And Maintaining Your Perfect Weight - Five Principles for Burning Fat

I've received Tom Venuto's emails for several months and ordered the book after a personal epiphany. Venuto's rules are SIMPLE, as he states, but not EASY. This is not a diet and recipe book (his e-book Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle covers that territory) but a complete guide to total dietary/nutritional and exercise lifestyle changes. I have no doubt that complete implementation of the actions outlined by the book will result in the fantabulous, well-documented results of his clients. There's no magic bullet and for lasting results for both appearance and health, a complete reworking of one's relationship with food must be undertaken. The question is, as Don Henley posed, "How Bad Do You Want It"?

This is a great book that gives you the information you need to tailor-make a plan that suits your tastes and needs. First book I've come across that really makes sense and isn't based on fad diet tips or the latest bandwagon exercise craze.

Everything you need is here.
This book represents so much of my ideas about fat loss and healthy living.
This was my first book purchase for my Kindle.
I want to take my wife because she is the one who discovered this author and his state of the art creation.

This book confirms a lot of information that is available from the media (Dr. Oz, Dr. Phil, Greatest Losers, etc.). Tom Venuto adds his own spin which includes positive encouragement and reinforcement. There's a lot of useful information that helps to focus on important techniques and individual body characteristics. Highly recommended for the person who hasn't already read every other popular book on this subject.

This being my first fitness audiobook, I thought it was great. All this stuff was new to me. But the last disk was not from the same book. Never did find out the ending. Even after exchanging with the store three times. Must be a mistake at the manufacturer.

I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of attention to the mental side of things in this book. It's like the regular person’s Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle, an extremely popular fat loss and bodybuilding book. The approach in this book is to get 80% of the BFFM benefits (about 1% weekly weight loss) for 20% the work (clearly an approach I like very much). Venuto found “the only thing necessary for most people to succeed is a handful of daily behaviour changes and a shift in mind-set.” He spends a good amount of time addressing root causes of overeating and inactivity from physical, mental, emotional, and social angles. In addition to the “softer” ideas like affirmations, I find this book realistic, particularly focusing on caloric deficit and admitting willpower will be necessary at first to get healthy habits set up, but those will build a natural long-term lifestyle. It’s about putting priorities in order and adjusting your environment to support them. “Work develops your character, strengthens your discipline, and boosts your self-esteem.”

Create priority lists not to do lists.

Beliefs are only interpretations, generalizations, and evaluations we’ve learned. Yet we act as if they’re facts. Beliefs about identity and values are particularly resistant to change. “Behaviour is the true expression of what people believe on the unconscious level.” Accumulate small victories to reinforce more accurate empowering beliefs like “Everything I value depends on good health.”

If I eat healthy, natural foods at least 90% of the time, I know I will get good results.

There are appropriate conscious social and enjoyment reasons for emotional eating like birthday cake, but emotional hunger can never be satisfied with food. Food is for fuel, nutrition, health, and construction material for the body. In a caloric deficit to get leaner, you are probably going to be slightly hungry sometimes. You will survive. It’s not about losing freedom to eat what you want; it’s about not being a slave to food. Be AWARE:

Awareness of your eating behaviours comes first.

Watch out for emotional eating triggers.

Arrest the behaviour patterns when they happen.

Replace the old behaviour with more constructive alternatives.

Establish new beliefs about food and the right reasons for eat.

Oftentimes it’s not food you’re craving, it’s relaxation. Continuous stress is the signal to rest and recover. Trying to de-stress by eating only compounds the problem with guilt, sluggishness, and bloat.

Just as the athlete imagines herself flawlessly performing sports skills, you can imagine yourself taking the daily action steps necessary for reaching your perfect weight goal.

Motivating goals have emotional reasons and are achievable without limits. Daily goals are the steps you need to repeat to achieve mid- and long-term outcome goals. Affirmations are “the way your unconscious mind takes instructions best.”

The only thing you have to give up is eating more calories than you need.

Nutrition Plan

Focus on the calorie deficit first and budget calories wisely.
Start building every meal with lean protein. 30-40% of calories is ideal for exercising and optimizing fat-burning on a calorie-restricted program.
Eat vegetables with every meal or at least 5-6 servings per day.
Eat omega-3 and 2-3 servings of other healthy fats every day.
Eat at least 2 fruits every day. You can have more if highly active and it fits in the budget.
Eat natural starches and grains, particularly for breakfast and after workouts.
Eat mostly foods that pass the “natural test.”
Eat 5-6 times or about every 3 hours.
Limit liquid calories.
Follow the 90/10 compliance rule. What you eat 10% of the time doesn’t matter much but it will release you from the guilt of occasional indulgences and take the pressure of perfection off your shoulders.
Keep restaurant dining to once or twice per week.

Activity Plan

Start with 30-60 minutes of low intensity at least 3 times per week for the first month. Increase to 30-45 minutes at moderate intensity. Limit intense cardio to 3 times weekly.
Strength train 3 days per week, ideally semi full-body split training of supersets.
People who give up habitually have an explanatory style of permanence. “Results-based thinking is the key to continuous progress and the solution to every body fat problem.” If your weight loss stalls, you were in a calorie deficit but now you’re not because of metabolism, not adjusting calories eaten or burned to a smaller body size, unintentional cheating, or just inconsistency. Raise accountability, adjust strategy, or take a week-long diet break if you’ve been in a caloric deficit for at least 3-4 months.

For long-term maintenance, take at least a week to transition to maintenance calories. Keep physically active, decrease sedentary activities, continue to self-monitor, and respond quickly if you gain 5 or more pounds. Replace fat loss goals with vision.

I read this book before starting my own weight loss odyssey, but after reading some of Tom's material on the web. When I started, I was 5'9", 210lb, 38" waist. I am currently 185lb and 32" waist. My goal at the start was to lose 22lb and wear size 36" pants! Once I got started, though I went all they way down to 152lb before I started really lifting weights to put on some muscle.

First it is important to understand that Tom Venuto's bent is on fat loss and not weight loss. There is a big distinction. Venuto's goal is to decrease overall fat composition while increasing lean muscle mass. That does not mean becoming a body builder!

In the first part of the book, he goes through various diet plans and highlights the truth in them, but also the myths. At the end of the day it is as simple as a calorie in/ calorie out balance. That is true of every diet plan. He points out that most diet plans fail for 2 reasons. 1) participants lie about how much food they eat and how much exercise they get; a lot! Something on the order of 50%! And 2) As the body looses mass (weight) it requires less and less food to maintain. In addition, diet only plans reduce your metabolism and thereby reduce further the amount of food you need.

The second part of the book describes the types of food and exercise you should be getting. Basically he recommends you eat whole grains, potatoes, vegetables, fruits, lean red meat, turkey , fish and rice while reducing the sugar, processed carbohydrates and excessive fats. (Basically, cut back on ice cream, candy, soda, pastries, white breads, etc.) Search out his pamphlets "Foods that Burn Fat" and "Foods that Turn to Fat". He then recommends various exercises including resistance exercises. The exercise is intended to increase your metabolism to assist with the fat burn.

In the final part of the book are strategies to keep going including getting support from friends and family. While this is helpful, I believe only the individual can really make this commitment. Others can offer support and encouragement, but at the end of the day, it is you versus the candy bar!

Personally, I believe to be successful is very simple (not easy)

1. You have to believe you can be lean. I mean really believe and be able to visualize in your mind how you want to look. If not, you will sabotage yourself. You will say to yourself, I will never be lean so I might as well eat the dish of ice cream.

2. You have to want to be lean more than you want the donut! And you have to ask yourself that every time you have an eating opportunity. As my friend says, "Nothing ever tastes as good as thin feels!"

If you are interested in losing all that unsightly fat before summer comes around, then Tom Venuto is the man who can teach you how! He is widely recognized on the internet as the World's number 1 expert on fat loss and after reading this book, The Body Fat Solution, I have to agree! I own quite a number of fitness-books, but Tom Venuto's stuff is the best of them all. I really love Tom's writing style. He is not dry or too technical. It is like sitting down with a personal trainer and having a chat about your program. He tells you clearly, step-by-step, what to do. More importantly, he discusses the MENTAL aspects of fat-loss like goal-setting, motivation, etc, things that I have not seen in any other fat-loss-book. If you are tired of being fat and are looking for motivation and practical guidelines on how to lean down, GET THIS BOOK!

The Body Fat Solution by Tom Venuto is not another crappy diet book. It is a book about not only changing your lifestyle, but how to do it. I love that the book goes into depth and explains every last detail. There is a whole chapter on understanding body fat followed by a chapter on myths and why they are effective. Then, Tom talks about attitude and beliefs and freedom from emotional eating before even getting to the steps you should take (this guy really thinks like a Woman sometimes..amazing!) It is great that he is a huge, handsome body builder and he talks about feelings. This book really works. I have not been following the steps for more than two days, but I can tell by reading it. I already feel more confident in myself and I know I can follow these easy steps.

The best part about the book is all of the knowledge about food and exercise that you gain in reading it. For example, did you know that your metabolism increases when you eat due to the energy cost of digestion. This is called the thermal effect of food (TEF) and accounts for 10 percent of your energy expenditure. Some foods are more thermic than others. Venuto tells you which foods are highly thermic foods to take advantage of the TEF.

I recommend this book to everyone. Whether you are trying to loose a massive amount of weight, or you just want to eat healthier. Venuto can definitely help!

I am a physician who manages a suburban metabolic and nutrition program for obese and overweight children. It amazes me how complex it is to unravel the passionate and unhealthy philosophy many people have about exercise and nutrition. So many people are struggling fruitlessly with their goals as they are overwhelmed by seemingly endless waves of misleading advertisements and contradictory information about lifestyle and nutrition. There is so much unbelievable noise out there that many people are left feeling hopeless, defeated and not knowing what to do. The Body Fat Solution is a very healthy, very welcome voice of reason among all that noise.

As I develop nutrition plans for my patients I will frequently reference the precepts outlined in Tom Venuto's brilliant e-book Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle. Honestly, I found this e-book to be a very approachable and comprehensive volume dealing with nutrition, exercise and hormonal physiology. (I would highly recommend this e-book for anyone who wants a more detailed explanation of macronutrients, hormonal physiology, and meal planning.) However, The Body Fat Solution is an indispensable development to this excellent work.

In my experience patients do not struggle as much with "what to do" but rather struggle with "the doing of it". In the first few consultations with a new patient I can usually disarm the passionate obsession with whatever flavor of macronutrient phobia they have and outline the physiological rational behind consistently eating a calorie based diet of lean protein, whole unprocessed foods, and essential fats. In this motivational clinical setting most patients will readily agree to begin journaling and commit to starting an exercise and nutrition program.

However, the problems arise as soon as they leave my office and are once again buffeted by their busy schedule, advertising, misleading labels, psychological defense mechanisms and emotional ties to eating. Most of the time I spend on subsequent patient visits centers on developing strategies of how to interface the program we have developed into their lifestyle. The strategies revealed in The Body Fat Solution do an excellent job addressing these issues.

The Body Fat Solution outlines all of the necessary tactics to tackle these intangible influences on our nutrition and exercise plans. The first four chapters outline the evolution of obesity and how our beliefs, attitudes and emotional ties to food play a significant role in this unhealthy homeostasis. In chapter five you are taken step-by-step through the essential process of goal setting and reprogramming your mental awareness of the beliefs and attitudes that can sabotage your plans. Then in chapters six through eight you are treated to the most insightful and logical nutrition and exercise program I have ever seen. Everything you need to know ... it's all there ... very motivational and very doable! Finally chapters nine through twelve outline all the necessary environmental and social strategies needed to start you on the way to maintaining your new and healthy self.

Quoting The Body Fat Solution, "There is no way around it - to tackle a problem like body fat, which has so many causes, you must make changes in every area of your life. You have to eat better, train consistently, manage your emotions, change your thinking, get the support you need, and put it all together in a healthy lifestyle." I couldn't agree more. In my opinion The Body Fat Solutions gives you all the necessary tools to do just that.

I live and breathe diet, health, fitness and nutrition ever since shedding 180 pounds in 2004 after weighing in at over 400 pounds and on the brink of health disaster. I got my life back and am now dedicated to spreading the message that anyone can find something that will work for them to burn body fat, get stronger, and become the person they always dreamed of becoming. Tom Venuto has that same passion and shares the secrets he has learned over the years in his book THE BODY FAT SOLUTION.

Tom is not some Joe-Schmo writing yet another diet book that's here today, gone and forgotten tomorrow. He's been helping his clients apply the principles he shares about in this book for many years. He's carved out a niche for himself as someone who has become quite the expert at helping people figure out how to produce fat loss and get their body into shape. He should know as an all-natural bodybuilder who wants to help others gain the same success he has seen and to live optimally healthy and fit.

Wanna know what the "true causes of body fat" really are? It's not what you think which is a good thing since so many people seem to have trouble figuring it out based on conventional wisdom. Tom provides some amazing outside-the-box ideas about why people struggle and then offers up correction solutions to make it happen in virtually anyone. I love his idea of "question everything" because too many of us fall into dogmatic beliefs that may or may not be right for us. Keeping an open mind and examining all of the evidence before drawing conclusions is a wise action to take when attempting to make changes of this magnitude to your body.

This book is probably more of a psychology book than it is a diet book. Get your head screwed on straight and then you can start taking fat loss and fitness more seriously. It's time to reprogram your brain to steer clear of all of the misconceptions that pervade our culture concerning weight loss and health so you can truly lose the weight and get healthy once and for all. Tom Venuto arms you with practical ways to make this happen throughout the pages of this book.

There's so much offered up in THE BODY FAT SOLUTION from one of the world's best nutrition and fitness gurus. He knows his stuff and shows this clearly in this incredible book that is a must-have for anyone who is serious about weight loss, fitness and being optimally healthy. I cannot recommend it highly enough!

Baby Boomers, and/or short females with pre-diabetes and a fat behind, listen up. You can kill yourself on the cardio machines until the cows come home and stay fat, or you can plug into a fat loss coach who can teach you a method to customize your own fat loss. You know you need a customized fat-loss program, right? I mean, that diet for losing 30 pounds in 30 days you picked up from a magazine rack wasn't so hot was it? How about the time you tried the diet your friend used to drop a bazillion pounds that mysteriously didn't work for you? And don't you just love it when you do everything your trainer tells you to do only to get accused of non-compliance when your results are less than expected? You sick of doing this to yourself? Then pick up The Body Fat Solution.

You're going to discover something you've probably known on some level; that understanding what it takes to achieve the look you've always wanted is a deliberate, and rational effort that requires time to learn, to develop skills, and to know how to change something just enough to take you to the next level. You need to know the difference between muscle and fat. You need to know why your scale lies. You need to know how to detect the most subtle signs that you are on the right track. Without those skills you may think that you are not succeeding and give up right when you're actually making progress.

So, you knew it all along, fat-loss or changing how your body looks is not easy. Moreover, it is a very different process and experience from person to person. You know you need something just for you and you've known it for a long time. You know that you need to be in control and not the program. That is exactly what Tom Venuto teaches, he teaches you how to be in control once and for all. He gives you a tool box, and a set of tools, teaches you how to use them and how to track your progress. And if you are not succeeding, he teaches you how to change one small thing at a time so that you can run your own "experiments of one" to quote Jimmy Moore.

I am arguably the slowest fat-burner in Tom's, Burn The Fat Innercircle. By developing the skills of fat loss and body composition, I am in better shape at 60 than I was at 16. I have significantly increased the bone density in my spine without drugs. My progress is slow but every year I improve. I've gone from a size 12-14 to a size 2-4. It was not easy and it is not easy to lose fat for many people. If you've ever wanted to know how you would look as a fit person, then become a student of Tom's. He is the real deal.

After reading his previous e-book Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle I got very impressed and I became a regular reader of Tom's material, so when his new book "The Body Fat Solution" came out, I had no doubts purchasing it, I knew it was going to be one more great piece of work and I was absolutely right.

The approach taken in his new book is very similar to BFFM, except that it is improved in many positive ways, I think Tom has managed to find even a simpler way to communicate the importance of the three core elements that made his program so successful and I am referring to 1. nutrition, 2. exercise and 3.A very key strong mind-set towards accomplishing your fitness goals. Tom has probed to be a Guru of the fitness and nutrition arena, and his book is just a reflection of that.

This book touches on concepts that are not specific to Nutrition "only", it can be used in many other areas and I am referring to the suggested ways of analyzing the source of a problem and how to tackle it, the way he helps you building a strong mind-set and making you believe in yourself and that anyone is capable of accomplishing goals as long as there is commitment and willingness, he is so right, the books makes you think and look back at your mistakes and how you can improve them.

If you are serious about getting lean and starting a new way of living that includes new eating habits and a healthy life, this book is definitely for you. Do not expect miracles like many other methods usually promise you. Tom's method is very well designed and if it is followed properly you will see great results, but do not expect an easy ride, it truly requires commitment a determination to become that lean person that you have always wished.

As a final note, I would like to say that BFFM was written in a very understandable way, but "The Body Fat Solution" is even better, beyond my expectations it is and enjoyable reading, it is easy to follow and totally directed to people that do not have the time and energy to spend the time (long hours)figuring out complex nutritional and exercising books.

This is a great book, frankly it is the best I have read in its area.

Great job Tom.

The positive motivation offered in this book will not only help people who are trying to lose weight and get in shape but the author also shows how easy it is for ANYONE to change their mindset and self-limiting beliefs by setting and achieving short term goals as a way of proving you CAN do something and you ARE CAPABLE. I'm almost 50 and I've been a regular exerciser for years. I actually bought this book (based on the reviews) for my husband, because he's a reluctant exerciser and I thought a no-nonsense book written by a guy will motivate him to get his butt moving. The surprising thing about the book is how much it has opened MY eyes about my attitude and my beliefs about myself. I'm a runner and an aspiring writer and musician but I always seem to fall short of achieving my goals. Chapter 3 succinctly explains why I behave the way I do, why I give up easily and why I beat myself up when I fall short. It's all about a self-limiting attitude and a faulty belief system. Surprisingly, they're not that difficult to change and the author shows how you can challenge your old beliefs and install new ones that will help you achieve what you want to achieve! Chapter 3 alone blows all of my other "self help books" out of the water!

This book has helped me to be a better, more efficient exerciser. I also make better food choices for my family too. Most importantly however, the benefits of reading "The Body Fat Solution" have spilled over into my other areas of interest. I feel that the advice offered in Chapter 3 has definitely helped me to see life in a more positive way! Tom Venuto is an awesome life coach. I had never heard of him before I stumbled across his book on the store. His ideas have helped me so much that I was hoping I could "pay it forward" as they say and reach out to someone else who feels stuck and unmotivated and hopeless. If you can take his message to heart and visualize yourself as you want to see yourself, and set small achievable goals to prove to yourself that you're capable of succeeding, and value yourself, then you can achieve not only your weight loss and fitness goals but any goals you set out to achieve. Good luck!

After researching over and over solutions to my chronic lack of results for my all-out-effort, I kept coming back to snipits of these books written by Tom Venuto. A true skeptic (and reasearcher by trade), I read every review I could on this author to try and break the code on what scam I was now getting sucked into. I even looked him up on the BBB website! This guy is the real deal. So yeah, I made the purchase. Having battled the bulge seriously (and sometimes not so seriously), I can honestly say that finding this book and the Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle book that it led me to one year ago this month has since changed my life. I now have complete control over whether I am in control of what I am doing (or not doing) for my body. This book is honest, well-written and simplifies the struggle so many of us face - getting through all of the misinformation out there on diet and nutrition. I now only go to the resources available through this author and his "Inner Circle" of experienced folks living the lifestyle for all of my support, information, well-documented solutions and even written opinions on the newest scientific findings surrounding what works and what doesn't. I was quite surprised at the ability of this author to break down even the most complex (and sometimes boring) details that are vital to understanding how to succeed in your own body transformation; it is almost as if he's a translator for several different learning styles. I would say to expect this guy to take over the world of body transformations, but the reality is that his real-life solutions are not "popular" due to his lack of getting into the multi-billion dollar industrty of the latest fads or products. Maybe one day the truth will be the new "fad"? This book is for you if and when you are ready to do it right, once and for all. An excellent resource, this book will not be coming off your shelf any year soon. (When it does leave your shelf it will be to loan it out when everyone wants to know your secret to success!)

Tom Venuto busts all scams, hoaxes and misguided thinking that has made this world obese...and the weight loss/fitness industry rich. This man has changed my life completely. His no-nonsense/no BS approach is exactly what we need to hear. Using the principles of his eBook, "Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle(BFFM)," I gave myself ONE YEAR to see if losing 70lbs and getting six pack abs was at all possible, at age 42. After one year, the results were so encouraging...I was HOOKED on burning fat. Finally, my waist went from a barrel-gut 40 to a 29 now...with a ripped six pack and bulging veins I have always wanted since I was an adolescent. I went from a short, pudgy, ugly duckling to a compact and chiseled, lean, mean, sexy machine! Another positive result of losing ALL the abdominal fat? My blood pressure plummeted to 117/75!

The Body Fat Solution encourages A COMPLETE LIFESTYLE CHANGE. Unlike every other diet and fitness book ever written - Tom implores us to not only change ONE THING...but to CHANGE EVERYTHING about ourselves, which begins with our conventional attitude about food. He is absolutely right - food is the most addictive drug of all...and its 100% LEGAL!

The fat came off slower than I expected(3 years), but that wait happened for a divine reason; it engrained all the daily lifestyle habits of skinny people and "trained" me on how to remain thin for life. In fact, I am so confident the fat will never return - I got rid of every size L garment I own (I wear small or medium now). You see, the real secret of fat loss is simply "mastering your metabolism"...as Jillian Michaels succinctly puts it. Once you engage your fat burning "switch" to the ON position....your body will NEVER store fat ever again. To me - that is well worth the time investment...lose it all just ONCE and be done with it FOREVER!!!

Read this book, apply everything written to your life and get noticed by EVERYBODY while you easily drop 10-15 years off your appearance. Its truly amazing how losing some fat can literally make ANYBODY HOT!!!

This book was a real eye-opener and turning point for me after years of struggling. I set a weight loss goal of 40 pounds of body fat, reached my goal, and two years later I've kept the weight off and am in better shape than ever. Tom teaches you how to lose body fat and keep your muscle, so you're more likely to keep your weight off.
One key for me was Chapter Three - Attitudes and Beliefs - everything changed for me after reading this. And the most important aspect is maintenance, as Tom stresses and teaches you how to plan for maintenance. 95% of people who lose weight gain it all back plus more; and this book teaches you how to be among the 5% who actually keep it off for good. After all, that IS the most important thing! Thank you so much, Tom!
So if you're serious about FINALLY shedding that body fat for GOOD - this book WILL help you do it!

I like this program because it's straightforward and makes sense. Plus it's not a diet, but a well-rounded approach to thinking right, eating healthy, and exercising - and it's reasonable and achievable. No gimmicks. I especially liked how he explains why popular diets don't work, but also details the parts of them that can be useful. He treats you like a smart person, instead of a sheep following some new fad. Based on his many years as a trainer, he understands how food is best used to fuel the body. All in all, good stuff - and I like that the audiobook has exercise and other info pages you can see on your computer, too.

Great book for understanding the whole body approach to weight management. This book does a great job of pointing out how important it is to take into account your mind as much as your body when it comes to losing and keeping off fat weight. There are no dietary tricks in this book for getting fast short-term weight losses, and there are no big promises of giving you a quick-fix exercise routine. This book takes a practical, real approach to weight management. While this book can seem to drag at times with stuff that you might not feel you need help with for accomplishing weight loss, it does take a very well rounded and positive approach to attacking the issue of losing and keeping off excess body fat.

As someone who has always looked for the magic formula for health and fitness, I've read a lot. This book is the one I can always go to for sound advice no matter what stage I'm working on. Every time I open it up there is some new tweak I can try and I've learned all I need to be healthy and fit for the rest of my life. All the advice on goal setting has really had an impact on all areas of my life.