THE PROTOCOL
- Eat around 4000 calories per day for 28 to 42 days (I’ll see how I’m tracking at the end of the first 28 days): see FOOD PLAN below
- Train twice a week to failure on a few exercises: see TRAINING PLAN below)
- Take a DEXA scan before and after to measure body composition
- Take full blood test before and after
BACKGROUND
After reading Tim Ferriss’s book “The 4 Hour Body” I decided that I would give this experiment a go myself and share the results with all our BroFoodCo users.
A little bit about myself. In December 2014 I cut all added sugar and processed/junk foods from my diet. I even started doing this thing called “exercise” again after 8 years in Vietnam working my but off (on my laptop) and not moving my butt!
I’ve been doing Interment Faster (16/8 method) for the last 4 years as well. In 2015, 2016 and 2017 I did it for 3 months only, prior to going to the Greek islands for summer, and then went back to normal eating 4-5 meals a day whenever. Then in April 2018 I started my usual Intermittent Fasting before Greece, but then decided I would keep doing it with a bit of flexibility (eg. if I had dinner that night, I would start eating around 1PM or 2PM, instead of 10AM to 12PM). This flexibility makes compliance so much easier.
I haven’t been training the previous four weeks prior to this experiment. I did spend 3 weeks kiting in Cape Town, SA and the week before I did some kiteboarding sessions, but no other training. I also started on the protein shakes a week before training and increasing my calorie intake close to 4000 calories per day to start the feeding frenzy.
I have also done a DEXA scan from Measure UP in Melbourne. Basic results:
- Lean mass: 65.868 kg
- Fat: 7.989 kg
- Total mass: 73.856 kg
- Body fat percentage: 10.8%
I also did the Endurance Check blood testing from I-Screen so I have a baseline to go off (this is my fourth test of this time so I have a bit of data to go on based on a previous experiments: vegan and intermittent fasting).
TRAINING PLAN
Workout A
- Muscle-ups: 7 reps with cadence of 2/8
- 3 minute rest
- Wide grip pull-ups (palms forward): 7 reps with cadence of 5/5
- 3 minute rest
- Narrow grip chin-ups (palms facing you): 7 reps with cadence of 5/5
- 3 minute rest
- Handstand push-ups: 7 reps with cadence of 5/5
- 3 minute rest
- Front lever progression (raise legs up and bring down slowly): 7 reps with cadence of 3/7
- 3 minute rest
- 60-90 seconds plank
Workout B
- Pistol Squats: 7 reps (each leg) with cadence of 5/5
- 3 minute rest
- Weighted Push-ups (will start with 10kg): 7 reps with cadence of 5/5
- 3 minute rest
- 50 dumbell swings: 50
- 3 minute rest
- Weighted Dips (will start with 10kg): 7 reps with cadence of 5/5
- 3 minute rest
- 60-90 seconds plank
(I might add more set of squats with 24kg or 34kg weights, will see how I go with this the first time)
FOOD PLAN
My food plan is super simple. I took a day’s worth of food, weighed it and added to Cronometer to see how many calories on average I would be eating following the meal plan below. It came to a modest 4200 calories. Let the games begin!
I eat an organic whole food plant based diet and will just increase the number of meals I have a day and add two protein shakes into the mix, as follows (most items below are organic):
- Meal 1 – Protein shake 1
- 100ml water, 50-100ml Bonsoy soy mil, 50g frozen blueberries, 50 grams frozen rasberries or blackberries (depends what is in the freeze at the time), 15 grams pea protein, 15 grams hemp protein, 10g shredded coconut, 20g raw cacao nibs, 40-50g banana, 5-10g chia seeds, 2g matcha powder, 5-8g hemp seeds, 2-4g flaxseed meal, creatine and l-glutamine)
- Meal 2 – Greg’s Porridge
- 20g chia seeds, 20g wheat flakes, 10g teff, 12g shredded coconut, 20g blanched almonds, 20g raw cacao nibs, 50g frozen blueberries, 50 grams frozen rasberries or blackberries (depends what is in the freeze at the time), a spoon of soy yoghourt and 60-100ml of Bonsoy soy milk
- Meal 3 – Greg’s Salad
- 120g lentils (half a can), 120g red kidney beans(half a can), 100g quinoa, couple of tomatoes chopped up, some spinach or equivalent green stuff, capsicum (bell pepper), 100g of Earth Source Firm Tofu or 130g Prima Soy Three Seeds Tempeh (love this stuff and sometimes added both), chopped carrots, some hemp seeds and any other green stuff that comes from my weekly veggie box from PEACE Farm. All of this food is chopped up, put into a bowl and eaten with pleasure. If I remember I add some brewers yeast too.
- Meal 4 – Greg’s Veggie stew
- This is super fun and easy to make as follows. Get a pot and put some water in it and put on the stove. Add some cracked pepper, celtic sea salt, rosemary, oregano, curry powder, paprika, chilli and turmeric into the pot and turn on the stove. Stir a bit while you chop up half or a full bulb of garlic and one onion. Keep stirring and turn down the heat a bit. Veggies time! Chop up in any order (should be bigger items first but I usually chop everything in the wrong order): carrots, egg plant, mint, coriander, spring onions and any other green stuff you have in the fridge. As you add these to the pot, turn up the heat and also add a tin of diced tomatoes. Then chop up and add in 250g of Earth Source Firm Tofu. Once it is cooked, put some quinoa or brown/wild rice into a bowl, with a soup ladle put a third to a half on top (if you put a third you get to eat this three times before having to cook it again, you can work that maths out if you put half in your bowl). On top put some hemp seeds and brewers yeast.
- Meal 5 – Protein shake 2
- 100ml water, 50-100ml Bonsoy soy mil, 50g frozen blueberries, 50 grams frozen rasberries or blackberries (depends what is in the freeze at the time), 15 grams pea protein, 15 grams hemp protein, 10g shredded coconut, 20g raw cacao nibs, 40-50g banana, 5-10g chia seeds, 2g matcha powder, 5-8g hemp seeds, 2-4g flaxseed meal, creatine and l-glutamine)
- Meal 6 – Snacks
- Almonds
- Brazil nuts
- Banana
- Penut butter (unsalted)
- Honey
- Soy lattes
SUPPLIMENTS
- Pea protein powder from Terra Madre (mixed half/half with the Hemp protein powder twice per day in a shake)
- Hemp protein powder from Terra Madre (mixed half/half with the Pea protein powder twice per day in a shake)
- ZMST from ATP Science (1 capsule 2-3 times per day)
- L-Gutamine from ATP Science (50g spread over 5 serves for the first 5 days and then some before/after my workout)
- Creatine from ATP Science (3g in the morning and 3g at night before bed)
- Some nutritional yeast when I remember to add it to my meals (not sure if this is a supplement or not, but adding here anyway)
PODCASTS
If you want to keep yourself busy during this experiment you can listen to these podcasts:
OTHER REFERENCES
Here’s a list of other references I’ve used while trying to workout how to do this experiment:
- http://www.fourhourbodycouple.com/2011/01/06/4-hour-body-cheat-sheet-accelerated-fat-loss/
- http://www.fourhourbodycouple.com/2011/02/12/4-hour-body-cheat-sheet-occams-protocol-workout-sheet/
