Customer Reviews

Power Eating-2nd Edition

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I discovered this wonderful book at a fitness exposition, and have been preaching it's usefulness ever since. I am a personal trainer and experienced weight lifter. After reading this book, I understand my body so much more. Do you know someone who skips meals to lose weight, but never reaches their goal? This book will easily explain why and teach them the proper way to lose weight without skipping meals. It's easy to watch the "perfect" people at the gym and copy their moves to improve your workout. The essential component you can't see is the person's eating habits. The science of proper nutrition is key to obtaining a healthy body AND a healthy mind. It's truly amazing how you can manipulate your body and mind just by changing your eating habits -- this does NOT mean dieting! This book is clearly and simply written to help anyone understand the impact of food, supplements and exercise on your body's metabolism. The key word here being "anyone". Whether you're a body-builder, vegetarian, person trying to lose or gain weight, or just the average Joe, Power Eating will give you the basics of what you need to reach your goals. I recommend this book to anyone frustrated with the way they feel. Don't try a new "diet". Read this book, understand how your body works, then go from there.

The thing I liked about this book is that it takes a no-nonsense approach to the confusing area of supplements and protein. In other words it details what works, how much, what should be taken and what's a waste of money, as well as what can be dangerous-(ephedra). You're going to find a lot of useful information in this book. Some might even surprise you. For instance back to the protein; I was on a 300 gram a day diet, getting ready to start competing a contest. I looked good but didn't look quite refined in my quest for a bodybuilding show. I tried everything. But what I didn't try doing was keeping the carbs high, fat low and the protein at a moderate position. I read and quickly took the author's advice.
Holy crap!!!! It made such a difference! Not only did I start seeing improvements, but my wallet actually fattened up a bit too.
Get this book. You will save a lot of money, and learn a lot too.

I found this book to be an extremely valuable resource. I agree with other reviewers, that it contains basic information, however, it is put together so well, that it surpasses any other material on the subject I have read. And following her guidelines has made a dramatic and fast improvement in my life and ability to exercise. I had very poor energy levels, and that has changed since I have begun following the guidelines in her book.

The book begins as a fast read, but then kind of gets bogged down in formulas and text boxes interspersed among the main body of the book. It could have been formatted better in this regard, and in other ways, for example, by simply adding the chapter number to each page along with the chapter name. The index is worthless, and she cites many references to support her, however, none of them are identified by a footnote, they are simply listed in the back of the book.

She is conservative in some respects with respect to supplements and herbs, which is a positive thing, pointing out that we don't need to take tons of the many supplements on the market to do well, and can get most of what we need from food. However, she goes astray and overboard in her criticisms of certain herbs, yet recommends other supplements that have raised controversy as to their health implications, such as caffiene.

Lastly, while she includes various charts, the book lacks a chart early on of the very basic and most important formulas that she relies upon, that forms the underpinngs of her work. The information is there, but only shows up in chart form toward the very end of the book.

Notwithstanding these shortcomings, which can be taken with a grain of salt, (pun intended) if you follow the basics of her guidelines, and understand the theory of exercise nutrition as she relates it, the book will form a strong and valuable foundation that will benefit you for the rest of your life.

I purchased this book because I was no growing. I was watching what I was eating but slowly losing weight instead of growing.

The book explains the prinicples of changing your eating habits using common sense that challenges all the Atkin's hype.

I have gained 6 kilos in 5 months without gaining much around the waist. It is ONLY suggested for active people looking to gain mass because a 180 lb man is suggested to eat 4000 calories/day.

The greatest compliment I can offer is several people have asked me if I have started to take steroids.

nope, just eating following this book.

Power Eating is one of the most practical, common-sense guides to nutrition for the active person that you'll find on the shelf today. Written by an educated nutritionist and dietician, this book is devoid of much of the bravado and extreme advice that plagues books written by bodybuilders and miscellaneous charlatans. This isn't a guide on how to "get jacked" or look like a "freak." It's a book for the "train to live" crowd rather than the "live to train" group.

Dr. Kleiner advocates a diet based on whole foods and shoves supplements back into the niche where they belong. People often forget that bodybuilding magazines are almost wholly supported by sponsorship from supplement companies, and they have a vested interest in painting those products as vital for getting in shape. For the most part, supplements are highly dispensable, and the author is very forthright in her approach to the subject. Basically, she identifies the gold-standard supplements that are supported by clinical research (caffeine, whey protein, creatine) and categorizes the rest based on the information in the literature. It may be disturbing for some to see that the vast majority of supplements are either unproven or potentially harmful.

The one caveat I will issue about this book is that it is general in its approach. It's not specifically a bodybuilding nutrition book, and the author doesn't delve into the more lurid details of bulking cycles or other such topics that primarily interest the chemical sports society. She also avoids tackling the specifics of nutritional biochemistry, a decision I believe adds greatly to the clarity of the book. The author instead chooses to keep the book on a practical basis. This is a positive thing in a world in which so many people are suffering from analysis paralysis in their nutrition programs. If you are specifically interested in bodybuilding nutrition, you should probably look elsewhere, because that isn't the focus of the book.

Power Eating addresses nutrition for gaining muscle, but it also focuses on nutrition for performance, a welcome change from the vanity-based programs that have become so common. Low-carb junkies will probably be appalled at some of her recommendations, but that's more a sign of how far off track that fad has gone. Michael Phelps was skinny while eating 10,000 calories of carb-laden fare a day because he trained like an animal. The fact is he had to have those calories to fuel his training. Certainly anyone who isn't eating carbs isn't training very hard.

One of the most important and helpful aspects to Dr. Kleiner's diets is that she encourages dieters interested in fat loss to keep calorie intake high rather than go to the big deficits that many people adopt. Her approach is the high energy flux, slow weight-loss method of body recomposition. She encourages people to maintain a small deficit while eating nutritious foods in order to avoid the starvation response and preserve lean body mass. While the extremely obese can get away with cutting calories heavily at first, almost everyone else will do better with this approach. It isn't a sexy idea, though, because it doesn't promise the massive, overnight, miracle weight loss that so many people are seeking. She does this because that type of weight loss is often only transitory. Slow, steady body recomposition is much more effective at creating long-term body transformation.

The book has detailed programs in the back for different goals (i.e. gain muscle, lose fat) along with sample menus and recipes. Overall, there's enough information here to work with but not so much that it gets in the way of a clear understanding of how to accomplish one's goals.

For the seasoned nutrition professional or the everyday exerciser, this book provides sound information which can help you realize your goals. The information in this book is not drastic, new, or difficult to comprehend, but generally overlooked for more cool and hip fad diets. There's a reason why information such as this has always been there and always will, simply because it works.

Even if you aren't trying to manage weight for a sport but rather just for health, general fitness, or anything, this book gives you a good template to work with to realize your goal.

However, this book can be a bit of a drag if you're not really into nutrition and fitness. Despite this, the diet templates alone are really worth the price of the book. I still say get the book and read it.

This book is amazing! I have bought 3 copies and have given 2 away as gifts to my fitness-savvy friends. The book is extremely useful, whether you're trying to lose weight or gain, or whether you're sedentary or athletic, although it's targeted to athletes - even to extreme athletes. It explains in scientific, but in VERY easy-to-understand language WHY you should consume a certain amount of carbs, protein, fats, etc, rather than just telling you in a more dictatorial way that you SHOULD do it. It explains metabolism, nutrient breakdown, meal timing, and more. Even as a personal trainer, I have found it to be a very useful tool on top of what I already know, because it makes it easy to explain to clients or friends why they should eat grains, at what times sugar can be ok, when to take your pre-workout meal and why, and much more. I'd choose this over any nutrition book I have ever read!

...recommended to me by a trainer with a Master's degree in fitness. This book will tell you what to eat when you want to lose fat, gain muscle, or increase energy. Using the book's nutritional advice gave me more energy during my workouts with a MUCH faster recovery and faster healing. I have even been able to stretch the time between active rest weeks. The author specifically addresses the needs of different types of endurance athletes and strength builders. It's perfect for runners, bikers, martial artists, dancers, body builders, heavy lifters, and you leotard-wearing aerobic trainers. It's an easy read, which I completed on the toilet (more than one sitting).

I have been looking at all sorts of eating books, and this one really worked.
In "Body for Life" book, he won't let you eat enough carbs, imagine living without eating bread. Plus, if you eat an apple, thats a serving of carb, which means you can either eat a piece of bread or an apple, not both. We all know both bread and apple are healthy, but he won't let you eat that. plus, he had no considerations for vegetarians like me. So, I was looking for something that will help me eat fruits and vegetables and cut fat, and was very skeptical about buying this, and then I thought, "what the hell!"
A great thing about the plans given in this book are they really work. It will take a little while to grab a calculator and figure out your calorie needs and breakdown, but its worthwhile. You will also be surprised what constitutes a portion, for eg 1/2 cup pasta is 1 serving. I thought it was much more. Knowing the size of portions and sticking to them is the key point. I bought a measurement cup and almost bought a weighing scale, these would be very valuable. You will need to constantly modify calories as you lose weight. But wait! its not about just losing weight, it has 3 distinct plans for both men and women for (a) cutting fat (b) maintaining muscle and (c) building muscle. Now I know while I was training at the gym, I wasn't eating right. If I follow her plans, I would certainly pack on muscle.
Another thing is that you can customise this plan as per your needs. I am a total vegetarian, no eggs, meat, fish, meat etc. So, I had to see the calories on a meat packet and go round the supermarket to find a vegetarian packet with similar calorie profile. For eg: I could substitute 1 slice of cheese for a slice of sandwhich meat. You will have to do a little research, and you'll be fine. you can also try authors "the be healthier feel stronger vegetarian cookbook", in which author gives tons of vege recipes to keep you going. [...]
finally, the moment of truth: did i cut fat? yes!!! I came down from 84 kg (33% BF) to 62.5 kg (13% BF) in about 9 months. But I stuck to the plan! Don't expect to eat whatever you want and still expect this to work. I did 3-4 times of morning cardio for 45 mins. 3 months later, I will switch to "building muscle" plan to gain muscle.
So, get this book, if you are a vegetarian, this is probably your only choice, it works.

I believe this book is a great reference tool for redesigning your eating plan for maximum changes in body compostion. It also includes suggustions for your training program and describes how changes in what, when and how you eat can influence your results. I would highly reccommend this book for anyone who wants to experience positive changes in their body.