Book SummaryThe 4-Hour Body, by Timothy Ferriss

1-Page Summary1-Page Book Summary of The 4-Hour Body

The 4-Hour Body (4HB) is an experimental lifestyle with the goal of finding out what makes your body work best. Self-experimentation has several benefits over conventional science—it’s personalized, fast-paced, multi-disciplinary, and free from corporate agenda.

Author Tim Ferriss has been living this lifestyle for years, and in The 4-Hour Body, he shares what he’s learned about his own body from researching scientific literature, interviewing experts, and self-experimentation. The book’s title comes from a 28-day experiment in which he spent only four hours total in the gym but lost 3 pounds of fat, gained 34 pounds of muscle, and decreased his total cholesterol.

Ferriss covers six topics:

1. Body recomposition (changing the percentages of your body that are made up of muscle vs. fat)
2. Enhancing sex
3. Improving sleep
4. Preventing and recovering from injuries
5. Improving sports-specific skills
6. Living longer

While everyone’s body is different, much of what the author discovered is broadly applicable to most people, so you can use his recommendations as a starting point and inspiration for your own self-experimentation.

(Shortform note: We recommend consulting your doctor before starting any of the book’s programs or self-experimenting.)

Minimum Effective Dose

An important part of your experimentation will be to find the minimum effective dose (MED), which is the smallest dose that will create a particular result. For example, the MED to boil water is 212 degrees Fahrenheit. Heating water past 212 degrees doesn’t make it any more boiled. Don’t ever exceed the MED required for any program—you’ll waste your time and increase your risk of injury.

Sticking to an Experiment or Program

To successfully carry out an experiment or stick to a program, you need to change your lifestyle, which can be hard. Fortunately, there are some strategies:

• Force an epiphany. Don’t just wish for change, think of it as necessary.
• Measure a variable. This will prove to you that all your work is having an effect.
• Oversimplify. Measuring variables is a lot of work, so estimate instead of taking exact measurements to make tracking more manageable.
• Accept halfway completion. Even if you can’t finish something, or you can’t do it perfectly, you’ll still get some benefit from having done part of it.
• Be aware of your behavior as it happens. You can only change something before it’s happened. For example, reflect on what you’re eating before you eat it.
• Harness the power of competition. Make the program into a goal or bet to motivate yourself.
• Don’t try to change multiple lifestyle factors all at the same time. For example, if you don’t cook, buy frozen or canned food while dieting.

Topic #1: Body Recomposition

Body composition is a measure of how much of the body is made up of fat vs. muscle. To change your body composition, known as “recomp,” you need to lose fat, gain muscle, or both. You’ll achieve this using diet, exercise, supplements, and temperature manipulation.

Diet: The Slow-Carb Diet

The first recomp factor is diet. The Slow-Carb Diet was developed by the author through self-experimentation and works for almost everyone who follows it properly. On this diet, the author lost 20 pounds of fat within a month.

To follow the Slow-Carb Diet:

• Stop eating white-colored carbohydrates, or any carbohydrates that come in white-colored varieties (like rice).
• Repeat the same 3-4 meals regularly. This allows you to avoid foods that will make you gain fat and ensure you get enough protein (at least 20 grams per meal). Each meal should contain one item from each of the following categories:
  • Protein: eggs (especially whites), beef, fish, pork, chicken thigh or breast
  • Legumes: lentils, soybeans, pinto beans, red beans, black beans
  • Vegetables: any vegetables you like
• Eat two to three times what you used to. Slow-carb foods have a low calorie-to-volume ratio.
• Eat breakfast within an hour of waking up and eat four meals a day, four hours apart.
• Drink lots of water and as many low- or no-calorie drinks as you like. Don’t drink juice, milk, or soda. Optionally drink fewer than 16 ounces of diet soda or two glasses of dry red wine a day.
• Avoid fruit, except for tomatoes and avocados in moderation. Fruit contains the sugar fructose, which will make you fat.
• Don’t eat dairy, except for cottage cheese. Dairy produces a large [restricted term] release, which will make your body store fat.
• Follow this diet only six days per week. On the seventh day, eat and drink whatever you want, all the no-nos above included. This “cheat day” won’t only keep you happy; it’ll maintain your metabolism, which slows when you restrict calories. Your metabolism is what makes you lose weight, so it’s important to keep it going strong.

Exercise: Kettlebell Swings and Two Crunches

The second recomp factor is exercise. There are three highly effective exercises for fat loss and recomp:

Exercise #1: The Russian Kettlebell Swing

The Russian kettlebell swing works the posterior chain, which includes your calves, hamstrings, glutes, and back muscles. To do a kettlebell swing:

• Choose an appropriate bell. Men should start with a 20-24-kg bell and women with a 16-20-kg bell.
• Place your feet half a foot to a foot wider than shoulder-width and put the kettlebell between them. Turn both feet 30 degrees outward.
• Keep your shoulders in the locked position, which means pulling your shoulder blades down and back, as if you were trying to put them in your opposite back pockets. This will protect your shoulders from injury. Don’t round your back.
• Pick up the kettlebell and sit back (not squat), and swing the kettlebell through your legs. It should end up behind your legs near your bum. Then, swing it forwards.

Exercise #2: The Myotatic Crunch

The...

The 4-Hour Body Summary Chapter 1: Introduction—The 4-Hour Body (4HB)

The 4-Hour Body (4HB) is an experimental lifestyle with the goal of finding out what makes your body work best. Author Tim Ferriss has been living this lifestyle for years. In The 4-Hour Body, he shares what he’s learned about his own body from researching scientific literature, interviewing experts, and self-experimentation. The book’s title comes from a 28-day experiment in which he spent only four hours total in the gym but lost three pounds of fat, gained 34 pounds of muscle, and decreased his total cholesterol.

Ferriss covers six topics:

1. Body recomposition (changing the percentages of your body that are made up of muscle vs. fat)
2. Enhancing sex
3. Improving sleep
4. Preventing and recovering from injuries
5. Improving sports-specific skills
6. Living longer

While everyone’s body is different, much of what the author discovered is broadly applicable to most people, so you can use his recommendations as a starting point and inspiration for your own self-experimentation. His suggestions are small, straightforward, and easy to adhere to. You’ll see results so quickly that you won’t need any self-discipline—if a technique is obviously creating results, it’s...

Shortform Exercise: Start Living the 4HB Lifestyle

The 4HB is a lifestyle that involves experimenting with your body to find out what works for you.

How do you feel about your body and its performance right now? (For example, your weight, sleep quality, and so on.)

The 4-Hour Body Summary Part 1: Basic Body Recomposition | Chapter 2: Biology Basics

The first of the six topics the author covers in the 4HB is body recomposition. Body composition is a measure of how much of the body is made up of fat versus muscle. To change your body composition, known as “recomp,” you need to lose fat, gain muscle, or both.

In this chapter, we’ll look at three of the biological factors that affect recomp: calories, [restricted term], and muscle. Understanding these factors and how they affect the body will make it easier to understand the mechanisms behind the strategies in subsequent chapters.

Understanding Calories

The calorie was invented by Wilbur Olin Atwater in the nineteenth century. He measured calories by incinerating food. However, humans don’t incinerate food when they eat; digestion is a far more complicated chemical process. (For example, eating a piece of firewood isn’t going to release the same amount of energy into your body that would be released into the air if the log were burned.) As a result, the calorie isn’t a particularly useful measure when it comes to body recomposition because it's not an accurate measure of how much energy you’re actually getting from digesting food.

Therefore, when thinking about...

The 4-Hour Body Summary Chapter 3: Measuring and Goal-Setting

In the previous chapter, you learned about some of the body’s processes and some general tips for influencing them. In this chapter, we'll explore the starting point of basic body recomposition: assessing your current body composition.

Measuring Weight and Body Composition

Weighing yourself doesn’t give you much information about your body composition because a scale can only tell you your total body weight, not how much of that weight is fat versus muscle. (For example, when the author’s father was trying to lose weight, he lost the least amount of weight during the time he gained the most muscle.) To avoid doubting yourself or becoming discouraged, measure body composition in addition to total weight.

Measuring Body Fat

There are multiple ways to measure body fat. The author’s top three are:

1. Dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA). DEXA is a body scan that reveals body fat percentage, bone density, and how weight is distributed over different parts of the body. A DEXA session takes 5-10 minutes and costs $50-100. It’s a medical test, so you won’t find it at a health club or gym.
2. BodPod. BodPod measures body composition using air pressure and it...

Shortform Exercise: Choose Measuring Tools

There are several ways to measure body fat.

What body fat measuring tools are available in your area? (Do an online search for gyms, health clubs, and medical facilities that offer DEXA, BodPod, or ultrasound.)

The 4-Hour Body Summary Chapter 4: Diet #1—Slow Carbs

Now that you’ve taken baseline measurements and chosen some goals, it's time to start the recomp process. You’ll use a combination of diet, exercise, drugs, and temperature manipulation to achieve your recomp. First, we’ll look at diet, which will have the greatest effect on your recomp, likely accounting for 60% of results. This chapter will focus on the Slow-Carb Diet.

The Slow-Carb Diet

Now that we’ve learned how to stick to a diet, it’s time to look at some specific diet options. Popular diets work to some extent, but they’re not going to be enough to totally transform your body. The Slow-Carb Diet, on the other hand, was developed by the author through self-experimentation and works for almost everyone who follows it properly. On this diet, the author lost 20 pounds of fat (which corresponds to two clothing sizes) within a month.

(The Slow-Carb Diet involves eating a lot of protein, which you might be skeptical of if you have existing gout or kidney problems, but the author says there is no good scientific evidence to support the claim that protein is bad for your kidneys.)

How to Follow the Slow-Carb Diet

**Rule #1: Stop eating white-colored...

Shortform Exercise: Personalize the Slow-Carb Diet

The Slow-Carb Diet allows for some personalization.

Which part of the Slow-Carb Diet seems easiest to you? Why?

The 4-Hour Body Summary Chapter 5: Diet #2—Primarily Plant-Based Diets (PPBD)

After following the Slow-Carb Diet for 3-4 months, the author recommends two weeks on a primarily plant-based diet (PPBD), a diet in which at least 70% of the volume of food comes from plants. This is for three reasons:

• You’ll gain knowledge. The constraints of the PPBD diet will force you to learn more about what food is made up of and where it comes from.
  • For example, you’ll learn new sources of vitamins and minerals that you’ll consume even after you’ve gone back to the Slow-Carb Diet.
• You’ll help the environment. In general, eating plants (if they’re locally sourced and not monocrops) is better for the environment than eating meat because it takes more resources (land, water, and so on) to produce meat than plants. Note that you’ll have a better long-term effect on the environment if you eat more plants regularly, rather than go vegan for short periods occasionally.
• You’ll eat better quality food. Your diet will consist of unprocessed, local, and natural foods, all of which are good for you.

(Shortform note: Read our summary of The China Study for more on the benefits of a plant-based...

The 4-Hour Body Summary Chapter 6: Exercise

Exercise is the second of three ingredients of body recomp. Note that exercise is different from physical recreation (such as sports)—physical recreation is for fun. Exercise is goal-based and will be responsible for about 30% of your recomp results.

There are three recomp exercises: one that works the posterior chain (the muscles along the back of your body), and two that work your abs.

Posterior Chain Exercise: The Russian Kettlebell Swing

The Russian kettlebell swing works the posterior chain, which includes your calves, hamstrings, glutes, and back muscles. This exercise is highly effective for fat loss, posture improvement, strength gain, and increased sex appeal. (According to the author, men find women who have a waist-to-hip ratio of 7:10 most attractive because this ratio is associated with fertility, and women find men with a ratio of 8:10 or 9:10 for waist-to-hip most attractive. Kettlebell swings help achieve these ratios.)

• Example #1: Tracy did kettlebell swings twice a week for 15-20 minutes and lost over 100 pounds.
• Example #2: The author spent only 10-20 minutes a week doing kettlebell swings with a 53-pound kettlebell (along with other...

The 4-Hour Body Summary Chapter 7: Supplements and Temperature Manipulation

Supplements and temperature manipulation are the last of the three building blocks for recomp. We’ll look at supplements first. Consult with your doctor before taking any supplements—the supplements the author recommends can react badly with other medications and health conditions. Make sure to take lots of B-complex vitamins while taking the supplements.

Supplements

The author discusses three families of supplements:

PAGG

The author recommends taking a combination of supplements with the acronym PAGG to reduce the amount of [restricted term] your body releases and aid fat loss:

• Policosanol is a plant wax extract. The author originally took it in an attempt to lower his cholesterol (it worked for him even though there’s no conclusive scientific evidence of its effectiveness). He discovered that it had a side effect of increasing the effectiveness of the other three supplements below. Take one dose (20-25 mg) per day before going to bed.
• Alpha-lipoic acid (ALA) is an antioxidant (a compound that protects cells against potentially dangerous molecules). It’s useful in fat loss because it encourages carbohydrate storage in muscles or the liver,...

The 4-Hour Body Summary Part 2: Advanced Recomp | Chapter 8: Bigger Changes

In the previous part, we looked at some basic strategies for moderate recomp. Now, we’ll look at some advanced strategies to create significant change. Like basic recomp, advanced recomp involves a combination of diet, exercise, and supplements, but often one is prioritized, depending on your goals.

First, we’ll look at significant fat loss. Then we’ll tackle significant muscle gain.

Losing the Last Pounds of Fat: Copy Bodybuilders

Once your body fat percentage is low enough that you only need to lose a final 5-10 pounds, you can employ some of the strategies bodybuilders use to get their body fat percentage below 10%.

Diet

Diet is the most important factor when it comes to losing your last few pounds. Move from the Slow-Carb Diet to the following diet. Eat one of the following five meals every three hours. You have to eat your first meal within an hour of waking and your last meal within the hour before sleeping. You can’t skip any.

1. Whey protein and nut butter OR nuts
2. Cooked, non-fatty, white fish and nut butter OR nuts
3. Cooked chicken or turkey and nut butter OR nuts
4. Cooked, fattier protein such as ground beef or dark poultry and macadamia or olive...

The 4-Hour Body Summary Part 3: Sex | Chapter 9: Improving Women’s Sex Lives

The second of the six topics the author covers in the 4HB is how to improve your sex life. In this chapter, we’ll look at improving women’s sex lives, and in the next chapter, improving men’s.

First, we’ll take a brief look at women’s anatomy. Then, we’ll look at how to create an orgasm.

Women’s Anatomy and Biology

The clitoris is the part of the woman’s body most associated with orgasm. It’s an upside-down V shape, with the head of the clitoris at the top of the V. The arms of the V are behind the labia minora (lip-like folds of skin around the vagina).

To find the most sensitive part of the clitoris , imagine a clock over the pubic bone, with 12 o’clock pointing toward the top of the clitoris (toward the belly button) and 6 o’clock toward the toes. The sensitive spot is at 1 o’clock.

Men, even male scientists, have been skeptical of the clitoris’s existence and function throughout history. In 1559, Realdo Colombo “discovered” the clitoris (Hippocrates had brought it up thousands of years before), but other male scientists wouldn’t acknowledge its existence. This is probably because if the mechanism for female pleasure is framed as unpredictable, it’s not the man’s...

The 4-Hour Body Summary Chapter 10: Improving Men’s Sex Lives

In the last chapter, we learned how to make sex more pleasurable for women. Now, it’s time to look at how to improve things for men. First, we’ll look at men’s anatomy and biology. Then, we’ll look at how to influence biochemistry to improve sex and sperm.

Men’s Anatomy and Biology

Men’s [restricted term] levels have a huge impact on their libido and sex appeal ([restricted term] affects pheromone production). However, improving your sex life isn’t as simple as just injecting your body with external [restricted term].

There are two major hormones related to [restricted term] production:

1. Luteinizing hormone (LH), which tells the testicles to make [restricted term].
2. Sex-hormone binding globulin (SHBG), which makes [restricted term] inert. When it’s inert, your body can’t use it.

To increase your bioavailable (usable) [restricted term] levels, you’ll increase LH and decrease SHBG.

Two Protocols for Increasing [restricted term]

Through self-experimentation, the author developed two protocols to increase [restricted term] levels, leading to higher libido. While he was experimenting, he increased his total [restricted term] from 245 to 653 ng/dL and...

The 4-Hour Body Summary Part 4: Sleep | Chapter 11: Dealing With Insomnia

The third of the six topics the author covers in the 4HB is how to improve your sleep. First, we’ll look at some solutions for insomnia and tips for getting a good night’s sleep. Then, we’ll look at ways to spend less time sleeping but still be functional.

The Qualities of Good Sleep

The author had chronic onset insomnia (taking a long time to fall asleep) and self-experimented to find solutions. Self-experimentation is particularly useful for sleep because, in a formal setting like a sleep lab, you’re in an unfamiliar location with wires attached to you, which makes it even more difficult to fall asleep.

The author measured his sleep patterns using a variety of at-home gadgets, the most useful of which was the Zeo, a headband that measures brain activity. (He found that devices that use motion-sensing technology to determine whether you’re asleep or not—such as the FitBit or WakeMate—aren’t always accurate because this technology can’t always tell the difference between sleep and being awake but motionless.)

Using data from the Zeo and his other devices such as his glucose monitor, the author discovered the following qualities of good sleep:

• **The ratio of REM...

Shortform Exercise: Assess Your Sleep

There are several ways to learn more about your sleeping habits so you can improve them.

Do you think you have good- or bad-quality sleep? Why?

The 4-Hour Body Summary Part 5: Managing Injuries | Chapter 12: Prehab

The fourth of the six topics the author covers in the 4HB is how to manage injuries. In this chapter, we’ll look at how to avoid getting injured, and in the next chapter, we’ll look at treatment.

Prehab

Prehab is the opposite of rehab—instead of doing recovery exercises after you’ve been injured, you do exercises in advance of working out to stabilize your body so you don’t become injured in the first place. Most injuries are caused by imbalances—differences in strength and stability between the left and right sides of the body, or between opposing muscles.

• (Shortform example: Your bicep and triceps are opposing muscles—to bend your elbow, you must contract your bicep and relax your tricep. If your bicep is much stronger and tighter than your tricep, your range of motion decreases and you can’t straighten your arm fully without hurting your bicep.)

The author spoke with Gray Cook, an injury-prevention specialist who works with high-level athletes as well as special forces agents, for tips on how to correct imbalances. Cook invented the Functional Movement Screen (FMS), which is an assessment that identifies imbalances and prescribes corrections. FMS is a very...

The 4-Hour Body Summary Chapter 13: Treating Injuries

In the previous chapter, we looked at some injury prevention strategies. Sometimes, despite careful preparation, injuries still happen.

By the time he was thirty, the author had racked up an impressive list of injuries ranging from sprains to dislocations to broken bones. He tried many injury treatments, many of which didn’t work, and some of which caused new problems. However, some of the treatments produced good results. We’ll cover the six whose results lasted longer than two days.

Treatment Options

The treatments below apply to a variety of aches and pains. When seeking a particular treatment, make sure to find a good practitioner. Bad practitioners can create new problems or give good treatments a bad vibe (for example, the author didn’t try the Egoscue method for years because some practitioners marketed in a way that made it appear cult-like).

Treatment #1: Wear Flat Shoes

Wearing shoes with heels forces the body to assume an uncomfortable posture to stay balanced. Bad posture can lead to a host of health problems including, among others, back pain, headaches, and poor circulation. **The fix is simple—wear flat shoes most of the time and wear heels...

Shortform Exercise: Treat Your Injuries

There are several options for treating injuries.

What’s one of your slow-healing or persistent injuries? What treatments have you tried for it so far, if anything?

The 4-Hour Body Summary Part 6: Sports-Specific Skills | Chapter 14: Running

The fifth of the six topics the author covers in the 4HB is how to improve sports-specific skills. No matter what sport you play, it's helpful to be strong, because being stronger than someone else of equal skill gives you an advantage over them. In this chapter, we’ll first look at some tips for strength training for any sport. Then, we’ll look specifically at how to train for running, the first of five sports the author has tips for.

Strength Training for Athletes

There are some principles to keep in mind when strength training:

Principle #1: Train your sport-specific skills six days a week, do sports-related training (such as conditioning) three days a week, and do strength training three days a week on the days you’re not doing sports-related training. (In Part 2, we learned that training less frequently is effective for building strength, but as athletes have more complicated goals than simply getting stronger, they should train more than once a week.)

Principle #2: Sets should only contain two or three reps. Total reps should number around 10, whether that’s five sets of two or three sets of three.

**Principle #3: Do only a few exercises that target...

The 4-Hour Body Summary Chapter 15: Powerlifting

Powerlifting is the second of five sports that the author self-experimented with. He trained with Marty Gallagher, an elite powerlifting coach, to add 100 pounds to his bench press in 12 weeks. You can use the same program to improve your bench press too.

There are two steps to the program:

Step #1: Learn Proper Bench Pressing Technique

You’ll use Mark Bell’s form to bench press. Mark is 275 pounds and can press 854 pounds. His form is safe for beginners and intermediates. To press:

1. Use a power rack or find a partner who can act as a spotter. Never bench press free weights by yourself.
2. Lie on the bench on your back. Place your head half off the bench.
3. Put your hands on the bar and grip it. There are three kinds of grips and you’ll use all of them in Step #2:
   • Power grip. This grip is the placement of your hand that allows you to lift the most. If you’re between 5’6” and 5’9”, your hands will probably be around one hand-width in from the smooth rings on an Olympic barbell. If you’re between 5’10” and 6”, your hands will probably be just inside the smooth rings.
   • Wide grip. This grip is two hand-widths wider than the power grip.
   • ...

The 4-Hour Body Summary Chapter 16: Jumping, Swimming, and Baseball

The final sport-specific skills the author experimented with are jumping, swimming, and hitting baseballs.

Jumping

To learn to jump higher, the author once again trained with Joe DeFranco. One of the tests in NFL tryouts is the vertical jump, which is a measure of how high someone can jump from a standstill. The height is measured using a Vertec, which is a pole with sticks. When an athlete hits a stick, it rotates, marking how high they’ve jumped. Jump height is measured from the tips of the fingers when the arms are stretched over the head so people of different heights can be fairly compared.

With the help of DeFranco, the author improved his jump height three inches in a single 20-minute session using the following protocol:

1. A warm up consisting of:

1. 10 jumping jacks
2. 10 jumping jacks with the arms opening and closing in front of the chest instead of above the head
3. 5 side lunges per side
4. 5 reverse lunges per side
5. 10 forward leg swings per side
6. 10 backward legs swings per side
7. 20 seconds of pogo jumps

2. Correct squat position. To squat properly before jumping, your feet should be placed at just slightly less than hip-width. As you...

The 4-Hour Body Summary Part 7: Living Longer | Chapter 17: How to Extend Your Life

The final of the six topics the author covers in the 4HB is how to live longer. There are plenty of effective methods for increasing your lifespan, but some of them will make you miserable. For example, in a study of nematodes (worms), those who mated died sooner. Scientists think the same applies to humans—people who abstain from producing sperm (and therefore sex) probably live longer. However, celibacy would make most people unhappy. The goal of this chapter is to explore some low-cost, low-bother, low-risk strategies for extending your lifespan without making yourself miserable.

The author avoids global therapies (treatments that affect multiple body systems) that haven’t been extensively tested, such as Alzheimer’s vaccines or stem cell therapies, because the side effects are unknown.

The author does use the following...