practical and prudent lifestyle change

initially I was ignoring the book thinking it would be about impractical advice to gain muscle untill I read the reviews. this is indeed a great book on overall health and fitness. the author shares very practical, logical and result worthy process of changing lifestyle and not just diet. the last few chapters were great to understand where one can go wrong while planning fitness. there is no talks of extreme in the book, but simple things that will change your body gradually. I will keep referring to it time and again.

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Great if you actually follow it

One of the biggest problems in such an endeavor is actually being able to continuously follow a plan literally lifelong. The book gives an excellent approach on eating requirements and primarily gym exercising. However, if majority of people continue to be out of shape, despite the overload of such types of books, the real reason is obviously that they cannot stick to the plan, which does work, if followed.

So, my solution (I have followed this DAILY for last 40 years since age 18, and have been ill maybe a handful of times over this period). Plan must be very simple to start with I. e. less time, no gym, no equipment of any type. (1) Follow the RCAF 5BX plan (available free on internet) which is graded slowly upwards and covers both strength and cardio training. It requires 11 minutes a day, less than the time to reach a gym. Since it starts very light, it easily becomes a daily habit, after following it over 2-3 weeks. (2) Before this, get a Fitbit (or equivalent) and assess how you fare on a daily basis (basically calories burnt in normal routine, AND how much you burn while walking as briskly as you can for 30 minutes) . (3) Moderate your diet as suggested by Tom for further benefits (I was happy just cutting added sugar in tea, but still having a dessert every day). If you like something high-cal, say a dessert, eat it, check the calories, and burn them off by walking briskly - I found calories from a small dessert can be burned by a 30 minute brisk walk (which would also help digest the other food eaten). (4) After achieving success by moving up quite a few levels in the 5BX plan, which may take 3 months or more, THEN go on to the advanced workouts and techniques of Tom, IF you want a fully toned body bulging with muscles and 6 pack abs. If you only want a healthy body, you will get it through the 5BX itself. As 5BX requires negligible time, you can add some modifications yourself as you go along (eg slow movement in the squats and push-ups to make it more demanding) while extending the exercise time to 15-20 minutes + walking for 30-60 minutes per day. I have maintained my weight within a total 10% band throughout these years following only 5bx, slightly modified food diet and walking every day. A good check of your health progress is your steadily decreasing resting heart rate as shown by the fitbit.

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2 people found this helpful

Excellent book

Good overview of fat loss & muscle strength - How it is done? Covers all the elements in terms of diet, cardio, strength/resitance & mindset.

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Low Carb high protein for weight loss

I loved the book. It's a bit length and can surely be trimmed. Valuable insight if you wanna lose weight.
In summary Moderate intensity exercise, calories deficit diet and low carb high protein is to be followed during weight loss phase.

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a very informative book for fitness

Tom has brought out science behind excercise, weight gain or loss, cardio, muscles, fat and provided a cheatsheet to get started. he covers gradually from beginners to advance level body sculpting approach both for men and women. it was an enjoyable listen and I hope to adopt atleast some of his advices as my interest was academic to go through a book in this domain.

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Perfect for understanding body dynamics

This book clarified why I wasn’t losing weight and helped me setup a system through which I’m constantly losing weight and gaining muscle.

If I get stuck, this book clearly explains why I’m not progressing. I can’t believe I didn’t read this book earlier

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