a problem seeing them walk down the hall in total nudity on their way to the bathroom.

After he said that, the two female roomies had already made up their mind about TF. There was no way they were going to allow him to live with them.

Pretty funny story and funny guy.

I just wonder why TF would be looking at places with that many roomies. Guess he's frugal or just weird. But SF is a weird place.

Post: #28

(02-29-2012 09:12 AM)MiXX Wrote:  

(02-29-2012 07:34 AM)Frost Wrote:  I dropped about 15lbs in three months.

Ok, 5 lbs per month is a lot less than what Tim claims of 20lbs. Did you follow the program to the letter for 30 days? Or did yo deviate from the 3 daily foods?


Has anyone stuck with this diet TO THE LETTER? Not cheated in anyway except for their included cheat day?

Mixx

Haven't done the diet, but know about it and make all my money selling my diet/exercise books. 3 daily foods...

1. Organic FARMER'S MARKET eggs (not "organic" or normal eggs from grocery store)... you can tell how good an egg is by how dark the yolk is... the darker the better
2. Avocado
3. Beans/steamed broccoli and or cauliflower/spinach

Scrambled eggs and avocado work awesome together. Add beans AND spinach to that also, so 4 foods. Not like the extra one would hurt the cause. That's my 2 cents.

Post: #29

(02-29-2012 09:12 AM)MiXX Wrote:  

(02-29-2012 07:34 AM)Frost Wrote:  I dropped about 15lbs in three months.

Ok, 5 lbs per month is a lot less than what Tim claims of 20lbs. Did you follow the program to the letter for 30 days? Or did yo deviate from the 3 daily foods?


Has anyone stuck with this diet TO THE LETTER? Not cheated in anyway except for their included cheat day?

Mixx

I made a few modifications, so I was actually eating a stricter version of the 4HB diet - more veggies and meat instead of pinto beans/lentils carb fillers. I lost a steady 5lbs/month for three months. After that, I lost another 10lbs in two months, eating almost exclusively Thai food, usually subbing more veggies in for rice. So, basically again the same diet pushed in the 4HB. I had one cheat day per week, but only one or two REAL cheat days per month where I would binge like a girl whose cat died.

Did I lose 20lbs in a month? No. I think that to lose that kind of weight, you either need to be pretty chunky to start off with, or have the willpower to endure persistent hunger throughout it. In my case, the only rules I set for myself were regarding which foods were and were not OK. If I had limited my portions as well, that 5lbs/month figure could easily be doubled.

I don't mean this to knock Tim Ferriss because he has put a lot of good information in the hands of a lot of people, but the reality is that he's got a book to hype. I assume he prepped for his 20lb/one month weight loss case study by bulking up, and then reducing his weight fast after by:

1) Working out harder than usual
2) Eating small portions
3) Most importantly, naturally returning to his body's baseline fat set point

(If you knew that every extra pound you lost in a given month was worth an extra 10k book sales, you'd be pushing to grind out that last rep and pass on seconds at dinner too.)

So bottom line, Tim Ferriss is great at giving health advice, and even better at self-promotion. The slow-carb/low-carb/paleo has worked well for me, and I have pushed it on many of my family and friends. Going into it expecting -20lbs/month with zero feelings of hunger and deprivation is unrealistic though.

Here's another great site, btw:

http://www.marksdailyapple.com//welcome-...ily-apple/

Post: #30

Ok, i have been on this diet for 4 days now (started on Monday), I have lost 2lbs, and I have not done my cheat day yet. I don't see how you can lose 20lbs in 30 days, I see more of 5-10lbs max. Still, for a diet that allows you to eat like this with ZERO exercise, I like it.

** I am injured right now, and cannot exercise for the next 4-6 weeks, so this was heaven sent.

Mixx

Post: #31

(03-02-2012 03:37 PM)MiXX Wrote:  Ok, i have been on this diet for 4 days now (started on Monday), I have lost 2lbs, and I have not done my cheat day yet. I don't see how you can lose 20lbs in 30 days, I see more of 5-10lbs max. Still, for a diet that allows you to eat like this with ZERO exercise, I like it.

** I am injured right now, and cannot exercise for the next 4-6 weeks, so this was heaven sent.

Mixx

You don't need to exercise per the book.

It's one part calorie restriction and 2nd part "kind of calorie".

But if you've lost 2lbs in 2 days, 30 days in a month = 15 lbs, which is a noticeable difference.

Post: #32

Losing 20 pounds of fat in a month would require a total kcal deficit of 70,000. (20*3,500).

That would translate to a daily kcal deficit of 2,300.

If you normally eat 3,000 kcal a day (that's a lot of food for a healthy guy), you'd need to cut down to 700 kcals a day.

Even losing 10 pounds of fat is a month is hard, requiring an average daily caloric deficit of 1,166.

The only way the math would change is if there were some amazing thermogenic properties to lentils. (There's not.)

Now, a lot of guys have 5-10 pounds of bloat. If you've been eating the typical American diet, you are holding water like a woman with PMS. If that's the case, going on the diet will give you rapid weight loss. Otherwise, it's raw numbers.

It's a solid diet, but as with all things Tim Ferris, it shouldn't be viewed as anything other than a good idea.

Ferris is great at convincing people that a good idea (that he got from someone else) is actually a revolutionary, life-changing event.

The diet itself is good, but it's not going to create miracles.

Post: #33

I've been on the Tim Ferriss diet, and it really comes down to how much you put in it. When I go extremely hard, I lose weight quickly.

Can I eat gluten-free versions of what's prohibited in this diet? I don't know too much about this diet, but I'd appreciate it if anyone can share anything on the effects of eating things like Ezekiel bread and gluten-free granola while on the TFD.

Thanks,
Renberg

Post: #34

I find I really can't cut a huge amount of calories or else my lifts really suffer.