Men's Health Muscle Chow: More Than 150 Easy-To-Follow Recipes to Burn Fat and Feed Your Muscles: More Than a 150 Meals to Feed Your Muscles and Fuel Your Workout [Englisch] [Taschenbuch]

It's hard to find a decent clean-eating cookbook. This one certainly is decent, but I wouldn't give it much more praise than that. There are some recipes that are pretty good and all of them are quite straightforward, but my major problem with the book is that some of the recipes are complete fluff that could have been all compiled onto a single page ("quick bites", or something like that). For instance, the "Fix and Eat Sardine Sandwich". Now, I'm going from memory here, but I'm pretty sure that the steps boiled down to these steps: Take two slices of bread, spread mustard on each slice, then put the sardines between the two pieces of bread and eat them. Sorry, Gregg, but I'm a healthy eater, not someone who's never been in a kitchen before. There are other recipes like this ("Slice up a head of lettuce and serve it with mustard as dipping sauce", for example) that are really wastes of space.

Also, it would have been good to see more explanation regarding carb-cycling (or carb-shifting as he describes it), along with macronutrient breakdowns for the different eating phases Gregg describes in the book.

There's some good stuff in here, that's for sure, but it's too much like a fluffernutter sandwich: lots of healthy potential surrounded, unfortunately, by too much fluff.

OK. I know this is a guy book and I'm not a guy. Let's start with that. I was led to this book because I had read about it in one of my publications. I absolutely detest cooking and I have a panic attack just thinking about the kitchen. My mother taught me to drive and type. She didn't teach me to cook.

I've bought many cookbooks and hate them all. They're all too complicated for my maladjusted cooking genes. But this book --- well that's a different story! This is easy to follow and fun. Yes, fun.

I've found that I can eat foods that taste absolutely fantastic and it takes little effort, little fat and no junk that's bad for me. I've learned to use spices and things I had never known how to use before. I'm loving this.

Moreover, I'm losing weight. I log everything in my Palm Pilot on a program from CalorieKing. It's easy to know how many calories are in each dish. Now, as a woman, I may not eat a whole serving. So I simply adjust that in my log.

I must tell you that for the first time in my life I'm enjoying being in the kitchen. I fix foods ahead, which makes my life much easier.

All the recipes are easy to fix and don't take many ingredients. You'll find this type of eating gives you more energy and keeps you feeling full. At the same time, you can get really ripped. And losing weight is easy and fun.

And, if you guys will forgive me, I recommend this book to my sisters as well as to you.

The one thing I don't like about it is not the content. It's the book. I'd prefer a spiral book that I can lay out on my tiny kitchen counter. Also one that can be cleaned as I am a mess in the kitchen.

Update: After using the book for a month, I do have at least one issue with it. Take for example the Mixed-Berry Protein Mousse on page 237. This is a wonderful menu and the taste is indescribable. Wonderful. But it says is makes six servings. That's fine. But how much is one serving? I mean, out of the total made, is a serving 1 cup, one-half cup or what? I would like to know how much to take out of the bowl to make one serving. Otherwise, I'm unsure how many calories I'm actually getting.

Having said that, I've lost seven pounds in one month by following the foods and counting calories and I've yet to be really hungry. It's amazing!

But dear author, when and if you do an update (and I hope you do) please tell us what one serving is.

I did improve on one of the easy recipes. At least to me it's a major improvement. The recipe calls for mashing tofu and adding protein powder. Well, It's okay. But here's something better:

Tofu as called for in recipe
Protein as called for in recipe
Put in blender (preferable one with a milkshake blade)
Add coconut water (not much)
Add one pk. stevia

Blend until smooth. This makes a wonderful milkshake with a lovely texture. It's much better than what you get with the recipe in the book and just two or three added calories from the coconut water.

Highly recommended.

-Susanna K. Hutcheson

Overall, I liked this book. In it, Gregg covers the basics of eating to not only build muscle and lose fat, but to be healthy too. He gives concise, easy-to-follow rules that will help you avoid the major pitfalls of diet and nutrition.

The book has a decent selection of recipes and many are tasty and easy to prepare. As other reviewers have said, there are a handful of fillers that we could've done without, but I don't feel ripped off.

All in all, this was a good addition to my library.

P.S. I recently finished Bigger Leaner Stronger: The Simple Science of Building the Ultimate Male Body (The Lean Muscle Series), and I highly recommend it if you want to learn exactly how to train and eat for maximum muscle gains and fat loss. It's VERY comprehensive and gives you everything you need to know.