One thing that some other reviews have said is that there are filler recipes. This is true to an extent, but I don’t think it ruins the book. For instance, there is a recipe for putting fruit preserves on some toast for breakfast. This shouldn’t be news to most people, however to suggest it as a healthy option and to list the nutritional information could be useful. The goal of the book is not necessarily to provide recipes that you might not know, but to suggest healthy options for the amateur nutritionist. And certainly, there are recipes that I had never made before that I just love, like Burmese chicken curry.

Unfortunately, this book falls short in a number of ways. First of all, I bought this book on amazon.com as a paperback, and the binding was horrible. Within a couple months it completely disintegrated, which is terrible for a cookbook because it’s hard to flip through and keep it together. Cookbooks need to be heavy duty.

The other way this book falls short is that it is a bodybuilding foods book more than it is a strength training nutrition book. I make the distinction because bodybuilding in and of itself is not a healthy sport. Real bodybuilders use a variety of tricks to get their bodyfat below healthy levels for contests, and often tout distorted nutritional ideas promoted by the supplement business. Some certainly use steroids, which the general consensus is that they are unhealthy. I digress. This comes into play in this book because it suggests using supplements I don’t agree with (e.g. creatine), and also uses stuff like protein powder in some of the recipes. Some recipes otherwise use ingredients that aren’t necessarily “whole foods.” The bottom line with all the supplements and junk out there, I picked this book up looking for a cookbook with balanced, whole-food meal options. However, I find myself omitting or substituting ingredients in some recipes, or simply avoiding them. To be fair, this probably will not concern most people buying this book.

Overall, this book has some great ideas and recipes, as well as some useless ones. It probably makes a good addition to the average weight-lifter’s cooking arsenal. The only caveats are don’t rely solely on nutritional information from this book, and pray it doesn’t fall apart!

I bought this book mainly because I wanted a good cookbook so I could learn some cooking skills along with some healthy dishes. I am a pretty avid reader of Men’s Health, and after reading Greg’s columns I finally caved in and bought the book. This book is very greatly organized and gives some great tips for anyone who IS looking to increase muscle mass, or things like that. (such as tips on creatine intake) Now, it is also organized so it can also be a great resource for someone who just wants to get leaner or just wants to eat cleaner. The book starts by telling you that this book is also a diet program, which works in three phases. This program basically works by starting your diet nice and easy and then restricting it more and more throughout the workout program. By the most restricted phase of the program, you can only eat foods labeled “Ripped” in the book. And as I thumbed through the book, I thought to myself, “The ripped phase is gonna suck. There doesn’t seem to be many recipes that you can eat in this phase.”

Well it turned it around on me when I really focused on the chapters. There are a great amount of options you can choose from for this phase and they all ROCK! Not too mention, the Ripped phase is only for 2 weeks! Now, let me clear this up even more: there are three phases to this program. They are:

Relaxed: 1 Week

Lean: 5 Weeks

Ripped: 2 Weeks.

In the fire station, we usually never eat earlier than 11 PM. And even for me, the program was VERY easy to handle! I never got bored, or aggravated with repetitive recipes. My personal favorite recipe was the avocado toast. It is fantastic! My commitment was there, and I was sick of making excuses. If you have the same, this plan is EASY! Granted, you have enough money of course, which brings me to my next point.

Greg gives you two shopping lists in the book: one for ingredients and another for tools and utensils. ANYBODY who has ever been in a grocery store will tell you: Eating healthy is EXPENSIVE! Some of these ingredients are actually not very expensive at places like a Wal-mart or Costco. But finding things like organic ingredients can be a pretty big chore. I am lucky enough to have a store that provides these close-by but it can get quite expensive. But honestly, the shopping lists save you quite a bit of money if you go into a grocery store blindly looking for healthy foods. I didn’t see this until further down the road.

Now, for my last point. You’re not a huge fitness enthusiast? Neither am I! I hate counting calories like bodybuilders do. Greg made it VERY easy to balance out your meals for max effectiveness. The beginning of the book gives some priceless tips on general health, supplements, meal timing, what to eat more of and what to eat less of, etc. So even if you do not plan on following the diet like I did, the tips and recipes are worth it alone. I passed the book on to a fellow fireman because of his high cholesterol. Withing something like two months, he was a cardio machine. He did not follow the diet like I did, so the results were not as dramatic, but they were still awesome. Now I have the entire firehouse stealing recipes for our dinner from the Muscle Chow book. Trust me, that says a lot!

In closing, what do you have to lose? The book is inexpensive and if you have trouble with affording the ingredients, just save for a while and you will see it was worth it in the long run with all the stuff you learn. Especially if you don’t know the 1st thing about cooking. Try it and stick with it. You’ll see what I saw.