Review of Tom Venuto’s Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle: Our Recommended Diet Program
With Burn the Fat, Feed The Muscle, Tom Venuto, respected professional bodybuilder, personal trainer and nutritionist, has not merely pumped out yet another diet and weight loss publication into an already over-saturated market.
No, Mr. Venuto’s Burn the Fat can be more accurately described as a weight loss manifesto. It is quite simply one of the most complete, detailed, and precise guides to fat loss that I’ve ever seen.
What makes it so much different than other weight loss publications on the market?
Mostly, it’s the attention allotted to each and every element of successful weight loss. It’s the thorough dispelling of myths and fallacies. It’s the complete attention to detail, the dotting of every “i” and the crossing of every “t”. Seriously — by reading Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle, you’ll learn more than the contents of an entire bookshelf of mainstream weight loss publications down at your local bookstore.
Most of you will ask — is this a low carb diet? A high protein diet? A high fat diet? What’s the ratio of carbs to proteins, and so on.
The truth is that in Burn the Fat, there is no one “perfect” ratio of carbs to fats to proteins. And Burn the Fat is neither a high protein diet, or a low carb diet. That’s because you will determine your own ideal macronutrient ratio by analyzing your body type (are you an endomorph, ectomorph, or mesomorph?), determining your BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate, or the amount of “maintenance” calories your body requires daily) and activity rate, and assessing your own tolerance to carbohydrates.
This makes sense — each one of us is a unique individual, and no one diet or macronutrient ratio will work for everyone. Tom says the secret of the magical nutrient ratio is that there is no magic nutrient ratio.
Sounds good to me.
This might all sound impossibly complicated right now, but Tom does a nice job of explaining everything thoroughly.
One of my favorite chapters in the book is the first one, “How to Set Powerful, Compelling Goals That Will Propel You Forward and Charge You Up with Unstoppable Motivation”. Here Tom illustrates that not only is he a world class drug free bodybuilder, but a pretty darn good psychologist too. There’s a great quote here from Vince Lombardi…
“The dictionary is the only place success comes before work. Hard work is the price we must all pay for success”.
.. that does a nice job of setting the stage for the entire publication. I really like this chapter, and even stopped to make note of my own goals. After this, Tom takes us into the complete mechanics of weight loss at full speed. Occasionally though, there’s so much material that it becomes a tad overwhelming. For example…
In Chapter 3, “Body Composition: How to Determine Your Fat to Muscle Ratio”, Tom explains the importance of accurately measuring your body fat composition, and why it is the most accurate indicator of health and fitness.
There’s nothing wrong with this, of course — it’s completely true and one of the foundations of getting your program off on the right foot. The only problem is that it takes him 15 pages to do so — this chapter also contains a ton of additional information (like detailed examinations of more popular, less effective methods of measuring body composition) that the average dieter simply doesn’t care to know.
If there is a fault to Burn the Fat, it is that there is so much information here. But otherwise, it’s all good, and everything from eating to exercise is covered in detail.
Who will benefit most from Tom Venuto’s Burn the Fat?
In the broadest sense, anyone and everyone who needs to lose weight. Bodybuilders, avid readers, especially motivated individuals and information gatherers will love this volume. With that said, however, I must also say this…
Anyone looking for a candy-coated solution to weight loss, anyone looking to be told fairy-tales, and anyone looking for the sort of “solution” offered by the likes of body wraps, apple cider vinegar and negative calorie foods, might be best advised to steer clear of Burn the Fat. Tom doesn’t beat around the bush. There are no “30 lbs. in 30 days” miracles at work here. It’s all about intelligent eating choices, planning, and hard work. As Tom himself says…
Burn the Fat is simple, but it’s not easy.
One caution for weight loss newcomers; this is a fairly intense volume (although well written and easy to follow), that will require a significant time commitment just to get through it, cover to digital cover. And read it cover to cover you must.
Burn the Fat is not something you can download and read in an evening (plus, it comes with about half a dozen bonus files). If you had trouble struggling through the first few chapters of Barry Sears’ Enter the Zone, or The Atkins Diet, you’ll likely find Burn the Fat a little tedious.
That doesn’t mean, of course, that you shouldn’t attempt to read Burn the Fat. Quite the opposite, I heartily recommend that you do so. But I suggest you pull out your daytimer or PDA, and find a half dozen or so hour-slots that you can commit entirely to this publication. Otherwise, you’ll be wasting your time and your money.
Aesthetically, Burn the Fat is a clean and professionally formatted PDF file. It’s a little on the plain side, but that makes it an ideal volume for printing and reading in the comfort of a favorite chair (something I highly recommend, by the way).
Initially, I thought Tom Venuto’s Burn the Fat was priced a little on the high side — $37 is a fair chunk of money for a PDF-formatted ebook. However, now that I’ve read it, I no longer feel that way. As with any informative publication, you’re not really paying for the materials used to compile the document, but the information contained therein.
Bottom line?
Burn the Fat and its accompanying bonus volumes is well worth the $37 price tag, probably even twice that amount… provided you can make the commitment to reading and implementing it. If you are serious about losing weight, and are sick and tired of “spinning your wheels” and going nowhere, I highly recommend this publication.
Tom will also offer you fantastic customer service, a great experience, and of course… his product is backed by a fully honored, satisfaction or your money back guarantee. That way, if in the unlikely event this product is not for you, you can return it for a refund!
