Beach Books: The 4 Hour Body

Confession: I've never been happy with how I look in a bathing suit. And from what I hear at the beach and neighborhood pool, very few people have the body they'd like to have. This spring, I found a book that's helping to change that.

The 4 Hour Body by Timothy Ferriss is a No. 1 New York Times bestseller and the follow-up lifestyle book to The 4 Hour Workweek. Ferriss treats himself as a guinea pig, going to great lengths to find the perfect algorithm for body transformation. In fact, the book's subtitle is "An uncommon guide to rapid fat-loss, incredible sex, and becoming superhuman."

Who can argue with that?

The plan is both simple and complex. To put it bluntly, most people can lose incredible amounts of fat and gain muscle by doing four hours of exercise a month, while cutting all sugar and carbohydrates out of the diet six days per week. One day a week, however, you can eat anything and everything you wish, which makes it bearable.

I've been following this plan for four months and I've gone from 142 pounds and a size 10 to 131 pounds and a size 6. My husband now has a six-pack. It's not fun, but it works and there's no calorie counting or gym time. Ferriss outlines the science behind his ideas, and he also maintains a great blog. We keep this book around the house and pick it up anytime we want to remind ourselves of the rules. You can also find it at .

And, yes, we even took it to the beach.