1. Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle is truthful, unbiased and objective

The goal of this program is very straightforward - to provide the facts about fat loss with honesty and integrity. There is no hidden agenda. I have worked in the health club industry my entire life encouraging people to take up exercise and good nutrition as a way of life. I have never been involved with the magazine, supplement or exercise equipment industry. I do not sell supplements nor have I ever been paid to endorse them. No matter how much money anyone offers me, you will never see me on a latenight infomercial hawking the latest exercise fad. There are no "back end" products to buy. There are no prepackaged foods to pitch. There are no creams, pills, powders, machines or any other gimmicks whatsoever. My intent is to be a pillar of honesty, integrity and moral character. My website, www.TomVenuto.com, has been billed as “The Honest Fitness Site,” and I have shared this no-hype, no-gimmick, no-B.S., hard work-ethic philosophy with millions of visitors since 1999. To me, nothing is more important than integrity. I make my living from the health, fitness and nutrition business, but I will go broke and starve to death before I will ever “sell out” or compromise my principles.  A brief story will illustrate the level of my integrity: In 1999, the editor of a major bodybuilding and fitness magazine contacted me with a very tempting proposition. He had been reading my online articles and said they were very thoroughly researched and well written. He was so impressed that he wanted to hire me to write for his magazine. For my first assignment, he offered me $1000.00 to interview some of the top supplement “gurus” including the CEO of one of the largest nutrition companies in the world. I was then to write a two-page article about the latest developments with a popular, yet controversial supplement.  A thousand bucks sounded awfully good, but then he threw in the punch line: He told me that his magazine was "sponsored" by a large and well-known nutrition company. I’m sure you can guess what came next. If you guessed that I couldn't write anything bad about the supplement, and that I had to present it "in a positive light" then you guessed right! I turned it down. It went completely against my principles.  Magazines are generally considered one of the most credible sources for nutrition and fitness information. But that's not always the case. You can't believe everything you read. Many magazine publishers own supplement companies. By putting information about "new supplement breakthroughs" into editorial format, they appear much more believable. That’s why magazines are the perfect tools for selling supplements and weight loss products. As a result, many magazines have turned into nothing more than thinly-disguised "supplement catalogs."

2. Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle is not a very low calorie or starvation diet

Most people are dead wrong in the way they diet to lose body fat.  Almost every conventional diet program ever conceived has one thing in common: Extremely low calories. Nearly all of these low calorie diets produce weight loss in the beginning. The problem is, none of them work for long – it’s physiologically impossible to lose fat permanently by starving yourself. The human body is simply too “smart” for this to ever work. When you starve the fat, you also starve the muscle. When you starve the muscle, you lose muscle along with the fat. When you lose muscle, your metabolism slows down and your body enters the “starvation mode.” When your body enters starvation mode, fat loss comes to a screeching halt as your body tries to conserve its energy. When the fat loss stops, you either give up (and gain back the fat you lost), or you grit your teeth and drop your calories (starve yourself) even more. If you drop your calories even more, your metabolism slows down even more. And if your metabolism slows down even more, fat loss comes to a screeching halt again. Eventually, you always end up throwing in the towel because you can’t keep dropping your calories forever. It’s a vicious cycle. You just can’t win the very-low-calorie-diet game.

3. Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle is not just a nutrition program; it merges

To lose body fat, you must create a calorie deficit. There is no other way. A calorie deficit means that you burn more calories than you consume every day. There are two ways you can create this calorie deficit: 1) decrease your caloric intake from food, or 2) increase the amount of calories you burn through exercise. Both methods should be used, but of the two ways, burning the calories is healthier, more efficient and more permanent. That’s where the phrase “Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle” comes from: It means, don’t starve the fat with low calorie diets, instead, Burn the Fat with exercise. It also means keep your muscle mass intact at all costs with weight training and sufficient amounts of nutrient dense food. Losing muscle is unacceptable. Paradoxical as it may seem, the secret to fat loss is to allow yourself to eat more (of the right foods) and use exercise to burn off the fat. Ironically, most people do the opposite: They slash their calories to starvation levels and exercise little or not at all. This slows the metabolism, decreases lean body mass and invokes the body’s starvation response. Exercise allows you to create the calorie deficit and burn fat without slowing down the metabolism. It's amazing what can happen to your body when you put nutrition, cardio and weight training all together at once. The results are "synergistic." "Synergy" means the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Synergy means that 1 + 1 + 1 may not equal 3, it may equal 30, or 300! In other words, by using this combination correctly, you can increase your results exponentially!

4. Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle does not confuse weight loss with fat loss

Weight loss and fat loss are not the same thing. You must learn to distinguish between the two. The scale can be very misleading if it’s the only criteria you use for measurement. For example, a woman could weigh 105 pounds and have 33% body fat. That’s what I call a “skinny fat person.” In contrast, a female bodybuilder could weigh 160 pounds and be quite lean, with body fat in the low teens.  With this in mind, your goal should never be weight loss. Your goal should be losing fat while maintaining muscle. As long as your body is solid muscle, then you shouldn’t worry about what the scale says. Your ratio of muscle to fat is what really counts. Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle will explain to you all the common methods of body fat testing and teach you how to use body fat to measure your results and chart your progress. You will also learn how to break a plateau and adjust your approach when your body fat isn’t decreasing at the rate you want it to.

5. Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle is not a temporary “quick fix.” It teaches you new habits you can maintain as a lifestyle

A "diet" could be defined as any temporary change in your eating behavior to help you lose weight. This entire concept is flawed. When you say you are “going on a diet” the implication is that it’s temporary and at some point you’re going to have to “go off” the diet. This is not a program that you go on and off. The only way you'll ever lose fat and keep it off permanently is to adopt new habits and keep them for life.  Initially, your new dietary and exercise disciplines may feel uncomfortable.  Sticking with them will take some effort in the early stages. After a short adjustment period, you will discover that it gets easier until eventually your new behaviors become deeply entrenched into your daily routine like grooves in a record. Your new habits will become as much a part of your daily routine as taking a shower, brushing your teeth or going to work. Your positive new habits will become a part of your lifestyle.

6. Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle is not a generic “one-size-fits-all” program - it’s

Certain universal nutrition laws apply to everyone. Once you’ve established a solid foundation by mastering these nutrition fundamentals (also known as “baseline nutrition”), then you need to adjust your nutrition plan to fit your goals and your body type. This program was developed to identify and accommodate for the many differences in individual metabolisms and body chemistries. What works perfectly for one person might be completely ineffective for the next.  There are six billion people on this planet and no two are exactly alike. Each person has a metabolic rate, digestive capacity, hormonal profile, muscle fiber distribution and body structure as unique as their fingerprint. That's why a generic, one-size-fits-all diet or exercise plan is always going to fail. You must learn how to adjust your nutrition and training to fit your unique needs.  This program will teach you how to determine what body type you have and show you how to individualize your nutrition and training to do the very best you can with what Mother Nature gave you to work with.

7. Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle is not just about cosmetic improvements – it’s about your health

The recommendations I make in this program for losing body fat are the same ones I would make for good health: reduce saturated fat, reduce refined sugars, eat a variety of natural, unrefined foods, eat plenty of fiber, eat small, frequent meals, drink plenty of water, and so on. This program is healthy and nutritionally balanced. Any diet program that is not nutritionally balanced is going to fail you in the long run.  If you are a physique athlete (bodybuilder, fitness or figure competitor) or you aspire to become one, you will need a more restricted diet when you reach the level of competition. However, a pre-contest diet is a temporary tool used to help you reach a peak condition. When the competition is over, you will always return the same balanced, healthy baseline nutrition program for maintenance. 

8. Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle is simple

Fat loss is a confusing subject. Lack of information is not a problem anymore.  The problem these days is too much conflicting information. There's certainly no shortage of "gurus," and hundreds of diet and exercise books clutter bookstore shelves.  To complicate matters more, the Internet is adding to the information overload at a mindboggling rate. There are thousands of fitness and nutrition sites on the web and the number is growing by the day. This quagmire of misinformation has left most people frustrated, disillusioned, and thoroughly confused. It's hard to know whom or what to believe anymore.  Even "experts" such as registered dieticians, research scientists, MD's, PhD's, and certified trainers give a tremendous amount of contradictory advice. There are a lot of opinions and everyone seems to tell us something different.  In creating this program, my goal was to clear up the confusion and make this process as simple as possible because the simpler the strategies are, the easier you’ll be able to apply them. The easier you can apply them, the more results you will get.  Some of the information you’re about to learn may surprise or shock you. Most of it however, is so simple and straightforward, you’ll kick yourself for not “getting it” sooner. (But you’ll soon get over it when the fat starts melting off your body, revealing the chiseled muscle definition underneath!)

9. Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle is simple – but it’s not easy.

I’m probably the only person in the industry who will tell you losing fat is not easy! The reason no one else wants to tell you this is because “quick, easy, overnight and effortless” are more marketable. “Hard work, blood, sweat and tears” are not marketable – hard work scares people away.  Well, if you’re scared by hard work, then this program is not for you. Losing fat is simple but it’s definitely not easy –there’s a big difference between the two. “Simple” means that something is uncomplicated. “Easy” implies that something can be achieved with little or no effort. Losing fat is mostly just a matter of exercising more and eating a little less. Nothing complicated there. But easy? Not a chance. Despite what most advertisements for diets and nutrition products would lead you to believe, there is no such thing as "quick and easy fat loss."  Hard work is the only way anyone ever accomplishes anything! Nothing good ever comes easy. As you sow, so shall you reap. Everything worth having in life has a price attached to it. Legendary Green Bay Packers Coach Vince Lombardi put it best when he said, "The dictionary is the only place success comes before work. Hard work is the price we must all pay for success." Do yourself a favor: cultivate the virtue of being a hard worker. In the end, the person who works the hardest will always get the best results. There are no shortcuts.

10. Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle teaches you the secrets of goal setting and mind power to achieve any goal you desire

All the knowledge in the world is useless if you can’t get yourself to apply it.  What’s the difference between someone who knows what to do and someone who does what they know? Why is it that some days you just can’t get motivated to work out?  Why do you sometimes have those “lapses” in willpower? Why do you follow a diet for weeks and then “fall off the wagon?” Why do you sabotage yourself? These things only happen when you don’t know how to set goals properly and you don’t understand how to harness the power of your subconscious mind.  The human subconscious mind is a cybernetic goal-seeking mechanism similar to those used to guide missiles or torpedoes to their target. In this program, I will teach you how to set powerful, compelling goals and unleash the virtually unlimited power locked in your mind. Using goal setting, psychology, psycho-cybernetic principles, neurolinguistic programming (NLP), visualization and affirmations, you’ll be able to erase the negative programming of the past and literally re-wire your brain to put you on “automatic pilot mode” towards achieving the body of your dreams.

11. Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle is based on real food you can find right in you local supermarket – no supplements or shakes are required

It’s tempting to believe that all you need to solve your excess body fat problem is a pill or diet shake. The supplement companies certainly want you to believe that. The truth is that exercise and good nutrition from whole foods are all you’ll ever need. Meal replacement products (MRPs) have no “magical” fat-reducing properties. MRP’s are nothing more than powdered food. Their primary benefit is convenience. The so-called “fat burning” pills that rely on stimulants such as ephedrine and caffeine may help a little, but they aren’t nearly as effective as the advertisements say and there are many potential side effects with overuse or abuse.  If there’s any “secret” to fat loss, it’s hard work on your diet and training program. The sooner you accept this fact, the sooner you’ll be the proud owner of a lean body. Unfortunately, this isn't what most people want to hear. In this age of instant gratification, people want overnight success and “miracle cures,” but that's a fantasy. If there really were a pill that burned off fat, there wouldn't be 100 million overweight people in this country.

12. Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle is based on real world results

Many of the fat burning techniques used by bodybuilders and fitness models are controversial. The scientific community is often hesitant to accept such “radical” practices as high protein intakes, macronutrient cycling, meal timing and calorie tapering.  Just as astronomers and geographers in the middle ages were ostracized for believing the world wasn’t flat and the Earth wasn’t the center of the solar system, those who dare step into the spotlight with brazen or alternative nutritional theories today are often publicly ridiculed. Questioning the status quo could be like committing academic suicide and risking reputation, recognition and financial reward.  Most scientists live by the credo “prove all things.” Wise advice, but being tooscientific and analytical can be hazardous to your progress. This book, while it does contain scientifically proven information, is based on real world results, not textbooks, laboratory experiments and classroom lectures.  If you waited for scientific studies to validate every nutrition and training principle that bodybuilders have already demonstrated to be effective, you could be waiting a long time. When it comes to altering body composition, bodybuilders and fitness competitors are way ahead of the science and the results they’ve achieved prove it. You wouldn’t see drug free male bodybuilders at 3-5% body fat and females at 8-12% body fat if these weren’t the most powerful fat burning principles on Earth. The proof as they say, is in the pudding!