 "THE REAL DEAL!!!" | 2009-05-30 |
| - Reviewed By User: A3TBBTXCY6S913 |
After years of yo-yo weight loss/gain through my 20's, I managed to drop 40 lbs last year on Weight Watchers Online. It taught me proper portion control (more on that in a min). By April of this year I had hit a serious plateau with my weight loss, and even 6 days/wk of exercise and what I thought was careful eating could not shake it (P90X workout by the way, you KNOW that is some stubborn fat!!). Then I picked up this book...
I am just shy of 2 weeks into this program and I am down 5 lbs!! I feel like a million bucks, and I can tell its very close to habit by now to eat in accordance with these guidelines. If I haven't eaten in the last 2 to 3 hrs, I can now FEEL my body telling me to refuel. I look forward to going grocery shopping just to see what healthy, delicious meals I can concoct. I must say its potentially the worst, most misleading title of any book ever, very shallow seeming really, but this defines the adage "don't judge a book by its cover". I agree with many of the other reviews in that it could have been shortened somewhat, and he does repeat himself quite a bit. That being said, the things he says are worth repeating in most cases. But it has truly been an eye opening experience learning the facts and ideas he lay's out inside. This is a plan for an incredibly healthy, eminently workable nutritional lifestyle. Combine this with P90X (UNBELIEVABLE workout program in and of itself) and the results are stunning.
If no review is complete with out a few "cons", I have one, and I think it is the cause of some of the lower ratings and unsuccessful attempts mentioned in the reviews. Two words...PORTION CONTROL. If there is one thing wrong with this book is I feel he does not give enough credence or credit to the value of portion control. My 3 months with Weight Watchers Online taught me the value of such. Be aware of how much you are taking in, and count calories or use this in conjunction with a food diary or something like Weight Watchers if necessary. Once you have figured out what your intake amounts should be and have those down, it will become second nature in no time!!
Bottom line: HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend this book!! |
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| "Refreshingly for MEN" | 2009-05-19 |
| - Reviewed By User: A2J6D6D0NB1G44 |
I'm getting back in my fitness kick so I figured I'd add this book while I was at it. I'm going through the Abs Diet book right now, I read this several months ago and it has some pretty good stuff in it. Being the editor in chief of Men's Health magazine, he's seen a bunch of diets, seen a ton of different workouts, so David Zincsenko decided to put together things that work really well to make his own system: The Abs Diet.
The thing about diet books is that they don't really tell you much more than what you probably already know: eat less, more frequent meals. Stay away from high fat and high sugar food. Excercise frequently. Drink a lot of water, eat a lot of fiber and protein. You'll find these suggestions here too but the difference is in how this `plan' is presented and ultimately how likely you are to execute it.
`Abs' diet promises a 6-pack in 6 weeks... yet it's not all about the abs. Zinczenko correlates good looking abs with overall health, not only because we're judged by the size of our belly but more importantly because a strong midsection also gives you a stronger back, stronger core, and eliminates the risk of belly fat which is the most dangerous of all (because of it's proximity to organs).
The diet centers around the "12 Power Foods" of which your meals should be comprised of at least 3-5 of these. Almonds, peanut butter, oatmeal, etc. And with these "12 power foods" comes some of the more refreshing aspects of this book: The author encourages the use of a blender. Seriously, there's a bunch of recipes for shakes, protein shakes, breakfast shakes... Probably the best one I tried was one with milk, a 1/2 cup of cooked oatmeal, yogurt, chocolate protein powder, and a tablespoon of peanut butter. Damn that thing came out thick and was really good, I had it for breakfast and it kept me full over three hours.
The author admits that he's not a very good cook so it's cool that he provides recipes with his included 7 day meal plan. Each day is a comprised of three meals and three snacks, all of which is easy to make from stuff you probably have in your fridge (eggs, sandwich, grilled chicken, meatballs).
The other good aspect of the book is that he emphasizes exercise. Not no "walk for 30 minutes daily" BS you find in other books that sound like they're geared towards the elderly. Keep in mind this is the editor in chief of Men's Health Magazine, so he knows what workouts work and which one will get you ripped. He states that circuit training is the single best way to build muscle and lose fat in the process so that's what we get. One day has you doing 14 different exercises at about 12 reps each resting only 30 seconds in between. You can really go hardcore with it if you're serious about losing weight. There's a large section with just pictures showing you how to do each exercise so there's no excuses.
The rest of the book is filled with info on what food is good/bad for you and why which is cool to read but the more interesting stuff is the explanation of high blood pressure and high cholesterol. The book does a good job of explaining it and gives you a wider scope to trying to achieve health, not just slim down.
There's a section that pits the Abs Diet against other popular diets and the author rips on the low carb ones, namely Atkins. I feel he went a bit too far, almost as if he recognizes it's the most influential and has to "topple Goliath". Some of his reasoning makes sense but at times uses misguided information (whether he did it intentionally or not) to try to smear the diet. I would bet that he knows Atkins is far more than "eating greasy burgers without the buns and loads of bacon" but I guess you gotta do what you have to do to make your product stand out.
Aside from that low point The Abs diet is worth checking out if you need a book companion when trying to lose weight.
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 "Good advice, but maybe not enough for a true "6 pack"" | 2009-04-26 |
| - Reviewed By User: AD2KQNT7LV2LM |
A lot of the advice is good, but I found that I already knew and was implementing over half of it already (such as eat multiple small meals per day). The book is too wordy for its content. Also, it is more geared towards people who are overweight, instead of people who are fit but just want to become more fit. It would work better for those people b/c they are not following some things which people who are fit are already doing (weight training and cardio, eat protein, eat fiber, etc).
Lastly, he never discusses the timing of cardio and timing of weight lifting as it relates to eating, other than to say you should eat protein after weight lifting, which everyone knows. Should you eat anything before weight lifting or before cardio? Never discussed.
The diet recipes have a little TOO MANY INGREDIENTS... even the smoothies have like six ingredients each! A smoothie should have 3, 4 ingredients tops. I rather not shop for a long list of ingredients for one meal, especially a smoothie. Also, he makes his smoothies with Vanilla yogurt. It's 2009 holmes. PLAIN yogurt. |
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| "Worked for me!" | 2009-04-03 |
| - Reviewed By User: APZ8TNSNIBENP |
| I love the eating plan outlined in the Abs Diet book. I have relied on Jillian Michaels for the exercise parts of my weight loss plan, but the diet plan in her Making the Cut book was way too restrictive for me. It left me feeling hungry and wanting to cheat. I have always been way too attached to counting calories and relying on the number on the scale to feel good about myself. Diet plans that focus on calorie intake are detrimental to me because I continually want to try to eat fewer and fewer calories and I end up eating more instead. With the Abs Diet, I completely let go of counting calories. I combined this diet with Jillian Michaels' workout videos (30 Day Shred, Banish Fat and Boost Metabolism, and No More Trouble Zones) and I lost 25 pounds. |
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 "Bad Science, Bad Advice" | 2008-11-10 |
| - Reviewed By User: A2EB6Y6W8OBWAZ |
While there are some good things in this book, its overall message is based on some bad science and its recommendations may lead you to gain weight, not lose it. The fundamental flaws are that the author basically ignores the central role of calories, over-hypes weight training, and discourages cardio.
(A) Calories: Short of surgery, losing weight requires you to burn more calories than you eat. Period. The author completely glosses over this central truth and, in fact, encourages you to ignore calories and just focus on eating certain "power foods", which he thinks will get you to consume fewer calories overall. Well, that may be true for some people but not for others. If you check the other one star reviews of this book, you will find people who actually gained weight following his recommendations. If you want to lose weight, you need to figure out what your baseline, sedentary calorie usage is, which you can figure out from a variety of online sources (Google the simply named "Lose Weight Diet" for one, look for the calculator on the second page, and set activity level to sedentary). Then confirm the number by trying to eat that many calories for several days in a row and monitor your weight. If it stays flat, that is your baseline. From there you need to create a calorie deficit by eating fewer calories and burning more by exercising more, and preferably both. A deficit of 500 calories per day will drop you one pound of fat (as opposed to water weight) per week, and that is a healthy and sustainable rate of loss.
From a diet point of view, the author is right to encourage you to eat fewer simple carbs like rice, bread, pasta, and cereals. They heighten insulin, contain a ton of calories, and are too quickly digested and thus don't make you full for very long. Eat more meat and vegetables, some fruit and dairy, and check out the other power foods the author recommends. Throw in a daily vitamin and fish oil or flax supplement for good measure.
But remember that these are means to the end, which is creating a healthy, but sustainable calorie deficit. Buy a decent calorie book and keep track of what and how many calories you eat (and burn) in a diet log. You should also track your protein intake and shoot for 0.8-1.0 grams of protein per pound of desired weight to maintain and build muscle, with the protein intake spread as evenly throughout the day as possible (protein is not easily stored in the body, unlike carbs and fat).
While you do not need to track every single calorie and gram of protein that enters your mouth forever, you should do it for a while to get a real handle on what you are actually eating (vs. what you think you are). After that, use calorie counts to create a daily and weekly meal plan. Once that's in place, forget counting calories and just stick to the plan. Yes, you will occasionally stray, especially when you are out being social. But return to the plan as soon as possible and stick to it as often as possible.
(B) Weight Training vs. Steady State Cardio: The author is right to encourage weight training. But if you are trying to lose fat, he is wrong to say that is all you need, exercise wise. And he uses some bad science to justify his arguments. First, he argues that weight training burns more calories overall than steady state cardio (i.e. walking, jogging), once you add in the effect of after burn and muscle building over the next 24-48 hours. Research indicates that the calorie usage of after burn is actually quite low (1). Overall, even with after-burn, an hour of vigorous weight training will consume fewer calories (200-400) than an hour of vigorous cardio (up to 600 if you run a 10 minute mile). But to lose fat, you really need both.
Second, he says that muscle tissue consumes 50 calories per pound of muscle per day (actually he says "up to," but that is easy to miss). This is so central that it is the basis of the book's title. But the real number is more like 6 calories per pound per day (2). Fat tissue also consumes about 2 calories per pound per day (3), so as you add muscle and lose fat, you will only make tiny changes in your daily calorie usage. And that daily calorie usage may very well drop, not increase, if you are losing a lot of fat.
Third, he neglects to tell you how difficult it is to gain muscle and lose fat at the same time. It requires almost perfectly timed protein and carb boosts (those whey shakes) before and immediately after weight training, and even then, simply focusing on either muscle building or fat loss at one time, and switching back and forth (called bulking and cutting by body builders), may get you there faster. Successful muscle building generally requires a calorie surplus, while fat loss requires a calorie deficit. Usually, when trimming down, maintaining muscle is the most you can really hope for, but weight training is critical to that.
Fourth, he says that cardio can actually hurt you by destroying needed muscle. If your primary objective is building muscle, avoiding cardio is fine. But if your primary objective is losing fat, cardio may be critical to achieving the calorie deficit you need. Associated muscle loss can be minimized or avoided completely by not creating too severe a calorie deficit in your diet alone (no more than 15-20% below baseline metabolism), eating sufficient protein (0.8-1.0 grams per pound of your desired weight spread evenly throughout the day, and tuna and whey protein, which the author recommends, help a lot here), and weight training. Weight training is critical because dieting + cardio alone may indeed be a recipe for muscle loss, and that will just leave you looking skinny and unhealthy rather than healthy and fit. But cardio is a critical addition. It is worth noting that even the author admits running every day after advising against cardio. Interesting.
So what's the answer? To lose fat, trim your calories slightly below maintenance, make sure you eat enough protein throughout the day, and slowly build toward incorporating an hour of weight training and cardio into your day - either alternating between them from one day to the next or doing both on one day and resting the day in between - to create a daily calorie deficit of about 500 calories, which will result in a pound of fat loss per week. When you are ready to shift from fat loss to muscle gain, lose the cardio, keep the weight training, and adopt a slight calorie surplus of 200-400 calories per day. That's it.
The basic problem with this and many other diet books is that it is only loosely based on real science. Any book that says "studies say" without giving you actual references to peer reviewed scientific literature is suspect. Detailed footnotes and references are a good thing. I have provided references for my comments below.
(1) LaForgia J et. al. Effects of exercise intensity and duration on the excess post-exercise oxygen consumption. J Sports Sci. 2006 Dec;24(12):1247-64. [...]
(2) Wang, Z., Heshka, S., Zhang, K., Boozer, C.N., & Heymsfield, S.B. (2001). Resting energy expenditure: systematic organization and critique of prediction methods. Obesity Research, 9, 331-336. [...]
(3) Ibid.
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| "A real diet for men" | 2008-10-27 |
| - Reviewed By User: A1DBO2J1DUYH69 |
This book was definitely worth buying. I've been on the plan for 5 weeks now, and I feel stronger, I feel full (more than before I started the diet), I eat a big fatty pizza once a week, and amazingly, my fat has been slowly draining away. The author is editor of Men's Health magazine; part of his job is to read all of the studies anywhere that have been done about nutrition, health, weight loss, and strength gain. He basically took all that information and made up his own diet plan.
I really like the plan. It's got two components: food, and exercise, mostly weight lifting. The food component relatively simple to implement, and he gives a lot of good examples of how it works out in practice, and how it can be fit into every day life. It's designed to be something you can keep up for the next 50 years, not something you "go on" until you're down to the weight you want. The best thing is that I feel full most of the day. (As he explains in the book, feeling really hungry and then eating a big meal is really counter-productive for losing weight.) I also really enjoy weight lifting. I had done lifting before, but his emphasis on gaining "lean muscle mass" is nice.
And yes, he also has 36 different exercises for the abdominal region; but no matter how toned your abs are, they're not very sexy if they're under a 2-inch layer of fat. The total-body workout is to help with the weight-loss part.
The writing is good too - fun and informative. Other reviewers complained that he kept trying to "sell" the diet instead of just getting to it. I think that "selling" the diet itself was still a key component in motivating people to actually stick with it. It's not over-done at all; if you're already 100% sold, you can just skip those chapters.
Overall, a great book; I wish I'd found it 5 years ago. |
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| "Great Lifestyle that Works!" | 2008-10-13 |
| - Reviewed By User: ANJ88TQMXJM79 |
I have been following this lifestyle for about 5 months now (it's not a diet, as others have said before). I've lost 40 pounds and 4 inches off my waist so far. It is hard to get used to eating so much, and at first you might feel like it's impossible to lose weight when you are eating so much.
Be prepared to go to the grocery store about twice a week to stay stocked up on fresh fruit and other foods that don't keep very well. Also be prepared to spend a lot of money on new clothes. I have had to either tailor or replace everything in my closet. A small price to pay I guess for increased health.
Please read this book, for under $10, isn't it worth the chance that it might just work for you? |
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| "Nice exercise book, but a middling diet" | 2008-09-14 |
| - Reviewed By User: A229VYYCMD9MEO |
I got this book after having great success losing weight with Dr. Shapiro's Picture Perfect Weight Loss: The Visual Program for Permanent Weight Loss, but finding I wasn't doing much on the exercise front and had lost a lot of muscle as well as fat. I had also picked up David Zinczenko's Eat This Not That!: Thousands of Simple Food Swaps That Can Save You 10, 20, 30 Pounds-or More!, which I felt had a practical approach similar to Dr. Shapiro's.
One thing that really bothers me about a diet book is when I see something in it that's just an oft-repeated myth, without vetting it. For example, the Abs Diet recommends that we drink at least eight cups of water a day. Google "eight cups water myth" and you'll see that that's pretty much a myth - check the link from [...]. That makes me even more concerned about downing whey powder, which the Abs Diet recommends, along with a recommendation to take in a gram of protein per pound of bodyweight a day - a really large amount of protein. I haven't seen good medical evidence on this one, but I do know that it's heavily promoted by every whey powder manufacturer in existence, and I bet you the original science is lost in the shuffle. Finally, we're told that a pound of muscle burns "up to" 50 additional calories per day. Even bodybuilding sites question this (maybe it depends on what is meant by "up to"), and there are studies that say the additional metabolic effect of muscle is very minimal. Those last two points throw the entire diet into question in my mind, since the diet is all about eating more protein to build more muscle to burn off more calories.
As a recommendation - just because one scientific study or a thousand different websites say something about diet or exercise doesn't mean it's true. Scientific studies about diet and exercise are often contradictory and confusing, and there are often tens or hundreds for one particular area, making it easy for someone wanting to make an argument to cherry-pick. Websites (and people) often repeat misinformation. David Zinczenko's problem is that he repeats a lot of what he has heard without doing much vetting.
With that said I did start following the exercise plan - which I like a lot - and got a few decent diet ideas out of the book. The exercise plan is written so you can do it with dumbbells or in a gym. You're put through a total-body circuit very quickly. The net effect is that you get cardio and strength training in a single workout.
And the diet as a whole doesn't seem horrible depending on how you interpret it - but I think there are better diet ideas out there, including the Dr. Shapiro one above. |
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| "The Ab's diet works" | 2008-09-13 |
| - Reviewed By User: A217OTO7QY7ZZL |
| This book is I believe the most common sense eating plan I have ever read. It's informative, and obviously backed up by good research. In Three month's with a moderate workout, I am down almost a total of 20 pounds, from 210 getting close to 190. It's great reading and fun reading which is rare in a book like this. Anyone who gives less than a 5 star review needs to get off their Butt and get to work. Sorry, can't stand the complainers. |
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 "Abs Diet" | 2008-08-13 |
| - Reviewed By User: A14NAFIUT6DLAO |
| The word "diet" shouldn't even be in the title of this book because it's not really a diet. The book explains what you should be eating the most of and what you should stay away from, but not in a 'diet' sort of way by limiting your daily intake. He basically says to eat all you want of the healthy foods nature has to offer! Great book for those who are frustrated with yo-yo dieting and other eating plans that you cannot keep up with for a lifetime. This one can!! |
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