I have been following the 4 Hour Body dietary recommendations for about a month now.
I've lost 10 pounds.
It's basically a modified Paleolithic diet.
I say modified, because it includes a lot of legumes, which strictly speaking, would not have been a major staple of the hunter-gatherer diet during the millions of years of Homo sapiens evolution.
The 4 Hour Body, by Tim Ferriss, is worth checking out at the library. He has done the nutritional research and it's at least 80% accurate on most points.
But the most important point is, does it work?
Like I said, I have been following it faithfully for month and I am 10 pounds lighter as of today. It's the most success I have had on any diet I have tried, including Atkins. Of course, the $500 wager from my mom to lose 25 pounds by Labor Day is a major incentive...
The diet itself is rather boring and repetitive. Ferriss' regimen is to follow the diet for six days of the week and then have a FREE DAY, always the same day of the week, where you can eat anything you want in whatever quantities you want.
Arguably, this is how humans ate in nature during most of human evolution. They would forage for vegetation and periodically take down wild game, on which they would gorge themselves (with no luxuries like refrigeration, the meat would not keep long).
But on a practical level, the FREE DAY helps to break up the monotony and serves as a kind of motivator in a strange way. The interesting thing is that I consistently have my greatest weight loss the day after my free day, which seems counter-intuitive.
The diet emphasized slow carbs, principally beans, and lean proteins. Beans are kind of the key because they are high in protein and low glycemic index carbs. Nutrient dense, low carb vegetables are also allowed ad libitum (Latin for unlimited amounts). Lean meats are also OK.
Protein consumption is encouraged within one hour of waking. This is supposed to kick start the metabolism and improve calorie burning during the day. I am not entirely clear on the biological basis for this, but I do notice that if I eat a breakfast high in protein, I don't get hungry again until well into the afternoon.
Anyway, it seems to be going well.
