Tim Ferris, Too Good To Be True?

[Hackwalker]

So I found this workout of a guy called Tim Ferris, basically he gained 34 lbs of pure mass in 28 days. Whats important is he isnt just another guy, he is famous and announced as one of the best sellers. its stated that with this program u can gain a 3 year result in just 3 months. Now is it fiction and too good too be true? what do u guys think?

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/timothyf.htm

[chris mason]

I think pretty much everything he writes about is exaggerated. I don't believe he added as much muscle as he claims.

[Tom Mutaffis]

Gaining 34 lbs of lean mass in 28 days is extraordinary, if he actually did it I would not say that it is something that would be repeatable by the general public (even with extreme measures).

[r2473]

This a bit below average result for BB.com members. I think most can gain 50 lbs. in that time period.

[mike mcgee]

This a bit below average result for BB.com members. I think most can gain 50 lbs. in that time period.

couldn't find the one that rolls on the floor lauging

[Songsangnim]

lFiction. If you do the math that equates to an average of 1.21 lbs of muscle mass (no fat) per day including rest days. Now while it is rest (and diet) that builds muscle it does not build muscle that fast.
Here's one of the claims in his book.
"* How Tim gained 34 pounds of muscle in 28 days, without steroids, and in four hours of total gym time" (no I didn't read his book, I got it off another website).

That equals to 8+ pounds of muscle (not even muscle and fat mind you, but pure muscle) per hour of gym time.

[Hackwalker]

So ur saying it cant be true? Im just really curious about his workout, so far Ive been doing classic AB workout, 3 exc for a big muscles and 2 for the small, 3x8 each exc. some ppl said I should already change it to ABC, which is 2 muscle groups per day, total trainning per weak 3-4 times.
But rly I just wanna understand if his trainning really works that well, especially the 5 seconds up and 5 seconds down thing.

[krazylarry]

Its not true.

[chris mason]

FYI, for the young among you, look up the Colorado Experiment that Arthur Jones did with Casey Viator many years ago. You will see where I can almost guarantee Ferris got the idea from.

[Alex.V]

So ur saying it cant be true? Im just really curious about his workout, so far Ive been doing classic AB workout, 3 exc for a big muscles and 2 for the small, 3x8 each exc. some ppl said I should already change it to ABC, which is 2 muscle groups per day, total trainning per weak 3-4 times.
But rly I just wanna understand if his trainning really works that well, especially the 5 seconds up and 5 seconds down thing.

Well, let's think about this.

34 pounds of muscle in 28 days. 1.2 pounds of muscle a day, or 0.55kg. 550 grams of pure skeletal muscle a day.

23 grams of skeletal muscle created EVERY HOUR. Think about the nutrient needs for that.

Forget the fact that fastest growing complex tissue of any land mammal (i.e., non-storage such as adipocytes) is the deer antler, which grows at a rate of about 100 grams per day at its peak. No, this guy is more than doubling that, and it's not just bone growth (which is arguably less complex than contractile tissue), it's skeletal muscle with the necessary capillary network, increase in blood volume, etc.

Forget the fact that the largest TUMOR on record grew at a rate of less than 30 pounds a year.

Forget the fact that a pound of muscle contains over 1000 calories worth of nutrients (Meat is less, since a lot of the glycogen/sugars are gone), and synthesizing that would take easily three times that. (Which would put daily intake over 4000 calories just for the muscle growth... add 3000 for activity, and this guy needed well over 7,000 calories a day of perfectly calibrated nutrients.) Seems tough, given his recommendations for egg whites and chicken breasts.

Yeah, no, this dude did it by taking cordyceps before every workout, and fluctuating his quinoa intake to prevent "protein uptake down-regulation", whatever the fuck that means.

Oh, and by eating plain macaroni with tuna. 7,000 calories of plain macaroni, tuna, and turkey chili. Let's see, that'd be about 4 pounds of tuna a day (1600 calories), 3 boxes of macaroni (dry) a day (4800 calories), and three cups of turkey chili (600 calories). Wonderful. I'd hate to know how often he had to take a crap.

Oh, and spending 8 hours total in the gym. Yes, the body is perfectly willing to toss on muscle at ten times the rate of tumor growth due to the extra requirements of an hour a week of lifting. (To math majors, if this doesn't make sense, don't ask me... he says two 30 minute workouts a week, which is an hour... four weeks times an hour is four hours. But then he says eight hours. Don't ask me, man.)

You know what, this is pissing me off. Fuck it, I'm done breaking it down. In the time it's taken me to write this, the average bodybuilding.com guy has put on 3.7 pounds of fat free mass. If you'll excuse me, I'm going to go take some test boosters and video myself doing curls.

[FearFactory]

Definitely one of your top ten responses since I have been a member here.

Nice!

[MuscleMind]

I don't know if that is possible naturally. He would have to prime his whole body to be able to do that.

[Tom Mutaffis]

Well, let's think about this.

34 pounds of muscle in 28 days. 1.2 pounds of muscle a day, or 0.55kg. 550 grams of pure skeletal muscle a day.

23 grams of skeletal muscle created EVERY HOUR. Think about the nutrient needs for that.

Forget the fact that fastest growing complex tissue of any land mammal (i.e., non-storage such as adipocytes) is the deer antler, which grows at a rate of about 100 grams per day at its peak. No, this guy is more than doubling that, and it's not just bone growth (which is arguably less complex than contractile tissue), it's skeletal muscle with the necessary capillary network, increase in blood volume, etc.

Forget the fact that the largest TUMOR on record grew at a rate of less than 30 pounds a year.

Forget the fact that a pound of muscle contains over 1000 calories worth of nutrients (Meat is less, since a lot of the glycogen/sugars are gone), and synthesizing that would take easily three times that. (Which would put daily intake over 4000 calories just for the muscle growth... add 3000 for activity, and this guy needed well over 7,000 calories a day of perfectly calibrated nutrients.) Seems tough, given his recommendations for egg whites and chicken breasts.

Yeah, no, this dude did it by taking cordyceps before every workout, and fluctuating his quinoa intake to prevent "protein uptake down-regulation", whatever the fuck that means.

Oh, and by eating plain macaroni with tuna. 7,000 calories of plain macaroni, tuna, and turkey chili. Let's see, that'd be about 4 pounds of tuna a day (1600 calories), 3 boxes of macaroni (dry) a day (4800 calories), and three cups of turkey chili (600 calories). Wonderful. I'd hate to know how often he had to take a crap.

Oh, and spending 8 hours total in the gym. Yes, the body is perfectly willing to toss on muscle at ten times the rate of tumor growth due to the extra requirements of an hour a week of lifting. (To math majors, if this doesn't make sense, don't ask me... he says two 30 minute workouts a week, which is an hour... four weeks times an hour is four hours. But then he says eight hours. Don't ask me, man.)

You know what, this is pissing me off. Fuck it, I'm done breaking it down. In the time it's taken me to write this, the average bodybuilding.com guy has put on 3.7 pounds of fat free mass. If you'll excuse me, I'm going to go take some test boosters and video myself doing curls.

I enjoyed reading this analysis of Tim Ferris' magical program.

[krazylarry]

When is the Alex. V book coming out, so I can buy ten copies?

[Daniel Roberts]

Oh, and by eating plain macaroni with tuna. 7,000 calories of plain macaroni, tuna, and turkey chili. Let's see, that'd be about 4 pounds of tuna a day (1600 calories), 3 boxes of macaroni (dry) a day (4800 calories), and three cups of turkey chili (600 calories). Wonderful. I'd hate to know how often he had to take a crap.

On that diet he probably didn't for the whole 4 weeks, which might account for all that 'pure mass'.

[JacobH]

When is the Alex. V book coming out, so I can buy ten copies?

Yes. Yes. Yes.

[Cards]

Well, let's think about this.

34 pounds of muscle in 28 days. 1.2 pounds of muscle a day, or 0.55kg. 550 grams of pure skeletal muscle a day.

23 grams of skeletal muscle created EVERY HOUR. Think about the nutrient needs for that.

Forget the fact that fastest growing complex tissue of any land mammal (i.e., non-storage such as adipocytes) is the deer antler, which grows at a rate of about 100 grams per day at its peak. No, this guy is more than doubling that, and it's not just bone growth (which is arguably less complex than contractile tissue), it's skeletal muscle with the necessary capillary network, increase in blood volume, etc.

Forget the fact that the largest TUMOR on record grew at a rate of less than 30 pounds a year.

Forget the fact that a pound of muscle contains over 1000 calories worth of nutrients (Meat is less, since a lot of the glycogen/sugars are gone), and synthesizing that would take easily three times that. (Which would put daily intake over 4000 calories just for the muscle growth... add 3000 for activity, and this guy needed well over 7,000 calories a day of perfectly calibrated nutrients.) Seems tough, given his recommendations for egg whites and chicken breasts.

Yeah, no, this dude did it by taking cordyceps before every workout, and fluctuating his quinoa intake to prevent "protein uptake down-regulation", whatever the fuck that means.

Oh, and by eating plain macaroni with tuna. 7,000 calories of plain macaroni, tuna, and turkey chili. Let's see, that'd be about 4 pounds of tuna a day (1600 calories), 3 boxes of macaroni (dry) a day (4800 calories), and three cups of turkey chili (600 calories). Wonderful. I'd hate to know how often he had to take a crap.

Oh, and spending 8 hours total in the gym. Yes, the body is perfectly willing to toss on muscle at ten times the rate of tumor growth due to the extra requirements of an hour a week of lifting. (To math majors, if this doesn't make sense, don't ask me... he says two 30 minute workouts a week, which is an hour... four weeks times an hour is four hours. But then he says eight hours. Don't ask me, man.)

You know what, this is pissing me off. Fuck it, I'm done breaking it down. In the time it's taken me to write this, the average bodybuilding.com guy has put on 3.7 pounds of fat free mass. If you'll excuse me, I'm going to go take some test boosters and video myself doing curls.

this was amazing, it's now my desktop.

[tom183]

I enjoyed reading this analysis of Tim Ferris' magical program

Second.