A Review of Shred, The Revolutionary Diet. Is it Really That Special?

Dr. Ian Smith’s Shred, The Revolutionary Diet is a 6 week plan that takes an interesting approach to weight loss. However, the bulk of it will involve eating less and exercising on a daily basis. 

Contents

Here’s what you need to know:

The diet lasts for 6 weeks. Each week you’ll go through a different type of eating plan to cause a “dieting confusion” within your body. This is basically a form of changing up your eating routines in a way to speed up metabolism. Another name for this technique is called calorie shifting, although through Shred, it’s utilized a little bit differently and in a way not as effectively as it could be. The main purpose of calorie confusion/calorie shifting is to help prevent weight loss plateau’s from happening.

But besides this point, the overall approach this diet takes is rather simple. For most week’s, you’ll be eating 3-4 meals a day + 3 snacks. Each meal should contain no more than 300 calories while each snack should not contain more than 100 calories. Overall you’re look at about 1,400 calories being consumed on a daily basis. There will also be periods where instead of a meal, you’ll be having “meal replacements” which are basically either shakes, smoothies or soups. 

There is also an exercise plan attached to this diet that will take you anywhere from 30-45 minutes to complete everyday. The workouts aren’t that difficult, at least for those who are in decent shape, but it will add to the results of this diet.

Finally, an important tip is that you can’t eat anything beyond 8:30 pm every night. This is important but at the same time won’t be very simple for a lot of people to stick to.

Basic overview:

There is a lot of repetition within this plan in the sense that you basically repeat the same type of eating format week after week and exercise everyday. For the most part you’ll be eating a lot of fruits, vegetables, whole foods & lean meats. Combined with meal replacements and snacks such as walnuts, you’re looking at a pretty standard diet.

The only thing that will make this plan really stand out is the periods when you do the meal replacement + the fact that you’ll be eating smaller portioned meals more often everyday. Other than that, the diet is pretty simple. I wouldn’t call it a revolutionary approach, but it still works. 

On a side note, Dr. Smith also recently release the Super Shred which is sort of a “Faster version” of this diet. Though for the most part the guidelines are very similar. The only difference is that Super Shred is designed for short term results if people are in a hurry to lose weight.

Pros:

  • Utilizes a healthy approach to eating/dieting.
  • Everything is laid out for you: Directions/meal plans.
  • Overall good results. About 20 pounds in 6 weeks. Overall not bad.

Cons:

  • Kind of repetitive from week to week. 
  • The basic idea is eating less and exercising, nothing overly new. 
  • Doesn’t take dieting confusion to it’s maximum. This one does. 

Shred, The Revolutionary Diet Score: 

3 stars

3 out of 5 stars. Decent diet. Not “revolutionary”, but you will see results. See #1 rated diet.

shred revolutionary diet score

Conclusions on Dr. Ian’s diet:

There’s really 2 complaints I have with this plan:

1. It doesn’t take caloric confusion to it’s maximum. In fact it doesn’t really do it as it was meant to be done. In it’s true form, you should be eating as much as you want without having to keep track of what you’re eating, when you’re eating it and most importantly HOW much you’re eating. Calorie confusion (calorie shifting) doesn’t focus on those traditional things. 

Instead it just focuses on eating in mixed caloric values and constantly mixing up your eating routines. And even though it sounds “Chaotic”, ironically it ends up providing faster results than Dr. Smith’s approach to doing it. As I mentioned before, this is the only diet which uses caloric confusion (interval eating they call it) the way it was meant to be used. You’ll find this approach to be much more flexible and faster acting.

2. I always have issues with diets that create a 1 size fit’s all plan where no matter how much you weight, you need to consume the same amount of calories. On one hand this does mean those who weight more will lose more weight, but at the same time, it’s not adjusted to how much people weight meaning it’ll be difficult for those who weight more. Another reason I say the other calorie confusion alternative is better since you eat until you almost feel full. 

But aside from those 2 things, the overall diet isn’t bad, although as much as it’s said to be revolutionary, it’s really not. I’ve seen this type of hype happen before with plans like the Fast Metabolism Diet which promised you could eat as much as you want, then when you read it, you found it was nothing more than limiting caloric intake.

Certainly I will give credit where it’s due. Dr. Smith did touch upon a very important subject matter within his plan and that’s breaking down weight loss plateaus. You’ll certainly be able to do that with this plan, but at the same time, there’s better/faster alternatives like I mentioned before. 

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