Scan barcode
nochillanna's review against another edition
2.0
Interesting read, got recommended this because this guy claims to reverse permanent injuries. I've struggled with some for a while so gave it a go. Haven't fully tested his methods but seeing other reviews i'mm sceptic if it makes it worse or not. A lot of it was basic knowledge and talk about Keto. But certainly some new things I learned too. Good read for those who need some basic but still unsure if all this is truly recommended.
annaka's review against another edition
challenging
informative
slow-paced
2.0
For a book that's meant to benefit men and women, it really seems to be written to men. Women feature heavily in sections, but in more of a things happen to us than in a human way. I have many concerns about his advice and how much it can apply to the ordinary person. I used his slow-carb diet ideas back when they were trendy in my community (around 2009 I believe) and decided to pick up the book when my husband noted interest in trying the diet. I did lose a good bit of weight when I did the diet the first time but gained it all back after I stopped because it was feeling unmanageable. My husband and I briefly tried it again earlier this year but again found it a bit too much for day to day living (especially if you want to enjoy your days). I think we'll look into things like the blue zone for more balanced diet/life advice.
The rest of this book came off as Ferris being a bit full of himself. He seemed to give a good deal of advice but it was hard to focus on the advice itself and not the pacing and attitude of the book itself (likely made worse by the fact that I listened to it as an audiobook and only referred back to the ebook I purchased years ago when I thought I'd read it prior to doing the slow carb diet). In Ferris' defense, he does recommend only taking the book in in sections based off of what you want to "hack" at any given time and perhaps the book would have been more digestible had I used it that way. Overall, I think there are better resources out there, especially if you are looking for a more balanced perspective or are female.
The rest of this book came off as Ferris being a bit full of himself. He seemed to give a good deal of advice but it was hard to focus on the advice itself and not the pacing and attitude of the book itself (likely made worse by the fact that I listened to it as an audiobook and only referred back to the ebook I purchased years ago when I thought I'd read it prior to doing the slow carb diet). In Ferris' defense, he does recommend only taking the book in in sections based off of what you want to "hack" at any given time and perhaps the book would have been more digestible had I used it that way. Overall, I think there are better resources out there, especially if you are looking for a more balanced perspective or are female.
libellum_aphrodite's review against another edition
3.0
When I put a hold on this book at the library, I had no clue I was going to be sent home with the gigantic volume that is The 4-Hour Body. Ferriss does a good job with such bulk though - I actually sat and read more sections than I thought I would (at the beginning, the reader is urged to only read the sections that they find relevant) just because I was carried along with the narrative.
Factoring in a grain of salt for Ferriss's showmanship and tendency toward the extreme, overall I found this a good source of diet/exercise ideas that can be easily tried out by those of us already on the regular exercise and diet conscious bandwagon, particularly given Ferriss's focus on minimum effective dosages. For example, a 30 minute/week ab routine is easy to give a shot and is a small gamble of time.
Ferriss's low carb variation, the Slow Carb Diet, seems a radical version of the Time Limited Carb Diet described by Dr. Terry Grossman. Both advocate staying away from carbs most of the time to keep insulin levels (and thus fat storage) at a minimum. The differentiation is when carbs are allowed - Ferriss gives you a carb binge once a week and Grossman allows carbs (not in binge form) at one meal a day. I imagine that Grossman's approach is more sustainable long term. As a distance runner, avoiding all bread, potatoes, rice, cereal, and fruit for 6 days of the week sounds like a terrible idea if I hope to get more than 6 miles in during the week. I also am suspect of Ferriss's cyclic binges - my instinct says these would slow rather than facilitate fat loss, but I have neither data nor anecdotes to directly refute him. I think his "cheat day" idea can be a fine way not to grind your metabolism to a halt and is a good mental health check when employed infrequently, but I doubt the weekly feeding frenzy he advocates is a wise idea and is more likely to derail rather than encourage most dieters.
A large gamut of material is covered in the book, so the solidarity and completeness of evidence fluctuates by topic, but as a whole, I would criticize it as overly male centric. I realize Ferriss is a man, and experiments a man has done on himself are automatically more relevant to men. I understand why the discrepancy exists and appreciate his attempts to mitigate it by including female case studies and addressing male and female anatomies separately, but I often found myself wishing for an equally detailed female data set as the one he has for himself.
Factoring in a grain of salt for Ferriss's showmanship and tendency toward the extreme, overall I found this a good source of diet/exercise ideas that can be easily tried out by those of us already on the regular exercise and diet conscious bandwagon, particularly given Ferriss's focus on minimum effective dosages. For example, a 30 minute/week ab routine is easy to give a shot and is a small gamble of time.
Ferriss's low carb variation, the Slow Carb Diet, seems a radical version of the Time Limited Carb Diet described by Dr. Terry Grossman. Both advocate staying away from carbs most of the time to keep insulin levels (and thus fat storage) at a minimum. The differentiation is when carbs are allowed - Ferriss gives you a carb binge once a week and Grossman allows carbs (not in binge form) at one meal a day. I imagine that Grossman's approach is more sustainable long term. As a distance runner, avoiding all bread, potatoes, rice, cereal, and fruit for 6 days of the week sounds like a terrible idea if I hope to get more than 6 miles in during the week. I also am suspect of Ferriss's cyclic binges - my instinct says these would slow rather than facilitate fat loss, but I have neither data nor anecdotes to directly refute him. I think his "cheat day" idea can be a fine way not to grind your metabolism to a halt and is a good mental health check when employed infrequently, but I doubt the weekly feeding frenzy he advocates is a wise idea and is more likely to derail rather than encourage most dieters.
A large gamut of material is covered in the book, so the solidarity and completeness of evidence fluctuates by topic, but as a whole, I would criticize it as overly male centric. I realize Ferriss is a man, and experiments a man has done on himself are automatically more relevant to men. I understand why the discrepancy exists and appreciate his attempts to mitigate it by including female case studies and addressing male and female anatomies separately, but I often found myself wishing for an equally detailed female data set as the one he has for himself.
cosetthetable's review against another edition
2.0
this book is supposedly aimed at both men and women, except the sex chapters seem to be set up so that sex is something that happens TO women, not something that women might be trying to optimize. this would be enough for me to dislike the book, but there's also scientific laziness all over the place. if that's not enough, a large portion of the book is centered around exercises that he can't explain, with links to his website, some of which don't really work. Sometimes those links are to helpful videos, sometimes they're just links to additional bad text explanations. I hoped to get some ideas on a couple tweaks to make to my life. Not so much.
michelleloretta's review against another edition
3.0
This is a 2 1/2. I think Tim Ferriss is nuts... but something about him amuses me. Maybe it's his audaciousness... you can smell the arrogance in every page. He writes about a lot of things in here that he wants the reader to believe that he discovered... but he didn't... slow-carb is basically The Zone Diet (or Low Carb Diet) and a lot of his "discoveries" about the body and weight/muscle/fat control are bodybuilding tips that he's sharing with the mainstream. (I only know this - not as a bodybuilder - but because I had a friend that was into bodybuilding a few years back.)
I gave it a 2 1/2-3 stars because I did find it thought-provoking and did make me rethink about some of my behaviors with food and exercise.
I gave it a 2 1/2-3 stars because I did find it thought-provoking and did make me rethink about some of my behaviors with food and exercise.
jasperburns's review against another edition
4.0
View my best reviews and a collection of mental models at jasperburns.blog.
artex's review against another edition
That one is interesting beast indeed. Took many months to apply and see what works.
yates9's review against another edition
3.0
Fun tricks but for most people this won’t work... We still do not understand diet.