4 Hour Body Diet Fast Food

4 Hour Body - book by Timothy Ferriss The 4-Hour Body (2010) is a bestselling tome by the author of The 4-Hour Workweek. It covers many aspects of improving your body, and one of them is diet, to lose weight and gain strength

Main diet suggested – slow-carb diet
- Avoid carb, processed foods
- Avoid variety
- One binge day a week
- Other diets are suggested in a lot less detail

Below is a description of the food recommendations in the diet. Slow-carb diet | Intermittent fasting (IF) | Protein cycling | Primarily plant-based diet (PPbD). There's a lot more in the book.

Use this page as a cheat sheet alongside the book. Send this page to friends, family, and anyone else you're eating with so they can understand what you're eating.

Get a copy of The 4-Hour Body for detailed food suggestions, as well as many non-food suggestions

The reasoning behind The 4-Hour Body

According to this book it's not what you put in your mouth that matters, it's what makes it to your bloodstream. If it passes through, it doesn't count. The recommendations here mainly circle around glucose levels, insulin release / hormones, and metabolic rate.

It's argued that white carbs make you get fatter.
Chlorine dioxide, one of the chemicals used to bleach flour, combines with residual protein in most of these foods to form alloxan. Researchers use alloxan in lab rats to induce diabetes.
Humans from temperate climates would only eat fruit seasonally, so fruit consumption should be rationed.
Dramatically spiking caloric intake one day a week increases fat-loss by ensuring that your metabolic rate doesn't downshift from extended caloric restriction.
Removing even a little dairy can dramatically accelerate fat-loss, as dairy products have a high insuliemic response on the insulinemic index (II or InIn) scale. Also, lactose intolerance and milk protein allergy are more common than people think. And store-bought milk and dairy offerings contain hormone and antibiotic residues, which are now being shown to negatively impact human health.
Most artificial and natural sugar substitutes provoke increased insulin release. They may also have a negative effect on gut bacteria.

The 4-Hour Body diet plan – food list

The book offers a number of alternative diet plans that the author has tried:

Slow-carb diet – mostly low GI foods
Intermittent fasting (IF) – either fast for 19 hours a day, or reduce calories by 50-80% every other day
Protein cycling – one day a week eat less than 5% protein
Primarily plant-based diet (PPbD) – eat at least 70% plant-based foods by volume

Slow-carb diet food plan

Slow-Carb Diet – what to eat – 6 days a week + breakfast on "cheat day"

Eat the same few meals over and over again. Pick three or four meals and repeat them. Water, unsweetened tea / coffee with no more than two tablespoons of cream is acceptable.
Proteins – as much as you like – egg whites with 1-2 whole eggs for flavor (or whole organic eggs), chicken breast or thigh, beef (preferably grass fed), fish, pork. Eat at least 20 grams of protein per meal.
Legumes – as much as you like – lentils, black beans, pinto beans, red beans, soy beans
Vegetables – as much as you like – spinach, broccoli, cauliflower, other cruciferous vegetables, sauerkraut, kimchee, asparagus, peas, green beans. There's no need to limit yourself to these vegetables, although the more variety you attempt the more likely you are to quit as this makes the diet more complicated.
Tomatoes and avocadoes are allowed. Eggplant is also mentioned as ok. There's no discussion of other fruits used as vegetables, e.g. bell peppers and olives, but presumably they're acceptable as well.
Up to 2 glasses of red wine a day are allowed.
Butter is fine. Cottage cheese is also acceptable. (Yes, this appears to contradict the "no dairy" rule below).
Oils aren't discussed in detail, although "good fats" are mentioned. Olive oil, grapeseed oil and macadamia oil, as well as nuts as a source of fat, are preferred.
Canned foods are fine.
Drink plenty of water.
Use cinnamon to reduce the glycemic index of a meal by up to 29%.
Timing: Make sure you have your first meal within an hour of waking (preferably within ½ hour), and have meals approximately 4 hours apart.

Slow-Carb Diet – foods to avoid – 6 days a week + breakfast on "cheat day"

Avoid "white" carbohydrates. No bread, rice (including brown), whole grains, cereal including steel-cut oats, potatoes, pasta, tortillas, and fried food with breading. Cauliflower is ok.
Don't drink calories. Do not drink milk (including soy milk), normal soft drinks, or fruit juice. Limit soft drinks to no more than 16 ounces per day, as the aspartame can stimulate weight gain. No beer or white wine (another part of the book says any dry wine is acceptable except Riesling, White Zinfandel, and Champagne). There's nothing saying you shouldn't drink spirits, but it's implied that you shouldn't.
Don't eat fruit or fructose.
No dairy because of its high insulinemic response on the insulinemic index (II or InIn) scale. Milk is better avoided, although a cup a day may be ok if you're not intolerant (this contradicts the suggestion not to have any milk). Up to 2 tablespoons of cream in your coffee is ok.
Avoid refined soy products, if possible, including soy milk.
Don't deep fry foods – stir fry is okay.
Be careful with "domino foods" – nuts, chickpeas (garbanzo beans), hummus, peanuts, macadamias. They are very easy to overeat and prone to portion abuse. A few almonds (5-10) are fine.
Limit consumption of artificial and natural sugar substitutes, even agave nectar – they can stall weight loss.
Suggests avoiding curries, which can cause intestinal upset without rice.

Slow-Carb Diet – what to eat – 1 "cheat day" a week

Take one day off a week, preferably Saturday as you're not working and can recover the next day. The first meal of the day is not a binge meal. After that you eat until you're a little sick, no restrictions. Start the diet at least 5 days before your designated sick day. The "cheat days" have guidelines to ensure that as much of the food ingested either goes into muscle tissue or out of the body unabsorbed.
Drink plenty of water.
Consume a small quantity of fructose (fruit sugar) in grapefruit juice before the second meal, to encourage defecation.
Consume citric juices.
Increase the speed of gastric emptying (passage of food through your stomach) to limit absorption; he suggests caffeine and yerba mate tea
Note that most men can get away with one cheatmeal (as opposed to a cheatday) a week; some women can't.

Intermittent fasting food plan

Intermitted fasting (IF) – what to eat

Fast-5: After fasting for 19 hours beginning at bedtime, for the next five hours eat as much as necessary to satisfy hunger.
ADCR: Alternate Day Caloric Restriction. Cut calories 50-80% every other day.

Intermitted fasting (IF) – foods to avoid

Fast-5: Fast for 19 hours beginning at bedtime.
ADCR: Alternate Day Caloric Restriction. Cut calories 50-80% every other day.

Protein cycling food plan

Protein cycling – what to eat

Six days a week, eat a regular amount of protein.

Protein cycling – foods to avoid

One day a week, eat less than 5% protein.

Primarily plant-based diet food plan

Primarily plant-based diet (PPbD) – what to eat

Eat at least 70% plant-based foods by volume.
Add legumes. Dense products, like black bean burgers without buns, are encouraged.
Source foods locally where possible.
Raw food: Certain foods may be better cooked – legumes (kidney beans, mung beans, etc.), carrots, cruciferous vegetables (cauliflower, cabbage, brussels sprouts, kale, etc.), tomatoes, amaranth, bread. Cut the crust off bread to avoid acrylamide exposure.
Eggs are acceptable. Some form of animal product may be necessary for proper hormone production.
When breaking into the diet, eat meat only after 6:00pm. Make sure it's pasture-raised, grass-fed, or sourced within 50 miles of your home.
Binge on cheat foods once per week.
Remove starches (rice, bread, grains) – especially wheat
Don't eat meat, poultry, fish, etc. before 6:00 pm… or at all when you're fully on the diet
No milk products
No soy, as it leads to estrogen overdosing. Soy milk, edamame, tofu, tempeh, etc.

Primarily plant-based diet (PPbD) – foods to avoid

Health benefits claimed in The 4-Hour Body

Reduce weight – overweight and obesity.

As always, this is not intended to be a replacement for professional medical diagnosis or treatment for a medical condition. Consult your doctor before starting a new diet. This page describes what the authors of the diet recommend – Chewfo is describing the diet only, and does not endorse it.

Get a copy of The 4-Hour Body for detailed food suggestions, as well as many non-food suggestions

The author's website is http://fourhourbody.com; Facebook page is https://www.facebook.com/fourhourbody.

How have these diets helped you?

4 Hour Body Diet Fast Food

Source: http://www.chewfo.com/diets/the-4-hour-body-by-timothy-ferriss-2010-what-to-eat-and-foods-to-avoid-food-list/