Tim Ferris Rewriting the Rules for the Optimal Body. Timothy Ferriss, is an angel investor, author of the #1 New York Times The 4-Hour Workweek and now the Four Hour Body. Tim received his BA from Princeton University in 2000, where he studied in the Neuroscience and East Asian Studies departments.
The Following is a transcript of an interview conducted with Timothy Ferriss, author of The 4Hour Body and the 4-Hour Workweek as part of the Future of Health Now online event. To see Tim’s full interview, as well as interviews with many of today’s leading health experts, register today for this free event.
Taking Place July 10th, 2012 - July 19th, 2012 Click Here to Register for the Free Event Ann Wixon: Hello, and thank you for joining us. I‘m Ann Wixon, your host for The Future of Health Now. The purpose of our series is to give you privileged access to useful and helpful conversations with many of the world‘s most respected doctors and scientists, helping you to achieve the best health possible. We are speaking with Mr. Ferriss today to learn the ridiculously simply fat-loss tricks he has spent the past 15 years testing and perfecting, plus how to triple your testosterone without a single drug, using diet alone. Welcome Mr. Ferriss! Tim Ferriss: Thank you for having me. Ann Wixon: Oh, we‘re very excited. So what is a ―four-hour body? Tim Ferriss: So, a ―four-hour body, or the ―four-hour body, in general, is simply a minimalist guide to rapid body change, and that fixes primarily, and
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focuses primarily, on something called the minimum effective dose. So, looking at any one of these 50 topics that I explore, whether that‘s fat loss, muscular gain, sleep, or otherwise, and looking at the minimum dose, minimum volume of a change, the smallest changes possible for the largest outputs. >> Click Here to Listen to Dr. Kareem Samhouri’s Lose Weight Quickly with Neuro Fitness Ann Wixon: Well, we‘ve all been told is that you have to really work hard, you have to exercise a lot, you have to be so careful with everything you eat. It‘s kind of surprising that you‘re saying four hours a week is really all you need. Tim Ferriss: Yeah, the four hours, if we look at it across a time scale, if we‘re looking at exercise, is on a monthly basis, so, it would be four hours for an entire month. It is surprising, it‘s very counter intuitive, but if you look at the data, if you look at the case studies, you‘ll see that the volume you need is very little. My dad is one example. He started at age 55 on a number of these protocols. He was 250 pounds, and 5‘6‖, very overweight, and he ended up losing more than 90 pounds of fat and gaining 20 or 30 pounds of muscle, and he spent no more than an hour a week in the gym - probably less than that. Ann Wixon: That‘s incredible. So, is it really possible to really lose 20 pounds of fat in 30 days, and increase fat burning by up to 300 percent? Almost everything ever written says safe weight loss is like 2 pounds per a week. Tim Ferriss: The two pounds is a bit like an urban myth, and then you find that two pounds is repeated so often that people believe it‘s true. And MDs fall prey to this as well. There are some amazing MDs. >>Click Here to Listen to Dr. John Berardi’s Fat Loss Secrets For Successful Body Transformation.
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There are also some who just repeat what they‘ve heard. It is entirely possible, if you look most recently at Twitter, is one example. If you go to Twitter and search @Tferriss, which is my handle, you will see dozens of status updates every day from people who have already lost 20 or 30 pounds since the book came out about a month ago. So, it‘s absolutely possible. Ann Wixon: In your book, you mention fat-burning tips. So, let‘s start with the first. What is Ice Therapy, and how does it work? Tim Ferriss: So, Ice Therapy, or cold exposure - you can work with cold showers, or even ice packs. It involves exposing your body to very short periods of cold in order to trigger accelerated fat loss. That‘s due to a few things, activating brown adipose tissue is one. >>Click Here to Listen to Dr. Mark Hyman on Overcoming Diabesity to Acheive UltraWellness The second is, I believe, a hormone called adiponectin. There were a lot of skeptics when this first came out in my book a month ago. There was just an article that came out in The New York Times about this - this week, in fact - and confirming much about what I put in the book. Ann Wixon: Congratulations, that‘s fantastic! Tim Ferriss: Yeah, thank you very much. And this research was done (that ended up in the book) with a gentleman named Ray Cronise, who is a former NASA scientist, and he works with thermodynamics; that‘s what he does. He was able to triple his own rate of fat loss. He went from 5 pounds of fat loss per week to 4.5 by simply adding what he called “shiver walks”. He would spend a short period of time outside with minimal clothing, meaning minimal jacket, etc. In my particular case, I prefer to take ice packs and put them on the upper back and upper chest area while you‘re watching TV or reading, let‘s say, for 30 minutes at night.
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Or, if you want to get a bit more aggressive with it, which is what I do, you could take 10-minute ice baths 3 times a week, and that‘s only up to the waist; you‘re doing it with 2 bags of ice, 10-pound bags of ice. But you start gradually, you start with the ice packs, then you move to cold showers, then you move to the ice baths. It does have a very measurable impact on fat loss. Ann Wixon: Wow! I love the idea of sitting in front of the television with an icepack, knowing I‘m burning fat. I think that‘s fantastic. And this fat-burning tip about Ice Therapy, this is something you‘ve tested and documented, right? Tim Ferriss: Yes, absolutely. Ray has tested this and documented it, at this point, with several dozen subjects. So, it‘s definitely replicable. It‘s not just a random outcome for one person. We‘re talking about something that‘s been studied, not only by Ray, but also extensively by the military. Ann Wixon: Oh, interesting. So why do ice baths make you lose weight? Tim Ferriss: It comes back primarily to the effect on hormones, and that would include norepinephrine, adrenaline, etc. But, adiponectin, I think, is the most interesting. Adiponectin is a hormone most people have not heard much about that impacts, not only fat loss, but muscular gain. So, Ray also increased his rate of muscular gain, oddly enough, when he added in his cold exposures. >> Click Here to Learn from Dr. Shira Miller on Hormone Balance for Men and Women Then, you have, last but not least, the brown adipose tissue. The brown adipose tissue is what some scientists refer to as fat-burning fat. It is actually a good type of fat that you want to have, which infants use to increase their body temperature when they are too cold because they can‘t go out for a jog, and they can‘t cover themselves. So, they have brown adipose tissue. Adults also have this fat-burning fat, but it‘s only located in a few areas, like the upper back and upper chest, at least
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as far as we know. For that reason, that‘s why it‘s where you put the cold compresses and the ice packs. Ann Wixon: Your second tip recommends that you eat 30 grams of protein within 30 minutes of waking up. That‘s a lot of protein. What does that do? Tim Ferriss: It‘s a decent chunk of protein. It‘s actually very easy to do if you just eat a protein shake of some kind. You can also just do - it doesn‘t all have to come from a pure protein source - so you could do 2 or 3 hardboiled eggs or scrambled eggs with some type of lentils and spinach; you could approach it that way. My father used a protein shake. Very simply, he used Myoplex, which wouldn‘t be my first choice. Unflavored whey protein of some type would be my first choice. But he used Myoplex, and he made this one change, and he went from an average of 5 pounds of fat loss per a month to 18.75 pounds of fat loss per a month. So, he went from roughly 5 to roughly 20 pounds of fat loss per month just by making this one change. Ann Wixon: That‘s incredible. Your third tip is like a dieters-gone-wild dream. Pig out, once a week. How will this benefit us, and how is it even possible? Tim Ferriss: There are a few ways, or a few scientific reasons behind it. First is biochemical and hormonal. So, I keep coming back to these hormones. And for people who are wondering - hormones are basically chemical messengers. They go from one place in the body to another, and then produce a particular type of change. In this case, we are talking about improving thyroid performance. So many women, in particular, after they have their first, or particularly second, child have trouble with weight gain. And it‘s partially due to problems with the thyroid, or decreased thyroid output. By increasing your calories once a week, dramatically, you actually improve conversion of what‘s called T4 thyroid hormone to T3, which is more active
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for fat burning. Secondly, from a psychological standpoint, it makes the diet much more sustainable, and people are able to sustain this low-carb diet, with this one cheat day, indefinitely, in many cases. For me, I‘ve been doing this for 7 years, 7 or 8 years, and many people have been doing this for the last few years since I introduced it on the blog. So, there are both biochemical and behavioral reasons that the “cheat day” works. Ann Wixon: Okay, I can pig out. You‘re not talking, like I can pig out on tofu, right? I could pig out on donuts one day a week, and that‘d be okay? Tim Ferriss: That‘s totally fine. I like chocolate croissants and bear claws. I also like Wild Nettle Pizza. There‘s a fantastic place in San Francisco called Gialina. So, I‘m not saying eat as much as you want of celery and broccoli. I‘m saying eat as much as you want of anything, but you have to keep it to one day. Ann Wixon: Okay. So let‘s say I mess up, and eat something really bad on a non-pig-out day, is there anything I can do to stop the bad results? Tim Ferriss: Yup, there‘s a few things you can do. So, there‘s an entire chapter in The Four- Hour Body called ―Damage Control. It talks about this. So, you have an unplanned splurge, whether that‘s – you can only - you want to minimize this, of course, but there are ways that you can reduce the damage. One is, assuming you‘ve already eaten the food, you can actually have two tablespoons of vinegar after your meal. That will lower the glycemic index of that meal. What that means is it will decrease the blood sugar spikes that come after the meal, which is very, very helpful, and that will minimize fat gain. Secondly, when you eat that food, most of the time that food will hit your bloodstream 45 minutes to 90 minutes after your meal. So, what you can do - and you‘re not going to get fat until it hits your bloodstream - so what you would then do is, let‘s say you went home, you
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could do a series of exercises, not that strenuous. The goal is to provide tension on the muscles. You can do things like wall presses, air squats - not hard to do at all. You‘re not going to make yourself sick. That will actually increase the recruitment of what are called GLUT4 transporters, and those will actually put them up in the muscle cells, so you can put more of those calories in your muscle, as opposed to on your hips or waistline. Ann Wixon: Um, there‘s a lot of confusion about diets, mainly because each new diet contradicts the other about what you‘re supposed to eat, what‘s good for you, what‘s bad for you. You recommend the ―slowcarb diet. What is that and how does it work? Tim Ferriss: So, the slow carb diet is, in effect, a diet that you follow 6 days a week, because we have our binge day, we have our “cheat day”. It entails a few very simple rules: The first is for those 6 days a week, you will not eat anything white. That‘s a very simple rule, makes it easy to remember, nothing can be white. So, that means no bread, that means no pasta, that means no cereal, no milk. That‘s the general rule, first and foremost. Secondly, you will be getting your protein in the morning, you‘ll be getting 30 grams within 30 minutes of waking up. And third, you‘re going to - much like people do already, I should emphasize - you‘re going to have the same few meals that you eat for breakfast and lunch, which people do already. If you look at what you ate for the last week, and what you had for breakfast, you probably had one of three meals, or slight variations, so you‘re just going to find better default meals. You will minimize fruit - this is probably the most controversial. Ann Wixon: I was going to say, I‘m surprised to hear that. Tim Ferriss: Yeah, that‘s the most controversial recommendation. And I‘m okay with controversy, as long as I have data to support it, because particular fruit juice and fruit still, by itself, in the industrial food culture, which we have
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- we have large production, large-scale production of these foods - they are designed to have the highest level of sugar; in this case, fructose, possibly because it make it tastier. And fructose is very unique. It‘s not the same as table sugar. It‘s very unique in the sense that it helps you put down body fat. It is treated very uniquely by the liver, and it‘s converted to something called glycerol phosphate, and then, through a few steps, to body fat. So, you want to minimize fruit if your goal is fat loss. One might ask, isn‘t that unhealthy, isn‘t that unsustainable? My answer to that would be, if you look back evolutionarily, you‘re not going to see anyone in the winter of the 1500s eating much fruit, at least in cold climates. So, I would say that that is yet another reason why fruit is not necessary seven days a week. Ann Wixon: So, other than white foods and fruit, are those the only foods we need to avoid? Tim Ferriss: That‘s basically it. If I say “avoid white foods”, then you‘re going to be avoiding milk and dairy. You can very much enjoy most of the foods you enjoy already. For most people, that will mean you‘ll be eating lean protein, some type of green vegetable, and then some type of a legume or bean at every meal. That‘s the general ‖rule of thirds‖ that I recommend. But you can certainly go out to a Thai restaurant. I eat out two meals a day lunch and dinner - so eating out is not an excuse, is not an excuse to not follow the diet. It works. I‘ve been to 30+ plus countries, and I‘ve still been able to follow it. Ann Wixon: Because I would say - most people would say - ―Oh my gosh, if I eat out – eating out is what makes me gain weight. So, that‘s fantastic to hear that we can eat out and not worry about it. Tim Ferriss: Yeah, people use eating out as an excuse to gain weight. But, it doesn‘t have to be a reason that you gain weight. So, I‘ll go to a French restaurant. I can have oysters, different soups, as long as there‘s no potato in it. I can have lamb shank with Swiss chard, and all that other stuff. If there‘ s a little bit of cream, it doesn‘t matter for the most part because - getting a little technical - it‘s an exception of sorts; but if it‘s pure fat, surprisingly enough, The Future of Health Now 2012!
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it‘s not going to do the type of damage that you‘d expect. You‘re trying to avoid, in the case of dairy products, the lactose for the most part, the milk sugar that‘s in those products. But, you really don‘t, you don‘t have to feel like you‘re suffering, and even if you do feel like you‘re suffering, which you shouldn‘t, you know you‘ll only have to feel that way for 6 days, and you can eat whatever you want. Ann Wixon: Then you get to pig out. Tim Ferriss: Then you get to pig out. Ann Wixon: So, are there any big surprises other than the fruit in the slow carb diet? Fruit is actually a big surprise because if you look at the food pyramid, you‘re supposed to eat a lot of fruit. Tim Ferriss: Yeah, I would say one other surprises is – and this is important for people to realize - you can‘t do this diet halfway. What I mean by that is small things; there are certain foods that, even if you have a tiny amount of them, that can completely sabotage your fat loss. I‘ll give you an example. What we noticed – I‘ve tracked hundreds of people following this diet so I have very good data and a lot of data – what we‘ve noticed is that, in many cases, they will lose an additional 2 to 4 pounds per week, assuming they have at least 30 more pounds to lose; at least 2 to 4 pounds additional pounds per a week, if they just replace the milk in their coffee with cinnamon - just the milk in the coffee. So, if you‘re having 2 cups of coffee a day, and maybe a 1/4 cup of milk in each of those coffees, that‘s enough to keep 2 to 4 pounds of fat on your body per week. It‘s these details that are important for people to understand. You can‘t, you don‘t, want to do it halfway, it‘s a waste of time. Whereas, you realize that it only takes small changes to produce fat loss. That can be very encouraging for people. In fact, if you wanted to just test this out, without making any big changes, just get the 30 grams of proteins within 30 minutes of waking up, and get rid of the milk - and see what happens. You‘ll be amazed. There was one gentleman recently - he put this on Twitter - he was doing everything else right, but he had his dairy still in his diet, but he removed the dairy and he lost 16 pounds in 15 days. Not to say that that‘s typical, but it‘s certainly possible.
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This has been an excerpt. To listen to the rest of Tim Ferris’s full interview on Rewriting the Rules of the Optimal Body, please join us at the Future of Health Now.
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