Using the 4 Hour Body to loose weight.

This is the first post of many here I'll deal with my dietary exploits whilst using the book by Timothy Ferriss, The 4 Hour Body.

About 5 weeks ago, I made a decision to positively lose weight. For the past 4 years, my weight has hovered around 168Lbs, which for my height put my BMI over 26 and into the "overweight" category. As with anyone, my weight yoyo'd gently, for me from 166Lbs to 168Lbs and back again. Then I noticed the yoyo heading up a bit, and I hit 170Lbs. I wasn't just 11 stone nudging 12. I was 12 stone something. At 5'7", I'm too short to be 12 stone. This was a big motivator.

I've tried losing weight before, mainly by simply having smaller meals and cutting out chocolate, crisps, cake, biscuits etc, and this was successful up to a point, but I never really managed a significant and meaningful loss in weight.

I also took up running a few years ago. Running helps, but I'm not a natural runner and certainly not fast. I also get injured very easily and have probably spent more time not-being-a-runner than being-a-runner since I bought my first set of proper running shoes. Running will form part of my diet and exercise regime, but it will be low intensity and in sessions that last for 20-30 minutes, no more.

Having made the decision to diet, "The 4 Hour Body" made an appearance in my life. The author, Timothy Ferriss is a shameless self promoter. His Wikipedia entry tells us he won Wired magazine's "Greatest Self-Promoter of All Time" prize. However, don't let that put you off. The point is whether the programme he sets out actually works and I hope in the coming entries to show how it has worked for me. And given that I've already said that it's been 5 weeks since I made the decision, you can probably guess that I've had some success to talk about here.

When I started, my goals here were fairly open ended. The last time I seriously dieted, I was committed to a "10 in 10" programme. Lose 10Lbs in 10 weeks organised by Nigel of the recently deceased "Running from the Reaper" podcast. I lost 8Lbs with difficulty and then stacked it back on again fairly soon. Disappointed.

This time, the general goals I set out were:

• To reduce my overall body fat %
• To especially reduce my visceral fat % which had reached 10%
• To reduce my BMI to less than 25
• At a stretch, to be 10 stone something rather than 11 (or 12) stone something.

What I have revised this to now is:

• To reduce my BMI to 22.x

Over the next few posts, I'll provide 3 things.

1. Graphs of my daily weigh ins, catching up to the present.
2. Lists of everything I've eaten, and maybe some photos of meals
3. Short discussions on related topics, such as "what to drink", "affects on sleep", "helpful things I've bought.

Hope that this is useful to you.

E.