Customer Reviews

Understanding Body Building Nutrition & Training: Practical, Quick Reference, Answers to Common Bodybuilding Challenges

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4 star:		(3)
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2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

This book is not a long one, but the first 80 plus pages are not nutritional advice, and the final pages (past 100) are definitions of terms used in bodybuilding. The approximately 20 pages in between are the ones with nutritional information. If you want a book focused on bodybuilding nutrition please look elsewhere. IF you want a book that tells you about bodybuilding and has some nutritional information as an aside this may be for you. Many other books are much better; however, they take a different approach to the bodybuilding subject. Bodybuilding 101 by Wolff is excellent as an introduction to bodybuilding; however Bodybuilding 101 endorses the Weider methods which Mr. Aceto does not. This book will give you a different view of the endevor and might serve to round out a beginner's education on the subject. At least it will let a person know that there are different approaches to the sport.

I would not recommend this book to a first time bodybuilder or someone who has not read extensively on the subject. Anyone purchasing the book should know a lot of the information will be contradicted in other publications.

Sort of an interview, the book delves into traing protocol such as sets, reps, bodypart groupings and routines. All of which is good and informative, yet the strength falls in the nutrition portion where the puzzle is put together. The auhor clearly lays down a nice formula and plan on how to either build mass without turning into the pillsbury doughboy, or to strip away fat without obliterating your muscle mass. I also liked the back of the book which is similar to a dictionary, but the words all pertain to training and nutrients.

Understanding BB Nutr and Training is a fantastic book. As far as credibility goes, I attended Chris and Laura's camp a few years ago and found their working knowledge of bodybuilding- both training and nutrition- far ahead of the pack, better than the "science" at the time (ie, people were recomending moderate protein and sky high carbs) while Chris and Laura were teaching high protein moderaate carbs and low (but not no) fat. A bit ahead of their time I'd say. In terms of burning fat, Chris recomends weight training over cardio training in long term body fat control; an idea that is only recent - yet Laura and Chris taught that in 1994! The reader of this book will discover the best way to train to build mass and nutritionally, the right approach to lose fat without losing muscle or to build mass without adding excessive body fat. And...yes, if you are building mass and you add 6 pounds of muscle and 4 pounds of fat; the net effect on the metabolism is in crease in calorie expediture, the vital factor in controlling body fat.

Chris Aceto is obviously a smart guy. It shows in his writing. You'll never find a bodybuilding book that is "art", but as a reference source this book is pretty good. I do have a few "cons" about this book, though: It's somewhat abivalent about the steroid issue. Some of the information in this book (though not the majority) seems to be geared toward the steroid-using bodybuilder without acknowledging it, which may be confusing to "naturals". There is almost a wink-and-a-nod about steroid use in a few of the glossary entries. However, this is not uncommon in bodybuilding books, so you'll have to judge for yourself if the information in these few entries is right for you. The other gripe I have is that this book is in need of a professional copy editor. There are numerous typos and grammatical inconsistencies. Overall, you may think I'm slamming this book, but I'm not. Dive into it with your eyes open and you can come away with some good stuff, especially about non- or low-controversial supplements like vitamins, minerals, etc.

I received this book yesterday, and read it in about an hour. Needless to say, it lacked the substance I was looking for. Additionally, there were a number of things that made me question the credibility of the information in this book, among them:

1) The author doesn't recognize the validity of a simple "control group" study. He discounts the findings by saying that the study design is "flawed," and suggests a method that itself has a number of issues associated with it. This makes me wonder if any of his conclusions are derived from an understanding of scientific evidence on exercise and nutrition.

2) When discussing the likelihood of gaining fat as well as muscle on a "mass building" program, he says if you gain more muscle than fat, you are moving in "the right direction." However, consider the following example: Say you are a 120 pound woman with body fat of 20%. That means your body consists of 24 pounds of fat, and 96 pounds of lean tissue (muscle, bones, etc.) During your program, you gain 10 pounds total: 6 pounds of muscle (good job!) and 4 pounds of fat. Your body now consists of 102 lean pounds and 28 pounds of fat. Body fat percentage? 28/130 = 21.5%. Not the right direction, if you ask me.

3) Although I am no expert on the subject (that's why I bought this book!), some of the information in the nutrition section is at odds with other (in my mind, more credible) sources of the same information.

Finally, (and this is a minor point, to be sure) the author's inability to distinguish between "your" and "you're" and "affect" and "effect" also hurt his credibility with me. There must be something better out there than this!

WOW! Mr.Aceto hits a home run again! This book sheds light into little hidden truths. Many great gems to be discovered as you turn page to page. Truths that really get no main stream pub, such as 2b fibers (the secret to true growth) and proven information reguarding fat loss and lean tissue gains. This is a must read for any bodybuilder. Being a national level competior myself, i found this book amazing. I also really liked the quick reference check for supplemention and the easy to read format. This is my supplement shoppe's 1# selling book! Listen, If you are searching for and want true and real insight from the leader of the pack, this book is for you! I was a little shocked at some of the other reveiws I just read. Are they reading the same book? Mr. Aceto is the most credited trainer around! Heck, even Joe Weider has him writitng for his magazines. If you want mass-buy this book!

I received the book,read it from cover to cover and found it to be very informative.I have been training for a while and have learned most of what was covered in this book.however,I did not have any good routines and as I learned in this book.I did not have the proper knowledge,until now.The book gives several routines from beginer to advanced.I also purchased the Ironmans guide to nutrition.These two books are great,these two really compliment each other. I am now looking forward to some great gains.

This "book" is a series of bland questions compled with hyperbolic answers. The author is incapable of suing the english language, and appears incapable of undertakking research. Far from being scientific in approach, often there will either be a bald contention (I do this so it must be right) or simply wrong statements (eg the claim that there are no studies on the preferable number of sets). The book is barely readable, coming in the form of stream of consciousness q and a's, dogmatically presented with no real analysis, depth or insight. The layout is decidly unimaginative, sparse text interspersed with (wholly unrelated) pictures of body builders. There are no explanatory graphics or charts. I feel decidedly cheated in purchasing this book. And SURELY publishers should be able to correct a guy who doesn't know the distinction between your and you're. Buy a men's health instead.

Understanding Bodybuilding Nutrition & Training was the 2nd "Body-Building" book I ever read (right after it was published in 1999). To this day, It remains one of the better nutritional/training references in my library. If you are interested in learning HOW TO create a sound nutritional program for building lean muscle, I would highly recommend picking up this book. At the very least, visit your local library and read it. Chris Aceto certainly knows the subject of bodybuilding nutrition. Not only has he built a top-level physique for himself & his wife (Laura Creavalle) but has also advised/coached other top-level bodybuilder's such as Jay Cutler (4 time Mr. Olympia), Phil Heath, Troy Alves and many, many others. I've applied much of his teachings to both myself and my clients with resounding success. I STILL browse this book from time to time, to reinforce the advice I regularly give to others who are looking to better their physiques.

I've read a few reviews here which make mention of the fact that there are only 20 or so pages of "actual" nutritional value. I'm not sure how they arrived at that conclusion but I DO agree that this book is NOT written solely on the subject of nutrition. However, I never expected it to be either! The TITLE of the book (Understanding Bodybuilding nutrition & TRAINING) CLEARLY represents an accurate description of this books' contents. It's a book on Nutrition & TRAINING!!!! AND TRAINING!!! I repeated it twice since there were those in the past who clearly did not read the ENTIRE title prior to purchasing/reading/commenting!

This book provides important nutritional AND training information for those looking to build a lean, muscular body. It identifies common mistakes often made by beginning/intermediate bodybuilders and explains how to overcome/correct them.

Of course no one in their right mind would expect literary quality or "fine writing" in a book of this kind. Still, there's no excuse for the amateurish, just barely literate nature of the presentation here: little evident familiarity with basic grammar and spelling rules (obviously nobody thought it worth proofreading); often self-contradictory and confusing information; and what few fragments of useful information it does convey are repeated over and over in the course of a very few pages -- maybe enough for a well-organized, professionally written magazine article, if only a professional had been available to do it. Alas, nothing remotely "professional" here: it's a thoroughly depressing and disposable 20-dollar piece of junk. Avoid.