The Fine Print

Tim Ferriss is obviously a marketing genius, have you seen the trailer for the Four Hour Body?

A diet with only five easy rules is also good marketing, but in truth there are a few more that he lists as common mistakes.

Slow Carb Diet Rules, The Fine Print

6. Eat Breakfast within 1 Hour of Waking (Extra Points for 30 min. or less)

Breaking the fast is important in starting your metabolism. It's obviously a lot better to eat more calories before you are active all day than to eat them right before you sleep and not eating breakfast has also been shown to lead to over eating in the evening.

7. Eat 20 Grams of Protein at Each Meal

I really don't know why this didn't make it into the five rules of the diet. It's the basis of the whole idea!

8. Drink a lot of Water

This is pretty self explanatory.

9. Follow Rule 2

If you never cook don't expect to start cooking all of the time, you're setting yourself up for failure. Rule 2 should help to make it easier, but if that's still too hard figure out what restaurants you can go to -- Mexican works well sans tortillas.

10. Don't Mistime Weigh Ins with Your Menstrual Cycle

Another obvious one. If you are retaining water your measurements will go up. Any woman should expect this. Don't confuse this data with your actual progress.

11. Don't Overeat "Domino" Foods

Nuts, Chickpeas, Hummus, and Peanuts

When I read the first chapters of this book I made a list of snacks that I thought would be acceptable and they were pretty much all in the Domino category.

12. Don't Overconsume Sweeteners, Artificial or All Natural

Sweeteners tend to spike insulin levels and I happen to think that consuming them alters your perception of what's sweet. If I drink artificially sweetened Coke then fruit just doesn't seem that sweet anymore.

13. Don't Hit the Gym Too Often

Hitting the gym with cause increased muscle mass, which is good, but will increase your weight, but it may also lead to overeating if you workout too often.