Precision Nutrition - John Berardi

Many people have asked about the Precision Nutrition book.  Or the Massive Eating.

Since I do not own it myself, I cannot really comment but Greg can.  He's owned a few of them and knows it quite intimately.

Here's what Greg has to say before you plunk down your hard earned cash on another program.

Feel free to voice your opinion if you own this book.

I have this course. I give it only one thumb up.

The video series is ok. The lecture is just a taped lecture at some university. He lacks the charisma that the best speakers have; his rapport with the audience is mediocre at best. The two segments that are more worth the time are the shopping one (with a female fitness model who, um, has little stage presence, but most guys won't give a d*mn), and the morning ritual (with of course another attractive female).

The recipe book, Gourmet Nutrition, isn't. It relies too heavily on artificial sweeteners, and there are mistakes that result in culinary disasters. I even saw in his forums that he had a whole thread dedicated to errors in the cookbook. Sorry, if it's not proofed, it's not ready for prime time.

PN is not cheap. Dr. Berardi, Ph.D. [SIC!!!] has quite the ego, btw, which drives me nuts.

Dan's information is just as good, if not better, and damn cheaper.

Of course, I still bought his latest book Metabolism Advantage, but I haven't read it yet.

Link is at: http://www.discussbodybuilding.com/m_167480/mpage_2/key_berardi/tm.htm#167900

AND

I have a like/hate relationship with Berardi and his writings. It turns out, after looking at my various posts on dbb.com that mention him that I really like (and still do) his Scrawny to Brawny book, co-authored with Meija.

Here was an observation I posted awhile back: "After a year of lifting, I [gzinkl, that is!] came to a similar conclusion [about body types and lifting programs], but good luck trying to find a lot of body-type specific programs and advice. Berardi's Brawny to Scrawny program is probably one of the very few. We have lots of programs based on some guy's personal success, but we aren't him. But we're so often left to our own devices, and as we get older, it matters more and more what our genetics and current physical state is to our success. . . it's no wonder that we fall back on these excuses.

Not to mention having Mr. Adonis working out next to us can be totally ego-deflating if we're being goofy.


(BTW, has anyone else been keeping up with Berardi's writing and finding him going down the ego/snob/snot route? Ugh. His Precision Nutrition program is overpriced, and the "cookbook" he sells with it and is getting press among the internet community right now is chock full of errors, too short, and the recipes just not very good. He should stick working with co-authors, like Meija in his S2B book.[snip]"

His Preci$ion Nutrition over time has not worn well with me. It is good in that it organizes everything (but so does the Absdiet books, and now they do it better). The one thing I learned was to shop the perimeters of grocery stores (where the good food mostly is). But there, I've told you the only thing Dan might not have said directly! Oh, well, there was the concept of a morning routine to put all the food togetehr, but I think Dan has probably covered that. (The other things about the damn cook book is the over-reliance on artificial sweeteners. Refined sugar might be white death, but I'm not so hip on high amounts of the artificial stuff, especially with suggestions that the sweetness might have the same physiological effects of the white stuff).

I went through an infatuation phase with Berardi, but PN (coupled with time) and especially his latest book, The Metabolism Advantage (a huge waste of cash--Rodale is usually more reliable) are disappointments. I couldn't even bear to finish the Metabolism Advantage. And I usually zip through them in an hour or two.

So, don't waste the money on PN. I wish I hadn't (I was really hoping the recipe book would be great). If you need a book, the Absdiet books are fine and cheap. Rodale has another nutrition book out that is more pricey, but not really any better, and too full of "current" (read: tomorrow will show most of the conclusions are correct or inaccurate or incomplete) research findings.

Thanks Greg for allowing me to cut and paste that from a conversation.

If I got it wrong, I'll edit it.

Marc C. David - NGA CPT
Author of NoBull Bodybuilding
www.nobullbodybuilding.com

I found another review of Precision Nutrition here. It includes free samples of the book.