So I just finished Bob Harper’s new book, The Skinny Rules. For those of you who don’t know who he is, he’s one of the main trainers on The Biggest Loser (my fav show), and I LOVE him. Anyway, I really liked that he outlined 20 general rules for weight loss and maintaining a healthy lifestyle. The rules are very simple, and most of them seem completely reasonable. Its’s pretty much eating clean with a few extra rules thrown in there. He even allows one cheat meal a week (which I think is completely necessary).
The best part of the book is that he gave a million really amazing and easy sounding recipes. Let’s be honest, I’m not interested in cooking unless it is simple and takes less than 30 minutes, and all these recipes seem to fit that criteria. As I cook some of the new recipes, I’ll post the ones that I like.
There are only two things that I didn’t agree with in his book. First, he thinks you should stop eating carbs everyday after lunch. I don’t completely disagree with that, but I think it is really hard to do that every single day as a lifestyle (and I’ve tried it). I have a hard time telling myself or a client that a sweet potato or a 1/2 cup of brown rice is unacceptable at dinner time as long as their profile of carbs, fats and protein are on point. I try to stop eating carbs after lunch a few days a week, but for me, it just doesn’t work everyday and having sushi for dinner shouldn’t have to be my cheat meal for the week.
For weight loss, he has women eating 1200 calories and men eating 1500. I lost the majority of my weight eating 1450 calories a day, and honestly I can’t imagine eating less than that, it’s just not enough food for active people. I don’t put women clients under 1400 calories unless there is a metabolic test (rmr) that shows their metabolism is slow enough to warrant that. I agree with Bob that we should create a calorie deficit with nutrition, but then let’s create an even bigger calorie deficit through exercise. The combo of the two are what gives people the best results without them feeling like they are hungry all the time.
Anyway, I love Bob and definitely recommend this book. He’s funny, he’s honest and he gives all the research out there to back up each rule. He gives a 4 week start up plan, and a ton of recipes. I love that he is trying to simplify weight loss (and maintenance, because it is a lifestyle change) with these rules. It really does just take pre planning, a little sacrifice and you have to want it.
