Review of Tom Venuto's Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle

Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle (BFFM) is simply a masterpiece on the subject of permanently cutting body fat and achieving the lean, ripped look. It has been the top-selling fitness book on the web for many years because of one clear-cut reason - It delivers what it promises.

In fact, it delivers much more.

The ebook's author, Tom Venuto, is a competitive natural bodybuilder and proves himself capable of teaching the techniques that allow bodybuilders to achieve the world's most impressive physiques.

NOT JUST teaching them so that other bodybuilders can use them, but presenting them in a way that even the absolute beginner can understand and effectively use them to achieve his or her goals - whether those goals are to shed 100 lbs. or just those last few lbs. that will make their six-pack visible.

Tom has a calm, cool and confident writing style. It is contagious. After reading this ebook you will be calm, cool and confident with regards to your fat loss program. You won't have any doubt that you now have all the knowledge and all the tools with which to attack your fat burning goals in the most effective way possible.

The ebook is refreshingly devoid of ego. So many fitness/nutrition/diet books lose their focus (and their worth) as their authors spend a great deal of energy trying to convince the reader that they are really smart. Such efforts often lead these authors to presenting rigid prescriptions and absolutes that can't possibly work for everyone (and sometimes anyone).

Tom doesn't think he knows it all and isn't out to convince you that he and he alone has somehow discovered the secrets of fat loss. He isn't trying to get you to anoint him a "Fat Loss God." He is genuinely trying to help guide you to successful fat loss.

While I might agree that Tom doesn't know it all, I don't think there is anyone as capable, competent and effective at providing both the beginner and experienced trainer a map to quick, healthy and permanent fat loss.

The BFFM program is comprised of four components: Goal Setting, Nutrition, Cardio and Weight Training.

If I had to pick my favorite chapter in this ebook, the chapter I thought had the most power to positively influence a person's ability to successfully achieve their fat loss goals, it would be the very first chapter.

The chapter is an AMAZING look at the power of goal setting. It gives you an eleven step formula to setting goals. It tells you exactly how to get your mind to help you towards your goals instead of leading you away from them, how to actually re-program your brain for success.

This isn't motivation in a Richard Simmons-esque "Huggy" sort of way. It's not "think yourself thin" crap. This is someone who has accomplished the things you want to accomplish saying...

Unfortunately, while the power of this chapter is enormous, it is also this chapter that a great many readers are likely to skim and then quickly forget. They will move forward anxiously seeking the specific body transformation techniques that likely motivated their purchase.

This is unfortunate because, as Tom tells you, the number one reason people fail at fat loss is "the lack of clearly defined, written goals."

Trust me, the fat loss techniques are on the way. This book is thorough and it delivers everything it promises and more... But don't ignore the first chapter - it has tremendous power.

The focus of the BFFM program is on nutrition. It isn't "conventional dieting." The goal here is not to get you to spend the next 12 weeks starving yourself in order to lose a lot of weight (muscle, fat and water) only to then regain that weight twice as fast (and maybe even twice as much) as you go back to your normal diet.

The emphasis is on losing body fat while maintaining lean muscle. This is the KEY to permanent weight loss.

The goal here is to provide you with a healthy and productive way of eating, a nutrition system that you can use for the rest of your life to effectively manipulate your body fat percentage at will. It is a system focused on a REALISTIC way of eating, of watching what food is being put into your body AND understanding exactly what effects that food will have on your physique.

Tom doesn't stop at giving you fundamental eating strategies, he also presents the advanced strategies that bodybuilders use to quickly get down to those miniscule body fat percentages. But before he gets into those techniques, techniques that will come as close to earning the title of "secrets" as any you will find anywhere, he is going to make sure you have your base firmly in place.

This book assumes nothing. It takes everyone back to the beginning. It doesn't miss anything. Every stone is turned.

It tells you exactly how to fashion your program to take off maximum fat while maintaining maximum muscle mass. It successfully tears down the myths and incomplete theories that roam the world just waiting to take the unsuspecting person down the path of frustration. It replaces them with undeniable logic.

Even if you have or think you have a good understanding of the fundamentals of dieting for fat loss, you're going to learn something here that will allow you to better pursue your goals. Tom has an amazing ability to bring to light the importance of facts and methods that sometimes get lost in the shuffle.

With your base firmly in place, Tom then takes you into the advanced techniques used by the top physique models. The effective advanced techniques for fat loss center around carbohydrate intake manipulation. These can be extremely effective techniques to get you past the extreme plateaus. Used incorrectly, however, they can be absolute disasters.

Note that advanced bodybuilders also use carb manipulation to put on weight and if you don't know exactly what you are doing, you could end up receiving the exact opposite effect you're intending. Unfortunately, this is what happens to a LOT of people when they try to use these techniques without a full education on exactly how and when (and when not to) use them.

Tom responds with the full education you need to make these techniques a valuable addition to your fat loss arsenal. He tells you exactly how the top natural bodybuilders implement these techniques and get amazing results. This is crystal clear advice and detailed instruction on carbohydrate cycling techniques. Precise sample plans are provided.

With your fundamentals securely in place, with the advanced techniques at the ready should you need them to move you past the sticky spots, you are now fully prepared to tackle fat loss dieting in the most productive way possible.

You are 80% of the way through the book before Tom takes you into the cardio and weight training that will be essential to your fat loss success. This doesn't mean these things are unimportant to the achievement your goals.

Cardio is, in fact, the key to fat loss while maintaining muscle mass. The books title is based on "Burn The Fat through cardio and Feed The Muscle through nutrition." Trying to achieve fat loss through dieting alone is a difficult pursuit (you can achieve "weight loss" through diet alone, but you're likely going to lose too much muscle this way).

To maintain the positive effects muscle will bring to your physique, both aesthetically and through its power to regulate your metabolism (making maintaining your fat loss permanent so much easier), you must incorporate cardio into your program. You must burn the fat.

Cardio is fairly straight-forward. You must increase your heart rate and force the body to burn calories. This can be accomplished in a number of ways, some better than others. Tom takes you through the various ways and notes the strengths and weaknesses of each.

He tells you how much cardio and when to do your cardio for best results. He takes you through advanced methods for burning fat, telling you when you would be best advised to use them and when you shouldn't.

In short, just as you got a complete education on how to diet for maximum fat loss, you get a complete education on how to use aerobic exercise for maximum fat burning. Along the way he dispels the many myths that even those who may be considered "fitness smart" may keep regurgitating. And again he replaces these myths with undeniable logic.

Tom calls weight training the "final piece of the fat loss puzzle." Through weight training you give the body a reason to build and maintain muscle. The greater your lean body mass (the more muscle you have), the greater your metabolic rate (the faster you burn calories at rest).

When you put an emphasis on weight training within your fat loss program, it makes both losing the fat and keeping it off much easier. Tom provides sample programs for all levels of trainers, from the beginner to advanced. He also includes an extensive FAQ to clear up the many misconceptions people have about weight training.

Of particular note to those who are interested in building muscle mass or who may be coming off a mass gain program is Tom's advice that what got you the muscle is likely going to be what keeps the muscle. In other words, there need not be major changes to the way you approach your weight training between a bulking and a cutting phase. The "do higher reps for fat loss" theory is a baseless myth.

Notable Bonuses

The program comes with several additional downloads which are quick but interesting reads. Foods and Fat, Grading Your Food Choices, Measuring Your Body Fat. The actual program is so comprehensive that it doesn't leave much room to tie up loose ends with "bonuses."

The newsletter rocks. It is much more then the typical newsletter's you see which are basically trying to sell you more stuff. With this one you actually get valuable information.

There are lifetime updates and Tom does a good job of keeping you aware of them. There is also a members only site that is reportedly just around the corner and will just add value to a program that is already boiling over with value.

If I had to complain...

The ebook is extremely well-organized when you take it as a whole. Going back and finding stuff later can be a chore however as it is such a large book. Some links to specific chapters and information would help.

Overall, when you look at this program, how thoroughly it delivers all the necessary information and then pulls it all together into a program that anyone from a beginner on up won't have any trouble following, you really don't want to be the jerk that nitpicks at it.

Conclusion

Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle is exactly as advertised: The exact techniques that the top natural bodybuilders and fitness models use to achieve and then maintain their extraordinary low-fat physiques.

It is a complete program that anyone and everyone with fat to lose will find beneficial, from a beginner with 150 lbs. to lose to an advanced trainer just wanting to lose those last few stubborn pounds. It truly is a step-by-step plan from the basics to the very advanced.

There is also a refreshing emphasis within this program that deserves mention - Tom doesn't just feed you for a day, he feeds you for a lifetime. He doesn't just give you a starting program that will get results, he effectively teaches you how to keep getting those results.

He turns you into your own personal trainer, giving you not only the basics but a very large bag of tricks to get you past even the stickiest of sticking points.

This isn't a "weight-loss program." It is a fat loss system, focused on maintaining muscle at all costs. As Tom tells you, "Losing weight is very easy. Losing fat - and keeping it off - without losing muscle is a much bigger challenge." It is this challenge that the BFFM program takes on and successfully conquers to a greater degree than any other program out there.

If fat loss is an obstacle to your physique goals, you won't find a better, faster way to get to where you want to go than the BFFM program.

A Review Of Tom Venuto's Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle

Notable Bonuses

If I had to complain...

Conclusion

A Review Of
Tom Venuto's
Burn The Fat,
Feed The Muscle