Men's Health Muscle Chow: More Than 150 Easy-to-Follow Recipes to Burn Fat and Feed Your Muscles : A Cookbook

Ok. I'll start with this: I am a firefighter, not a bodybuilder or extreme athlete. So, I do NOT make a lot of money. Your average parking meter makes more than I do, as a matter of fact. I also never cooked once before joining the fire service. Plus I come from a Mexican upbringing, so you can imagine the food I am used to eating.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 WeekLean: 5 WeeksRipped: 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.

This is a decent book. It's written like a Men's Health mag, so if you don't like that "voice" then you won't enjoy this book at all. It's a bit silly but supposed to be inspiring, motivational, casual guy talk. Whatever.Some reviews have complained about similicity of recipes. Or that recipes when followed have no flavor. Or that they turn out bad when followed exactly. Well, let me address these points.1) Simple recipes are a positive thing for a busy man who is trying to balance a fast paced, demanding career with an active social life and a tough workout regimen. The more easy ways we can get full nutrition with high protein content the better. Less items to shop for, less time spent preparing food items, less time consuming them.2) For somebody who is focused on body building or athletic performance, food is fuel. It isn't a social occasion. It isn't something where you sit down and enjoy all the flavors and aromas. It's like putting gas in your car. Pick the quality grade you want, pump it in, and get back on the road.3) If you follow a recipe and it turns out bad, you probably did something wrong. If you follow recipes to the letter, you're definitely doing something wrong (unless you're baking). Recipes are guidelines. What is a "medium" tomato? Or a "large" egg? Or even "medium" heat? Food products vary widely by location, consumer-grade ovens can vary by as much as 25 degrees, stovetops vary in heat output.. you don't like cumin? Well then don't put so much in the chili. Enough said.Now I do agree, the organization of this book is somewhat poor. It seems good at first, but after you first look at it and then start using it, you wish things were in different places. Well ya know what I did? I used a razor and cut the pages out. Used a 3-hole punch and re-organized them into a binder. Now the pages are where I want them, with dividers and markers so I can find everything quickly. It's not a holy Bible, you can suit it to fit your needs, remove the junk you don't want. I also added pages from other similar books that I like and compliment this material.Also, this isn't a diet book per se, it's a nutrition book more than anything. If you're looking to loose weight by changing your diet, just eating the foods in the book won't be as beneficial as something tailored towards weight loss. These foods are to be paired with a strenuous exercise routine to build muscle in the serious athlete.And finally, everybody is different. While it's tempting to have a play-by-play which tells you exactly what to eat, when to eat it, what supps to take, etc.. that doesn't mean it's going to work for you. You need to work at it, take notes, and change things one thing at a time to see what effects it has, and over time you find the right combination for you. Yea it's good to have a starting point, but unless you're built like Greg Avendon (if you're reading this you probably aren't!), then you most likely won't benefit from his nutritional profile. Take the concepts he lays out and then do the hard work to make it applicable to you.

Good recipes but it's kind of difficult to choose just looking at plain black/white text. We are in 2013 no ? ;)

This book is an excellent collection of recipes and practical information for those serious about their training and making sure they are getting the right nutrition.Gregg has some sound advice and if you're like me not knowing how to approach the diet in a way that will complement your training and just taking protein shakes, this book is invaluable as it gives some simple and clear advice and the recipes are very easy and taste great!!The starting point was keeping a food log/diary and seeing how much usless calories I was consuiming and then replacing these meals with ones from Muscle Chow. Also with the food diary method I tried out carb cycling... The result? I have noticed that I am training harder and for longer and the protein shakes supplement my diet as opposed to being meals in themselves.Great book

This is the only 1-star review I have written on Amazon, and it hasn't been written with haste (I have owned the book for months).I cannot believe that this book has so many positive reviews, over the last year I have eaten many meals that are high protein, low fat and easy on the simple carbohydrates and enjoyed it, this book would convince a person that "muscle chow" must often be dull.Dull food is not the most annoying result of forking out money for this book, the real issue is quite simple: this book is insulting to the reader's intelligence. A prime example of the lazy recipes is the Mud Pie Delight, which involves buying a Weightwatchers Mississippi Mud Pie and blending it with ice cubes, chocolate whey protein and water- that's the entire recipe, it's 29 words long. Another recipe for "Vein Poppin' "Tapioca" pudding" directs users to buy baby food (an American brand)and mix in Soy granules- the recipe is eight words long.One positive point is the nutritional stats section provided for each meal- this does count on being able to procure the brands that many recipes call for, otherwise they're merely a useful estimate I suppose.I would reccomend other books in preference to this: Cook This, Not That! Kitchen Survival Guide - A selection of light alternatives to foods available at restaurants, not particularly focused on protein but useful for those who can easily be distracted by tempting meals when eating out. The High-protein Cookbook: More Than 150 Healthy and Irresistibly Good Low-carb Dishes That Can be on the Table in Thirty Minutes or Less - More complex recipes but still very easy to make delicious food. Still plenty of protein but a much better book. Cook This, Not That! Kitchen Survival GuideThe High-protein Cookbook: More Than 150 Healthy and Irresistibly Good Low-carb Dishes That Can be on the Table in Thirty Minutes or Less

I wouldn't listen to those people who say a lot of it is Americanised- yes some of it is, but if you can't work out that Zucchini is just a big Courgette (thanks Google), then you're a bit of a pleb.This book keeps you on the dietary straight and narrow and I can't recommend it enough.I use a handful of the recipes on a daily basis and I'm content in the knowledge that my meals are as clean as a whistle.Thanks Greg- you're a legend!

This book really helped me a lot to start eating healthier. The thing that still really frustrates me about it though is that many of the recipes use brand specific receives or ingredients that are impossible or very difficult to on brain outside the U.S. Otherwise it's been a fantastic resource that I've had many years use out of that is well and truly dog eared and food splattered from my kitchen.