A reader asked the following:-

“Paul, what happened after June? Your last report was that almost all the hard-fought fat came back. What then? Any further research into what went wrong?

Anyway, it takes a lot of bravery to blog about something as personal as the appearance of your body. On behalf of all the cowards out there, thank you!”

Well it has been a while. The truth is, I dumped the Four Hour Body, Occam’s Protocol and Geek to Freak in the second half of 2011. It is true, some fat did come back when I started the muscle gain routines. Much to my dismay, instead of gradually building up my then lean physique, my skin just started expanding with sub cutaneous fat.

However, there are some important thing to point out.

1. My body shape had changed and the small amount of muscular definition did mean the return of the subcutaneous fat stil meant my body looked a lot better.

2. I didn’t eat a lot of sugars, saturated fats or carbs before The Four Hour Body. My cholesterol level is 3.5 so years of eating the right sort of foods have done me some good. After the Four Hour Body diet I resume my normal diet regime, which really meant adding back in cereals and dairy products. I still avoid white carbs and most types of processed foods.

3. In September I bought a new house with lots of flights of stairs. With lots if moving boxes and furniture, removing several walls and tons of concrete from the garden, my weight dropped again.

In fact within two months of house renovating and not focussing on food or diets at all, my weight dropped to 76k. This was the lowest measurement I achieved on the 4HB.

3. What Did I Learn form this? Answer: a lot! For me, cardio is the best way to get my body fat percentage down to single figures. For me it is six months of fussing over everything I eat and driving every one crazy in the process, versus 40 minutes on the cross trainer three times a week.

4. To put on muscle, you have to eat a hell of a lot of food. Building muscle really does start in the gym, but the traditional method of loading and cutting seems to be right. For me, I can’t load and cut at the same time with Occam’s Feeding. Loading on all of that protein with gallons of milk, means a rapid increase in body fat.

I am not that bothered about putting on body fat as I know it will drop off with cardio.

5. Keeping muscle there is the hardest part. Occams and G2F can probably pump up the major muscle groups quickly, but that is not enough. I need more routines for my shoulders and triceps. A more traditional (nut tme consuming workout) does give a mre rounded and better result.

6. Supplements
None of them seemed to do anything for me. Next time I will stick to Protein and Creatine and report back on that.

Next

I am starting Occam’s Protocol again. I have been developing an iPhone app to help this time, so I am about to give it another shot but this time, modified to what works for me.

Occam’s Protocol Week Two Results

The Occam’s Protocol diet is working better than I though (after 2 weeks). Occam’s Protocol eating is much more varied than the cutting diet from The Four Hour Body (The Last Mile) but its quite hard to continually force food down. After losing 5% body fat on The Four Hour Body since January 2011, I feel that I am putting it all back on with Occam’s Protocol. So straight to the measurements:-

Weight
1/6/2011 78kg (172lbs)
14/6/2011 82.5kg (182lbs)

I have gained 4.5 kilos or 10lbs in two weeks. That is quite a staggering amount, but it is not all lean body mass.

BMI
1/6/2011 11.1
14/6/2011 11.4

The BMI measurements don’t really reveal much change, but I feel there is more fat.

Waist at navel
1/6/2011 33.75
14/6/2011 35.5

I have added 1 3/4 inches to my waist. After months of starvation to cut two inches, in just two weeks its nearly all back. Alarming!

I have started recording everything I eat, so here are my meal breakdowns for the past four days. I am aiming for about 3500 calories but have not met that target on a single day so far. Despite not meeting the calorie requirements, I am meeting the protein requirements.

Trying to analyse this, the fat content doesnt look very high and the carb content is at slow carb levels. My protein requirements for 180lbs are 225grams, so I am hitting my targets for protein.

My calorie requirements for 180lbs (to move to 200lbs) = 190×20 = 3800 calories per day. I haven’t reached this yet AND I have been drinking 2% milk. What gives? A typical day for me looks like this:-

After stuffing myself all day, it still only comes to 3190 calories. How do people do it? I mean its a bit more than some sushi and a few beans. On Wednesday I actually ate 4 chicken breasts, pork kebabs (not strictly SCD but very low in fat) and low fat beef plus loads of beans and rice and a litre of milk. What happens when the calorie requirements get to 7000 as Tim mentioned somewhere in the book?

I think the problem/solution may be with the shakes:-

Protein Shakes

I have been taking Holland & Barrett Whey protein (since itis on half price offer this month). The H&B calories per shake are only 140 whereas the new Kinetica Whey Protein (at 3 times the price) is 362 AND it has less carbs but more fat (since it contains coconut oil). This would add 400 calories. Also my Maxi Muscle Promax Bar adds 206 calories, so maybe I could have two per day.

The plan for next wek is to have 1% milk, more Promax bars and Kinetica Whey.

Any suggestions??

After five months of Slow Carb Diet and The Last Mile, I have finally begun Occam’s Protocol. My most recent measurements are:-

And

After five months I dont think I can lose much more body fat, so I am reversing everything and now starting weight gain. Lets see if I can get 30lb in the next month on Occam’s Protocol.

The Occam’s Protocol Diet

The Occam’s Protocol Diet by Tim Ferriss from his book The Four Hour Body is about weight GAIN and is not for weight loss. Occam’s Protocol is a way of building muscle fast without adding body fat.

The Occam’s Protocol Diet is described by Tim Ferriss in The Four Hour Body as being The Slow Carb Diet (SCD) plus a few modifications. The Occam’s Protocol Diet has more protein and more carbs than the SCD and it is necessary to calculate BOTH protein and carb input carefully. Tim says it shouldn’t be necessary to count the calories UNLESS the diet is not working. Everything is explained in the book, but it is not in one place.

The main questions for The Occam’s Protocol Diet are:-

1. What you can eat
2. How much you can eat
3. Which supplements should you be taking
4. What about protein shakes
5. What about drinking milk

This diet is about weight GAIN. As with all things in The Four Hour Body, there is a certain amount of experimentation. It is necessary to know what you weigh now and what you want to weigh in the future. As you make progress and gain weight, you must readjust your food levels accordingly.

The adage

Muscles are made in the kitchen and not in the gym may be true.

1. What You Can Eat

Rule #1 of the Occam’s Protocol Diet diet says stay away from all carbs that are white in appearance. These restricted carbs include white bread, white rice, white pasta, tortillas, potatoes, cereal, oats. On Occam’s Protocol you MUST eat some brown rice or Quinoa meal within a half hour of finishing a workout.
You SHOULD eat some brown rice and Quinoa on rest days.

Rule # 2 is the same as the Slow Carb Diet. This states that a couple of foods should be eaten each day and these should be repeated. Each meal should contain protein+vegetables+legumes. These safe foods include grass-fed beef, chicken breast or thigh, pork, fish, lentils, pinto beans, red beans and soy beans, organic eggs, vegetables like spinach, asparagus, Sauerkraut, green beans, broccoli, spring greens and cruciferous vegetables.

The meals have to be consumed within a gap of 4 hours in between them, and this schedule allows for 4 meals in a day instead of the regular 3.

The extra meal is suggested in between lunch and dinner and is called as extra lunch at around 6.30 pm. This can be modified depending on your daily or workout schedule.

Rule # 3 Drinking. Do not drink calories. DO drink masses of water (8 glasses per day).
Do drink whey protein isolate shakes. These can be split between breakfast and before going to bed.
DO drink milk if weight gain is less than 2 1/2 lbs per week. You can drink between one liter of milk a day and four liters of milk per day BUT start with 1 liter per day (and measure body fat gain). You CAN drink coffee or black tea (no more than 2 tbsp cream). If drinking LOMAD or GOMAD, use milk from your allocation. You can drink green tea and Yerba Mate.

Rule # 4 avoid fruit throughout Occam’s Protocol.

Rule # 5 Do NOT have a binge day. You do not need a namby pamby binge day like the SCD dieters. DO  drop calories by 50% one day per week to prevent protein uptake down-regulation.

How Much You Can Eat
About 20 calories per pound of lean body weight. That is lot more than SCD dieters. A 160lb guy needs to be eating about 3,400 calories a day, so that is a LOT of beans, legumes, protein and protein shakes. Tim says you shouldn’t need to count the calories but if you are not putting on weight and you are drinking milk then do the calorie calculation (about page 216).

Supplements

Cissus Quadrangularis (2400 mg, three times per day).
L-Glutamine 80grams for first 5 days.
Creatine Monohydrate 3.5 grams for 28 days

Workout and Protein Shakes

Remember that you need to consume at least 3400 calories (for a 160lb man). Taking protein shakes when you workout is the ideal time to get some calories and protein. DO consume whey protein (the type for weight gain) immediately after each workout, ideally with some carbs that will spike your insulin level to facilitate uptake of the protein. DO consider taking whey protein right before your workout too.

See Planning For Occams Protocol for details of the supplement shedule.

I have been following Tim Ferriss Four Hour Body for 19 weeks now in my quest to turn from Geek to Freak. I started with the Slow Carb Diet in January and now I am doing The Last Mile Diet. Here’s how the Last Mile Diet is going.

The Four Hour Body The Last Mile Diet for those who havent got that far yet, consists of a very restricted diet. It makes the Slow Carb Diet look like a banquet. The Last Mile Diet has just 5 options and you have to eat one of them every three hours. The portion sizes are based on your weight. For me that is 76kg.

Option 1: 50 grams of whey protein isolate + half a cup of nuts or two tablespoons of
peanut butter

Option 2: 170 grams of cooked, white, nonfatty fish (no salmon, mackerel, etc.) + half a cup of nuts or two tablespoons of peanut butter. Acceptable fish include, but are not limited to, lean tuna, white fish, bass, catfish, pike, whiting, and flounder.

Option 3: 170 grams of cooked turkey or chicken + half a cup of nuts or two tablespoons of peanut butter

Option 4: 170 grams of cooked fattier protein: red meat (à la flank), ground beef, fatty fish, or dark poultry + one tablespoon of olive oil or macadamia oil

Option 5: five whole eggs

You can eat unlimited amounts of cruiferous vegetables too, including broccoli, cabbage, spring greens etc.
You must have oil (Olive/Macadamia) with some of these combos too.
Almond butter or Cashew butter can be substituted for the peanut butter/nuts.
There is no cheat day, but you can have a cheat meal once a week or fortnight.

How Easy is The Last Mile Diet?

It is not easy at all, but no one said it was going to be fun, it’s a diet. Trying to eat 35 eggs per week is pretty tough going. The temptation is to start substituting meals for protein shakes. This is not good and plays havoc with the bowels. At one point I was having three shakes a day but this really was too much.

Eating 35 eggs a week is pretty tough. It started off alright but got harder as I went on. I stopped all eggs at about week 15 and had a break. I have restarted eggs again now, but not every day. The easiest way I found to eat eggs was to hard boil them and mash them with mayonaise. I made some mayonaise with oil, mustard and egg yolks.

Another temptation is to skip the veggies (or forget them) and consume just the protein. Repeating broccoli and asparagus is very tedious. In the end I settled on making a cabbage/spring green saute with garlic and oil two or three times a week.

I have never really felt hungry on this diet. Eating every three hours takes care of that. Forcing breakfast down is a problem though. It never was on the Slow Carb Diet, but those extra two eggs seem to make all the difference.

Lunch is not a problem as I have a tin of salmon or tuna with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. I find I can eat this pretty easily every day.

For workout days, the protein shake comes next. Again not a problem along with some cashew nuts or cashew butter (yum).

Dinner is usually a piece of fish with some veggies. It is pretty boring having fish with no sauce, but all of the packet variety sauces are loaded with sugar. If Im not eating fish I’m eating chicken. I bought 20 breasts and 40 thighs at the beginning of this venture and they have all gone. Peri peri lemon sauce is pretty good with chicken as it contains no sugar and very little carbs.

Supper is usually a problem again. Sliced chicken is usually the best solution – I can’t force down any more canned fish at this stage of the day and this is really the only meal I dont want to eat.

This all sounds fine, and it is for most of the week, but these last couple of weeks become a problem by Thursday or Friday. My stomach just seems to give up and reject the diet. I find I need to stop (the ketosis probably) and just have some carbs, such as a small amount of brown rice/brown pasta/oats. By Thursday I am finding myself sitting on the toilet for more time than I ever have before while my stomach yells “GIVE ME SOME CARBS”.

Supplements & Exercise

I took PAGG throughout The Last Mile, together with Calcium/Magnesium supplements, zero carb protein powder and No Xplode on gym days. I worked out 5 days a week following my traditional program, did kettlebell swings every second day. From week 17 I upped the cardio to 30 minutes on the elliptical trainer (trying to keep my heart rate to 120 bpm). I also walked the dog for 90 minutes a day (on Clapham Common).

My Tips For The Last Mile Diet
Drink plenty of water. With supplements, kettlebell swings and strict meal times it is easy to overlook. Adding lemon juice as Tim suggested really works too. I found that drinking 20 oz water first thing in the morning was pretty hard, but with the lemon juice,it makes it easy. The rest of the day it is just a matter of remembering to drink (and then going for a pee a hundred times a day).

Prepare everything in advance if you are not going to be at home. Once you leave the house you cannot buy prepared The Last Mile food anywhere. It is impossible to source anything to eat at cafe’s or sandwich shops. People just look at you blank if you describe The Last Mile requirements.

If you DO have a cheat day, take the PAGG stack, drink grapefruit, do the exercises. Although you are not supposed to do this,  I found that I could not do this diet  7 days in a row, week after week. I had to have a break (see above). It may push the goal further away, but at least I wil reach it.

DO drink coffee. It is gastric emptying, but also diarrhetic so drink more water. The Last Mile diet leaves me really tired and lethargic, so lots of coffee helps. I don’t get the cinnamon thing with coffee, so I have it nearly black with a small amount of 0% fat milk.

Does The Last Mile Work?
The Last Mile did work for me (47 year old male), but it is slow going. At the start of The Last Mile my little rolls of belly fat were deflating rather than vanishing. The skin wasn’t shrinking quite as fast but overall the appearance pleased and encouraged me. Eventually at about week 18 I realized that the fat was much less evident and although I dont have a six pack, I am pretty pleased with the way things have gone.

I can see the beginnings of a six pack (in the right light) so if I continue to do myocratic crunches and stick to The Last Mile, eventually I will reach the goal. My weight and inches loss have plateaued again, so there seems to be no progress at week 19.

The problem I have with The Last Mile is you really have to be dedicated. That means forgoing family functions, national holidays, family birthdays, nights out with the lads (well pretty much) for quite a few months. Monday to Friday is OK but at the weekends it is really tough. You cant go out for meals like you canon the SCD, so there is no Chipolte option (if you are in the US).

Check out my Week 17 Progress here. I will post week 20 next week.

Any Other Last Mile Masochists?

Any one else doing Last Mile Diet? I am reallu keen to find out  how everyone else is going. Please comment or ask questions below.

BTW I have been spreading this Four Hour Body message with my Facebook Page for Geek To Freak too, so please visit me there and “LIKE” the page. Hopefully people will find my Geek To Freak experiences both helpful and inspiring.

Chart showing Total Body Inches and Body Fat Percentage

I have been following The Four Hour Body now for 17 weeks. I can’t believe it has been 17 weeks! Here are the results.

What started off as a 28 day Four Hour Body plan is becoming a six to twelve month plan. I am building up to Occam’s Protocol and Geek To Freak (in that order) and currenlty doing The Last Mile. My journey from turning into a Freak (or at least a nicely toned dude) is still at the “lose body fat” stage.

My progress has been slower than a lot of people, probably because:-

a. I was starting from a pretty good starting point (15% body fat)
b. I am over 40 (which means it is definitely harder to lose fat and build muscle)

The story so far:-

Weeks 1 – 3 Slow Carb Diet
Weeks 4-7 Holiday (intending to continue with SCD but failed)
Weeks 8 – 10 Slow Carb Diet (SCD)
Weeks 10- 17 Four Hour Body The Last Mile

Progress has really been in the last seven weeks, of The Last Mile. I believe that for fit and active people who already eat well, The Slow Carb Diet can have too many calories. The rule of eating as much as you like definitely didn’t work for me. Eating as much calciferous vegetables DOES seem to work though.

From the graph, you can see that I have lost some 10.25 body inches. This is mostly body recompositioning, since my biceps are bigger and my waist smaller. My thighs, forearms, neck, shoulders are exactly the same.

My body fat results look good. These results are highly inaccurate though, as I dont have any measuring techniques other than plastic calipers. The results could be completely wrong, but for the record, I have gone from 15.2 to 11.1

I think that visual results are the ones that really matter though. I didn’t have much body fat showing in January, but what there was was sitting on my hips, pecs and belly. That is now dissolving away but no abs are showing yet.

I have been spreading Tim’s word with my Facebook Page for Geek To Freak too, so please visit me there and “LIKE” the page. Hopefully people will find my Geek To Freak experience helpful.

Lots of people have asked me how to do the 4 hour body kettlebell swing. So how do you do it? The kettlebell exercise is key to success when following The Four Hour Body Slow Carb Diet. The kettlebell swing is a single exercise (two hand swing) which forms part of the minimum effective dose required to build the perfect posterior. According to Tim if you aren’t doing any other exercise, THIS is the one to do.

I have been doing the 4 Hour Body kettlebell swing now for two weeks. I started with a 20kg ball (44lbs). I must admit it is harder than I thought. After two weeks, today I did 56 swings, adding 1 swing per day. The 4 Hour Body kettlebell swing only takes a few minutes to complete, but obviously technique is everything. The pictures in The Four Hour Body don’t really help that much – a video is really required. I found this one from Lisa Shaffer who explains it very well.

When doing the 4 Hour Body kettlebell swing I think the important points are:-

• make sure you get the hip “pop”
• make sure your butt is going backwards
• your knees are not extending over your feet
• your back is straight
• you are facing up with shoulders back

Good luck with the 4 Hour Body kettlebell swing and building the perfect posterior.

I found this interview with Tim Ferriss where he talks about The Four Hour Body and turning from Geek To Freak.

On a side note, Tim talks about the affilate links for the supplements recommended in the book, the proceeds of which go to charity. Tim also used to own a supplement store, which he sold in order to prevent critics slagging off his data and results as a ploy for supplement sales.

The Geek To Freak interview is in two parts.

Geek To Freak Part One

Geek To Freak Part Two

Tim discusses the criticism of The Four Hour Body and how it was received by the Gym Community, especially Geek To Freak and Occam’s Protocol. The most vocal group are the “meat heads” who are the self proclaimed body builder set. Not the professional serious body builders, but the “boys” who know best.

Tim emphasises why the first 50 pages focus on failure proofing weight loss, or weight gain activities. This is necessary so that you can stick with the program, not only for a month or so but for as long as it takes to build the perfect posterior. One of the key principals of The Four Hour Body is to have 6 days of rigidly sticking to legumes, protein and vegetables but having the seventh day off. The day off, or binge day is for more psychological than physiological reasons. People are much more likely to be able to tell themselves that they are not giving up “chocolate croissants” (or in my case wholemeal bread and Weetabix), for ever, they are only giving them up for six days. Having the one binge day means people won’y tend to start drifting and having a meal f here and a meal off there. Instead they are more likely to make it through the six days and then go wild.

A really interesting point, especially for men, is that you dont HAVE to have cheat day, especially in the first couple of weeks. This is a really good tip for people who are prone to over eating. You can have a cheat MEAL (like The Last Mile) or no cheat at all.

The Four Hour Body is a book written by Tim Ferriss, of The Four Hour Work week fame. Tim is an expert in condensing down the things that actually make a difference to work, play or in this case getting a better body. Based on the Pareto 80/20 rule, Tim’s quest was to find the 20% of things that make 80% of the difference in losing weight and building a better posterior. Tim condensed the Pareto rule down even further to find the 2.5% of things which constitute the Minimum Effective Dose.

It turns out that all of this can be accomplished in just 4 hours a month. Tim’s methods may sound a little radical, but they have all been tested on himself over a period of ten years. Thousands of people are now following The Slow Carb Diet which is the weight loss program for most people.

The Last Mile
The Four Hour Body Slow Carb Diet can only take you so far to a weight loss goal. To go below 10% body fat, you need to follow a diet such as “The Last Mile”. This is far more restrictive than the Slow Carb Diet, but it does have results.

Occam’s Protocol and Geek To Freak.

Geek To Freak is one of the chapters in The Four Hour Body. Many people will be reading The Four Hour Body to lose weight, but )for me) far more interestingly the Geek To Freak and Occam’s Protocol Chapters are about building muscle.

These sections are programs which get you to lose body fat AND gain muscle at the same time. Traditionalists may say this cannot be done. Tim gained 34lbs of lean body mass in just four weeks. All of this with just 30 minutes a week in the gym.

Which Program Should I Follow?
This is a bit confusing, since there are FOUR diets in this book.

I have been following The Four Hour Body program since January 2011 and have documented my results here. I started with the Slow carb Diet, then moved on to The Last Mile. I am about to start Occam’s Protocol next.

To make sense of this, first get The Four Hour Body book from Amazon.