4 Hour Body Cheat Sheet (Improved)

Buy the Book!
The 4-Hour Body cheat sheet, meal plans and other tips on this blog are now available in Slow Carb Fat Loss, a handy companion guide to make the most of the slow carb fat loss plan. Buy a copy today.

Other 4-Hour Body posts:

• 4-Hour Body Shopping List (including supplements)
• Example Slow Carb Meal Plan
• How to Take a Cold Shower
• How To Do Kettlebell Swing (demo by Tim Ferris)
• 4HB Effectiveness: 28 days and counting

If you have been reading The 4-Hour Body by Tim Ferris, you're probably excited to get started. Although the basic eating plan is simple enough, if you add in the GLUT-4 exercises, supplements, and other activities, it can get confusing to plan your day.


I did my best to capture the eating plan, GLUT-4 exercises, supplements, and cold therapy in one cheat sheet for my own use, which provides a daily schedule for the 4-Hour Body fat loss plan.

It is not a replacement for the book itself. The 4-Hour Body is an excellent resource, well researched and carefully documented. The cheat sheet is just a helpful way to capture the most important information on a single page for people who have read the book.

The cheat sheet has been updated on 1/27/2011 to reflect corrections and questions from readers.

New 4 Hour Body Fat Loss Cheat Sheet

4HB Fat Loss Cheat Sheet Download by format:

• HTML (best for most people)
• Excel (great for printing)
• PDF
• Numbers

If you find the cheat sheet helpful, please check out the 4-Hour Body Fat Loss Shopping List, which puts together the supplements, exercise equipment, and measuring tools from the 4-Hour Body in one place.

Frequently asked questions:

1. Q: Am I supposed to have 3 meals or 4 meals per day? The cheat sheet only shows 3, but Tim Ferriss has 4.
   A: Tim Ferriss says you can do either. His guiding advice is to "eat when you're hungry". For many people, 3 meals are more convenient than 4, but if you are consistently getting hungry before your next meal, then it may make sense to do 4 meals. Note that the AGG stack should be taken a maximum of 4 times per day, one of which is at bedtime, so if you do have four meals, don't take AGG with every meal.
   
2. Q: Do I have to take a cold shower?
   A: No, the cold shower and everything besides the eating plan is optional. You may lose weight faster, but you should still lose about 15 pounds in one month just doing the diet portion.
   
3. Q: Do I do the GLUT-4 exercises every day or just on cheat day? Do I take PAGG every day or just on cheat day? Do I take Cissus Quad just on cheat day, or every day?
   A: The formatting of the book does make this hard to understand. Most people who are following the 4HB and who choose to use PAGG or do the GLUT4 exercises do them every day. (Tim Ferris says to skip the PAGG stack one day per week, and one week per month.) However, Cissus Quad is not for long term use, according to Tim. I think he is suggesting that you use it only on cheat day, or for periods of up to four to six weeks.
   
4. Q: I am not losing weight, so what am I doing wrong?
   A: One possibility is that you're not losing weight because the fat loss is roughly balancing out weight gain. Many people seem to report that their clothes are fitting much better even though they aren't seeing any pounds lost. This is what Tim Ferriss calls body recomposition.
   
   Other likely possibilities include: You are making your meals too complex and fancy. Keep it simple, and repeat a few meals. You are not eating another protein. Are you getting at least 30 grams of protein at breakfast, and 20 grams at lunch and dinner? That doesn't mean just 30 grams of food, but actual 30 grams of protein in your food. Not sure? Count your protein for two days.
   
   Go visit the 4hb talk forums, where many users are helping each other. 

p.s. If you want to link to the cheat sheet, please link to this page, rather than the individual documents, whose URLs may change.