The Four Hour Body

Last week on the Joe Rogan podcast, the guest was Tim Ferriss, the author of The Four Hour Body (and the four hour workweek).

He puts forward a few diet plans in his book, but some of them seem to be really low in carb intake. Has anyone here read The Four Hour body? If so, what approach did you take, and how did you find the diet affected your training?

I'd also be interested to hear from those who have tried low carb diets before, and what their opinion is on how it affected their jiu jitsu training.

Hi Matthew,

I have the book, and used it over a four week period and got some good results. the key thing for training is that the diet it a slow carb, not low carb, therefore all carb intake should be through beans/lentils/legumes and veg, i.e. 'good carbs' and not sugars, therefore you will need more to have enough power to train effectively.

For me, the biggest challenge is getting organised, as you will need to prepare food in advance, as it is TOO easy to just pick up a sandwich out of connivence.

Hope this helps

Enzo

Has anyone here tried the gracie diet?
http://www.martialarts-alchemist.com...e-gracie-diet/
According to Rickson it's meant to be all about food combinations and knowing what foods work well together for more effiecient digestion. I was thinking of giving it a go... however like Enzo said above... the biggest challthink I'm too lazy to.

the documentray "Fat Head" is a good one to watch it talks about how wheat and plant oils are bad for you and that meat and fat oils are good for you. it also shows how the movie "Supersize me" is full of shit. I never read the book but from what they talked about on the podcast it seemed like some of the same things where mentioned in "Fat Head".

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Originally Posted by Enzo

Hi Matthew,

I have the book, and used it over a four week period and got some good results. the key thing for training is that the diet it a slow carb, not low carb, therefore all carb intake should be through beans/lentils/legumes and veg, i.e. 'good carbs' and not sugars, therefore you will need more to have enough power to train effectively

Enzo

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This gives me a little more hope, thanks. I didn't know the carb content of beans and legumes. I've tried eliminating carbs before, and training was terrible. I'll keep reading the book and checking out their forum and see what it does for me.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Enzo

Hi Matthew,

I have the book, and used it over a four week period and got some good results. the key thing for training is that the diet it a slow carb, not low carb, therefore all carb intake should be through beans/lentils/legumes and veg, i.e. 'good carbs' and not sugars, therefore you will need more to have enough power to train effectively.

For me, the biggest challenge is getting organised, as you will need to prepare food in advance, as it is TOO easy to just pick up a sandwich out of connivence.Hope this helps

Enzo

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The bolded part is what kills any diet I'm on.

Good input though.

I have done a bit of research on this Tim Feriss guy after hearing him on Joe Rogan's podcast and the more I find out about him the less I trust anything he has to say. This was one of the first links I came across:

http://www.martialdevelopment.com/bl...kboxing-wrong/

I dunno. I smell bullshido.

It's basically the plaeo-diet with the inclusion of legumes and a cheat day.

The access to beans and whatnot and the cheat day make it a lot easier to stick to over a long period of time, which is one of Ferriss' main points: the diet you don't stick to doesn't work no matter how much science supports it.


If you live in areas with good Mexican food this diet is pretty easy once you cut out the tortillas.

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Originally Posted by Tyler Frazier

Has anyone here tried the gracie diet?
http://www.martialarts-alchemist.com...e-gracie-diet/
According to Rickson it's meant to be all about food combinations and knowing what foods work well together for more effiecient digestion. I was thinking of giving it a go... however like Enzo said above... the biggest challthink I'm too lazy to.

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The only thing that concerns me about the Gracie diet is that it's far too anecdotal and based on the specific genetics of the Gracie family. There are certain food combinations that most people can tolerate that I simply cannot and vice versa. Most of these differences or commonalities seem to be more based upon one's regional genetic background and I would imagine that it would be hard to establish objective diet rules for everybody.

I could be totally off base here as my knowledge of the diet it very superficial. For all I know, it could account for these genetic variances.

I think this is a very good point. Believers in metabolic typing would completely agree with you.

I jumped on Tim's book straight from the start and I've been using his slow carb diet and surprisingly made a HUGE difference during training! I feel way more energetic and I can train to higher intensity without feeling like shit!
It makes you realize that your body is like a car. Fill your body with shitty food and you might still reach your destination but it's gonna be a bumpy ride, fill it with jet fuel and you'll be there in no time!

It sucks balls for the first 2 weeks due to bread/rice withdrawals hahaha
It's hard to feel satisfied after a meal but damn Saturday is the best day ever now aka "sugar induced coma day" lol


I survive on my homemade version of burrito instead of using usual wraps I scramble some eggs and cook it like a giant pancake and fill it with lettuce, beans, chicken/beef, homemade guacamole, homemade salsa.

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Originally Posted by John Alighieri

I jumped on Tim's book straight from the start and I've been using his slow carb diet and surprisingly made a HUGE difference during training! I feel way more energetic and I can train to higher intensity without feeling like shit!
It makes you realize that your body is like a car. Fill your body with shitty food and you might still reach your destination but it's gonna be a bumpy ride, fill it with jet fuel and you'll be there in no time!

It sucks balls for the first 2 weeks due to bread/rice withdrawals hahaha
It's hard to feel satisfied after a meal but damn Saturday is the best day ever now aka "sugar induced coma day" lol


I survive on my homemade version of burrito instead of using usual wraps I scramble some eggs and cook it like a giant pancake and fill it with lettuce, beans, chicken/beef, homemade guacamole, homemade salsa.

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Man I agree! I love this diet! Ive also used some of the other chapters in the book with a lot of success!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by John Alighieri

I jumped on Tim's book straight from the start and I've been using his slow carb diet and surprisingly made a HUGE difference during training! I feel way more energetic and I can train to higher intensity without feeling like shit!
It makes you realize that your body is like a car. Fill your body with shitty food and you might still reach your destination but it's gonna be a bumpy ride, fill it with jet fuel and you'll be there in no time!

It sucks balls for the first 2 weeks due to bread/rice withdrawals hahaha
It's hard to feel satisfied after a meal but damn Saturday is the best day ever now aka "sugar induced coma day" lol


I survive on my homemade version of burrito instead of using usual wraps I scramble some eggs and cook it like a giant pancake and fill it with lettuce, beans, chicken/beef, homemade guacamole, homemade salsa.

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That sounds great, John, thanks! Today's my first day of adopting the slow carb diet, and I plan on training tonight.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by John Alighieri

I survive on my homemade version of burrito instead of using usual wraps I scramble some eggs and cook it like a giant pancake and fill it with lettuce, beans, chicken/beef, homemade guacamole, homemade salsa.

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Replacing tortillas with an omelet-like creation is brilliant and sounds delicious! Thanks for sharing!

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Originally Posted by derekWwyatt

Replacing tortillas with an omelet-like creation is brilliant and sounds delicious! Thanks for sharing!

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Anytime sir!
That's what works for me!
If you're big on salt I'd recommend you to switch to garlic powder.
I eat a lot of alpha sprouts too.

I smash salads too. Lettuce, alpha sprouts, balsamic vinegar, chicken/beef chunks, peppers (green, red, yellow) kidney beans ( yeah I know weird but it tastes awesome! Lol) I usually eat salads as "snacks"

I've eaten as little as 30g of carbs in a day, and I felt fantastic. I really had to make sure that I was taking in enough fats to compensate, though, otherwise I would feel very low-energy. Lots of peanut butter, brazil nuts, olive oil, avocado, coconut, etc.

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Originally Posted by Caliphate Ishtar Allah

Anyone heard of the Raw Meat diet?

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Yeah, I think your mother invented it.


OHHHHHHHHHHH

I got the book, started the diet 2 days ago. I did 3mo of P90x. If i can survive the strict intake of that this should be a breeze. Protein+veggies+legumes instead of white starch. And I get to have Delicious Pizza and Beer on the weekend. We will see what the results are.