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Why Tim Ferris’s ‘The 4-Hour Body’ is Impossible
Why you won’t achieve ‘the 4-Hour Body’
Tim Ferris’s bestselling book ‘The 4-Hour Body’ includes a chapter called ‘From Geek to Freak’, in which he claims to have gained 34lbs (15.4kg) of muscle in just four weeks, while simultaneously losing 3lbs (1.3kg) of body fat. On top of that he spent just FOUR HOURS IN TOTAL in the gym – just eight visits of 30 minutes each, doing two exercises each time.
This claim is patently ridiculous and completely out of line with all scientific and anecdotal data and the experience of any bodybuilder, sports coach or personal trainer.
As we have seen documented in thousands of DEXA scans since 2015, everyone is different and their efforts to change their body composition deliver a wide range of results. But, fundamentally, muscle growth is best achieved by resistance training that optimises volume and intensity.
Tim’s regime may include intensity (do the exercises, he says, “as if there’s a gun to your head”) but it rates abysmally on volume. One set of seven reps just once a week. It just won’t work!
This article from some years ago by Menno Henselsmans presents multiple recent scientific studies which shows a correlation between those performing more sets per week in the gym and those gaining the most muscle mass. One of the studies that led to the fastest muscle growth was by participants performing 45 sets on the triceps alone!
This study also shows that training a muscle three times per week instead of just once, even with the same total number of sets each week, led to significantly better increases in muscle mass and strength. There is plenty of similar research also showing a higher frequency of training leading to better results.
A similar training protocol to Geek to Freak can be found in another “research-based” bestseller, Body by Science.
Anecdotally, Bodyscan customers who follow the ‘less is more’ protocols achieve very low or even ZERO muscle gain, while ‘conventional’ programmes result in more predictable gains of 2-3kg over 12 weeks. We did have one male client who achieved 2-3kg (5-6lb) of lean gain in 12 weeks after following Tim’s programme, but he was a complete newbie to any form of resistance training. Novices achieve the biggest gains in the shortest time because their muscles are new to the stimulus.
But low-rep regimens certainly do not produce maximal returns, even for newbies, and produce very poor results for those with intermediate experience of weight training or above.
If the scientific research and the protocols that successful bodybuilders have been following for decades all point against Tim’s routine, how did he manage to achieve the results he claims?
First of all, Tim is well known for his attention-grabbing, extreme weight-cutting tactics for sports with weight categories and even has an article on his website ‘How to lose 30 pounds [13.6kg] in 24 hours’.
The biggest factor at play in any rapid change in body weight is water. It is physically impossible to lose more than 13kg of fat or muscle or a combination of both in 24 hours.
Over 60% of a muscle cell is water. Therefore with extreme de-hydration and re-hydration tactics, you can potentially gain 15-30lbs (7-14kg) of water weight. When measured by almost any means (including DEXA scans*), this non-fat mass would count as ‘lean mass’ which, if his weight numbers are true, Tim Ferriss has incorrectly (and conveniently) claimed as muscle mass.
[*To his credit, Ferris is an advocate of DEXA scans to accurately measure and precisely monitor changes in body composition. But he either does not understand or conveniently omits that DEXA, like most other body composition measurement methods, includes water content within lean mass. Therefore, it relies on the expertise of your Bodyscan DEXA consultant (and, having performed more than 17,000 scans we have more experience in the UK and Europe than anyone else, guaranteed) to explain what is lean mass and what is muscle.
At your Baseline appointment, whilst we will read your lean mass as if it were muscle, we are careful to explain and be cognisant of the fact that your DEXA lean indices are inclusive of all fat-free soft tissue and water. Whilst, over the long term, lean changes are typically changes in skeletal muscle mass, drastic changes in diet, steroid use, creatine, hydration, carb-loading and calorie intake before a scan will affect the lean mass result.]
To get back to Tim, in 28 days he would not have gained more than a few pounds of true skeletal muscle mass under his low-volume protocol.
The pictures he presents of himself were either achieved with ‘assistance’ and aren’t natural or were done in a much longer time frame with much more volume than he claims.
In the real world, a 1-hour session performed four times a week would be an optimal sweet spot for many. If you are stressed, older, have poor sleep or consume sub-optimal protein or calories, you may want to reduce this to 2-3 times per week as you will have lower recovery capabilities.
If none of those apply, you could train 5-6 times per week for optimum results as you’ll be able to recover and therefore benefit from the additional training.
To conclude, the time-tested adage applies: if it’s too good to be true, it probably is. If you want high quality information regarding body composition, you should be listening to those who are experts in the field, not an entrepreneur who makes outlandish claims.
Think about it for just a moment. If it was as easy to gain muscle as Tim says it is, every man and woman who weight-trains would look like a Greek god(dess)! Looking at his website, Tim looks pretty slim, which makes me wonder, if he can put on muscle so quickly, why does he have so little now?
At Bodyscan we have had clients who have tried every fat-loss diet and muscle-building regimen out there. We have never seen anyone achieve anything close to Tim Ferris’s claimed results! Book your own Bodyscan DEXA scan appointment now. Start with the Baseline-plus-Consultation or commit upfront and purchase a prepaid package of multiple progress checks, valid over the course of a year. As for how much a DEXA scan costs in the UK, all our prices are here.
