Quotes - The 4-Hour Body (Timothy Ferriss)

Skeletal muscle is a very effective generator of force. 1kg of it can support 44kg of mass.


INSULIN
RULE #1: AVOID “WHITE” CARBOHYDRATES. Avoid any carbohydrate that is, or can be, white. The following foods are prohibited, except for within 30 minutes of finishing a resistance-training workout like those described in the “From Geek to Freak” or “Occam’s Protocol” chapters: all bread, rice (including brown), cereal, potatoes, pasta, tortillas, and fried food with breading. If you avoid eating the aforementioned foods and anything else white, you’ll be safe. Just for fun, another reason to avoid the whities: chlorine dioxide, one of the chemicals used to bleach flour (even if later made brown again, a common trick), combines with residual protein in most of these foods to form alloxan. Researchers use alloxan in lab rats to induce diabetes. That’s right—it’s used to produce diabetes. This is bad news if you eat anything white or “enriched.”

Rule #2: Eat the same few meals over and over again.
Rule #3: Don’t drink calories.
Rule #4: Don’t eat fruit.
Rule #5: Take one day off per week and go nuts.

CHEAT DAY
PRINCIPLE #1: MINIMIZE THE RELEASE OF INSULIN, A STORAGE HORMONE.
1. Ensure that your first meal of the day is not a binge meal. Make it high in protein (at least 30 grams) and insoluble fiber (legumes will handle this).
2. Consume a small quantity of fructose, fruit sugar, in grapefruit juice before the second meal, which is the first crap meal. Even small fructose dosing has an impressive near-flat-lining effect on blood glucose.
3. Use supplements that increase insulin sensitivity (PAGG)
4. Consume citric juices, whether lime juice squeezed into water, lemon juice on food, or a beverage like the citrus kombucha I had.
5. Increase insulin sensitivity before binging by adding some cinnamon to your pastries.

PRINCIPLE #2: INCREASE THE SPEED OF GASTRIC EMPTYING, OR HOW QUICKLY FOOD EXITS THE STOMACH.
Use caffeine and yerba mate tea, at the most crap-laden meals.
Greens supplement, “Athletic Greens” doesn’t contain caffeine but will also help.

PRINCIPLE #3: ENGAGE IN BRIEF MUSCULAR CONTRACTION THROUGHOUT THE BINGE.
Do 60–90 seconds of funny exercises a few minutes before you eat and, ideally, again about 90 minutes afterward

[ because it brings glucose transporter type 4 (GLUT-4) to the surface of muscle cells, opening more gates for the calories to flow into. The more muscular gates we have open before insulin triggers the same GLUT-4 on the surface of fat cells, the more we can put in muscle instead of fat. "In conclusion, the present investigation demonstrated that 8 days of HIT lasting only 280 seconds elevated both GLUT-4 content and maximal glucose transport activity in rat skeletal muscle to a level similar to that attained after LIT ('Low-Intensity Training' of six hours a session), which has been considered a tool to increase GLUT-4 content. Compared to a control, GLUT-4 content in the muscle was increased 83% with 280 seconds of HIT vs. 91% with six hours of LIT.]



(P)AGG
Policosanol (Nature's Life)

Alpha-lipoic acid (ALA) is a potent antioxidant and free radical scavenger that has been proven to regenerate vitamin C and vitamin E; restore levels of intracellular glutathione, an important antioxidant that declines with age; and increase excretion of toxic heavy metals such as mercury.

Ensure adequate consumption of B-complex vitamins while using PAGG

Green Tea Flavanols (EGCG) - decaffeinated
Human studies have shown some potential fat-loss with as little as a single dose of 150 milligrams of EGCG.


Garlic (ALLICIN POTENTIAL, S-ALLYL CYSTEIENE)
Garlic extract and its constituent parts have been used for applications ranging from cholesterol management to inhibiting lethal MRSA staph infections.


SLEEP & RECOVERY
Science and empirical data have shown that the body needs 4-6 weeks to reset and regain its physiological bearings. The hypothalamus gland controls bodyweight, boyd temperature, hunger, thirst, fatigue, and circadian cycles. The interim phase allows the hypothalamus gland to recalibrate and readjust.

Allowing the body to "forget" exercises in an interim/recovery phase makes the movements feel fresh and new when they are re-instituted and the training effect is profound.


CROSS TRAINING
The basic movement patterns are like the 0-9 keys on a calculator. All other numbers, complex movements, in this case, are still combinations of the basics. If you feel strained, you're not using the proper technique. Stop and review rather than persist through the pain and develop bad habits.


BACTERIA
So far, two primary strains of bacteria have been found to influence fat absorption, almost regardless of diet: Bacteroidetes and Firmicutes. Lean people have more Bacteroidetes and fewer Firmicutes; obese people have more Firmicutes and fewer Bacteroidetes.

Prebiotics are fermentable substrates that help bacteria grow and thrive. In this category, I’ve experimented with organic inulin and fructo-oligosaccharides, commonly referred to as FOS. In the whole-foods realm, garlic, leeks, and chicory are all high in inulin or FOS content.