Recently Ian Smith released a new book called the Super Shred which is said to help you lose 20 pounds in 4 weeks.
While this is for the most part true, this review is going to help clarify if this plan is worth your time.
Contents
How Super Shred works:
There are 4 phases to this plan.
Each phase lasts 1 week in which you are provided specific meal plans as well as shopping lists. The diet is set up in a way which incorporates both eating around 1,000 calories and exercising for about 40 minutes each day.
The kinds of foods you eat while on this plan range anywhere from snack bars, to nuts, vegetables, lean meats and other various proteins. The plan is meant to provide short term results and isn’t meant to be used for the long haul.
Although results vary, most people lose around 5 pounds every week while on this plan.
It is less restrictive than most other plans and does have a lot of positive attributes. There are also some great health tips you can implement while on this plan as well as when you’re not on it. Here are some examples:
Drink a glass of water before every meal: This helps with digestion and hydration of the body.
Eat even when you’re not hungry: There is a rising trend in intermittent eating or skipping meals and while it does have it’s pros, in this particular plan, it isn’t recommended and the main reason is because of the exercise added in.
In fact, even though you aren’t really going to be eating that much daily, you should focus on eating mostly before/after your workout. This will help fuel the body for the workout as well as aid it in recovery. Generally speaking, a high fat meal and/or protein enriched meal post workout is GREAT for burning fat and growing muscles (it burns fat to grow the muscles). As for high fat meals, if you’re skeptical, read Eat Fat, Get Thin to see why it’s an awesome method.
There are a number of other tips provided in Super Shred, but these 2 are ones you can use in the short/long run. For the most part, this diet is as I said earlier, meant for quick fixes. And if you think about it, 5 pounds a week is good, but it’s not amazing either.
Want to know about the one diet which surpass Super Shred in every way?
Super Shred is actually based on a previous plan Dr. Smith has written called Shred: The Revolutionary Diet. This version doesn’t provide the same type of speedy results, but is more intended for long term plans and helping beat plateaus.
The basic idea between both diets is the same though.
Pros:
- Good healthy diet.
- Contains detailed shopping/food list for each day/week of plan.
- Designed to get quick results.
- Incorporates exercise.
- You can lose 5 pounds every week.
Cons:
- Not a long term solution.
- You can lose more weight in the short run using other alternatives.
Super Shred Score:
3 stars out of 5. Good short term approach to dieting, although pretty strict and not meant to be used for the long haul. See #1 rated diet.
Conclusions on the Super Shred:
This diet is pretty good for those who want to get fast results as well as people who like to have everything laid out for them in a detailed step-by-step approach. Certainly in some aspects this diet is strict, but the good news is that the author is very upfront about these things including that it’s really meant to be a short term solution.
Ideally it would best if you could implement this diet on a long term scale, because frankly what eventually is going to happen is the yo-yo effect and I don’t think you can follow this plan for much longer than it’s designed for.
You can certainly do this diet off & on and see results, but I’m more of a person who likes to see consistency and not the same repetitive cycle. Not to say the Super Shred is a bad plan. I’m just saying there are better alternatives, like the one diet I mentioned earlier. It’s called the 2 Week Diet and it takes 21 days to do and you can lose way more.
Personally if I had a choice, I’d recommend that option above Super Shred since you could experience faster results, more flexibility and most importantly long term results. That in my mind is something everyone who is looking to lose weight should strive for, because after all what’s the point of going through the endless back n forth dieting, wasting time and money when you could get it right the first time?
Who wouldn’t want that? Just my 2 cents though and if your opinion differs, I’d love to hear what you have to say on the subject.