
The 4-Hour Body: (Quickly) Hacking The Human Body - swombat
http://mixergy.com/timothy-ferriss-four-hour-body-interview/
======
edw519
Andrew, I think mixergy is one of the coolest things on the web. You've done
great work bringing so much content to inspire us. So I'm surprised and a
little disappointed to see you interview the likes of Tim Ferriss.

Don't get me wrong; I understand that you're a journalist and want to keep an
open mind. No question about the popularity of this person and his subject.

I just don't think that he or his message are very inspiring. While most of us
here work hard building stuff for the benefit of others, this guy just hacks
the system for personal benefit. Whether it's gaming the rules to win a
martial arts contest, front loading phony book reviews, or making outrageous
claims that spawn counterproductive behavior, I really don't want to know
about it; I've read enough.

The world already has enough hustlers, charletons, and posers. I'd rather see
you spend your time continuing to bring us the real inspiration the has given
mixergy such a great track record.

Just my .02.

[EDIT: Just a quick follow-up to those who have disagreed. I don't hate Tim
Ferriss. I don't accuse him of lying or deceiving. And I don't question
whether or not his methods are effective. (Spam is effective, something else I
would never do.)

When I read his last book, I was totally turned off when he claimed winning a
martial arts contest by finding a loophole in the rules and shoving his
opponent out of bounds. I have never done anything like that and have no
intention of learning anything similar.

There's so much inspiring stuff to read here and in books that I see no need
to follow up on something I've already ruled out. I was just a little
surprised to see Tim Ferriss and mixergy in the same post. That's all.]

~~~
FluidDjango
I appreciate my life choices for _not_ having such a fellow on my radar
(spelling is Ferriss - I discover by searching on Amz).

Yet I wonder how I could have become so cynical as to doubt the "socially
redeeming value" of an ~author~ who gets a book published by including claims
such as:

> YOU WILL LEARN (in less than 30 minutes each):

> How to lose those last 5-10 pounds (or 100+ pounds) with odd combinations of
> food and safe chemical cocktails.

> * How to prevent fat gain while bingeing (X-mas, holidays, weekends)

> * How to increase fat-loss 300% with a few bags of ice

> * How Tim gained 34 pounds of muscle in 28 days, without steroids, and in
> four hours of total gym time

> * How to sleep 2 hours per day and feel fully rested

> * How to produce 15-minute female orgasms

> * How to triple testosterone and double sperm count

> * How to go from running 5 kilometers to 50 kilometers in 12 weeks

> * How to reverse “permanent” injuries

> * How to add 150+ pounds to your lifts in 6 months

> * How to pay for a beach vacation with one hospital visit

~~~
Bostwick
I'm apprehensive about Tim Ferriss. I've read 4HWW, and found it to have some
good advice, as well a a significant amount of fluff. The announcement of "The
4-Hour Body", with lists like this on the book, have only increased my
skepticism and apprehension.

I enjoy fitness. I've worked out four to five days a week for the past seven
years, first at a climbing gym, and then with Crossfit. I've competed in
fitness competitions. I've know a number of well-respected high-level
Crossfitters. I would call myself, at the very least, a fitness enthusiast.

I think some of these claims are at best, laughable, and, at worst, will give
false hope to people who might truly be interested in fitness. Fitness is hard
work!

> * How Tim gained 34 pounds of muscle in 28 days, without steroids, and in
> four hours of total gym time

Muscle memory will allow people to gain significant amounts of muscle in short
periods of time, if that muscle has been trained before.

It's why athletes who take rest periods or have injuries are able to come back
just as strong in only a few weeks.

It's the source of many of the before/after pictures for "health foods" and
supplements.

If you're actually interested in gaining muscle and weight, the easiest way is
to eat tons of food and do heavy, compound exercises three to four times a
week.

> * How to sleep 2 hours per day and feel fully rested

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyphasic_sleep>

Anecdotally, a friend of mine ended up in the emergency room for severe
dehydration after trying the Uberman's Sleep Cycle for three weeks.

> * How to triple testosterone and double sperm count

I imagine he's be talking about various supplements here. Supplement science
is sketchy, and should always be taken with a grain of salt.

The best way to take supplements is to not take them, but rather, eat more
fruits and vegetables.

> * How to go from running 5 kilometers to 50 kilometers in 12 weeks

Pretty simple, actually. There are progressive running plans in almost any
running book.

Also, the difference between five and 50 km, at least to your muscles, is much
less than the difference between 400M and 5K. It's just training your aerobic
system and converting more of your muscle tissue to slow-twitch muscle fibers.

> * How to reverse “permanent” injuries

Eat right and exercise correctly.

If you read the forums for crossfit, or stronglifts, or a number of other
fitness websites, or diet websites, you'll see people who miraculously cure
their bad back, bad knees or diabetes, just by eating right and exercising
correctly.

> * How to add 150+ pounds to your lifts in 6 months

This is almost guaranteed to happen when someone goes from an untrained state
to the beginning of a trained state. It has to do with muscles learning to be
used, rather than significant strength gains.

When I started Crossfit three years ago, I could barely deadlift 135#. Three
years later, my last 1RM deadlift was 455#. Going from 135# to 300# was _so_
much easier and faster than going from 300# to 455#, because my body had
always been able to do it, it just didn't know it.

~~~
runjake
You've clearly never ran 50 km in one go.

You're talking 5 intense months to safely train minimum, for a person who can
run 5 km.

Training for a 50 km isn't "just aerobics", it's also about strengthening your
bones and ligaments and developing the mental tools you'll need to finish.
It's about learning what your body needs to stay hydrated. Learning how to
minimize calorie use. Learn how to run through the walls (yes, plural, there's
normally two of them on a 50 km run). How to eat on the run without throwing
it all up or squirting it out from your shorts. Aerobics is the least of it,
IMHO.

12 weeks is a laughable claim.

And yes, I've run 50km (and far beyond) in one go.

~~~
maxawaytoolong
A marathon is 42K and people run those all the time with minimal training.
Puff Daddy only trained for 8 weeks. Every yuppie in NYC has met at least a
half dozen out of shape office workers who have a mid life crisis and decide
to run a marathon in 12 weeks.

~~~
runjake
8 weeks according to him. Try it and get back to me.

You aren't going to go from a 5k to a 50k in 12 weeks and remain injury-free,
sorry.

~~~
khafra
[http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2009/sep/15/eddie-
izzard-c...](http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2009/sep/15/eddie-izzard-
charity-run)

5 weeks training, 43 marathons in 50 days.

~~~
runjake
5:48 marathon was his fastest time, according to that article. That's A LOT of
walking. And that was his best time.

This is more akin to hiking a flat version of the Appalachian Trail than
running 50 km straight.

------
AndrewWarner
What I tried to capture in this interview is Tim's belief that you can get 80%
results with 5% effort. And that the other 95% effort (or whatever the %) is
either the facetime that we feel we must put in to feel we earned our result,
or an attempt at perfection.

I'm not sure I agree with him completely, but my goal in the interviews is to
learn, not to argue for "my side."

My other goal here was to find out how he identifies that 5% that gets
outsized results. The salient part of his answer was that he find people who
achieve freakish results, then he mimics their approach.

(If you read those last 2 sentences, you may not have to listen to my hour-
long interview, which strengthen's Tim's 80%/5% message.)

~~~
bobf
I found that to be true with school. 5% effort usually gets you a B, while the
closer you wanted to get to "perfection" (100%/A+), exponentially more effort
is required.

~~~
detst
And most people would be quite happy with a "B" body. The most important thing
for me, as someone that tends to come up with the "perfect plan" before
starting, is that doing a little will get you on the path to improving
yourself. But then when I do a little, I realize it's often enough to get me
where I wanted.

~~~
jules
With the right diet and just one hour of exercise per week you can get you an
A++ body.

Diet: Not too many calories, many vegetables, enough protein. Cook your own
meals. Fat is ok, as long as you don't get too many calories.

Exercise: Mostly running, and a little bit of strength training. The key is to
do what you do to the max. Run 10 minutes but make sure run as fast as
possible. Do this two times a week, this will take 40 minutes a week (20
minutes running, 20 minutes preparing & showering). Do 5 minutes of exercise
when you get up/go to sleep 4 times a week.

If we assume 16 hour days then this will take 1/(7*16) = 0.9% of your time.
Just to emphasize, that's less than one hundredth of your awake time.

This is what I do and it works very well, it is the best investment of my time
I ever make. YMMV

~~~
steveklabnik
Any tips on how to get a better handle on 'many, enough, and too many'
relatively easily? I'd like to do something like this, but it's the paradox of
choice with me and health: I know next to nothing, so I just feel confused by
everything...

~~~
jules
Listen to your body. When you're full, stop eating. This feeling lags a bit
behind what you eat, so don't eat too quickly. Don't eat things like sweets,
chocolate and potato chips when you're hungry, when hungry only eat healthy
things. Don't drink too much calorie dense drinks like fruit juice. These
drinks won't give you a full feeling even though you've consumed a lot of
calories, better eat fresh fruit.

When I eat with my friends they sometimes say how come you eat so much but are
so lean. They've been drinking fruit juice or soft drinks with the meal
whereas I drank water, they're eating less but consuming the same amount of
calories. Later the night they'll feel hungry and start eating snacks. For
example tonight I ate carrots, pasta with pork and cheese with a sauce based
on creme fraiche. This contains a lot of fat but that's not so bad because it
also makes you full (I ate it 6 hours ago and have no appetite for e.g. sweets
whatsoever).

When you're hungry, bake an egg in butter with cheese and eat it with a slice
of bread. This will be about 300 calories but you'll be full. Or you can eat
one Mars and you'll be hungry again in half an hour (also 300 calories). Or
you can drink 3 glasses of coke and be hungry in half an hour. Or you can eat
8 oranges and you won't be hungry (also 300). Or eat 25 big tomatoes. Or 100
grams of bread and you'll be hungry in two hours.

The following numbers may be handy:

    
    
        Fat:           9000 kcal/kg  (this holds for body fat as well as fat in foods)
        Alcohol:       7000 kcal/kg
        Carbohydrates: 4000 kcal/kg
        Protein:       4000 kcal/kg
    

One thing I've found is that the more you eat the more hungry you get. For
example on Christmas you usually eat a lot, yet the next morning I'm always
very hungry. Do you have this too? Evolutionarily I think your body thinks
"hey we got a lot last night, there is a lot of food available now (perhaps
they killed a mammoth?), better stock up". This also works the other way
around: if you've been eating too much and then go back to normal you'll be
hungry, but that probably goes away in a couple of days (unless you're not
eating enough).

I think it is futile to try to lose weight or keep weight low trying to be
hungry. Your body is much more powerful than your mind and will override your
conscious efforts in no time.

This is what works for me. The caveat is that I've never had or tried to lose
weight, but I started to eat this way because I think it's healthier. When I
did so after a while I discovered I had lost 4 kg (which is a lot for me), and
had to consciously eat more to gain some of it back. On the other hand I went
on a very active sports / camping vacation with friends and we had to buy food
a few days ahead, so we all ate the same kind of things. This was a mix
between their and my diets (e.g. no coke/fruit juices just water from the
lake). My weight went up slightly because I eat more but they each lost 1-2 kg
in two weeks. So I _think_ it works, but if you notice gaining weight when
applying this, stop and look for something else.

~~~
steveklabnik
Awesome, thanks so much for this. I have _really_ bad eating habits, but
they've actually gotten better over the last few years. They went from
'abysmal' to 'pretty damn bad,' basically. Three years ago, my girlfriend told
me she wasn't really sure how I consumed enough nutrients to live... I was
going through roughly two liters of Mountain Dew a day, pizza 5 nights a
week... yeah. When you work in a pizza shop...

------
gursikh
Every Tim Ferris thread I see on HN, has nigh 10 - 20 posts that all
essentially say:

"Tim Ferris is a charlatan. He's relies on spin and marketing to sell his
products. His methods encourage people to be lazy and not make a genuine
effort to reach their goals. His advice is counterproductive."

But while Tim makes every effort to support his claims using facts, anecdotes
and citations these sorts of comments are rarely supported by anything other
than the commenter's opinion. I'm not saying people shouldn't post Tim-hating
comments, to the contrary I'm asking for Tim-haters to form a strong argument
against his ideology by citing studies and literature that clearly contradict
what he preaches.

~~~
andre
Exactly.

And when he's talking about winning the martial arts fights, he goal was to
"WIN", not to play the game. And like gursikh says, either put up or shut up.
We need concrete examples!

Overall, I think Tim has done a lot for a lot of people with the ideas that he
shares in his books.

~~~
jonhendry
If he doesn't feel that as a wholly empty accomplishment, he must be a
sociopath.

He didn't prove his ability to fight was superior. He didn't prove his mastery
of martial arts was superior. He proved his ability to push his opponent over
the line.

If there were no line, he'd be crushed.

~~~
steveklabnik
Nope, his ability to fight _was_ superior. He used every advantage possible
while staying within the rules of the game. That's how competitive games are
played.

~~~
jonhendry
I have a lot more respect for something like Doug Lenat winning a 1981
Traveller (pencil & paper RPG) Trillion Credit Squadron space navy warfare
competition by using an AI program to come up with a strategy that followed
the rules but was totally unlike what anyone else was doing: building massive
numbers of small, cheap, individually weak, disposable/suicidal ships, rather
than designing a smaller traditional fleet of big, expensive, powerful capital
ships.

<http://www.therpgsite.com/showthread.php?t=14095>

For one thing, the strategy he came up with is not unlike the use of suicide
bombers in real life conflicts. I expect something similar will apply when
large numbers of small, cheap autonomous drones start being deployed. It has
real-world applicability. It was also effective, I believe, in EVE Online.
Plus, it was an interesting application of technology. It wasn't just
"shoving".

By comparison, Ferris' shoving tactic is virtually useless outside of the
context of a ring-based martial art competition. (Maybe if you got in a fight
on the edge of a cliff, or on the roof of a building, or next to a pool of
sharks...)

------
steve19
The reviews on Amazon look _really_ suspicious.

[http://www.amazon.com/4-Hour-Body-Uncommon-Incredible-
Superh...](http://www.amazon.com/4-Hour-Body-Uncommon-Incredible-
Superhuman/dp/030746363X/)

In the past few hours since the book was put on sale, there have been 90+ five
star reviews.

Either this is one of the best book every published, of the publisher/author
has been organizing or paying for reviews.

~~~
dchest
Some publishers/authors really organize reviews by sending preview copies of
books to reviewers.

~~~
PStamatiou
I am one of those. I had an advance copy, loved it and posted my review. Feel
free to challenge anything in my review: <http://amzn.to/hDRfVB>

~~~
staunch
Since you asked:

1) You didn't disclose that you received the book as a gift from the
author/publisher and in advance.

2) That you were (I presume) asked to review the book on Amazon by the
author/publisher.

3) That you didn't even read the book (only "several chapters") before giving
it a 5 star "review".

4) You used a URL shortener on HN.

5) You used a URL shortener to obscure the Amazon affiliate tag in your link.

~~~
PStamatiou
staunch - valid questions

1) fair point, but devil's advocate says that is to be expected considering I
posted it on launch day.

2) yes, I received a friendly reminder email that today was launch day and
that tim would appreciate reviews. he did not specify positive in his wording.
just that he would like reviews up.

3) The book actually _recommends_ not reading it in its entirety but rather
selecting a few relevant sections based on what you want to do. I am not
interested in the fat loss sections as I am already at 11.8% body fat, rather
I am interested in the muscle building sections. Page 11 talks about 4
different "tracks" you can take with the book: rapid fat-loss, rapid muscle
gain, rapid strength gain or rapid sense of total well-being (improving sex,
perfecting sleep, etc). I quote from the book:

    
    
      Do *not* read this book from start to finish.
    

4/5) I had already tweeted it earlier so it was easy for me to copy the link.
As for affiliate, the HN consensus seems to be that "good faith" links with
affiliate codes are okay. a book I would have recommended anyway. If HN
really, really hated affiliate links then my Kindle review would not have
gotten so many upvotes and 16 people would not have purchased them through me
and the disclosed aff link

------
alexyim
In this article,

[http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/sports_body_trai...](http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/sports_body_training_performance/the_truth_about_bulking)

It claims that your body can only synthesize about 2 pounds of dry muscle mass
per month.

34 pounds in 28 days is roughly a _pound of muscle per day_. I've always found
myself wanting more evidence to back that up, or even just seeing more
examples of people saying they've done that. The closest I've heard to getting
that kind of result are people who add drinking a gallon of milk in addition
their regular diet, and even then they gain a fair amount of fat in addition
to muscle and it's way less than that number.

~~~
Bostwick
You can synthesize more than 2lbs of muscle per month, if the muscle you're
synthesizing has been in a trained state previously.

This is how athletes can return from injury in a few weeks. It's also how most
before/after shots for health products and supplements are made.

I've done GOMAD (Gallon of Milk A Day). It's tough to drink that much milk. In
the end, I gained ten pounds of muscle over a period of two months.

~~~
alexyim
> You can synthesize more than 2lbs of muscle per month, if the muscle you're
> synthesizing has been in a trained state previously.

Do you have a link to that by any chance?

It does make sense though. Perhaps that's what happened with him, but without
that key bit of info it's fairly misleading.

~~~
Bostwick
Start with <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorado_Experiment>. Then read
<http://blog.legendarylife.com/the-colorado-experiment>.

Anecdotally, here's one guy's attempt at repeating the Colorado experiment.
[http://www.placeintheground.com/2008/07/21/testing-out-
the-c...](http://www.placeintheground.com/2008/07/21/testing-out-the-colorado-
experiment/) [http://www.placeintheground.com/2008/09/25/colorado-
experime...](http://www.placeintheground.com/2008/09/25/colorado-experiment-
results/)

Re-reading this makes me think that Tim Ferriss is probably advocating the
Colorado Experiment's methods in his book. One of the other comments mentioned
five-seconds-up, five-seconds-down.

~~~
alexyim
I see. The experiment seems ill-conceived in the first place, along with the
guy's attempt to repeat it.

------
weeksie
The muscle building seems similar, though even more extreme than HST training:
<http://www.hypertrophy-specific.com/hst_index.html>

I switched to HST after a long time of doing typical weight training routines
and now do 1-2 sets per body part each time I'm in the gym. It's not nearly as
extreme as what he's describing but I've cut my workouts down to 3 40 minute
sessions each week and my gains have increased a LOT. Of course when I tell
people that they freak out because there's an irrational belief that you have
to put in tons of sets to see benefits.

Interesting stuff.

~~~
kscaldef
Just wondering... Does anyone actually want to look like that guy on the HST
page? I took one look at that and said "this is not the workout routine for
me".

~~~
weeksie
Yeah, that's not something you just accidentally end up looking like. I'm not
into being that big at all but there would be fair warning well before hand ;)

------
onan_barbarian
Someone on IronGarm (don't look it up if you're easily offended) put it best:
"Tim isn't very strong and is a Jenga of fairly serious injuries that a
smarter trainee would avoid."

"Gaining" (actually regaining) large quantities of muscle in a short period of
time is an old Iron Game trick (the "Colorado Experiment" with the Nautilus
guy and Casey Jones IIRC). You can't gain nearly as much muscle as someone
else can regain.

As for the other strategies to 'gain' this much 'muscle' while 'clean', the
high points are (a) dehydration, (b) steroids and/or exogenous testosterone
and (c) a modicum of fat gain (which on a normal muscular physique won't be
that notable and, most importantly, (d) a willingness to claim that you
haven't done a/b/c whether it is true or not.

Tim is a master of 'hacking' these kind of demos but it would be more
impressive if he tried doing something more sustained where there isn't a
short-cut to success. For example, compete in a sport where there is a lot at
stake and a high number of well-prepared competitors. Not, for example, by
finding a rules loophole in some obscure Chinese kickboxing event and winning
it through a combination of extreme weight cutting and pushing other people
over (one of his claims to fame as a martial artist).

------
dpritchett
It should be noted that Ferriss wrote a 2008 article describing how to
effectively put on 30 pounds overnight by dehydrating oneself before a weigh-
in and then rehydrating before competition begins. [1] The fact that the
miracle muscle gains mentioned in Tim's new book are _also_ roughly 30 pounds
should not go unmentioned.

[1] fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2008/01/18/how-to-cut-weight/

~~~
bgraves
Tim specifically addresses the 34 lbs of muscle gain in 28 days in the Mixergy
interview. It's not the same routine of dehydration/rehydration for
competition.

 _I think I see here 34 pounds of muscle in 28 days. How did you do that?

Timothy: So that was just so people know the circumstances. I was supervised
by a Ph.D. at San Jose State University, and we used hydrostatic weighing,
which is underwater weighing, for body composition. The way I did it was with
two 30-minute workouts per week, which means it was literally four hours for
the month. So in this case it is the 4-hour body. And there were a number of
protocols that I followed.

The first was the exercise protocol, which was and we’ll talk about this I’m
sure more, following the minimum effective dose. So how many seconds of
tension with a specific weight or load do I need to trigger muscular growth in
certain body parts? And you can figure this out. So I was using a very slow
safe protocol to achieve that eliminating momentum to the extent possible,
tracked everything like a scientific experiment.

And then the second protocol was the eating protocol. So you have to eat a lot
to gain 34 pounds of muscle. I also lost three pounds of fat and lowered my
cholesterol from 222 to 147. And that involved eating, but improving insulin
sensitivity so that was preferentially put into muscle tissue as opposed to
fat tissue. Then also taking supplementation to improve protein synthesis and
things like that.

So at the end of the day it was a combination of very small things used
together._

~~~
dpritchett
I'm sure he has more exhaustive logs that support his claims but the quote
above (the same story was in Wired a few weeks back) isn't detailed enough to
prove that Tim gained 8.5 pounds of muscle per week.

I was unfamiliar with hydrostatic weighing so I looked it up. Hydrostatic
weighing appears to measure water displacement to figure out the body's
density and hence fat to muscle composition. The density of muscle is 1.06
g/ml and fat is 0.92 g/ml. [1]

A gain of 30 pounds of water (1.0 g/ml) would show up as roughly equal gains
in fat and muscle since water's density is about at the midpoint between fat
and muscle. Ferriss's claim is +34 pounds of muscle and -3 pounds of fat.

I'm certain Ferriss gained lots of muscle in his four-week trial. His
methodology isn't all that different from Gallon Of Milk A Day (GOMAD) plus
the Starting Strength workout plan, both of which I've personally used to some
success. That said, the freely available quotes don't give all of the
necessary information. If you happen to buy the book, please share with us.

<http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview/id/576481.html>

------
RobertKohr
anyone want to give the short-short version of this. The transcript was way
too long, and was all over the place, and I didn't have the patience for the
video.

~~~
thereddestruby
1\. Measure what you eat. 2\. Brief, intense, and regular workouts. 3\. Repeat
every day.

~~~
wazoox
Don't workout every day, only twice a week.

~~~
aik
5\. It matters what you eat. 6. Stay dedicated to the routines partly through
limiting your choices and partly through creating accountability

------
candre717
Tim is our generation's chuck norris. I've seen his Tedtalk - it's like he
walks on water. He's a genius at self-promotion, but too much cloud in the sky
goals and success, and you start to see the fluff.

------
tyrmored
I bought Ferriss' book on a whim at an airport. I have no qualms in saying I
think it's perhaps the worst waste of $20 in my life. The guy's a charlatan.

------
bodybuilder
Tim Ferriss is correct that it takes 4 hours to get a body like his. However,
to be accurate, he should have said 4 hours per DAY.

2 hours weights + 2 hours cardio will get you in shape like him. Not drinking
milk and expecting to lose 10 lbs = fail.

the guy is a sales/marketing genius.

~~~
swombat
A great many people (also known as "hard-gainers") will not gain any muscle
whatsoever by exercising every day - let alone exercising for 4 hours every
day.

If you're a hard-gainer (I am), you will need to:

* Do the right kinds of exercises (squats, deadlifts, bench press, pullups, inverted rows, etc)

* Rest enough in between sessions (2 days between sessions at least)

* Eat enough, including enough protein from a variety of sources

If you do those things, you will put on muscle no matter what your body type.
Exercise 4 hours a day, and you will only put on muscle if you have awesome
genetics.

~~~
bodybuilder
you dont do the same routine every day; you do a 3-day split. I guarantee you
if we did a study of 1,000 americans who did 4 hours per day and rotated their
weights and cardio vs. Tim's method; 95% would be in much better shape my way.
and the 5% who dont cant put on weight.

" 1 point by swombat 3 minutes ago | link | parent

A great many people (also known as "hard-gainers") will not gain any muscle
whatsoever by exercising every day - let alone exercising for 4 hours every
day.

If you're a hard-gainer (I am), you will need to:

* Do the right kinds of exercises (squats, deadlifts, bench press, pullups, inverted rows, etc)

* Rest enough in between sessions (2 days between sessions at least)

* Eat enough, including enough protein from a variety of sources

"If you do those things, you will put on muscle no matter what your body type.
Exercise 4 hours a day, and you will only put on muscle if you have awesome
genetics."

exactly; the same kind of "superhuman" genetics tim ferriss (and me) already
have. thing is; if we don't do 4 hr/day, we get fat just like most of America!

~~~
sedachv
The point is why bother? You can get exactly the same or better results in
terms of fat loss and muscle gain doing 2 or 3 30-40 minute HIT workouts a
week. The only way you can do a real 4 hour per day workout is if you're a pro
athlete and have the rest of the day off to rest and eat. Cardio and most
bodyweight exercises are a waste of time if you're not doing them for sport-
specific training but just to shed fat. Take the stairs and cycle or walk to
work instead of wasting your time on a treadmill.

------
TheSOB88
Andrew, great interview. I was just wondering if there was a reason you don't
ask people to repeat themselves when the video cuts off? It seems to take away
a little from the video. (I did notice the sly handling regarding the "blue
light" cutoff)

------
dkarl
_Update: Tim says if you buy 3 copies of his book and email him your receipt,
he’ll send you a chapter that his publisher edited out of the book._

This on top of an incredible claim caused my informational immune system to
close the tab. If any reasonable person made such a discovery, they would be
concerned about skepticism, about looking like a huckster. And about being
wrong! They would look for some way to validate their work and would see if
they could convince someone credible in the field before they started pitching
it to the general public. This guy is going out of his way to look like a
charlatan. Conclusion: he's looking for suckers and is weeding out everyone
else right up front.

