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The 4-Hour Body: An Uncommon Guide to Rapid Fat-Loss, Incredible Sex, and Becoming Superhuman
Unavailable
The 4-Hour Body: An Uncommon Guide to Rapid Fat-Loss, Incredible Sex, and Becoming Superhuman
Unavailable
The 4-Hour Body: An Uncommon Guide to Rapid Fat-Loss, Incredible Sex, and Becoming Superhuman
Audiobook (abridged)3 hours

The 4-Hour Body: An Uncommon Guide to Rapid Fat-Loss, Incredible Sex, and Becoming Superhuman

Written by Timothy Ferriss

Narrated by Zach McLarty

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

3.5/5

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Currently unavailable

About this audiobook

Thinner, bigger, faster, stronger… which section of the audiobook will you listen to?

Is it possible to: Reach your genetic potential in 6 months? Sleep 2 hours per day and perform better? Lose more fat than a marathoner by bingeing? Yes, and much more.

Join author Tim Ferriss as he shares the incredible experiments he’s done over 10 years to beat genetics and achieve the impossible … for himself and more than 200 men and woman aged 18 to 70.

It’s up to you to choose your own adventure: Want to lose 30 pounds of fat in 30 days without exercise? Run 50 kilometers after just 12 weeks of training? That’s just the tip of the iceberg.

You don’t need better genetics or more discipline. You need immediate results that compel you to continue. That’s exactly what The 4-Hour Body delivers.

Editor's Note

Classic guide…

It sounds incredible, but Tim Ferriss’s cult-favorite book delivers. Thoroughly researched, this book helps you figure out the best what, when, and how to eat and exercise. It’ll take a little more than four hours, but Ferriss’s advice will get you fit, fast.

LanguageEnglish
Release dateDec 14, 2010
ISBN9780307704627
Unavailable
The 4-Hour Body: An Uncommon Guide to Rapid Fat-Loss, Incredible Sex, and Becoming Superhuman
Author

Timothy Ferriss

TIM FERRISS has been called “a cross between Jack Welch and a Buddhist monk” by The New York Times. He is one of Fast Company’s “Most Innovative Business People” and an early-stage tech investor/advisor in Uber, Facebook, Twitter, Shopify, Duolingo, Alibaba, and 50+ other companies. He is also the author of four #1 New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestsellers: The 4-Hour Workweek, The 4-Hour Body, The 4-Hour Chef, and Tools of Titans. The Observer and other media have named him “the Oprah of audio” due to the influence of his podcast, The Tim Ferriss Show, which has exceeded 200 million downloads and been selected for “Best of iTunes” three years running.

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Reviews for The 4-Hour Body

Rating: 3.719873161733615 out of 5 stars
3.5/5

473 ratings30 reviews

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  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    I have to say that a lot of what he says is common sense and a lot of it is just laughable.
    It was pretty funny that he said you can drink wine every day but you can't drink beer. Well, you find out he likes wine but doesn't like beer. I also thought it was nuts that you work six days on his plan and then splurge the seventh day and gain back tons of weight. What kind of crazy stuff does this do to your body.
    I'm sure this plan would work for some people but I know that I could never stick to it.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Definitely a good book for people are more athletic and suffering pain. I learned a bit about different methods of healing the body--sort of makes you wonder about mainstream medicine that focused on meds and surgery. I do like his approach, which is to test things out on himself and others.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
     Kind of wanders a bit, but Ferris has some really fascinating arguments for a strict diet for shedding fat and building muscle.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Any book rating is subjective, but I suspect that ratings of this book are necessarily more subjective than most, in part because the book is constantly selling - the author's brand, his commercial partners, a lifestyle. It's hard to see this being useful to readers other than men in their 20s and 30s who are deeply involved in maximizing their physical (specifically, muscular) development. The sections on sex and sleep are thrown in to boost sales (more on that below), while the sections on workout regimens take a great deal of background for granted. I don't fit the target audience, so most of the book was gibberish. But, it was interesting reading as a kind of social artifact:* By chance, I recently read the essay The Divided Brain and the Search for Meaning by Ian McGilchrist, echoing themes from his longer book, The Master and His Emissary. McGilchrist argues that modern civilization has unwisely elevated the left brain - which views the world as a machine or collection of discrete rules and constantly tries to engineer it - over the right brain, the seat of holistic perception, wisdom, and insight. The 4hour Body is an object lesson in McGilchrist's thesis; Ferriss treats everything as a set of rules that can be manipulated to achieve whatever results you want, if you're smart enough to figure out the hack. But there's no wisdom here to ground it, just endless engineering.* Over the last decade, several science fiction authors have explored the question of whether intelligent behavior can evolve without consciousness - or, in a related form, whether a conscious species can evolve in such a way that, having had self-awareness, it loses it, while retaining language and other symbols of intelligence. (This trope can, of course, be used as a metaphor for the unexamined life, but most of these authors have meant it literally). I found it hard to read Ferriss' manic self-promotion and obsession with achieving the fittest body, without wondering if this is what intelligence without self-awareness would look like.* Except, of course, that the book is part of a carefully and relentlessly constructed brand, and who knows how it actually relates to Ferriss' inner world. In an interview with a reviewer, Ferriss mentions reading (and liking) the Stoic Roman philosopher Seneca; and his undergraduate degree in East Asian studies must have exposed him to Buddhist concepts of non-attachment. None of that comes through in the book. What does, is sex. The sex advice in The 4Hour Body is very basic - it drops names, but has no more information in it than one could gather from a couple issues of Men's Health magazine. Yet, in every public discussion of the book, sex features prominently, and whenever the book is criticized (often for applying its mechanistic approach to sex, as it does to everything else), Ferriss' response has been designed to further highlight those two chapters. It's not hard to see why; sex is the book's best hope for carrying buzz and sales beyond the narrow primary market.Ultimately, The 4Hour Body is less a book than a cross-promotion of the author's brand. It's not science; it's hard to tell what parts of it, if any, are true; but all of that is irrelevant. And if you try to follow the huckster's advice, and it makes you sick, or sore, or just plain hormonally nuts, well - YMMV.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The author brilliantly melds scientific research with personal experience and humor. He also creates several road-maps for individualized plans so that the reader does not overwhelm themselves by reading the book front to cover. The book is very well organized. My only complaint; I wish the Slow Carb Diet sections were more detailed since I assume that most people, like myself, read this book for the weight loss track. I would have loved to see some sample meal plans following the diet entirely or even longer more detailed lists of what foods are safe on the diet. Starting to follow the Slow Carb Diet nonetheless and hoping it will work!
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Tim Ferriss is clearly crazy, but apparently it's the type of crazy that works for me. I appreciated his unconventional take on diet and fitness, although many of the specific prescriptions fell a little flat. The diet meals he recommends are completely disgusting, for one thing, and the exercise plans and how-tos are mostly incomprehensible. (I skipped much of the "how to be a better athlete" material.)My takeaways: 1) strategies geared toward losing *weight* will not get you to a better body; what you want is to bring the ratio of fat and muscle into the desired range; 2) competitive bodybuilders do a lot of unhealthy stuff, but they also have the experience of *effective* strategies for losing fat and gaining muscle -- they know what works, and it's worth listening to what they have to say (they also believe a lot of pseudoscientific hoo-ha sometimes, so, grain of salt); 3) working toward a better body does not have to be all guilt-ridden deprivation; there is virtue in doing the minimum necessary to achieve results; 4) hack it, try something, and track your results.Specifically, he recommends low-carb, high-protein diets for fat loss, kettlebells and other full-body strength-training techniques with ample recovery time for muscle building, and selected use of supplements and pharmaceuticals depending on your needs.After this and 4-Hour Workweek, it will be interesting to see what Ferriss takes on next: The 4-Hour Relationship?
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Tim Ferriss is one of the most fascinating authors to come by in quite some time. This is the second self-improvement book of his I've read (the other, The Four-Hour Work Week, was the best book I read all of last year). Not only does he speak from personal experience, but also from experimentation and validation from others. He is wide open showing his methods, the science that backs them up, and, of course, the incredible results achieved.The Four Hour Body is about losing weight, getting in shape, gaining weight, having better sex, body building, and gaining superhuman endurance. While Ferriss has done it all, most people are not going to have need for all segments of the book, and Ferriss suggests that one takes what they need from it and not attempt to read the whole thing. For purposes of this review, I have read the whole thing, but I will be more selective when it comes to trying to implement some of the strategies outlined in the book.And strategy is the right word for what this book is about. Ferriss maintains that most people aren't aiming for elite, or professional status when it comes to athletic performance or body sculpting. What he focuses on are the smallest changes that can be done that result in the greatest gains -- in other words, 4 hours per week can achieve 80% of the results that an elite pro will spend 6-8 hours per day working on. Ferriss additionally seeks the advice of renown trainers of some of the world's finest athletes, and comes back with take-aways that are practical for anyone to try.So will his theories work in practice? There are plenty of affidavits available online that suggest yes, and some are included in the book. His dietary advice is quite strict -- 6 days per week -- the 7th day is an off-day where you're allowed to eat whatever you like and as much as you like. It doesn't count calories, but it does restrict many kinds of foods, and it specifies particular foods at certain times of the day. I need to develop a menu around this before I can really dive into it. It would be unusual for me to have a low-carb breakfast, for example.Probably the only thing I don't like is Ferriss' reliance on dietary supplements and other potentially harmful pharmaceuticals. Between this and the number of blood tests and other health screenings he has done on a regular basis, parts of this book are just simply out of the question as far as I'm concerned. It was still interesting to read about them, mind you, but I won't be partaking in such things. Among the appendices is a chapter where Ferriss discusses the often-dubious research findings sponsored by corporations or industries with a vested interest in beneficial results. He tells us how to interpret meaningless buzz words and unsubstantiated data that may not be at all significant. Just like in his book The Four Hour Work Week, Ferriss supplies information on all of the tools, reference information, and products used on his website, and the book contains references to them all. Also there, one can find additional stories from some of the trainers, coaches, and specialists consulted during the making of the book. Ferriss does a great job not only discussing what is possible, but holding your hand through the process so that you can easily practice what he preaches.Of most interest to me is his weight-loss regimen, and his methods for developing into an endurance (ultra-marathon) runner without having to put in long hours of painful runs leading up to the big event. I'll try to remember to update this review if I can stick with it and have some results to share.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The 4-Hour Body is a trip, a hallucinegenic crusade through the outskirts of body science and the mind of Timoth Ferriss, it’s author. I came to the book via the NYT review from Dwight Garner who declared it to be on par with Klaus Kinski. After successfully losing 80 lbs and with the perspective that this was more for fun, ie laughing at the nonsense, than for actual betterment - I quickly bought the book. The next 4 paragraphs are just for the sadistic few who want the real scoop, skip to the end for the rub.The book didn’t actually come through in the way I expected. The book’s science oscillates between practical, completely uncontroversial to barely justifiable statements like saying that GSM phones will halve your sperm viability. The book actually only really shines when you read it as a way of seeing into Tim Ferriss’ head, which is sufficiently hilarious.The science while, counter-intuitive, is actually not bad. Ferriss plays it fast and loose, something science/math people will find right away as they read. But considering how far he extends himself he is pretty accurate. So for instance; he declares that the best way to gain muscle bulk is to work out for less than 30 min/session and to space these work outs, gradually, to once every 10 days or so. This seems like insanity but infact if you think about how your body responds to working out (flushing it th weak muscle away and rebuilding with digested protein) it makes sense that your muscles need that time (it doesn’t hurt that this is backd up by science as well.)At the same time he will argue that doing 40 air squats and eating a lot of fiber will make your body move food so quickly through your intestines that your body will not absorb all the fat and carbohydrates. He proves this by saying that the next day he measured his body fat and it was around .4 % lower the proceeding day, even though his calorie intake was much higher than his output. In the book he has mentioned that his body fat ultra sound machine has a margin of error much higher than .4% and he never mentions how quickly your body actually absorbs food as fat, both points that would help in arguing if his thesis was true.The highlight of the book is Tim himself. He is so archetypal of our culture: he mixes the steadfast ignorance of Tom Friedman and Sarah Palin, the masculinity of psuedo-Nietscheans and the chauvinism of the internet. Occassionally, Tim revels in it, clearly and with the talent of someone who doesn’t take themselves too seriously, at other points it is clear he doesn’t know how funny he is. He spends an entire chapter on a “Harajuku Moment.” Which is litterally this: him naming some academic, placing him in a foreign country, talking about his decision to lose weight, his success an email exchange and all the explanation that that takes, to say: if you want to change things, you have to really want it, in your bones. Why this takes a chapter is beyond me, why he talks about it in the globetrotting, elitist way is just hilariousness, Tom Friedman wouldn’t even do that. Read this book if you have some background in dieting and exercise, a good bullshit detector and you aren’t afraid to try something that won’t work. The book should really be enjoyed as a reflection of its author because when it is, the book isn’t simply OK - it is really a joy to read, perhaps even a phenomenal read. I think I will leave on Tim’s words here: “Use the bottom of the vagina as a fulcrum for the penis, which will act as a lever.” (Yes, this is a real quote.)
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I've read the diet and nutrition sections so far. It's fairly easy to read. The information does seem to be accurate and along the forefront of todays fitness methodology. The nutritional supplement information is very intriguing and I intend to give it a try. The information could be summarized more clearly, but a second reading while taking notes made up for any deficiency. The little fitness info I've read so far, also seems valid and sensible. I intend to revise my review after I've actually tried following the diet and exercise plans for myself.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Ferriss's enthusiasm and willingness to self-experiment provide him with plenty of interesting and useful material to discuss. Unfortunately, his naiveté and tendency towards self-deification make him a rather untrustworthy guide. Still, if you can avoid throwing away the wheat with the chaff, there's plenty of ideas in 4HB that are at least worth trying. So while I dislike the cult of Ferriss, I have to admit that this can be a pretty useful book, if taken with a pretty big hunk of NaCl.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    While this book is more informative, and better, than the 4-Hour Workweek (my review) it's not as easy to read. It's like reading a cookbook, especially one where several recipes are similar but slightly different. You like the idea of trying each recipe but acknowledge you'll never be able to, so just knowing that recipe exists and you won't enjoy it brings you down a bit. Ferriss lets the reader know up front that it's not to be read in order, but the reader should skim for chapters applicable to himself and then dive in. But where to begin, as it's mostly loosely connected? Even then, each chapter contains links to videos and more material elsewhere. Some people have devoted their lives to trying all of it piecemeal or in great detail.

    The value of this book comes from the fact that Ferriss has harnessed his OCD to getting his bloodwork taken multiple times a week, even buying a real-time glucose-tracker he's constantly connected to, and recording every workout he's ever done since age 18 in order to meticulously analyze everything he does. He has broken, torn, bruised, and damaged just about everything. He is a "human guinea pig," from which the reader reaps the benefit. Better yet, he's reading scientific studies and cold-calling the researchers for the inside scoop, sometimes hanging out with them or recording in-depth interviews. It's not just doctors and scientists but body builders and professional athletes.

    The goal is to get the minimum effective dose (MED) in all you do so you can maximize productivity and minimize time. But to do so requires a large amount of up-front cost in examining the methods Ferriss presents, trying them for yourself over a long period of time (to be certain of the result), and tweaking them. So, in a goal to increase our output and happiness, I find Ferriss has rather decreased mine. If you're familiar with Seth Godin's The Dip, these are the activities you can do in relatively little time that help you scale your skill or attribute rapidly but not to a meticulously elite level. So, Ferriss increases his vertical jump dramatically in a couple days.

    Want to quickly become a decent baseball hitter? Swim faster, hold your breath longer? Increase your testosterone? Your sexual prowess? Build muscle mass and increase your strength with little more than 30 minutes in the gym? Up your bench press by 100 pounds in a few months? Get six-pack abs without crunches and Ab Ripper X? Run faster and with less injury? Run a mountain marathon while running more more than a 5K in training? Sleep less, but more effectively? Lose weight without working out? Heal your back and other seemingly irreversible injuries? This book is for you.

    I recommend skimming the book's website, the book itself has links to many hidden items on the website.

    From 4-Hour Body, I have basically modified my previous diet to more of a "slow-carb diet." But while it sounds like Ferriss stays on the diet during his travels around the world, it's not clear whether he recommends it when trying out the various chapters. For example, if you're working on increasing your strength and running speed ("geek to freak"), do you add a starch or not? Do you lift three times a week or five? Do Occom's Protocol I or II? Or do the weightlifting regime used to boost the runners' time?

    I've made dozens of highlights that I will have to study (29 pages pasted into a Google Doc at 11 point font). In the meantime, I'd already adopted a weight-lifting routine (the Faleev method) Ferriss featured on his blog but not exactly in the book. I've started consuming his PAGG supplement stack ("The Four Horsemen") while modifying my diet to more slow-carb. (Note: My wife was a bit surprised by these changes as I'm usually quite skeptical. Ferriss' self-experimentation and track-down-the-experts style are quite convincing.) I consider it my own experiment, and I'm skeptical of the results.

    I'm a little apprehensive to see the results over the next month. I'm not going to spend the money on bloodwork every month, I'm content with my annual insurance-funded blood tests. That said, the book has given me a lot (too much, really) to think about.

    I liked it.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    So concise and packed with information, Tim Ferriss knows not to waste anyone’s time. I definitely want to get the physical book though, some of the information needed more visual prompting to it. Great read!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Stellar! Everyone who has a desire for actual change in their bodies (eg, losing weight and gaining muscle) NEEDS to read and/or listen to this book AND ACTUALLY DO WHAT IT SAYS! If one was to do so one will see positive changes within a fortnight (two weeks).
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Decent read. Lots of great info when it comes to body hacking for muscle gain and fat loss. I thought the whole chapter dedicated to teaching men how to make women orgasm got a little off topic. But overall a decent listen
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Too much information on supplements, which I’m not really interested in. I wish the chapter on gaining muscles was more developed too.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Little disappointed, rated "R" book by the way with the sex chapters. Which is a waste of time if you're already educated. Big fan of Tim but this one came up short.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Not 100% sure what to think. I think I will try to start implementing some of the diet recommendations but throw out the rest. The chapter on sex was the most offputting to me, seemed too bro-ish for my taste, also didn't feel like it even fit in with the other content. I didn't care for the narrator either. I still think it's worth a read, as there are some insights I found interesting enough to research further.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Valuable content that’s probably useful if you’re gonna go hardcore on transforming your body. Myself? Will keep balancing between real life and what can be achieved with doses of insight from the book.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Exceptionally good book for those just starting out on their journey of fitness, and also a good read for those more experienced individuals.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Also, recommend the 4-hour work week. Listened when on commute.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Lots of verbiage but boils down to these five rules: #1 - no white carbs (veg OK); #2 - eat the same meals over and over (predictable and satisfying; protein, legumes, and veg only); #3 - don't drink calories (no dairy either); #4 - don't eat fruit (except avocados and tomatoes); #5 - take one day off per week and binge (on a regular schedule).Also, measure inches not poulds (thighs, hip, waist).

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This book has it all. I've been testing ways to improve fat loss, increase my running times, increase muscle size, and generally getting healthier by exercise, vitamins, nutrients, and studying.what Tim has done was placed a lot of the information I've studied over the past couple of years into one book and then multiplied it by 1000! OMG the amount of information is staggering! And it's not just an all or nothing approach, you can hand pick any area you want to focus on and he has given you what to do, the science behind it, and the test results to boot! This is one book that you'll keep handy to refer to down the road when you're ready torun that ultra marathon,or dead lift like an Olympian, etc. Amazing!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This book has it all. I've been testing ways to improve fat loss, increase my running times, increase muscle size, and generally getting healthier by exercise, vitamins, nutrients, and studying.what Tim has done was placed a lot of the information I've studied over the past couple of years into one book and then multiplied it by 1000! OMG the amount of information is staggering! And it's not just an all or nothing approach, you can hand pick any area you want to focus on and he has given you what to do, the science behind it, and the test results to boot! This is one book that you'll keep handy to refer to down the road when you're ready torun that ultra marathon,or dead lift like an Olympian, etc. Amazing!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Well written with lots of good ideas. Turned me on to kettlebell workouts!
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    The 4 Hour Body is the latest craze of diet/fitness/nutrition books. I enjoyed reading Ferriss' take on such important issues; his writing style is easy-to-understand and the book is filled with pictures and graphs that accompany the text.However, my main qualm with the book is this: Ferriss admits point-blank that he's not a doctor nor does he own a PhD in nutrition, physiology, kinesology or related fields; he's just a regular guy. This means that readers should be skeptical of his claims. What worked for him might not work for others. He exemplifies this concept when he states that you should aviod fruit if you want to lose weight or gain muscle. Fruit has sugar (albiet natural, not fake sugar), which you should not have if you want to gain muscle or lose weight. The problem with this statement, however, is that NO professional doctor in his or her right mind would ever say "Don't eat fruit." You're missing out a a plethora of essential vitamins and minerals if you aviod fruit such as vitamin C (strawberries and kiwi) and potassium (bananas).
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    How to turn your body into a chemistry set.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I would like to read something about our body how perfect it works when we do our exercise daily routine and how it works the way you do your book comments iwanna read
    some thing about our body how it works the rating is excellent
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Interesting and funny throughout but too cavalier and ridiculous overall.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    An interesting take on nutrition and fitness with assertions that one has to take with a grain of salt. Highly enjoyable audiobook, good narrator.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Interesting, but I'd say borrow it.