The 4-Hour Body_ An Uncommon Guide to Ra - Timothy Ferriss [33]
Meals are approximately four hours apart.
10:00 A.M.—Breakfast
2:00 P.M.—Lunch
6:30 P.M.—Smaller second lunch
8:00–9:00 P.M.—Recreation or sports training, if scheduled.
10:00 P.M.—Dinner
12:00 A.M.—Glass of red wine and Discovery Channel before bed
Here are some of my meals that recur again and again:
• Breakfast (home): Scrambled Eggology® pourable egg whites with one whole egg, black beans, and mixed vegetables warmed up or cooked in a microwave using Pyrex® containers.
• Lunch (Mexican restaurant): Grass-fed organic beef, pinto beans, mixed vegetables, and extra guacamole.
• Dinner (home): Grass-fed organic beef (from Trader Joe’s), lentils, and mixed vegetables.
Just remember: this diet is, first and foremost, intended to be effective, not fun. It can be fun with a few tweaks (the next chapter covers this), but that’s not the goal.
RULE #3: DON’T DRINK CALORIES.
Drink massive quantities of water and as much unsweetened tea, coffee (with no more than two tablespoons of cream; I suggest using cinnamon instead), or other no-calorie/low-calorie beverages as you like. Do not drink milk (including soy milk), normal soft drinks, or fruit juice. Limit diet soft drinks to no more than 16 ounces per day if you can, as the aspartame can stimulate weight gain.
I’m a wine fanatic and have one to two glasses of red wine almost every evening. It doesn’t appear to have any negative impact on my rate of fat-loss. Red wine is by no means required for this diet to work, but it’s 100% allowed (unlike white wines and beer, both of which should be avoided).
Up to two glasses of red per night, no more.
RULE #4: DON’T EAT FRUIT.
Humans don’t need fruit six days a week, and they certainly don’t need it year-round.
If your ancestors were from Europe, for example, how much fruit did they eat in the winter 500 years ago? Think they had Florida oranges in December? Not a chance. But you’re still here, so the lineage somehow survived.
The only exceptions to the no-fruit rule are tomatoes and avocadoes, and the latter should be eaten in moderation (no more than one cup or one meal per day). Otherwise, just say no to fruit and its principal sugar, fructose, which is converted to glycerol phosphate more efficiently than almost all other carbohydrates. Glycerol phosphate → triglycerides (via the liver) → fat storage. There are a few biochemical exceptions to this, but avoiding fruit six days per week is the most reliable policy.
But what’s this “six days a week” business?
It’s the seventh day that allows you, if you so desire, to eat peach crepes and banana bread until you go into a coma.
RULE #5: TAKE ONE DAY OFF PER WEEK.
I recommend Saturdays as your Dieters Gone Wild (DGW) day. I am allowed to eat whatever I want on Saturdays, and I go out of my way to eat ice cream, Snickers, Take 5, and all of my other vices in excess. If I drank beer, I’d have a few pints of Paulaner Hefe-Weizen.1
I make myself a little sick each Saturday and don’t want to look at any junk for the rest of the week. Paradoxically, dramatically spiking caloric intake in this way once per week increases fat-loss by ensuring that your metabolic rate (thyroid function and conversion of T4 to T3, etc.) doesn’t downshift from extended caloric restriction.
That’s right: eating pure crap can help you lose fat. Welcome to Utopia.
There are no limits or boundaries during this day of gluttonous enjoyment. There is absolutely no calorie counting on this diet, on this day or any other.
Start the diet at least five days before your designated cheat day. If you choose Saturday, for example, I would suggest starting your diet on a Monday.
That’s All, Folks!
If the founding fathers could sum up our government in a six-page constitution, the above is all we need to summarize rapid fat-loss for 99.99% of the population. Followed to the letter, I’ve never