The
Truth
The
intro states you need to have an open mind and that
a lot of the information will go against what you have read or heard
about
weight loss and fitness information from the media.
I kind of take things for granted now since
I have been researching effective fitness and weight loss information
for over
8 years now, but in the beginning, I certainly had my preconceived
notions
about what constituted proven and/or effective weight loss methods
turned
upside down. As my
wife was going
through this program, she would tell me lots of things she learned that
she
never knew before…I guess she doesn’t get fitness information from me
by
osmosis!
What
I really like about the program is everything you
need you probably already have at home…or can get with little
expenditure as
far as fitness gear (I’ll get to that below).
The
information is based on techniques proven effective
for weight loss through years and years of research and results from
training
clients. Much of
the information is the
same as I was taught by one of the top personal trainer certification
organizations…but not common knowledge.
For
example; the book dispels myths like thinking lots
of abs training will give you a great set of abs.
This is completely untrue, you can do
crunches until you are blue in the face, it won’t work.
You need to have a low body fat percentage to
have a great set of abs…and ab exercises aren’t efficient fat burning
exercises! He
also gives some concrete information on the exact body fat percentages
you need
to be at for men and women to really see your abs.
This is great info to have, I hadn’t come
across these exact #s before, but they make sense to me based on my
personal
training experience and…the percentages for females surprised me a
little since
they seemed higher than I would have thought (so it is definitely
attainable if
you apply yourself).
I
really like the detail he goes into about nutrition
covering low fat vs. high fat diets, certain foods believed to be
healthy that
are junk etc. By
now you’ve probably
heard that High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) is bad as well as the evil
“trans-fats”, but do you know why and what foods they are in? He also explains how
artificial sweeteners
often lead to fat gain…even though they are calorie free. Yet another myth he
dispels is that a low
calorie diet will be the best way to lose weight.
While calorie restriction is necessary, you
actually need to “over-eat” on occasion to keep your metabolism from
slowing
way down in response to the restricted calories, leading to rapid
weight gain
once you come off the diet.
The
Nutrition
This
is the best section of the book in my
opinion. From the
start, he mentions
that fad diets rarely work long term.
This is about changing your long term eating
habits from un healthy
processed junk to healthy, nutrient rich (and good tasting)
alternatives. He
doesn’t harp on counting calories (good news!)
because if you are eating healthy, the calories aren’t as important
since your
body is getting all the nutrients it needs.
There
are some surprising healthy foods in here that
taste great, and you may have thought weren’t healthy.
Things like dark chocolate, nuts, eggs, olive
oil and many others. Of
course, you have
to watch portion sizes on some of these, but they all have healthy fats
your
body needs.
He
also covers foods that help you burn fat and have
“thermogenic” qualities. A
lot of times
these can be included in weight loss pills or “fat burners.” The problem with those is
you also get a lot
of junk you don’t need, can actually be dangerous (remember the deaths
associated with ephedrine a few years back?) and are expensive! Green tea, spices like
cinnamon and hot
pepper among many other things actually help you burn more fat. The daily nutrition
suggestions are even
adjusted for training days vs. non-training days; this is a very
helpful tweak
that would be overlooked by most programs.
Finally,
there are lots of examples of caloric values
of foods and daily meal plans to include serving sizes.
This is huge to be able to see laid out,
examples of what to eat to put all this advice into practice.
The
Training
The
exercise portion of this book is pretty extensive
and like the nutrition section, information packed.
He recommends starting out with just a stability
ball and a set
of adjustable dumb bells, so it is easy and inexpensive to get started
in your home.
Starting
with Ab exercises, he lists the bad
ones which over recruit the hip flexors (which are too tight in most
people
from sitting anyway) and may harm the back.
Then he lists a bunch of good ones.
My favorites are the “surprisingly killer”
ones that emphasize total
core development.
The
section continues with illustrated examples of a
bunch of different exercise, not much to report here.
He then goes into a bunch of info on which
types of exercises are best: (single joint “isolation” or multi-joint),
which is
better: machines or free weights and examples of inefficient routines
and more
efficient ones and exactly what makes them better.
He also covers cardio work and why the typical
cardio most people do is largely a waste of time.
The
section concludes with the actual exercise
routines. He
provides enough detail to
know exactly what to do, how much to do, and which days to do it. Thankfully, effective
weight loss workouts
are no more than 45 minutes (often less) and can be done 3-4 days per
week. You don’t
have to spend hours in
the gym to get results!
The
Conclusion
The
book wraps up with a lot of general additional
tips. As always, he
gives specifics and
the “why”. For
example; he mentions to
limit alcohol consumption. Instead
of
stopping there, he explains why, what types are better than others, and
how much
is too much and how much should be ok and not de-rail your progress.
He
wraps up with a very good Q&A section which
should clear up any remaining questions or misconceptions you might
still have
after being bombarded with all this info.
It is a good wrap up and summary of all the
effective weight loss info
in the book.
The
Extras
There
are a few bonuses you get. One
of them is a handy metabolic calculator
which is essential to know how many calories you burn daily and a
starting
point to know how much you need to eat to lose weight.
Admittedly, these are available for free online,
so not really an added value so much as a convenience of being included.
The
“Turbulence Training” dumb bell, body weight workout
bonus is very good. I
was impressed with
the exercise selection, layout and level of detail in his descriptions
and
fitness information. This
would be a
great fat burning program you can do in your own home either instead of
the
routines in The Truth About Abs, or work them in later for variety
after you’ve
done the workouts in the Abs book for a few months.
He
also includes an excel spreadsheet with card deck workouts
and exercise descriptions. I
have done
workouts like this before and they can be very intense and really break
up the
monotony of a routine. They
are also an
awesome workout to do while travelling, just need some space (in a
hotel room
or outside) and the body weight exercise variations.
There
is another bonus from one of the” Biggest Loser”
trainers, but I haven’t had a chance to check it out yet…a bit of
information
overload!
The
Good and the Not So Good
What’s
good?
Number one is the quality of information. This is the most important
thing when
considering any weight loss program.
The
fanciest looking, best infomercial marketed program in the world won’t
matter
if the information is incomplete or you can’t follow it because it is
just too
intense and you quickly get injured or burned out.
There
is a ton of info here and the book is over 140
pages long. If
anything, he almost
explains too much especially in the nutrition section, but I like that. I really like being
educated on “why” not
just told what to do and “trust them, it works.”
It
is a complete nutrition and highly effective workout
program so you get the complete picture.
Also, the workouts can both be more complex and
make use of a commercial
gym (or well-appointed home gym), or simpler and use minimal equipment. I love working out simply
and at home myself,
so this is a big plus for me.
The
not-so-good: There
isn’t a lot to
criticize really. It’s
kind of ironic,
but I think he included too many abs exercises!
I think he did that just because it is what people
expect, and he did
take time to explain the poor ones vs. better ones.
Though like the myth he dispels points out;
ab work isn’t that important to see your abs, but good core strength
and
stability is important for overall fitness.
I’ve gotten killer abs just by dead lifting heavy
before with no direct
ab work at all.
Lots
of the exercises are more gym centric; I would
have liked to see even more variations for at home or with typical home
equipment. On a
personal note: I love
kettlebells and though he mentions them, I would have liked to see some
examples using them. My
wife used her
kettlebells to follow the program and it works great.
They are better (ideally) suited for some
exercises like the snatches and swings and usable for anything you
would use a
dumbbell for.
Not
a huge problem though since he did include body
weight and home dumbbell type exercises and there is the workout bonus also.
The
Results
I’ve
incorporated a lot of his outstanding nutritional recommendations
into my diet and have lost about 5lbs in doing so without any calorie
restrictions. I’m
not following the
entire program since I’m already into a different workout routine.
I
got this program for my wife who wanted to lose some extra weight after
having our twins and get back down to her ideal
weight. She hasn’t
worked out with
anything approaching consistency in over a year and her diet was pretty
bad
(hey, I can’t blame her; she had to take care of 3 kids while I was in
Iraq for
a year!)
To
date: she has lost 6.5 lbs in three weeks! This
is a proven
and effective weight loss program that definitely works. Even better, it is
sustainable and the
healthy eating and fitness habits you build will be with you forever.
