Fitness Confidential Paperback – June 27, 2013

I heard the author, Vinnie Tortorich, featured on Adam Carolla's podcast earlier this year in October. Vinnie made a lot of sense and I had a lot of weight to lose, so I decided to buy his book. I can't believe the impact that his concepts have had on me. In less than two months I've lost 23 pounds already. I have no sense of deprivation, because it's not a diet--it's a menu change.

Vinnie explains a couple of things. First, your metabolism can either use sugars (glucose) or fat for fuel. It's easier to use glucose from the bloodstream, but as long as your body is running off the sugars you won't burn any stored fat and won't lose weight. So if you can reduce the sugars from your bloodstream and prime your body to burn fat, it will burn the fat from your last meal and then continue burning stored fats for fuels. Burning these stored fats is how you lose weight.

Secondly, he explains how the grains that we eat are quickly converted to sugars during digestion--the same sugars that we're trying to prevent our body from lazily fueling itself with.

So what is his answer? Avoid all sugars and all grains. He calls this No Sugars No Grains, or NSNG. Additionally, add some natural fats back to your diet. For example, cook your eggs in butter instead of unhealthy cooking sprays or oils. Fats like these will prime your body to fuel itself from stored fat instead of sugars.

Does it work? It has sure worked for me. Not only have I lost 23 pounds so far, I've seen a change in my waistline that I've never seen before. My pants have always been tight and I've never had to wear a belt. Then the pants got loose so I had to grab a belt from the closet. Then I had to tighten it a notch. I've gone from no belt ever to tightening it three notches already. And this is in spite of Halloween, Thanksgiving, and now the Christmas chowing season. I haven't felt any sense of deprivation whatsoever, I'm just eating different foods that I like.

About the first half of the book talks about foods. The next half focuses on exercise. Then there's a weird bonus half that I wasn't expecting. It was actually pretty funny for me. At the close of the second half of the book he basically tells the reader that the book is over and you're welcome to stop reading if you want. But then he launches into a semi-unrelated story that blew me away. First I need to set the scene for how this next bit looked from my perspective. I live in the city of Santa Clarita, CA, in northern L.A. County. One of the things that my family does for fun is we take our RV out to the local desert and camp and ride motorcycles off-road. We camp in remote areas and see some places that most of the planet has never even heard of. We're kind of halfway between the town of Mojave and the entrance to Death Valley. So I was laying in bed one morning in camp reading this book on my Kindle reader. It seemed like there was still quite a bit of content to go, so I looked at the table of contents to see what the next chapters would be covering. I did a double-take when I looked at the Contents; it felt like the book had a virus and somehow my personal information had leaked into it. I don't have the book with me at the moment, but the Contents of that final third "half" went something like "Santa Clarita to Antelope Valley" (remember that Santa Clarita is where I live), "Antelope Valley to California City", "California City to Trona", and "Trona to Death Valley". It was so shocking to see my home town listed, then one of the places we camp (California City), and then the nearest town to where we were camped at the moment, Trona. Nobody has heard of Trona. That place is so small the high school football team literally plays their games on a dirt field.

It turned out that after the main body of the book was complete, Vinnie shared the story of his participation in the grueling "Furnace Creek 508", which is a 508 mile cycling race from my city through Furnace Creek in Death Valley and ends in Twentynine Palms (Google it!). What a monster. I can't believe he rode this race, but I'm really glad that he shared the story. It was interesting to read his take on the places where we ride and camp. When describing the little town of Trona, he said that the population doubled as riders rode through.

Anyway, the section on his race was fascinating and I'm really glad he included it in this book. It was a great way to show that he's not just a glitzy Hollywood trainer, but that he is a monster of a man and is capable of superhuman feats.

Are there any bad aspects to the book? Well, if you're looking for a super prescriptive manual on exactly how to eat and how to work out, you might come away a little disappointed. This book is about concepts and really about changing your head. Instead of fretting over a diet and a workout plan that you'll probably quit after a few weeks, he tells you to just shift your menu, relax, enjoy yourself, and turn yourself into a healthier person inside and out.

My own personal experience has been that this has been completely relaxed and laid back but has had the hugest payoff imaginable. I eat different things, but I'm not dwelling on it all the time. My office diabolically provides us the most amazing snacks: hoppers of cereal, a dispenser of fresh peanut M&Ms (the fresh ones are so much better than the ones that have sat on the Circle-K shelf for three months), bowls of tiny chocolate bars, meal replacement bars, etc. It's very generous, but none of that stuff fits into my new menu. If I get snacky though, I'll go grab a paper cup and fill it up from the assorted nuts and snack on some nuts. Then I'm satisfied and I stop eating. It's fantastic. There's no deprivation whatsoever.

Thank you Vinnie for the amazing advice. I thank you, my wife thanks you (she's down fifteen pounds now too), and I'm sure my doctor will absolutely love you when I go in for my next checkup.

This man saved my life. This book saved my life. After being told to get my affairs in order (because I would catch another blood clot or another heart attack) I heard Vinnie Tortorich on the Adam Carolla podcast. I thought him to be insane. I wasn't the only one who thought he was crazy but Adam said he was following along with this way of eating. I realized that I hadn't done "everything possible" to try and save my own life. If the Doctors had no plan, maybe I could come up with my own. This would be my final attempt so I went for it. August 1st 2016 was my first day but it took me a couple of months to make adjustments. I got into the weight loss groove pretty easy. Due to injury issues I had to loose all of this by diet alone. I was unable to do any exercise.This is me before... and this is me now... so far. A year later and 134lbs so far. I have a new lease on life and I'm living it! If you know anyone who is struggling to get their health under control - get this book! I can never repay the kindness Adam and Vinnie showed me but I'm trying. Based on my results 3 family members have already switched to NSNG and more are about to do the same.

While the book was slim on details regarding the "No Sugar, No Grain" lifestyle that I was hoping to gain, when the program really is as simple as NSNG I'm not sure how many pages about it anyone could really read. The book shed a lot of light on the topic of how our bodies convert what we eat and pointed me in the right direction on where to learn what I desire further. Even more than the nutritional advice gained, learning Vinnie's story and triumphs was worth the read in itself. A commendable story by an admirable man. I'd heard Vinnie on the Adam Carolla show several times in the past and became intrigued, but after this read I'm a definite fan. Thanks for putting it all out there Vinnie, your story is a true inspiration to those who learn it.

Instead of reading the book I listened to it through Audible.
I've been listening to Vinnie's podcast for a little over 3 months. If you don't have time to listen to all of the podcasts, you will find the book to sufficiently summarize everything that Vinnie is trying to convey. There's a lot of personal story in the book that ties into how Vinnie made the conclusions about the industry and about eating right. This book is definitely worth a read or at least a listen if you want to know some of the dirty secrets of the fitness industry. In addition you will gain some revelation about things that should really be avoided the majority of the time when it comes to food intake if you want to reach your ideal weight.

I'm going to keep this review short and simple.
I love this book.
It pulls at my heart strings, it makes me laugh out loud, and I'm seriously taking notes. Vinnie Tortorich is a NO BS, tell it how it is, as well as, the sincerest 'I care about you and want you to succeed' kind of a guy. I have been a 'dieting' 'counting calories' type a girl for decades. My life has never been better since learning the TRUTH from this author. Seriously folks, you NEED to read this book!! I'm an endurance athlete that has competed in many cycling and running events, and triathlons. This book is for the average Joe wanting to learn the truth about health and fitness, as well as, the serious athlete. Carnivore or Vegan, obese or thin, couch potato or hard core athlete--you will be entertained and you will most definitely learn how to have a healthier, happier life.