Grappler's Guide to Sports Nutrition by John Berardi and Micheal Fry

**Kentucky Fried Chokin** · Posted On: 8/10/2009 5:57pm

This was a great book that I bought online while in Brazil. I was looking for nutrition advice, so I went to the first place I always go to (and you should too): the stickies. I was reading the nutrition stickies in the PT forum and reading the articles by John Berardi.

I had already read one of the articles about supplementation in the 'Gatorade sucks' thread and had incorporated them into my training with great sucess. While in Brazil, I was training three to four times a day, with three classes in a row in the evening. In that time I was only eating some protein powder to keep from starving, but by then end I was exhausted.

Until reading that article in the 'Gatorade sucks' thread, I had never thought of using carb powder to replenish my glycogen, but it ended up making a huge difference. After that, Berardi had a lot of credibility with me. So after reading an interview with him by Grappler's Guide on his new book 'Grappler's Guide to Sport Nutrition', I decided to buy it.

If you've been reading the stickies, you're already familiar with most of it. He has 10 rules to follow instead of 7, but they're still pretty simple. He also goes into much more detail as to the how and why to implement these rules in the book. He has the top twenty 'superfoods' that should make up most of your diet (nothing that would surprise you) as well as chapters on supplements (which ones to take and how with specific brands recommended) and a chapter on weight cutting. Also, the sample menus were very helpful.

The Results:
When I went to Brazil, because of the high amount of exercise and the crappy food I was eating at first (I lived in a hotel and had to eat at diners) I lost about 20lbs right away. The books helped me not only, stop losing weight, but also gain a little back.
The biggest area the book helped me in was recovery. I was constantly overtraining, and if I even looked at weights too hard, I'd have to take several days off. After starting this book, I could train two or three times (lightly) a week with no problem. This is how I was able to gain some weight back.
Now, I can't really mention how it allows you to lose weight, since I was already really lean from all the exercise before going on the diet, but one thing that surprised me as that when I came back to the US and stuck with the diet, I didn't get fatter. I expected to get a little fatter because of huge drop in exercise volume, but I didn't. In fact, after being able follow the diet properly, since I now have access to the supplements he recommends like creatine, I have gained several pounds of muscle.
The biggest pain in the ass with this diet is eating every 2-3 hours, but since 10% of the time you can eat whatever you want, I'm actually eating more ice cream and pizza than any time I can remember.

I recommend this book to people want an increase in performance. I've been recommending this book to other people and they have been getting the same results as me.