The 4-Hour Body_ An Uncommon Guide to Ra - Timothy Ferriss [47]
I walked approximately 16 flat blocks and one mild uphill block during that period of time, which adds no more than 110 calories in this case, given the 1.4-mile distance at 2 miles per hour speed and 168 pounds bodyweight. I otherwise avoided movement and standing whenever possible, with the exception of the brief air squats. Twenty minutes of lifting + walking = 190 calories. Let’s call it 200.
Using this math, I still consumed 6.8 times my resting metabolic rate in my 12-hour quest for fatness.
So what happened? Let’s look at my body fat and weight measurements, which were taken using the BodyMetrix ultrasound device, and the average of three separate weighings:
Saturday, August 29, 2009 (the morning of the binge): 9.9% bodyfat at 169 pounds
Monday, August 31, 2009 (48 hours later): 9.6% bodyfat at 165 pounds
WTF?
Now let’s look at how I did it.
The Lost Art of Bingeing
Sitting down for Thanksgiving dinner or butter cookies at Christmas?
Sounds like a binge. That, in and of itself, doesn’t need to mean horrible guilt and extra fat rolls afterward. If you plan ahead of time and understand a little science, it’s possible to minimize the damage. I eat whatever I want every Saturday, and I follow specific steps to minimize fat gain during this overfeeding.
In basic terms our goal is simple: to have as much of the crap ingested either go into muscle tissue or out of the body unabsorbed.
I do this by focusing on three principles:
PRINCIPLE #1: MINIMIZE THE RELEASE OF INSULIN, A STORAGE HORMONE.
Insulin release is minimized by blunting sharp jumps in blood sugar:
1. Ensure that your first meal of the day is not a binge meal. Make it high in protein (at least 30 grams) and insoluble fiber (legumes will handle this). The protein will decrease your appetite for the remainder of the binge and prevent total self-destruction. The fiber will be important later to prevent diarrhea. In total, this can be a smallish meal of 300–500 calories.
2. Consume a small quantity of fructose, fruit sugar, in grapefruit juice before the second meal, which is the first crap meal. Even small fructose dosing has an impressive near-flat-lining effect on blood glucose.7 I could consume this at the first meal, but I prefer to combine the naringin in grapefruit juice with coffee, as it extends the effects of caffeine.
3. Use supplements that increase insulin sensitivity: AGG (part of PAGG) and PAGG (covered in the next chapter). The example intake in this chapter is quite mild, so I dosed only twice. If I’m going whole hog, I will have another PAGG dose upon waking. This reduces the amount of insulin the pancreas releases in spite of mild or severe glucose surges. Think of it as insurance.
4. Consume citric juices, whether lime juice squeezed into water, lemon juice on food, or a beverage like the citrus kombucha I had.
PRINCIPLE #2: INCREASE THE SPEED OF GASTRIC EMPTYING, OR HOW QUICKLY FOOD EXITS THE STOMACH.
Bingeing is a rare circumstance where I want the food (or some of it) to pass through my gastrointestinal tract so quickly that its constituent parts aren’t absorbed well.
I accomplish this primarily through caffeine and yerba mate tea, which includes the additional stimulants theobromine (found in dark chocolate) and theophylline (found in green tea). I consume 100–200 milligrams of caffeine, or 16 ounces of cooled yerba mate, at the most crap-laden meals. My favorite greens supplement, “Athletic Greens” (mentioned in the schedule) doesn’t contain caffeine but will also help.
Does this really work? Taking the goodies from taste buds to toilet without much storage in between?8
More than a few people have told me it’s pure science fiction.
Too much information (TMI) warning: I disagree, and for good reason. Rather than debate meta-studies, I simply weighed my poo. Identical volumes of food on and off the protocol. On protocol = much more poo mass (same consistency, hence the importance