Easy Exercises to Avoid Storing Calories of a Meal or Desert as Body Fat.

“Gone in 90 seconds now why didn’t I think of that!” This is exactly what I thought when reading this “hack” in Tim Ferriss’s new book, The 4-Hour Body. Tim’s book is so much fun to read. It’s like a large encyclopedia of mini books for everything from uncommon ways to improve your sex life, the slow carb diet hack for fat loss, hyper sleep secrets that will surely amaze and more.

So for this little post, I would to talk about a clever scientific strategy Tim talks about on page 105-107, its by far one of my favorite parts of the book, so much so, I have been teaching it to my audiences at all my events. Why, because it really makes a lot of sense as you will soon find out.

Brief Muscular Contractions a Few Minutes Before You Eat?

So most of you probably know that after an intense workout, food calories are less likely to get stored as body fat. A simplistic explanation is that your muscles are depleted of glycogen and that a lot of the calories you eat at this time simply serve to refuel these depleted muscles. What I did not know was how little the stimulus needs to be in order for this to happen. Tim has found that this effect can happen in as little as 60-90 seconds. The proper activity done a few minutes before eating can encourage food calories to get shuttled into the muscle cells, before it has a chance to get stored as body fat.

Encouraging Insulin to Store Food Energy Into Muscle Cells

What exercise does is increase a substance in your body called GLUT-4 (glucose transporter type 4). Tim explains that exercise will encourage insulin to store calories in the muscle cells:

“The more muscular gates we have open before insulin triggers the same GLUT-4 on the surface of fat cells, the more we can put calories in muscle instead of fat”.

In The 4-Hour Body, Tim talks about a study which compares the effect of 280 seconds of intense exercise to a 6 hour low intensity exercise session. What the study found was that 280 seconds of intense exercise increased Glut-4 in the muscle by 83%…and 6 hours of lower intensity exercise increased it by 91%. So 280 seconds of exercise had almost the same effect as 6 hours when it comes to increasing GLUT-4 levels.

From 280 Seconds…Down to 60-90 Seconds

So Tim suggests that you keep the pre meal and post meal exercise down to 60-90 seconds. The GLUT-4 levels will increase with this amount of exercise, but it will drop down to normal levels after 1-4 hours. Tim recommends doing 60-90 seconds of exercise right before eating and 90 minutes after eating. Why 90 minutes? He has found that blood glucose levels to be the highest 90 minutes after eating.

The “Air Squat” is Tim’s Exercise of Choice, and it Will Be Yours. This One Works Great in any Stall at Your Local Restaurant Lavatory, Before and After the Desert!

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Tim Also Talked About Two Other Exercises in the Book

Wall Presses & Chest Pulls are the other two exercise that Tim recommends. These are to be done for 30-50 reps. Even if you can do 30-50 push ups you will want to stick with wall presses, because you don’t want these pre and post meal exercises to interfere with your normal workouts. What Tim calls chest pulls in his book are more commonly known as “Band Pull Aparts”. Here is a video demonstrating that exercise.

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You Don’t Have To Use These Exact Exercises But I Do Like The Band Pull Aparts, The Are GREAT Glut-4 Triggers & For Your Postural Muscles

The main thing it looks like Tim is accomplishing with these three exercises is working the entire body. The air squats seem like a great idea, because these can be done anywhere and believe me anywhere.As you can see, my fiancee Aimee and I are about to baptize our taste buds with some cake to go… I just couldn’t wait 

Before our pig out could commence we needed a inconspicuous place to squat! So we looked for and found, a fairly empty corridor on the hotel side of the casino. Not wanting to be mistaken for a pair of exercise freaks we made sure that the coast was clear. I set the 90 second timer on my cell  (its on the floor there see it?), activated our camera’s self timer and put it on floor, pressed start on both devices and bingo we were in Glut-4 heaven in just over a minute.

Great fun wouldn’t you agree, and it all in the name of good science! Now, just make sure you chose some sort of pushing movement or type of pulling movement and all will be well, or should I say all will be GONE in about 90 seconds.

Another thing to remember, make sure that you count out around 30-50 reps. I recommend not being to vocal if you’re in the stall at your local restaurant before binging on your sugar bomb of choice, people might just get the wrong idea of what’s going on behind that closed door, and call security on you. When stealth exercising mode is needed, I’ll set my HIIT timer on my cell and squat by the pot for 90!

How Can You Use This Scientifically Proved Strategy?

Why not bring a pair of resistance bands to your work space and do these brief exercises for at least one meal per day. Once you develop this habit, you may apply it to two meals per day. Typically you probably eat 3 times per day, right? (If not take a look here after reading this regarding a meal plan that fits your DNA or Metabolic Type here.)

Purchase Your Copy of The Four Hour Body:  An Uncommon Guide to Rapid Fat-Loss, Incredible Sex, and Becoming Superhuman

Note: Tim’s Blog —> Four Hour Work Week Blog. Chew on what you like, spit out the rest. That’s how I like to roll when it comes to Tim’s books.

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