The Internet Diet and Nutrition Classic, Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle: “The Bible of Fat Loss.”
Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle has been around a long time, at least in Internet years. It was released in 2003 and was one of the first diet and nutrition e-books ever published. Today there are e-books all over the web, not to mention more supplements, weight loss programs, ab machines, workout videos and “magic” diet pills than you can keep track of.
Even when your gut instincts tell you all these “fast and easy”, “just take a pill” weight loss claims are too good to be true, sometimes the advertisements press your emotional buttons so well that your curiosity gets the best of you.
But after getting burned enough times, you eventually smarten up. You swear off “quick fixes” and you finally figure out the long way (through your own experience), about what really works; a calorie deficit, proper nutrition, intelligent training, changing your lifestyle and replacing your old negative habits with positive new ones.
Through all the Internet diets that have come and gone in the last decade, this e-book is one that has stood the test of time. It has been an Internet best seller every year since 2003. Men and women of all ages in over 141 countries have lost anywhere from a few pounds to 253 pounds using Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle. The program consistently gets positive reviews and has earned a reputation for being sensible, science-based, honest and effective.
The author, Tom Venuto, received his degree in exercise science and has held certifications as a strength and conditioning specialist and personal trainer, but more importantly, Tom walks the talk. He is a natural-for-life bodybuilder, which means that he’s never taken steroids or other body-enhancing drugs. Venuto has competed in bodybuilding 28 times and has 6-pack abs you have to see to believe (check out the picture at Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle).
Although Tom admits that he was never obese, he says he always struggled with stomach fat and never saw his abs until he’d gone through many years of trial and error and a lot of hard work. Many people are encouraged when they hear that Tom is a lot like them and that he was not genetically predisposed to be lean. It gives them the hope that they can do it too.
Now that you know about the history and the author, here’s a quick overview of what you’ll find when you read Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle.
Burn The Fat, Feed the Muscle is published in Adobe PDF format so you can download the e-book. It’s on the long side at 300+ pages, so if you’re looking for a Cliff’s Notes type of read, this might not be the book you want. On the other hand, if you’re a detail person or if you want to know not just what to do, but also why you’re doing it, then Burn The Fat, Feed the Muscle is exactly what you’re looking for.
When you read more about this on the web page at Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle, the idea of a program based on bodybuilder and fitness model techniques makes perfect sense, although it does intimidate some people at first.
In the introduction of the book however, Venuto points out: “Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle was created BY a bodybuilder, but it’s not just FOR bodybuilders.” In fact, the book easily could have been titled, “What every man and woman can learn from bodybuilders about permanent fat loss.”
The nutrition techniques will work for anyone because they progress in stages from beginner to advanced. Unless you plan on competing in a fitness or bodybuilding competition, you’ll only need to use phase one, aka, the “baseline” diet. If you want to get “ripped”, with the six pack abs look – you can use phase two and phase three of the program, where you will find the more advanced techniques that many people have used to prepare for their first bodybuilding or figure competitions.
The main focus of the e-book is nutrition, because nutrition is arguably the most important key to getting lean. You could have the best training program in the world, but if you eat more calories than you burn, you’ll gain fat regardless of your well-designed training plan.
In the chapters on nutrition, you’ll learn how to set up a meal plan you can enjoy by using Tom’s menu “template” system: You just choose the foods you like (pick from the recommended food lists), plug them into the meal plan template, and your menus virtually create themselves. Sample menus are also provided for ideas.
You also learn the truth about six pack abs: Body fat tissue lies on TOP of the abdominal muscles, so you’ll NEVER see your abs unless your body fat gets low enough. You can’t burn fat off your abs with abdominal exercises like crunches or sit ups. You must get the nutrition right to achieve very low body fat levels.
In Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle, you learn everything you need to know about calories, protein, carbs and fat to get low levels of body fat. You’ll learn the facts about low carb and high protein diets. You’ll get the inside scoop on fat burning foods – including lists of what to eat and when to eat them.
You also learn how to set up a training program. These are the same workout routines used by top natural bodybuilding and fitness champions. However, Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle nutrition works in combination with any training program (so you can use your own workout if you choose).
The 2 components are weight training and cardiovascular training. You’ll need access to basic equipment at home like dumbbells and barbells or you can train in a gym. One caveat: This e-book doesn’t give you photos or detailed instructions on how to perform each exercise. There’s more attention given to nutrition than training in this e-book, and if you use the training programs, it assumes you know how to perform basic weight training exercises.
In addition to the nutrition and training plan, chapter one contains a great explanation of goal setting, mental training and the psychology of motivation which you all know I like. If you know what to do but you have a hard time doing it (ie, if old bad habits keep haunting you or if you’re inconsistent with your diet or nutrition), you’ll find the solution in the mental training, not the physical training.
In summary, Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle is no quick fix. You don’t get six pack abs or a body like a fitness model by training a few minutes a day and eating haphazardly or cheating frequently. This program calls for structure and requires effort. In fact, many Burn The Fat customers have said that the main reason they bought the program was because it openly admits that fat loss is hard work. However, it’s worth it because if you follow the program, there’s no question that you will get very, very lean.
After all these years, Tom Venuto’s Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle is a classic in the diet and nutrition e-book genre. There are many imitators and copycats, but if you want the original, this is it.
You can get more information and download the e-book at the official site here: Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle
Check your sources. The recommendation of 1.5g of Protein per unit body weight is for kilograms, not pounds. Your intake, according to this, is >3g/kg if your CBW is 233lb(~105kg). The correct protein requirement following these recommendations for you would be 158g/day. This is still high but for bulking up or endurance athletes this is acceptable. The protein requirement would be more for repair than actual building though. Muscle mass can be gained by modest increases in protein if any at all. There are many Sports Dietitians out there who study this very subject extensively. A quick Google search will pull up a few. One of my former professors is a former bodybuilding and a Sports Dietitian. Articles to considered are referenced here: http://bit.ly/TvJ9i
Good input Ross, but take a look at the article again. I’m recommending 1.5g per pound, im not saying the RDA recommends that. I realize how much protein that is, and from my training experiences this has better effect.
First sentence of this post is “There is lots of controversy in the nutrition world about a high protein diet.” I work with sports dietitians about this subject daily and there are some who agree and some who don’t.
Early in my career I worked with all body builders and thats why I adopted this theory. Like you mentioned, the extra protein is mostly for the repair needed. Thats why I like it.
Thanks for your input though.
Hi, I popped in for the Boomers & Seniors: News You Can Use Blog Carnival. Thanks for a very interesting article. My senior mom loves to do similar exercises with a community cable show specifically geared for senior citizens. I’ll have to show her your exercises to see if there are some new ones for her.
We both also enjoy walking together. It gives us a chance to spend some time chatting and get some good exercise. In addition, I will usually walk another two miles a day while I chat on the cell phone with my daughters. I get nice visits and don’t even notice I’m “working out.” That’s my favorite way to exercise
Hi Kaye. Exercising with a partner or talking with someone while you exercise is always helpful to make the time go by. Walks by yourself can often be pretty boring haha.
I have quite a few quality routines for seniors. If your mother would like to discuss any of the routines or exercises, tell her to contact me at contact@gohealthyfitness.com.
Thanks for reading =)
interesting material, where such topics do you find? I will often go
What’s most important is that you eat properly even when you’re trying to lose weight. One of the biggest misunderstandings is that you should drastically cut calories when you’re dieting
. In fact, these high-protein low carbohydrate diets can give you a lot more nutrition then you might get with other types of diets. And, for most people, this type of diet is safe and satisfies hunger pangs.
exactly, cutting calories drastically isn’t what works in the long run. Even with a high protein diet, you don’t have to cut carbs that much.
Over training can mess you up lol, no one wants to get sick and over training only leads towards that. Good input.
Determining if you’re currently over-training is fairly simple. If you’re in tune with your body, you can often see the signs of over-training before they get serious. If you are losing interest in workouts, are having trouble sleeping, and feel weak and irritable, you may be in a state of over-training and should take a week or more off
When I began working out, I was overtraining. I started to think something when my eye would twitch.
Great content. Looking for some nutrition materials when I stumbled across your site.
Bookmarked!
Very nice post on nutrition. Hope to learn more from you.
Nice post about protein diet. i have learned much more from this post. thanks for the posing.
Found your blog while browsing Google. Bookmarked. Looking forward to more nutrition tips.
In order to grow, muscles must fully recover from their last workout, every workout. If you are over-training and work the muscles before they have fully recovered, you will break down the muscle tissue before it has rebuilt-making it impossible to build muscle
Came across your post as I was looking for whey protein related info. Very nice post. Hope to learn more from you.
Yay Your back!!!!!
lol yep
Numerous studies have demonstrated that regular weight training can have a positive effect on health by showing reductions in the rate of insulin resistance, blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, and even cancer
Nice post and blog! Greets.
Nice post and blog! Greets.
Hey! Nice job here! I’ll be dropping by from time to time
An interesting read and although I like many have tried several of the latest diets I have not been able to stick with them for various reasons. My last attempt is scheduled for next month and researchng the latest diets I have heard some good things about the Fat Burning Furnace. Has anyone here tried it and is it any good?
There are some good diets out there on the market, but most are filled with bull crap just to be something new to make a buck. Im not familar with the Fat Burning Furnace diet, but I am familiar with affiliate marketing…so if you can tell me the design of this diet plan and what you liked about it, I will leave your link up there.
Please no affiliate links in comments unless you can provide valued information about your product and its relavent.
I like to try out all the ebooks, diets, and whatever products are out there for my viewers. Better to know what works than recommend blindly
Hey – nice blog, just looking around some blogs, seems a pretty nice platform you are using. I’m currently using Wordpress for a few of my sites but looking to change one of them over to a platform similar to yours as a trial run. Anything in particular you would recommend about it?
thanks for the compliment. I liked to go with a magazine looking layout. Wordpress offers so many, its really helpful. If you know any HTML or CSS or can make it look really nice. I usually make small tweaks to make it my own. It works out nice for me.
Useful info, nice blog, thanks.
this is some great information you have here thanks for this
If you are looking for a way to gain weight without building any fat, then you are out of luck. However, you can keep the same amount of body fat percentage as you are gaining weight.
thats theoretically true. but over an 8 week period you can drop body fat % and gain weight
I don’t use bar bells when I lift, but I still was able to implement what you wrote and use it for my own use. I workout on the weight machines. One thing tht I got a long time ago is that concentration is so important. I am not sure why not many people replied to this post. I just wanted to tell you that I agree with you. I appreciate the information, thanks.
Thats great Jasmin. Im glad you adapted with what you had. All your muscles can be hit with every day items. Good luck with your workouts and enjoy good health. =)
I very happy reading your blog post. Thank you very much for provide good information.
Excellent work. You have gained a new fan. Please keep up the good work and I look forward to more of the same interesting posts.