There is a ton of information written in the field of health and fitness, and a lot of it is simply hyped up empty promises promising you can ‘lose fat fast’, or ‘get ripped abs in 14 days’. Well, I hate to tell you, but no matter how much reading and purchasing you do, you are never going to find a miracle shortcut to a fit lean body. BUT, I am HAPPY to tell you that among all the hype, there is some actual sound fitness and diet advice out there, and if you are willing to put the effort in, then following the proper plan WILL bring results.

While the book by Mike Geary, “The Truth About Abs”, is branded as a manual to creating 6 pack abs, it’s really much more of a lifestyle manual. The Truth About Abs is an easy to follow guide to changing how you eat and how you exercise in order to achieve the results you have always dreamed of. Mike’s 161 page book is broken down into 3 broad sections which are as follows:

1. An introduction and important general information about leanness, metabolism, body fat %, effective abdominal training, and lean body mass.

2. Effective workout plans, information about more efficient ways to exercise, what multi-joint vs single joint exercises mean, as well as a collection of total body work outs. An explanation of why your current cardio program IS NOT helping you lose weight the way you expected; and

3. Information on diet and nutrition, details about insulin and blood sugar, the Glycemic Index and how it affects your diet program, and food’s thermic effect – ie calorie burning properties.

The workout schedules are easy to follow and don’t take up much of your time. The Truth About Abs training program is broken down into two sections that include Interval training and Resistance and Weight training. Mike suggests that anything longer then 45-60 minutes per session is not a good use of your time. He breaks down his training program into 45-60 minute session, 3-4 times per week.

If you really want to get your body toned and in shape, then you should easily be able to find time for this schedule. The bonus is you don’t need a gym or a lot of equipment. However, Mike suggests having a set of dumb bells and an exercise ball to most effectively perform the workouts. This shouldn’t be a huge investment, $30-40 at the most – way cheaper than a gym, and it means you have created your own gym right at home.

There is a huge amount of nutrition advice that Mike has included in this program. The suggested diet plan calls for 5-6 smaller meals per day, eating every 3 hours (not including sleeping hours). An important tip is to plan your meals for an entire week, and shop once a week getting only the food you need for those meals.

There is also a section which exlains how to determine your total calorie requirements – along with the more frequent smaller meals, this will help you figure out the total amount of food you should be consuming. This was a great help for me, to know that this is not a fad diet where you are will be hungry over half of the time.

Mike provides meal plans that are easy to shop for, easy to make and very satisfying. These meal plans provide you with more than enough food and you are unlikely to experience any hunger pains. However, you need to be disciplined with yourself and follow the recommended diet plans. One of the first things the book says is: “The nutrition section of this book is vitally important to your success. Let me state this loud and clear… if all you focus on is your training, and your diet is full of junk, you WILL NOT see results! You need to apply BOTH the training strategies as well as the nutrition strategies if you want to make this work.”

I hope that I’ve given you a better insight into the actual information behind all the hype. As you can see, there are no magic promises with this program, but rather a clearly laid out plan with plenty of information to support a fitness lifestyle change. If you truly commit yourself to making a change, having a guide with no-nonsense healthy advice is the best thing you can do to start on your path to physical change.