4-Hour Body

Be skeptical (but don’t use it as an excuse for inaction).

Minimum effective dose. Anything beyond is wasteful.

No exercise burns many calories.

Goal for most people: 9kg of weight recomposition (not weight loss, since 9kg of fat loss and 9kg of muscle gain is better than just the former)

Most fat loss studies in the book are 60% diet, 10% drugs, 30% exercise.

A decent method you follow is better than a perfect method you quit.

Physical recreation /= exercise.

Embrace cycling. Eating less, then more, then less is normal and healthy. Better than a forced, unsustainable balance.

Calorie isn’t a calorie.

Scales isn’t a great tool for measuring fat loss, but better than nothing. Get a better tool, but stick with it. (Different tools will give you different results). Calipers, bio-impedance. (For the latter, use consistent hydration)

Total Inches: both upper arms (mid-bicep), waist (horizontal at navel), hips (widest point below waist), both legs (mid-thigh)

Make it conscious. Take a photo of each meal you eat. No calorie counting, just a photo
Make it a game. Measure, track, and compete with yourself
Make it competitive. Embrace peer pressure
Make it small and temporary. Start off small. When you start with a small decision, it’s easy to make subsequent consonant decisions to align with our previous ones.

Slow carb diet in a nutshell

Avoid “white” carbohydrates (bread, pasta, rice, potatoes)
Eat the same few meals over and over again

Eggs, meat, fish Lentils, black beans, bortolli/red/soya beans Spinach, mixed vegetables, sauerkraut, asparagus, peas, greeen beans

No need to eat more frequent smaller meals

Don’t drink calories
Don’t eat fruit

You don’t actually need it that much, and fructose is even worse than glucose. Avocados and tomatoes are fine in moderation.

Take one day off per weak and go nuts

Do whatever you want one day per weak, eat A LOT. It might actually help weight loss by ensuring that your metabolic rate doesn’t downregulate from extended calorie restriction

. . .

Alcohol? Dry red wine.

Snacks? No, you don’t need them. You’re probably not eating enough.

Breakfast: eggs, lentils, spinach work great. Or turkey bacon, sliced tomato. Cottage cheese.

. . .

Common mistakes:

Not eating within one hour of waking
Not eating enough protein
Not drinking enough water
Believing that you’ll cook (if you don’t normally cook, get canned and frozen stuff)
Overeating “domino foods” – those that might be technically fine (nuts, chickpeas, hummus…), but you’re prone to over-snacking on them. Just don’t get those.
Over-consuming sweeteners. Even if it’s no calories, if it’s sweet, it probably provokes an insulin response.

. . .

Damage control - how not to get fat while binging

Ensure that the first meal of the day is a good meal. Make it high in protein and fiber (legumes).
Consume grapefruit juice as your first meal
Supplements: AGG, PAGG – reduces insulin response
Consume citric juices (lemon squeezed into water or onto food)
Consume caffeine (coffee, Yerba mate) – makes food pass through faster
Engage in brief muscular contraction throughout the binge. 60-90 seconds (30-50 reps) of air squats or wall presses a few minutes before you eat, and then 90 minutes after you do. (Activates GLUT-4 proteins that suck glucose from the bloodstream into muscles, instead of fat storage)

. . .

Cultivating healthy gut bacteria

Eat fermented foods. Unsweetened plain yoghurt, fermented kombucha tea, sauerkraut, kimchi, kefir…

Consider probiotics and prebiotics.

. . .

Supplements.

Cold exposure increases the pace of fat loss, by a lot.

Cinnamon.

. . .

Kettleballs.

Six pack. Abs. Myotatic crunch. Cat vomit.

Eat more protein. 1.25g per 1kg of current LEAN body mass

Occams protocol

Rules to lift by

The last set to failure is the critical one. Press like it’s your job, don’t give up so easily – this is the one where progress happens.

Make sure to recover between exercises. Minimum 3 days at the start, and then once a week is just fine.

If you can’t lift (n-1) reps of the last workout, quit immediately. Take next day off and come back the day after that. Don’t decrease the weight and continue. What it means is you have not sufficiently recovered.

. . .

Positions, sperm count, etc..

. . .

Perfecting sleep

← Back to books • Amazon • Audible