84% of people who stuck to the program lost weight and the average weight loss was 8.6 pounds. These numbers are very strong.

The diet is based on developing a few key habits: Slow-carb diet (no processed carbs or dairy), taking cold showers, eating 30 grams of protein within 30 minutes of waking up, exercising, and measuring your weight, body fat and total inches.

Below are the results and insights we found around what 4-Hour Body Diet habits led to success. We’re planning to do a lot more diet research and have included a section below about future directions. Even so, this initial trial was very informative.

The data we used comes from a large pool of Lift usage data (3,500 participants) and responses from a follow-up survey to Lift users in which 200 people participated.

Summary: 4-Hour Body Works

Not only did 84% of people who stuck to the diet for four weeks lose weight, 14% of people lost more than 15 pounds. That’s a lot of success for such a short amount of time.

Two habits correlated strongly with weight loss: eating a lot of eggs and eating veggies.

Two habits correlated with failure: heavy alcohol consumption and giving up on cold showers.

Defining Success: Lost Weight vs. Stasis

Across all our data, 16% of people didn’t lose weight. Let’s call this the baseline stasis rate. The margin of error on this survey is 5%.  We can use this to claim a correlation between sub-behaviors on this diet and success.

Eat eggs and veggies.

People who reported either eating two dozen eggs per week or “too many!” eggs had a stasis rate of 10% and 11%. That correlates with greater success on the diet (i.e. the data suggests you should be aggressively eating eggs for the purposes of this diet).

We saw a much bigger signal from people who weren’t including veggies in their daily meals. Their stasis rate was 25%. Your mom was right: eat your veggies.

Be consistent.

We asked a couple of questions that touched upon how consistently people stuck to their diet habits.

28% of people scrambled to find acceptable meals each day (presumably meaning that many meals weren’t strictly appropriate for the diet).

21% of Lifters maintained their regular, social drinking habits on the diet.  Tim recommends limiting alcohol and sticking to wine.

29% tried, but gave up on, cold showers.

You probably aren’t surprised that heavy drinking (25% stasis rate) didn’t help with weight loss. Haphazard eating also leaned that way (19% stasis). But what’s up with the cold showers?

Not taking cold showers and taking cold showers showed up evenly. It didn’t matter which one you chose as long as you stayed consistent.

But people who tried the cold showers and then gave up? They had a 29% stasis rate. This was the highest correlation of anything in the survey. Maybe it’s an indicator of weak wills or failure in other aspects of the diet. I’m one of them, although I managed to lose weight. I tried cold showers four times and then decided I didn’t have the heart to keep going.

Enjoy Cheat Day

I have good news: cheat day eating habits didn’t have any effect on success rate. It didn’t matter what you craved (61% of you crave sweets) or if you ate in excess (combining beer, cheese, frieds, and sugars).  So keep eating whatever you’d like on your day off.

However, I saw enough people who anecdotally reported massive weight gains on cheat day, that I’d recommend you to measure this for yourself.

Future Research

This was our first in-depth investigation into a goal and it’s associated habits.  There are a lot of ways we can strengthen our research, but I’m unapologetically excited to share these early results with you. As far as I can tell, this is already the most in-depth research into the Four Hour Body diet. Our plan is to do a lot more of this but better:

#1. How much weight will these people have kept off in a year or two years? We’re going to try to find out, although some of the best anecdotal stories were from people who’d been on the diet for several years.

#2. How does the 4-Hour Body compare to other diets? There’s definitely a bias in the Lift community toward high achievement. We can help control for that by running this sort of research across multiple diets.

#3. How does this diet affect other health markers like blood pressure and cholesterol levels? Muscle gain?

Thanks for reading and participating in the challenge. Even though the challenge is over, you can still sign up for Lift and search for 4HB.

Tony & the Lift Team

The challenge was based the diet from Tim Ferriss’s book, The Four Hour Body. The primary habit in the diet is to eat a Slow Carb Diet (SCD). That habit is augmented with eating protein as soon as you wake up, moderate exercise, and taking cold showers. We’re almost ready to post the the hard data, but we also loved the stories.

We’ve collected the best success stories below:

Give up sugar

By far the most difficult part for me was giving up sugar… I have always said I was a sugar/food addict but had no idea how serious a problem it was. Prior to SCD I don’t think I ever went a single day without sugar. The first few days were most difficult, without exaggeration I thought about sugar more than 300 times a day gradually getting better each day. 3 weeks in I only think about sugar about 40 times a day now. I still crave something sweet but it is getting easier to say no to myself. I believe my entire relationship with sugar has been permanently altered. For example, I’m able to be satisfied with considerably less sugar on cheat days. Previously, I would not consider drinking coffee with less than 4 sugars, now using just 1 is plenty sweet. ~ Stephanie, 14lbs lost.

Restarting.

Starting on March 11th, I used the 4HB diet to lose 40 pounds, however I fell off the diet wagon and needed motivation to get back on. After several failed attempts at getting back on the diet, this challenge was exactly what I needed. In four weeks, there were may times where I had opportunities to fail but the collective motivation really did help to keep me going. This was the single best motivation I’ve had for dieting. ~ Carmen, 10lbs lost.

One Year of Weight Loss

Actually lost more fat weight than this, as I also gained muscle mass during. Love the 4HB. Tim’s diet has me down almost 40 lbs from a year ago. ~ Spence, 7.5lbs lost.

Don’t cheat yourself.

Sticking to the plan exactly – details matter! It’s easy to “cut yourself some slack” when you do these things – but, of course -you’re just cheating yourself… ~ Don, 15lbs lost.

Motivation through tracking

Well, one of the things that made me follow the diet is the Lift app of course. I basically exercise, follow the diet and take cold showers so I can log the progress. I’m a geek, so techy stuff motivates me. I have read a lot of articles about creating habits as a behaviour changer. But the apps out there for habit modification/creation take TOO MUCH time out my day. Thankfully, Lift is simple enough and is always evolving. ~ Vanessa, 8.4lbs lost.

Scary results.

Had amazing results… scared my dietitian. ~ Joshua, 10.7lbs lost.

Tasty.

When I first started the 4 hour Body, I wasnt sure if I could handle it. The first week was the most intense but after seeing how I lost 5lbs that week, I was pumped up to continue and see how it would all go. 

I took cold showers every morning, 30g protein within 30minutes, took cold showers even before bed and ate at least 3-4meals everyday. This has been an overall amazing experience for me and I love it. The foods are the best part: chicken, steak, eggs, spinach, broccoli beans. All the foods that I love. I use to have a sweet tooth for candy, sugar, chocolate and all that. But I made a sacrifice in my life for the better and it has been the best experience by far. ~ Tara, 28lbs lost.

Wife and husband.

Lost all my weight on SCD. I am 5’2” and started at 247 lbs on April 18, 2011. On September 1, 2012 I reached my ultimate goal of 115 lbs. Currently, I am still doing the slow carb lifestyle and still lose weight even if I don’t wanna. I weighed in last week at 112.4 lbs and my lowest weight was 111.8 lbs. I’m at about 21% body fat and when I started I was probably well over 50%. I’m filipino, stay-at-home-mom of two kids and my husband has also lost 57 lbs on the Slow Carb Diet….we’re still going! ~ Maria, 135lbs lost over 18 months.

Staying on the wagon.

This is the second time I’ve done 4HB. The first time I lost 30 lbs in 10 weeks. I had fallen off the wagon for a while and gained a little back. Having Lift inspired me. I took off the weight I put back on, and then a more. ~ Jenn, 9.6lbs lost.

Family affair.

I lost 34 (and counting), my dad lost 28 and is below 200 for the first time in 15 years, and my sister who has been heavy her whole life started SCD 2 weeks ago and is seeing results. ~ Matthew, 34lbs lost.

Positive health reversal.

7 weeks ago I was diagnosed with fatty liver disease, high cholesterol, under performing thyroid, and very high levels of iron in my system. The specialist told me to change my diet and come back in six weeks to see if I needed a biopsy on my liver. I went 4HB hard, PAGG supps, no eggs, and the best green tea from Japan with milk thistle once a day. 6 weeks later, 14 lbs lighter, all tests are clear. Doctors are astounded. I’ve got the blood tests to prove it. 4HB diet sorted me out in six weeks. Doctors never seen it before. ~ Carter, 14lbs lost.

Two year mark.

I’ve been using Slow Carb Diet to lose nearly 100 lbs in the last 2 years. I started at 376 in early 2011, and now am about to be in the 280s. ~ Jack, 15.4lbs lost.

Getting past the plateau.

At the time I started this particular challenge, I had been half-assing the Slow Carb Diet. After losing 100 lbs, I had been on this plateau for 8 months. This challenge, along with adding some personal exercise goals in the Lift app has restarted my losing. Down 110 now (with 110 to go). ~ John, 10lbs lost (110 total).

More abs.

I’m vegan, so I ate tons of lentils and beans for protein. I didn’t measure body fat at the beginning (I wish I did though) and I started the diet a week before the Lift Experiment began. Lost @8 lbs and I can see my upper ab’s for the first time in years! Gonna keep it going for two more weeks. ~ Nate, 8lbs lost.

New clothes.

The diet works, I’m down 1 pant size, 4 inches off my belly, 2 shirt/neck sizes, need a belt for all my pants now. I will stick this out and I have another 80 lbs to lose for my goal weight. ~ Steve, 23.5lbs lost.