Lose Weight: Eat Every Four Hours (2024)

FAQs

Lose Weight: Eat Every Four Hours? ›

You'll probably lose some weight if you follow the 4-Hour Body diet. However, it's not a sustainable long-term approach to weight loss. You could develop nutritional deficiencies by omitting entire food groups and unhealthy eating habits from binge-eating.

Eating every 4 hours may help you lose weight and prevent cancer. What we eat matters, but when we eat is just as important. Research has told us that eating every four hours helps our metabolism work better, controls blood sugar, and reacquaints us with our body's natural hunger and fullness signals.

Is The 4-Hour Body worth it? The 4-Hour Body diet might help you lose weight initially, but it's not a sustainable long-term approach and could lead to nutritional deficiencies and unhealthy eating habits.

Eat breakfast within an hour of waking up and eat four meals a day, four hours apart. Drink lots of water and as many low- or no-calorie drinks as you like. Don't drink juice, milk, or soda. Optionally drink fewer than 16 ounces of diet soda or two glasses of dry red wine a day.

Eating regular meals and snacks helps keep your energy at an even level, without highs and lows. “Aim to eat every three to four hours. That means three small-to-moderate-size meals and two snacks,” says Raphael. Make them well balanced, and include complex carbs, proteins, and fats.

The 30-30-30 diet involves eating 30g of protein within 30 minutes of waking up, and then completing 30 minutes of low intensity exercise. This method first appeared in Tim Ferriss' book The 4-Hour Body in 2010 but was recently popularized by nutritionist and wellness podcaster Gary Brecka.

For example, one of the "sub-method" is the 4-4-12 schedule, in which the interval between their breakfast and lunch must be at least four hours, while dinner comes at least four hours after lunch and 12 hours ahead of breakfast the next day.

With the safe and reliable weight-loss combination of diet and exercise, it's difficult to lose more than about a pound within a four-day period of time. However, depending on how much you weigh and the techniques you employ to slim down, it could be possible to lose 3 pounds or more in as many days.

The general recommendation is to aim for a weight loss of 1-2 pounds per week, which translates to a maximum of 8 pounds in 4 weeks. This is considered a safe and sustainable rate of weight loss that can be achieved through a combination of healthy eating habits and regular physical activity.

Is intermittent fasting better than eating small meals? ›

Research Highlights: Eating less overall and fewer large meals may be a more effective weight management strategy than restricting meals to a narrow time window, such as intermittent fasting, according to a study that analyzed the electronic health records of about 550 adults who were followed for six years.

The short answer is “Yes” — although Tim does say “no dairy” on the diet, he does recommend cottage cheese as a “fine addition” to breakfast (see The 4-Hour Body page 89). You will probably want to watch it and not go too crazy with the cottage cheese, but you've got clearance from the Man himself to go ahead!

The slow-carb diet requires you to stay away from starchy foods and anything made from grains (including corn, rice, and quinoa), potatoes, and flour. Instead, you should eat carbs that take longer to digest, such as low-carb vegetables and legumes.

The goal is to eat every 3 to 4 hours in order to keep your blood sugar consistent and for your stomach to optimally digest. Setting this schedule consistently across days can also help curb overeating which can lead to bloating or indigestion.

To reap benefits that facilitate weight loss, fat burning, metabolism and management of appetite and cravings, make sure there are at least 12 hours between dinner and the next day's breakfast. An easy way to achieve this is to push dinner a little earlier or skip the late-night snacks.

If your schedule varies every day, have healthy snacks on hand for times when a meal needs to wait. Bring a cooler in the car or store food in the refrigerator at work. If you work the afternoon shift or overnight shift, the same eating routine rules apply — eat your meals between four and five hours apart.

Eating small, balanced meals every 3 hours boosts your body's fat-burning potential, Cruise says.

The Bottom Line. While there is no one perfect way to time your meals, there is some evidence that suggests that eating most of your food earlier in the day, going lighter at your evening meal and leaving at least 12 hours between dinner and breakfast may have some health benefits—including enhanced weight loss.

You've probably heard the advice that eating small meals throughout the day is how you win the battle of the bulge. The claim is that frequent snacking, as long as it's healthy, keeps your metabolism humming, staves off hunger, and controls blood sugar. The end result: You eat less.