OK – here is my honest review of ‘The 4-Hour Body‘ now that I’ve had some more time to think about it:
‘The 4-Hour Body’ by Tim Ferris was a really interesting book. Since I was fascinated by ‘The 4-Hour Work Week’, I bought the Four-Hour Body book to see what Tim had learned through his own experiments. Some of the ideas he presents are pretty shocking – for example, the recommendation to not eat fruit six days of the week! It goes against the grain of everything I’ve ever been taught, which immediately throws up a lot of red flags.
On the other hand, there’s a ton of research to back up the idea that too many carbs / too much sugar causes weight gain and even high cholesterol. Google it and you’ll see what I mean. So the logic actually makes weird sense:
Want to lose weight > Eat less sugar > Fruit has a lot of sugar > Don’t eat fruit
I appreciated how Tim encourages you up front to be skeptical of all his claims. As an engineer trained in statistics, I thought his mini-chapter on how to spot errors and tricks in the statistical logic of medical research and medical advertisements was very relevant. He had lots of people test his ideas, but he doesn’t claim that the results are statistically valid. I view the ‘The 4-Hour Body’ more as a collection of ideas that worked well for him and his friends; the book is just sharing what worked for him so we can try it to. You can decide on your own if it works for you.
There are a lot of concepts in the book (taking certain supplements in pill form and ice-water baths to jump-start metabolism) that seem a bit extreme to me, I don’t know if I’m convinced to try all of them yet, but they may work, and I don’t really see how they could hurt you. The book really covers a wide variety of topics related to the body, with diet being just one small part of it. There are so many random (but interesting) ideas in the book that it can be a bit overwhelming to scan through it all, which is why he recommends to use it for reference rather than reading it all at once. While that makes sense, I was actually so curious that I ended up reading it all in one sitting (I was on a long flight so I had the time). Some of the topics that he brushes over quickly actually leave me with a lot more questions – for example, the chapter on sleep was good, but I wish he talked even more about the different types of sleep problems that people have and how to address them. Then again, I can’t really say I wish the book was longer since it already covers a ton of information. I can see how there were probably tough trade-offs in deciding how much background to provide on any given topic; it’s obvious that he attempted to strip it down to the key things you need to know, and specific actions you can take to improve your body.
In the end, the book was really entertaining, and the strength of the examples and success stories made me interested enough to try out some of the core diet and exercise principles (such as the Russian kettlebell). After I lose some more weight I think I’ll go back to eating fruit more than one day per week, but otherwise the diet recommendations seem perfectly healthy and sustainable (i.e. lots of vegetables, lots of protein to help build muscle, lots of legumes) so it seems like something worth sticking with.
When it comes down to it, I have to recommend this book. Why? Because I lost almost 9 pounds after just my first week trying out a 4-Hour style diet! And the food my wife and I have been eating is actually good, and we don’t have to count calories. For some of the recipes we’re trying, check out some examples at www.4HourRecipes.com. If you really want to be healthier and are serious enough about it to follow some simple advice in the book, I think it can make a difference (it’s already working for me). And I’m not the only one. As of today it has 4.5 stars on Amazon with over 800 reviews…Check it out here on Amazon.
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