This is the much anticipated second book from author Tim Ferriss. If you don’t know, his previous book The 4-Hour Workweek is a bestseller and continues to be in the top 5 in three different Amazon.com categories at the time of the writing of this post.
In a recent interview I listened to, Tim says that The 4-Hour Body is the book he really wanted to write. He used the 4-Hour Workweek as a way to get the 4-Hour Body published. According to the website, this book is the result of 10 years of personal research.
Let’s get one thing straight. Tim is NOT a doctor, nor is he any sort of medical professional. Oh yeah, and neither am I. So if you are going to try anything in this book, consult a medical professional.
Tim IS a meticulous experimenter and has tried everything in this book on himself and recorded every last detail. He mentions how his home is filled with fitness equipment and measurement devices.
The entire book is essentially based on the idea of minimum effective load (MEL) or minimum effective dose (MED). In other words, what is absolute minimum action required to get the desired results. As soon I heard that, I knew that this book was very promising.
There are basically two parts to this book.
Weight Loss
There are also two parts to weight loss. In Tim’s system, he not only strives for fat loss, but also muscle gain.
This is not only healthier, but adds to your overall appearance. You could actually lose 10 pounds of fat and gain 10 pounds of muscle and look about 15 pounds lighter, even though you are exactly the same weight.
Tim’s diet is called the Slow Carb Diet and is the result of his own experimentation. There is a ton of technical information that I am still trying to digest but there are all kinds of unconventional weight loss methods that he claims will help you lose weight.
One that I found very interesting was the idea of thermal load. Tim explains it like this:
During some of experiments with a fellow weight loss enthusiast, they came across a statement from swimmer Michael Phelps. He said that he eats 12,000 calories a day.
They did the math and there was no way that he could be eating that many calories every day and not gain a significant amount of weight. In fact, they calculated that he would have to be doing butterflies continuously for 8 hours a day to even get close to burning that off.
But Michael only trains for 3-4 hours a day and not continuously. So what gives?
As you probably have guessed, the answer is the water. It is an awesome conductor of heat (much better than air) and Phelps was burning additional calories just by the additional heat he was giving off in the water.
Ah-ha! But how can people without a pool use this information? Read the book to find out…and it does NOT involve your bathtub.
The weight loss/muscle gain section is filled with many of these great discoveries that I have not heard of anywhere else. My only minor complaint is that the book gets a little too technical at times.
But Tim admits that he is a geek when it comes to these things. My opinion is: hey, if his OCD leads to these types of discoveries, then geek out all you want Tim.
Better Sex
I won’t go into too many details here, but suffice to say that Tim doesn’t mess around. He gets the very best experts in any subject he chooses to study. In the area of sex, he not only got a notable “scientist” but he also interviewed a famous pornstar.
And not just any pornstar, this is a woman who has been in the business for a long time and views sex just as much of an art as a way to make a living. There were a couple of tips that were mentioned that I wasn’t aware of.
And I’m not just talking mushroom tips…
I won’t spoil the secrets for you, but there was one statistic that really surprised me. In Tim’s research, he found that as much as 50% of the female population in the United States has never had an orgasm.
Yeah, never…ever…in their lives…ever. Not even through DIY. Huh? Really?
Obviously, this is most commonly for psychological reasons. So Tim goes through some exercises that will help women start to feel comfortable with their sexuality in a non-threatening environment and eventually get to the big “O.”
Of course, there are plenty of tips for the guys in here too. The most interesting tip in the book can be summed up in two words: one o’clock. I’ll just leave it at that.
Overall, this section was very tastefully done and well “researched.” Although Tim did provide some personal services to some of the women in his experiment, it sounded like the majority of them just received “homework” assignments to try on their own. According to Tim, they all passed with flying colors.
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