Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson’s brined, buttermilk-fried chicken found itself a permanent home last week in NYC’s Chelsea Market at Hybrid. The Roots drummer opened the fried chicken spot last month with restaurateur Stephen Starr. Apart from fried chicken, the duo also sells “Crème de la Crab” dumplings and “Sexual Chcoolate” cupcakes.
But a recent profile on Questlove in The Village Voice reveals that the DJ can’t even enjoy his own fried chicken—for the past six months, he’s been strictly following the diet in Timothy Ferriss’ The 4-Hour Body. The 6’2″ Questlove, whose “weight has yo-yoed throughout his adult life,” once topped 440 pounds. Since starting the regimented diet, Thompson has lost 56 pounds, and he currently weighs in at 350lbs.
A bit skeptical of this “4 Hour Body Diet,” are we? It’s a regime outlined in a health and diet book by New York Times bestselling author and Silicon Valley self-improvement guru Timothy Ferriss, who previously wrote The 4-Hour Workweek and The 4-Hour Chef. In the book, Ferriss guides readers towards goals like: Lose 20 pounds in 30 days with no exercise, gain 34 pounds of muscle in 28 days, become a sex god, and sleep two hours a night and feel rested.
On the strict diet, the hard-working DJ is not allowed to consume white carbohydrates, fruit, and caloric drinks (although two glasses of red wine per night is permitted). Thompson is restricted from eating the same meals routinely, but he can binge-eat one day a week. So, theoretically, if he peeled off the crispy exterior on his fried chicken, he could chow down without restraint on some juicy chicken meat every seven days.
Questlove seems like he’s staying motivated and sticking to the weigh-losing regime. The Village Voice profile reveals that Thompson eats takeout sashimi for dinner and gets to-go zucchini lasagna with vegan cheese before his Thursday night residency at Brooklyn Bowl. Props to the slimmed-down musician for both opening a restaurant and dropping pounds at the same damn time.
[via The Village Voice, Bookish.com]