Very interesting. Beans have links to autoimmune problems and are probably a less than ideal food due to the lack of nutrients, presence of antinutrients and other weird stuff.
Also, a meat + greens diet is pretty much the recommended Paleo diet. You might be interested in Robb Wolf's 'The Paleo Solution.'
I would have to say from my experience using them, and all that I've read about them, that intermittent fasting diets are marvelous.
In regards to the post above, when I IF I don't skip meals a vast majority of the time and I am never hungry/unsatisfied. Check out the introductory/about articles at leangains.com for some very great info on intermittent fasting protocols. I very much like his recommended 8 hour feeding protocol. Haven't heard complaints about it.
Also, from an evolutionary standpoint food would have been in constantly varying quantities, and if an 'energy conservation' state existed as described it would have been active almost all the time, but primitive hunter gatherers were almost always relatively lean and disease free. Supposedly at low levels of body fat (6-10%/can see your abs) your body still has MONTHS worth of ketones to use as energy in the form of your stored body fat.
Side thought: I've heard reference to studies that some amount of cellular repair gets activated only in times of fasting.
Starting Strength is an amazing book for reference. I think the main take away from the book is Rippetoe's analysis of proper lifting technique--although I believe his comments on progression and exercise programming are VERY insightful. The entire book is amazing.
He talks about proper hand placement on the bar, body position, and mentions various methods to observe yourself and know if you're doing the lifts correctly or not. He also mentions useful and useless equipment; as well as useful and useless lifts. This is something a beginner needs, but anyone can benefit from.
I'm not sure what 'the guy's' claims are or who 'the guy' is. I'll need more info before I can comment on that. However, I have heard said before that 'listening to Rippetoe explain a lift will increase it at least 5-10 pounds.' He goes to great detail explaining why, exactly, you should perform a lift a certain way, down to very miniscule details that I originally thought were irrelevant. That being said, I'm no expert in physics or biomechanics, but I'm confident Rippetoe knows a lot more about these subjects than I. I have referenced Starting Strength before workouts when I was uncertain if I would be able to lift my goal weight. It's important for me to have a concise, reliable source to make reference to.
This might not be important at all, but Jim Wendler recommends the book either in his 5/3/1 manual or on his website. He's one of the testimonials on the back cover, saying 'it's the best book for weight training. Anyone serious about learning or coaching the basic lifts should get it.'
I believe I read all of the nutrition recommendations in the 4 hour body--as human nutrition is very interesting to me. I've done a lot of self-experimenting on the topic of nutrition. Timothy and I both share a deep interest wellness and looking like a BAMF, but I was still surprised that Timothy Ferris came to many of the same conclusions as I have.
Comments on some things I recall from his book:
The goal is to get lean (6-10% for males) and put on a few pounds of muscle.
The goal is NOT to get 1) super strong, 2) become a well-rounded athlete, or 3) health/longevity.
Ferris recommends ketogenic diets. Ketogenic (low carb) diets are marvelous for reducing body fat percentage. I have no reason to believe they wouldn't drastically reduce the body fat percentage of most sedentary individuals. It's also perfectly adequate for my strength training. (I am not able to do any conditioning on a ketogenic diet.) Without quoting specifics, this approach definitely works for me.
I often hear quoted 35-70g of carbs per day. I usually stay in this range and I have stayed lean (4 years of 6-10% body fat). And no, I wasn't always lean. I was quite fat before. It's often quoted by bodybuilders that 'abs are built in the kitchen'. Everything I trust that I have read supports this assertion. Everyone has abs, you just need low levels of body fat percentage to see them--and you lose most of your body fat by changing your diet.
Most of our badass, tarzan-looking ancestors would have stayed in a ketogenic state. For top notch information about the human diet read the Paleo Solution by Robb Wolf. The Paleo Diet's hypothesis is 'what did our ancestors thrive on and will it work for us?' (Answer seems to be yes.) There seems to be a ton of scientific support for the recommendations in the book. He has something like 50 pages of references to scientific literature.
The paleo diet is for people concerned with health and longevity--not really a goal of Timothy's book--as well as getting lean.
I didn't read much from the book on exercise. I have no reason to believe the "4 hour body" protocols wouldn't work for their intended purpose, which seems to be: helping high body fat %, sedentary individuals get to relatively lean levels of body fat and put on a few pounds of muscle.
I did not like the exercise goals of the 4 hour body. It's goals were too different from my own, so the program would not have worked for me. (My goals are to be big and strong). Timothy tries to stick to easily accessible, low-cost or equipment-less exercises. I already have intermediate levels of strength and I know it's not possible to maintain that with pushups and sit ups. I would need to incorporate gymnastics bar/ring work (not touched in the book) to develop an upper body and my lower body would be neglected as there's no way to emulate a 350lb squat without a machine or squat rack. THAT BEING SAID: If I'm strict, I work out 45 min or less 3x per week (barbell training) --thought I often slack off and skip entire weeks or only work out 2x per week and I can maintain or increase my levels of strength. So, I have a 6-9 hour body as opposed to a 4 hour body. (not counting travel time)
For muscle building/strength training: I would recommend the 'big 4 lifts'. Read 'Starting Strength' by Mark Rippetoe. Then read '5/3/1' a program by Jim Wendler.
For nutrition, modifying body fat %, health and longevity, read: 'The Paleo Solution' by Robb Wolf then read years worth of references.
I think in this context he's talking about the 'beginner response' where strength gains are largely due to increased neuromuscular efficiency in UNTRAINED athletes.
I believe he says, without reading my own copy to make sure:
1) 5-10 lbs per 3-4 weeks in the presses is the normal rate of progression for novices for the first several months of training--until they have an intermediate level of strength.
2) weights will then increase in smaller increments, such as 1lb
3) then more complex programming is used
If you've been training for two years you have probably already used up your super-fast awesome beginner strength gains.