Books On How To Lose Fat And Gain Muscle

All books that are recommended here:

    1. I have read/reviewed myself and found to be extremely valuable
    2. Have a written money back, no questions asked guarantee
    3. Are clear and well written
    4. Are free of ridiculous claims like "Gain 41lbs muscle in 6 months"
    5. Are a good value

The whole reason for my website and videos is to show people how they can get in great shape without spending a dime so I am very cautious about recommending that people buy anything. It's rare that a book provides unique, earth-shattering new information so if you have the time to search the internet and your public library you could find the same information for free, but many people don't have the time. Almost all this information in these recommended books is available for free here on my website. The difference is that my coverage of these subjects is very terse and somewhat limited because I work 60hrs/week and can only update my website in few spare moments evenings and weekends. The authors of these books have had the luxury of spending a year full time to properly and completely cover their topics. For example I cover weight loss in about 3 pages, Tom Venuto has the luxury of 400 pages - whose do you think will be the best? I started this website in 2006 and have been adding content monthly. Eventually I plan on covering every topic exhaustively and completely. The happiest day of my life will be when I can remove this book review section entirely and say "Don't buy ANYTYHING, its all available here for free!". Unless by some miracle donations to scoobysworkshop increase by about 200X so I can quit my day job as an engineer, its going to take me at least a decade of spare time work to get my website to the point where I have all the content I feel I need.

    Book Title Book Review
    Anabolic Cooking by Dave Ruel

    I highly recommend Anabolic Cooking by Dave Ruel! With protein bars at the store costing from $1-$4, you could justify the cost of this cookbook just from your savings on protein bars alone. If you want to make really good tasting food that is bodybuilder friendly, this is a great book. Exceptionally creative and excellent recipes that are high in protein, high in fiber, high in EFAs, and low in fat. Read my complete review of Anabolic Cooking here, negative comments are in bold making them easier to find.

    Bodybuilding Revealed by Will Brink

    I highly recommend Bodybuilding Revealed by Will Brink! To gain muscle, you need proper nutrition and this book tells you how to do it and maximize your bodybuilding progress. If you only could buy one book, this is the one I would recommend. If this book were available in 1983 when I started bodybuilding, it would have changed my life. It took me three decades of floundering and self-experimentation for me to learn what's in this book. Read my complete review of Bodybuilding Revealed, negative comments are in bold making them easier to find.
    Burn the Fat by Tom Venuto
    		 Want to lose fat? If so, I highly recommend Burn the Fat by Tom Venuto! This very well written, gimmick-free book will give you the motivation and the knowledge to permanently take that excess bodyfat off. If I had 6 months full time to work on a weight loss book, and I was good at writing (which I'm not), this is the book I would have written. Read my complete review of Burn the Fat, negative comments are in bold making them easier to find.
    Fat Loss Revealed by Will Brink

    I can highly recommend Fat Loss Revealed by Will Brink. This is a no-nonsense book on losing fat - its not a fad diet, just solid science. I've been around bodybuilding a long time but I keep learning new things all the time - this book has taught me a thing or two. I've always been lean enough to have 6-pack abs but never truly ripped. The most valuable thing for me personally was learning how I could take my bodyfat down to the next level with carb cycling, that concept alone was worth the $47 price for me. Read my complete review of Fat Loss Revealed, negative comments are in bold making them easier to find.

    Upcoming Book Reviews

    The below list of books to review is not a random list but rather the result of a complete days work weeding thru lots of exaggerated, sensationalistic and ridiculous books to come up with a handful of books I thought were worth reviewing. I used recommendation criteria #4, "No exaggerated claims" to cull the list down. In my opinion, if the author makes exaggerated claims in their advertisement then nothing they say is to be trusted. Its too bad because often its just the case that its a good book with an overly aggressive marketing person but the author needs the integrity to say "No!" to be trustworthy in my view.

    Body Re-Engineering by Hugo Rivera
    		 This bodybuilding and fitness book on weight loss, muscle gain, gain strength, and how to lose fat is being read and reviewed, review expected by Sept 1, 2010. After I have read the book, if I feel the book is good enough to recommend then I will write a review, otherwise I will remove it from this page.
    Pete Physique by Peter Le
    		 This bodybuilding and fitness book on weight loss, muscle gain, gain strength, and how to lose fat is being read and reviewed, review expected by Sept 1, 2010. After I have read the book, if I feel the book is good enough to recommend then I will write a review, otherwise I will remove it from this page.
    No Bull Bodybuilding by Marc David This bodybuilding and fitness book on weight loss, muscle gain, gain strength, and how to lose fat is being read and reviewed, review expected by Sept 1, 2010. After I have read the book, if I feel the book is good enough to recommend then I will write a review, otherwise I will remove it from this page.
    The Truth About Abs This bodybuilding and fitness book on weight loss, muscle gain, gain strength, and how to lose fat is being read and reviewed, review expected by Sept 1, 2010. After I have read the book, if I feel the book is good enough to recommend then I will write a review, otherwise I will remove it from this page.
    Supertraining by Yuri Verkhoshansky (hardcopy) This bodybuilding and fitness book on weight loss, muscle gain, gain strength, and how to lose fat is being read and reviewed, review expected by Sept 1, 2010. After I have read the book, if I feel the book is good enough to recommend then I will write a review, otherwise I will remove it from this page.
    Science and Practice of Strength Training, Second Edition (hardcopy) This fitness book on weight loss, muscle gain, and how to lose fat is being read and reviewed, review expected by Sept 1, 2010. After I have read the book, if I feel the book is good enough to recommend then I will write a review, otherwise I will remove it from this page.
    Olympic Weightlifting: A Complete Guide for Athletes & Coaches (hardcopy) This bodybuilding and fitness book on weight loss, muscle gain, gain strength, and how to lose fat is being read and reviewed, review expected by Sept 1, 2010. After I have read the book, if I feel the book is good enough to recommend then I will write a review, otherwise I will remove it from this page.
    Truth about Supplements Exposed by Mark Ottobre
    		This bodybuilding and fitness book on weight loss, muscle gain, gain strength, and how to lose fat is being read and reviewed, review expected by Sept 1, 2010. After I have read the book, if I feel the book is good enough to recommend then I will write a review, otherwise I will remove it from this page.
    Vertical Explosion by Kurt Howard
    		 This bodybuilding and fitness book on weight loss, muscle gain, gain strength, and how to lose fat is being read and reviewed, review expected by Sept 1, 2010. After I have read the book, if I feel the book is good enough to recommend then I will write a review, otherwise I will remove it from this page.
    Vertical Jump Development Bible by Kelly Baggett
    		 This bodybuilding and fitness book on weight loss, muscle gain, gain strength, and how to lose fat is being read and reviewed, review expected by Sept 1, 2010. After I have read the book, if I feel the book is good enough to recommend then I will write a review, otherwise I will remove it from this page.
    Power Plyos by Matt Anfuso
    		 This bodybuilding and fitness book on weight loss, muscle gain, gain strength, and how to lose fat is being read and reviewed, review expected by Sept 1, 2010. After I have read the book, if I feel the book is good enough to recommend then I will write a review, otherwise I will remove it from this page.
    Iron Dolls by Karen Sessions
    		 This bodybuilding and fitness book on weight loss, muscle gain, gain strength, and how to lose fat is being read and reviewed, review expected by Sept 1, 2010. After I have read the book, if I feel the book is good enough to recommend then I will write a review, otherwise I will remove it from this page.
    The Competitive Edge - Female Bodybuilding Contest Secrets! This bodybuilding and fitness book on weight loss, muscle gain, gain strength, and how to lose fat is being read and reviewed, review expected by Sept 1, 2010. After I have read the book, if I feel the book is good enough to recommend then I will write a review, otherwise I will remove it from this page.
    Extreme MMA Workout by Dickie White
    		 This bodybuilding and fitness book on weight loss, muscle gain, gain strength, and how to lose fat is being read and reviewed, review expected by Sept 1, 2010. After I have read the book, if I feel the book is good enough to recommend then I will write a review, otherwise I will remove it from this page.

     

Shown above are the books that I am currently reviewing, if you have an book you would like reviewed please email it to me at admin(@)scoobysworkshop(.)com. Please remember that I only will recommend books that meet the four criteria shown at the top of this page. I read the books myself and write the book reviews without looking at those horrible, pre-written "reviews" provided by book authors that are just sales-pitches. I am harsh but fair, you can expect a balanced but critical review. In the reviews, any negative comments are in bold so you can find my criticism's easily.

Disclaimer: I make a percentage from every book sold here. I provide this website and my videos completely free of charge, these sales will help support my continued fitness work. If you have purchased any of these books, please email me if you disagree with my review. I want to make sure that only the best books get listed here.

One word of warning, don't be turned off by the slightly sleazy purchase procedure of these books - they are legit. The books I have reviewed here are of infinitely higher quality than the sleazy sales methods would indicate. Personally, I find the 3 mile long web pages full of bold flashing text and never ending testimonials pretty offensive and even more annoying are the popups "Are you sure you want to navigate away?" when you try to leave the page without purchasing. Just grin and bear it, its worth it. I have purchased all the books I have reviewed and no mysterious charges have ever appeared on my credit cards, nor have I experienced any other problems. The money back guarantee is real. They do send weekly motivational and informational emails which I didn't want but they have not sold/given my email address away to anyone - no mysterious influx of spam emails.

Reviews:

Anabolic Cooking by Dave Ruel! Highly recommended. I only bought this book to review it and was going to take them up on their money back guarantee if I didn't find it useful but there are so many good recipes that I know I will get my monies worth.

This book is great for people who demand that their food tastes good AND is bodybuilding-healthy at the same time. As you all know from my videos, my kitchen-skills are extremely limited so this book with all of its tasty, high protein, healthy meals is a great compliment to my website. When I do my "Healthy Meals" videos, I get lots of comments about them being so boring and gross that people could never eat them. For these people, the $47 for this book is money well spent because with these easy, flavorful recipes at your fingertips you will be far more likely to eat strict, healthy nutritional food all the time. On the other hand, if you are someone like myself who is happy eating beans with salsa five times a day then don't waste your money on this book because you wont end up using the recipes. Nutrition is 75% of success in bodybuilding and by having an book like this makes it more likely that your nutritional house will remain in order. All successful bodybuilders know that you cant get stronger and gain muscle mass without strict, proper nutrition and these recipes make it much easier to achieve proper nutrition. So now, you have NO more excuses not to have flawless nutrition and maximize your bodybuilding gains. If you demand tasty, flavorful food then you can buy this book and follow its excellent recipes. If you have no time or patience for cooking and are happy with simple foods and flavors then you can follow my free recipes. A solution for everyone!

You can tell that Dave Ruel (the author) knows his nutritional stuff, you wont find a bag of enriched, bleached flour or a bag of granulated sugar in HIS kitchen! The cookbook is very well written and organized with sections for breakfast, chicken and poultry, beef, fish and seafood, salads soups and sides, and snacks & bars. Its funny, the author shies away from calling this a cookbook but that's what it is - A cookbook for bodybuilders. Each recipe has a bubble telling you the nutritional content of the meal, you will need to adjust the quantities to give you the desired meal size.

So, here is where this book, and all others fall short - its just a static book. Lots of people have trouble with numbers, fractions and math - lets face it, as a nation we are mathematically deficient. What I would like to see is an interactive cookbook rather than a static cookbook, for example. When entering the cookbook, I fill out a short questionnaire about my current weight, my desired rate of weight loss, my current weight, the number of meals I eat in a day. Then when I go to a recipe the cookbook automatically recalculates the quantities of each ingredient to make the exact portion size I desire. How many times have you stood there in the kitchen with your brain hurting when you struggle to solve a puzzle suitable for any math test:

"Scooby wants a 230 calorie meal but the recipe is for a 550 calorie meal. The recipe calls for 1/2 tablespoon of baking powder, how much baking powder should he use?"

Yikes! Now you know why I stick to beans and salsa! As I mention, there are no cookbooks out there that do this yet so don't hold this against Dave Ruel - this book is still great. Just be warned that you will need to adjust the amounts of each ingredient to get the desired portion size. One other warning, this cookbook is in english units - cups, teaspoons, and tablespoons. If you are used to the metric system for cooking, you will be hopelessly frustrated by the endless conversions. I strongly advice NOT buying this book if you use the metric system.

Many people seem to have trouble eating breakfast, I suspect that the breakfast section of this cookbook will get the most use. I suspect for the breakfast haters out there, these recipes will cure them of their anti-breakfast views. Yes, these take more effort than making a bowl of oatmeal but they are just as healthy and a lot tastier. I was very impressed by the creativity of his high protein pancakes, I always assumed that to make pancakes you had to use enriched bleached flour (bad simple carb). He has two recipes for pancakes and they both high in protein and are completely free of simple carbs, just healthy complex carbs. As you have all seen in my videos, I'm a complete kitchen klutz but even I can handle this. Dave Ruel knows that bodybuilders like myself need simple instructions, in the case of these pancake recipes it IS simple enough that I can do it. In this recipe, I was just dreading that he would do what most fussy cookbooks do and say something like "whip the egg whites in a metal mixing bowl 200 strokes by hand then fold in …" No, Dave Ruel is practical. For the pancakes the recipe says "mix all ingredients in a blender" - now THATS my kind of cookbook! Now a lot of people just don't have time to cook pancakes every morning even though his are really easy, this is why I really like his five high-protein muffin recipes. You can make a batch of these muffins once a month and keep them in the freezer, then for those type A people who don't even have time to sit and eat breakfast in the morning you can grab one of these muffins and eat it on your morning commute. The muffins are high in protein, high in fiber, have lots of Essential Fatty Acids EFAs, low in fat and low in simple carbs. I have to admit, I never thought of this before but healthy muffins like this are the healthy alternative to purchased protein bars.

OK, the cookbook has entire sections on Chicken, Beef, and Seafood. I'm going to skip these sections entirely because I'm a vegetarian and am not really interested in meals where the main component is meat.

One criticism of the book is that it doesn't have a lot of vegetarian dishes with legumes as the main source of protein. Of course, not many people like these kinds of foods and recipes which is probably why they are not present. If you want the bean recipes, use mine. He does have two great vegetarian recipes though, a quinoa recipe and a humus recipe.

The section of the cookbook that got me the most excited, even MORE than the breakfast section if that's possible, is the section titled "Snacks & Bar Recipes.". Personally I would have changed the title to:

"How to make snack foods so healthy that you won't ever need a cheat meal"

All these recipes are WAY healthier than any protein bars you can buy at the store and they are certainly far cheaper. In fact, with protein bars at the store costing from $1-$4, you could justify the cost of this cookbook just from your savings on protein bars. Of all the bar recipes, the "High Protein Granola Bars" is by far my favorite. High in protein, high in fiber, and low in simple carbs. There is also a very simple "cookie" recipe, I put cookie in quotes because it has absolutely none of the bad attributes of a traditional cookie, Dave's high protein blueberry cookies are high in protein, have zero simple carbs and zero fat - I never thought that was possible in a cookie. OK, there is one recipe that looks so gross that only a bodybuilder could have dreamt it up - high protein jello, yuck! Sorry, I have no intention of making or tasting that one - you are on your own.

There is a whole desert section and again, I'm amazed at the number of healthy deserts one can make. Virtually all of these are high in protein, low in simple carbs and low in fat. Although these are all healthy, I just cant have them around because I would end up eating massive quantities and get fat because I just don't have any willpower with good tasting things.

So again, I would give this book a strong buy recommendation. Its clear that the author put a lot of work into this book and he did an excellent job. Not only are the recipes good but the instructions are clear and easy as well. Its well organized and complete.

One thing that the author doesn't mention that I would caution folks on is the baking of protein powders. I would check the list of ingredients on your protein powder very carefully and make sure there is nothing that shouldn't be cooked. A lot of the cheap protein powders have a virtual kitchen sinks worth of junk added and a lot of that stuff shouldn't be exposed to high temperatures (many artificial sweeteners for example). If in doubt, stick to a basic 100% natural protein powder with nothing else added.

OK, the cookbook is the most valuable thing that you get for your $40 but he also throws in a few other things. There are personalized meal plans for different daily caloric needs. For people that just don't know how to put a meal plan together, this is a great value. I have to say, I was quite disappointed that at the bottom of the page he includes recommended supplements and a link to his website where he sells this. I feel that Dave Ruel has tarnished an otherwise great package by putting links to products he sells. OK, everybody does it but that doesn't mean I like it. In his defense, the links he put were for a multivitamin and a EFA - at least he's not pushing supplements.

Also included as a bonus are his post-workout shakes. Many people will find these extremely valuable although I personally don't like them because most of them include creatine and I am anti-creatine, anti-supplement. I do wish that the author just put these protein shakes in with the main cookbook rather than as an additional PDF file.

Also included is a quickstart guide which covers the nutritional basics available for free anywhere on the internet, including my website. I'm glad he included it though because many beginners don't know this stuff, its not taught in schools and most parents don't understand it so they cant teach it to their kids.

The last thing he includes for free is a short book with the title "Ugly Truth About Supplements" that had me standing up shouting with delight! Finally someone who sees things like I do! I wish I read this first because it really sets the tone for his recipes. His basic premise (and mine too) is that if you have good solid nutrition, you do not need ANY supplements. He and I do differ a bit on the fine points though. He recommends five supplements, I only recommend one (protein powder). Again, I was a little put off that he sells the supplements he recommends and puts links to the in the book. Again, I know everyone does it but its bothers me. The most objectionable is that he is pushing a multivitamin that he sells and I strongly believe that if you are eating healthy food like the recipes in this book that you have no need for a multivitamin. I also am not convinced that the vitamins in pill form are nearly as valuable to the body as the vitamins in their natural state (i.e. in fresh vegetables).

Trying to lose fat and get ripped abs? Trying to gain muscle and get stronger? It's all nutrition and these recipes make it easier!

Again, a strong "Buy" recommendation for Anabolic Cooking by Dave Ruel!

Review Date: May 9, 2010.

back to top

Bodybuilding Revealed by Will Brink Highly Recommended!

If this book were available in 1983 when I started bodybuilding, it would have changed my life. It took me three decades of floundering and self-experimentation for me to learn what's in this book. To gain muscle, you need proper nutrition and this book tells you how to do it and maximize your bodybuilding progress. If you only could buy one book, this is the one I would recommend. The $47 Bodybuilding Revealed book is an amazing value but don't pay $30 more for the "Deluxe Edition", its a waste of money. More on that later in the review.

First let me start out by saying that Bodybuilding Revealed is an amazing book. If there were a university level class for personal trainers of professional athletes, this would be the textbook. As I mentioned before, you can find ALL of this information for free somewhere on the internet; however, it could take you a lifetime to assemble it all and figure out what information you found was real and what is BS. This is a great book for a beginner or intermediate bodybuilder, the only people who don't need this book are IFBB pros. Bodybuilding Revealed covers everything: nutrition, training, cardio, and supplements. Honestly, I think this book is worth more than $47.

Lets start with the basics. Not only is Bodybuilding Revealed very well written and professionally edited, but its the only bodybuilding book I have seen that gives research references at the end of every section. If you question anything he says, you can look at the research and see for yourself. It goes without saying because of his scientific rigor that he does not make any ridiculous, exaggerated claims. Not only that, but the book is engaging and funny without being unprofessional. I have always loved Will's sense of humor! He sets the tone in the introduction:

"This plan was not smuggled out of an Eastern Bloc country during the Cold War. Nor was it given to me by aliens, or even invented in a super secret lab in the bowels of the CIA designed to make super soldiers"

Before I get into the review, let me mention that Bodybuilding Revealed is more than a book - it's a complete organization with a "members area" and other services. To test out their customer service, I sent them two really stupid questions of the "I forgot my password" and "How can I view this document" variety and to their credit, they answer within 90 minutes each time and were very professional and helpful despite my idiotic questions. A+ for customer support! I'll cover features in the members area later.

There are two excellent reasons to buy Bodybuilding Revealed, the nutrition section and the supplements section - either is worth the $47 alone. Will Brink does a great job laying down the foundation of nutrition. Basic nutrition textbooks are not tailored to muscle building. Bodybuilding nutritional info is usually lacking in accuracy, depth and scientific rigor. Will Brink pulls the best of each together into a concise nutritional information for the bodybuilder. He doesn't drone on about irrelevant stuff nor does he omit important stuff. This chapter on bodybuilding nutrition is one of the best I have read. Just one little point I disagree with him on, its his premise is that you have to add a little bodyfat to gain muscle. I respectfully disagree on this point but hey, maybe I am wrong. I worry that the excuse they have been looking for to get fat. What I love about Will is that like myself, he is a skeptic. He demands solid research to prove points and has little tolerance for those silly myths that have become "common knowledge". For example, in his discussion of daily protein intake requirements and meal size, he does a great job of debunking the myth that the body can only digest 30g protein at a time. There is a great section on Essential Fatty Acids that tells you what you need to know without making your eyes glaze over. The nutrition section has the best discussion of carbs, insulin, and glycemic index that I have even seen and its in terms us bodybuilders can understand. He spends a long time on the important subject of glycemic index and its importance for endurance, bodyfat reduction, and performance. I wish I could claim credit for thinking this up but Will Brink did, here is "Brink's Universal Law of Nutrition" which skillfully sums up all of nutrition in my opinion:

"Total calories dictate how much you lose or gain, and macro nutrient types and ratios dictate what you lose or gain"

Brilliantly put. He then goes on to explain TDEE, RMR, EMR, TEM, EEPA in terms that the nonmathematically minded can understand and use. I love his enlightened and scientific look at the daily protein requirements of bodybuilders! I've been bodybuilding for nearly three decades and I still don't know it all. The sections on fat was very enlightening to me, turns out I have always been doing the right thing without knowing why. Now I can point to research that shows what I instinctively knew from experience.

OK, everybody knows I'm anti-supplement but just for the record, I'm not against supplements for some philosophical reason, just a practical reason. Since the supplement industry is not regulated I don't trust them to safely deliver products to me that are what the label claims. If I knew I could get pure, safe, non-toxic supplements there are some I would gladly take. Will Brink's excellent supplement section is the only impartial and scientific review of supplements you will find. He doesn't rate brands of supplements or even mention them. What he does is talk about ingredients: what each is, what it does, real world experience, and medical research backing the claims. What a refreshing breath of fresh air! Use this section to help weed thru the supplement-jungle of exaggerated, ridiculous claims and tell the gems apart from the crap. Will Brink also gets five gold stars for his handling of pro-hormone supplements.

There is a short discussion of cardio and the benefits of HIIT but this is not a major focus of Bodybuilding Revealed. If you are a triathlete or marathon runner and want to improve your endurance, this book wont be of much help.

There is a fine little weight training section for beginners but Bodybuilding Revealed is not an encyclopedia of exercises, it just has the basics. Its perfect for setting up beginning or intermediate routine but it doesn't pretend to give you IFBB pro workout routines. Five gold stars for the great user interface to view the exercise videos, its the best I have ever seen. You just click on the muscle on the anatomy diagram and then in the pane to the right you see a demo video and a text description of the exercise.

One objection, I don't like the fact that he pays $1000 for success stories. That just is asking for misleading before-after shots. Hey, I just give out t-shirts for people who are on my success stories page!

So that's it in a nutshell, buy Bodybuilding Revealed for the nutrition and supplements sections.

Members Area

Now lets talk a bit about the members area, if I read this correctly you get lifetime access when you buy the $47 book. There is a forum, ZZZZZZZzzzzzzzz - not a big deal, there are plenty of free forums out there.

The highlight of the members area is the meal planner! Nutrition is the hardest part of bodybuilding, especially for beginners and intermediates and the meal planner makes it easy. The first day or two it will be a bit time consuming to use because you will be entering all your meals as you eat them but since it lets you save meals, the tool will quickly become fast and easy. What I like about it is that it makes you very, very conscious of what's going in your mouth and makes you realize that the quality of every calorie counts. One very minor complaint, the drop down list of foods is a bit cumbersome to use.

The online video exercise demonstrations is available in the members area as well as the book. As I mentioned before, I love the user interface. There are anatomical illustrations of the body and you click on the muscle you are interested in and the demo video appears in the right pane along with text descriptions. Very cool! This is really valuable for beginners to help them jumpstart their lifting. A lot of times, beginners are just baffled by the overwhelming information. With this you just click on the bodypart and it gives you exercises to do. For intermediate or advanced bodybuilders the videos are not of much value because they are limited to a very few basic exercises that intermediate bodybuilders already know.

The Deluxe Edition

OK, now lets cover why I said not to waste that $30 extra for the "Deluxe Edition". It comes with six extra reports (not written by Will Brink) and none of them is even close to the quality of Will Brinks book (Bodybuilding Revealed) which I discussed above.

Now a little about the author, Will Brink. Will Brink has written about bodybuilding for a long time and has established himself as an expert, I wont bother you with his official bio as you can read that anywhere. Although I have never met or talked to Will Brink, I feel I know him because we have some shared history. In the early days of the internet, all you could do is send emails with a clunky command-line interface and use command-line BBS systems, there was no such thing as FireFox or Internet Explorer. Bodybuilding quickly adopted the internet as a realtime way for people to discuss new supplements and training methods, misc.fitness.weights was where I got introduced to Will Brink. Back then if you wanted to learn about bodybuilding, you could read 30 year old dusty books (isometrics and calisthenics) or you could go do misc.fitness.weights for modern techniques. Will Brink (along with Patrick Arnold) was one of the most prolific posters of information and acknowledged experts and he was always on the cutting edge of supplements. Will Brink consulted for supplement companies way back then. Anyway, if I remember correctly he was the creative genius behind the first pro-hormone supplements (don't quote me on that).

Review Date: 5/10/2010

back to top

Burn the Fat by Tom Venuto Highly Recommended!

Want to lose fat? If so I strongly recommend buying Tom Venuto's book "Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle"! This very well written, gimmick-free book will give you the motivation and the knowledge to permanently take that excess bodyfat off. So I have to tell you, I was absolutely dreading doing a book review on one of these "lose fat" books because the genre has such a horrible reputation for sleazy tactics, inflated promises, and merely temporary results. I was so impressed with Tom Venuto's "Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle" that I actually feel embarrassed. I am embarrassed that his book is so much better than my website. Basically, the approach to weight loss that I recommend on my website is very similar to what Tom Venuto teaches in his book "Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle". The difference is that on my website I give the information in a handful of pages without going into depth, in Tom Ventuo's book he covers things in a much more complete, organized, and detailed way. The other important difference is that Tom Venuto has some really interesting and exciting techniques for fat loss with the effectiveness of the low-carb diets without the bad side effects. If I had 6 months full time to work on a weight loss book, and I was good at writing (which I'm not), my book would have been almost a clone of Tom Venuto's book "Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle". If you want to lose bodyfat and don't find my website sufficient, I strongly recommend you buy this book!

Lets talk about how this book stacks up next to Will Brink's weight loss book Fat Loss Revealed (read review). They are both excellent and have basically the same information, I think that the two authors may have even collaborated. The difference is that this book by Tom Venuto's spends a lot more time helping you with motivation and inspiration. Fat Loss Revealed by Will Brink on the other hand is very no-nonsense and straightforward, he doesn't coddle the reader. Mr Brink's approach is "Here is what you need to do, here is why you need to do it, and here is the research that backs me up". I'm an engineer and a goal driven person, personally I don't want to be coddled so I prefer Will Brink's Fat Loss Revealed. Many others find the inspirational and motivational approach in this book by Tom Venuto's much more to their liking. Both are great books, choose the approach that works best with your personality type. One other big difference is that Fat Loss Revealed comes with an amazing online meal planner better than anything I have seen, Burn the Fat doesn't.

OK now lets talk about what's in the book, its 60% nutrition and 20% exercise. In losing fat, nutrition is #1 which is why he spends so much time on this important topic. It doesn't matter how much you exercise, if your nutrition sucks you will still get fatter. My first hint that I was going to like this book was in the preface where Tom Venuto stated his purpose:

"... to help you lose fat permanently without drugs, supplements or gimmicks and to educate you in the process of losing fat."

Bravo! So many books are about "diets", this one is not. Permanently, is a keyword here! When you go off diets, the weight comes back, this book is not about a "diet", its about a lifestyle change. The second thing I applauded was the recognition of the important role of education. If you just tell people to eat vegetables to lose weight, they will forget. Tell them why its important and they will remember. Weight loss is all about education in my opinion. I also was excited to see that he was not going to plug supplements in this program! IMHO, supplements are to be avoided until the FDA regulates them.

How many times have you heard me harp about the importance of goals? Well, rightfully so Tom Venuto's first chapter is about the critically important subject of goals - bravo! Again, I found myself being a little embarrassed because although I definitely mention the importance of setting specific, measurable, realistic goals on my website, I don't do nearly as good a job of putting it all together in Tom Venuto's book "Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle". I agree with Tom Venuto completely when he says that this is the most important chapter in the book because if you don't know what your goal is, you will never achieve it. Double-bravo.

As an important introduction to nutrition, he covers why conventional diets fail. I knew everything in this chapter but again was embarrassed that only a fraction of this is on my website. He goes into detail about the starvation response and it's perils and the perils of very low calorie diets. He also goes into detail about the optimal rate of weight loss. Throw away those stupid height/weight charts and useless BMI calculations - bravo again, I couldn't agree more! What's truly important is bodyfat percentage and he explains in detail why. He also explains in detail why a cheap bodyfat caliper is the best and most accurate way to go. Measuring bodyfat is critical because you have to know if your fat-loss approach is working or not so you can make adjustments. I also love his excellent section on how to break a fat loss plateau, I wish I had a dollar for every time I have been asked that question! All thru the book, I kept finding myself nodding my head saying "Yep, Yep!" and this section on busting thru weight loss plateaus is no exception.

There is just one thing that I disagree with Tom Venuto on, Its about the importance of bodytypes. All of chapter 5 deals with bodytypes (ectomorph, endomorph, mesomorph) and why he thinks its important, he did not convince me at all. I am still of the opinion that pidgin-holing everyone into some arbitrary category is completely useless, distracting and irrelevant. I know I'm in the minority here with this opinion by the way but I would say just skip this chapter, its not important to this book or losing fat in my opinion. To lose bodyfat you do the same things regardless of bodytype, what does vary is the quantities - of cardio, of calories, etc. Tom Venuto does a great job of describing the feedback mechanism used to hone in on the proper amount of calories, cardio, etc in chapter 3. This is a minor point to harp on, its just that Tom and I agree on almost everything so anyplace I can point out something weak I need to pounce on so that it doesn't look like I yet another of those "yes-men" book reviews. :)

My youtube subscribers know that I harp on them all the time to eat 6 small well balanced meals a day to optimize muscle gain. What I did not really realize till reading Tom Venuto's book "Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle" was that frequent, small meals are just as important for fat loss! He lays out the case for frequent, small meals so well that you will never skip breakfast again. He has a brilliant way you can immediately break yourself of the skipping-meal habit, wish I had thought of it. Again I find myself embarrassed at the skimpy way I cover this same information on my website, the same information is there but its not clearly explained like it is in Tom Venuto's book "Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle"! Eating 6 meals a day is really tough for most people and he has excellent suggestions how you can achieve it.

Time for a confession here, after reading this book I realize that I have been uncharacteristically sloppy with my protein/carb/fat ratios and have used outdated and unsupported notions of what was best. I know a lot about bodybuilding and nutrition but his chapter on macro nutrient ratios taught me a thing or two. No matter how much I think I have learned about fitness, there is always so much more to learn. I always knew that for me it worked best to eat my protein and carbs together but in Tom Venuto's book "Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle", he explains the eight reasons why its important. I love his common sense approach to these ratios and I agree with him completely that you really need to experiment and see what ratios works best for you! I read a lot about good fats and their importance but it wasn't till I read this book that started to question my personal macro nutrient ratios, currently I have 10% fat and after reading Tom Venuto's book I'm convinced that I should try doubling it to 20%. He also slams the ridiculous high fat,/zero-carb fads, and explains why - bravo! I really like his simple 3-2-1 method for nutrient ratios (as a starting point)! After reading his book, I am personally re-evaluating the protein percentage I consume. I see definite advantages to bumping my protein intake from the 30% that I currently consume to 40 or 50% and he does a good job dispelling the myth about too much protein being harmful.

He spends a whole important chapter analyzing low carb diets, this is really important because so many of the fad diets out there are of this variety. In this chapter you learn their pros and cons and then learn how to get the weight loss benefits of the low-carb type diets without the drawbacks. The first technique "carb-tapering" is just brilliant and although I have always been a strong opponent of the low-carb craze, this technique makes a lot of sense to me and I'm going to use it this summer. Its a natural extension of what I already know works well for me. The next technique for avoiding the disadvantages of the low-carb diets while retaining the benefits is carb cycling. This might be one of the most revolutionary ideas in the book, honestly, this one I had never heard of but it seems to make sense and hundreds of his clients have gotten great results from it so I'm willing to personally give it a try.

The last 20% of the book covers exercise and its importance in losing bodyfat, both cardiovascular exercise and weight training. The book has a section on weight training routines but honestly, I didn't even read that part because I was so excited about the nutritional concepts in the book.

Again, I highly recommend Burn the Fat by Tom Venuto!

Review Date: 5/12/2010

back to top

Fat Loss Revealed by Will Brink - Highly Recommended!

This is a no-nonsense book on losing fat, its not a fad diet, just solid science. I've been around bodybuilding a long time but I keep learning new things all the time - this book has taught me a thing or two. I've always been lean enough to have 6-pack abs but never truly ripped. The most valuable thing for me personally was learning how I could take my bodyfat down to the next level with carb cycling, that concept alone was worth the $47 price for me.

This is the second book of Will Brink's that I have reviewed and its precisely because the first one was so excellent that I decided to review this one. His first book, Bodybuilding Revealed, is a nearly 700 page definitive encyclopedia of bodybuilding and contains exhaustive information on nutrition, supplements, gaining muscle, losing fat, and exercise. Want to learn how to lose fat from this excellent author without reading his whole 700 page tome? Fat Loss Revealed is for you! This book on the other hand is very specifically written for those that want to lose weight, not only is it short (under 300 pages) but it contains much more detailed information about losing weight than is available in his encyclopedia Don't buy both his books, buy one or the other. If you are more interested in gaining muscle then buy BBR, if you are more interested in losing fat then buy Fat Loss Revealed. Both this book and Bodybuilding Revealed have access to his really great members area where there is the best meal planner I have ever used. The meal planner alone is worth the $47 purchase price of this book and you have lifetime access when you buy the book.

While I'm on the subject of comparisons, lets talk about how this book stacks up next to Tom Venuto's excellent book Burn the Fat (read review). They are both excellent and have the same information, I think that the two authors may have even collaborated. The difference is that Tom Venuto's book Burn the Fat spends a lot more time helping you with motivation and inspiration. Fat Loss Revealed by Will Brink on the other hand is very no-nonsense and straightforward, he doesn't coddle the reader. Mr Brink's approach is "Here is what you need to do, here is why you need to do it, and here is the research that backs me up". I'm an engineer and a goal driven person, personally I don't want to be coddled so I prefer Will Brink's Fat Loss Revealed. Many others find the inspiration and motivation in Tom Venuto's book Burn the Fat more to their liking. Both are great books, choose the approach that works best with your personality type. Alles Klar? One other big difference is that Fat Loss Revealed comes with an amazing online meal planner better than anything I have seen, Burn the Fat doesn't.

Ok, enough with comparing this to other books - lets talk about Fat Loss Revealed. There are two types of readers and this book satisfies both of them. The first type of reader is short on time and wants results, they don't necessarily want to waste time on background info - they just want an action plan to get them the results. The second type of reader always questions everything and wants to know exactly why they they are doing what they are doing. Will Brink does a great job at satisfying both types of readers. For example, the first chapter is a very short "Quickstart Guide" that gets you started on your weight loss plan in 10 minutes, it has a pre-made diet based on your weight and bodytype (online), a list of supplements, and a workout plan. The detailed oriented reader will skip the Quickstart Guide and go directly to the first meaty chapter, Supplements. This is the only impartial and scientific review of supplements for weight loss that I have found. He doesn't rate brands of supplements or even mention them. What he does is talk about ingredients: what each is, what it does, real world experience, and medical research backing the claims. What a refreshing breath of fresh air! Use this section to help weed thru the supplement-jungle of exaggerated, ridiculous claims and tell the gems apart from the crap. He explains some of the terms you see on labels that are big warning signs - like "proprietary blend" or "scientifically formulated". At the end of the supplement chapter his ranks the supplements into three groups: good for weight loss, might work for weight loss, and wont work for weight loss. I recommend you just read over the supplements in the first category and decide if any of those are of interest for you. Personally the one thing I'm going to use after reading his supplement section is green tea and possibly green tea extracts if I can find a brand I trust. Again I love his approach, all the detail is there for the people who want to know everything and make their own decision but for those who just want the short list, that's there too. I do wish he would emphasize a bit more that supplements are not regulated and that unscrupulous manufactures can churn out deadly products, to his credit though he does mention the importance of choosing reputable supplement companies though.

The nutrition chapter is quick and painless. It helps you calculate your daily caloric intake requirement and breaks it down my macro nutrient requirements (fats, carbs, protein). He covers the important subject of good fats and bad fats, good protein sources and bad protein sources, and good carbs bad carbs. The very important subject of Glycemic Index is covered as well.

Next up, Will Brink explains how to get started - Coming up with long term, short term and daily goals. I jumped up and clapped when I he said that people have this unhealthy obsession with the scale! I have always preached this myself, people do the most ridiculous and counterproductive things to cause a momentary dip on that scale needle. What matters is bodyfat percentage, not weight, and this chapter shows you how to measure your progress correctly. He also does a good job of helping people set realistic expectations, without this, any weight loss program is doomed. The chapter finishes with Will Brink's "Ten Laws of Fat Loss" which summarizes in a straightforward way the whole fat loss process.

Then the important subject of planning your eating is covered. Just an aside, I like how he has been able to tightly integrate the book with the forum. Often you will see a link in the book saying "If you have a question about your diet, ask here" and it will take you to the diet board on the forum where you can post your question. He also heavily uses the web-based tools in his members area (which you get access to when you buy this book) to plan your nutrition. It will calculate your recommended daily caloric intake and macro nutrient rations and even plan your meals with the correct portion sizes if you want. He has some good basic tips on how to eat healthy meals without spending lots of time in the kitchen similar to what I mention on my website. One topic I miss entirely on my website that he covers well is portion control, I do a terrible job of this personally :( Probably the best part of this chapter for many people is where he explains in simple terms what is required for optimum pre-workout and post-workout nutrition, this topic is mysterious black magic for most people (till they read this chapter).

The advanced fat loss section was particularly interesting to me and now I understand why it is that my body always seems to like to stay at about 8% bodyfat but not drop below that. With carb cycling one can fool the body into reducing bodyfat further without losing muscle mass. I'm actually going to be trying his technique over the next two months. I am a firm believer that the "low-carb" diets are really bad for you but I think I can do his carb cycling without depriving myself of all important fiber containing vegetables and beans that I love so much. I do wish he would emphasize the downside of low-carb diets and how its extra, extra important to make sure that every carb calorie that is consumed is "nutrient gold".

Finally exercise is covered and its appropriate that its covered last in my opinion, fat loss is nutrition first and exercise second. One thing I intuitively knew but hadn't quantified is how much more important weight training is than cardio to lose bodyfat because of the duration that the resting metabolic rate is elevated with weight training as compared to aerobic exercise. The one point where I seriously disagree with the author is in his statement that if you have limited time you should do the weights and skip the aerobics - I say the reverse. For health improvement, nothing is more important than 20-40min of daily cardio according to me and the American Heart Association. Of course, he is technically right I suppose if your goal is to optimize fat loss rather than health improvement.

One great thing that I haven't seen anywhere else is a workout program specifically tailored for women, a severe shortcoming of my website. The womans resistance training section is about 25 pages long and illustrates how to do all the exercises. Excellent!

Of course there is also a workout section for men with various splits depending on experience level. Note though that the goal of this weightlifting program is to help you lose bodyfat, its not a look-like-Arnold-in-90-days program. If you are more interested in gaining muscle than losing bodyfat then as I mentioned earlier, I would get his Bodybuilding Revealed book.

I just want to reiterate again about the members area, if I read this correctly you get lifetime access when you buy the $47 book. The highlight here is the online meal planner! Nutrition is the hardest part of bodybuilding, especially for beginners and intermediates and the meal planner makes it easy. The first day or two it will be a bit time consuming to use because you will be entering all your meals as you eat them but since it lets you save meals, the tool will quickly become fast and easy. What I like about it is that it makes you very, very conscious of what's going in your mouth and makes you realize that the quality of every calorie counts. One very minor complaint, the drop down list of foods is a bit cumbersome to use. Again, the meal planner was worth the $47

Review Date: 6/03/2010

back to top