A 4HB update

My 4HB update to you is that in my context 4HB currently does not make any sense. As you can read here, I at least in my own opinion had quite a success applying 4HB to my personal target of getting rid all of that schlumpy access weight I gained in the last years after getting kids, changing life style after that and so on.

I reduced my weight to some sustainable 82kg, coming from 92kg (I don't even get it now that it was that much). After that I wanted to further reduce my weight to a 12% body fat bearing 78kg with 4HB and I even bragged about it. I won't do that, even though I'm quite sure it would just take me a couple of weeks. So the first message is again: 4HB works.

BUT: For me it has a specific target, which is reduce as much body fat as possible in the shortest possible time frame. And it does that well. Reading the book I am sure that @tferriss refined 4HB for that exact same target and he seems to have needed and applied it to some specific targets in his fighting caterer etc.

So to come back to why I dropped 4HB for my target of getting down to 78kg. After a little research it became apparent that Ferriss took the Paleo diet and stripped it down a little in some details and made it more practically applicable by formulating some strict, simple rules and overall simplicity.

Now this is exactly what drives me away from 4HB - the simplicity leads to nutritional behavior and simplicity that I just don't like and which doesn't feel natural to me. With 4HB that is not even intended, I guess. As I said it is not supposed to be fun, taste well or anything. It's intended to shave off weight quickly. There is just one effect that makes me a little suspicious in 4HB. On the binge days you can experience increase in body fat in just one day. If you stop 4HB you will gain quite a lot of body fat in your next two weeks. To me it indicates that something in 4HB is tricking the body in a way that's at least strange, as with the same nutrition without 4HB you don't gain body fat. To me it seems that the fat cells get so depleted that they simply get hungry and take all they can get, which is a long explanation for the yoyo effect.

Coming back to Paleo diet, which has a completely different target, which is to offer a sustainable nutrition pattern or paradigm, I don't get it at all. I guess for a carnivore it's fine. But for me as a vegetarian, I don't even get started. Yes I've read all through the Internet for the few experience reports and hints on how to go Paleo as a veggie, but nine looks convincing and sustainable to me. Challenge me on details in the comments.

Now what I am going to do seems a little harder to me but also more convincing and - main point - more sustainable. I'll follow the advice of the great book 'Vegetarian Sports Nutrition' by Ennette Larson Mayer published by Human Kinetics. The point made in this book is, and I highly embrace it, quite the contrary of Paleo and 4HB: Your nutrition should be as diverse and possible and rather than concentrating on complex carbs you should work on the right mix between complex and simple and refined carbs. This means a high variety in grains, wholebfood, legumes, vegetables etc. Sports drinks are ok, if you keep level. The recommendation is to find the right level of proteins, not to concentrate on them. You should eat fruits - and lots of them. (As there is no indication of fruits spiking the blood sugar, it's even supposed to be weight neutral.) And so on, and so on. In short it seems to be a holistic, sustainable approach to nutrition and this, I guess, is my next challenge rather than just going down some kilos. 4HB gave me a nice trigger to make nutrition a topic for well being but it now is what it is: A method to reduce weight quickly, which I don't aim at. It'd be the wrong tool for me.