Burn the Fat

Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle is the perfect book for those that want to follow a healthy eating plan and who really want to understand the science of weight loss and muscle building. It combines a specific exercise plan to compliment the healthy eating and to help you lose more weight.

Of course, everyone knows that you should eat healthy food, but this book makes you actually want to.

What's most interesting about this book, I believe, is that it also offers suggestions of what you can do if the plan isn't working for you. Other diets assume that if you are not losing weight on their plan, you are doing something wrong. Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle actually helps you to figure out what needs to be better and how to tweak it.

The goal setting section of the book also makes it particularly motivating. Venuto offers specific suggestions as to how to incorporate goal planning into your life...and not just goal planning for weight loss.

While some people may be initially put off by the cost of the ebook, it's important to point out that this book is much more comprehensive than most other diet books. And many other diet and fitness programs actually come with a higher price tag, though it's split up into lower monthly payments.

If you're serious about not just losing weight, but about eating healthy and maintaining an active lifestyle, then Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle is the right plan for you.

However, there's nothing particularly bad about this style of eating. If following the Blood Type Diet is a reasonable way for you to begin a healthy eating program, then this is the right diet for you.

Is the Atkins Diet For You?

The Atkins Diet is the grand daddy of the quick weight loss diets. It's based on severely limiting carbohydrates. Carbs are processed by the body to become sugar or glucose. Glucose is used by the body for energy. If the carbs consumed for the day aren't enough, the body transforms the fat it has stored back into glucose for energy. Carbs also cause the blood sugar to spike which signals the body to produce insulin to remove the sugar from the bloodstream. This causes the blood sugar to drop which results in a craving for more carbs to raise it back up. That's the basis of the Atkin's Diet. Severely limit carbohydrates in the daily diet and the body has to fall back on its fat storage for energy.

The initial two week kick start program only allows 20 grams of carbs per day. The carbs from fiber are netted – subtracted from the total carb count. So for example, while ¼ cup of blueberries has a total carb count of 5.1 grams, only 4.1 grams are counted because 1 gram is from fiber.

Protein such as fish, chicken, beef, and pork contains 0 grams. The diet allows cheese and eggs. Seafood is tricky, some, like shrimp, have 0 grams and others like oysters, pack a walloping 12.5 grams per 6 oz. You can have limited amounts of green vegetables such as spinach, kale, broccoli, asparagus, and cabbage. Fruit is not allowed. To give you examples of carb counts, an apple has a net 16 grams of carbs, a slice of wheat bread has 12 carbs. Alcohol in any form is not allowed during the kickoff stage. An exercise period of 30 minutes per day is mandatory.

After the initial two weeks, carbs are gradually and slowly added back to the diet, fruits and vegetables first. Some vegetables like sweet potatoes (19) and corn (14 per 1/3 cup) contain too many carbs to ever become a regular part of the diet. The maximum level of carbs at this stage should be between 30 to 35. The objective is to continue losing weight but at a lesser rate than the initial two week period. If the weight loss stops the number of carbs being consumed has to decrease again.

The maintenance diet is at a level of carbs where you've stopped losing weight and don't gain weight. It maxes out at about 40 grams of carbs per day. A turkey sandwich with mayo and sliced tomatoes is about 30 grams of carbs. A medium pear has 21 and one cup of 2% milk has 11.

Sugar, processed foods, flour and starches, such as potatoes and rice are pretty much off limits forever on the Atkins Diet. Most fruits have to be eaten in moderation if at all and certain vegetables as well.