Key Takeaways
- The book has the overarching goal of helping you lose weight.
- Its main POA for weight loss is a low glycemic diet with meal replacements.
- The diet consists of a 6-week cycle, which dieters can then repeat.
“6 Weeks, 4 Inches, 2 Sizes” – A promise boldly stated on the cover of the Shred: The Revolutionary Diet by Ian K. Smith.
The book might get mediocre reviews on all the leading review sites, but is it really any good? Well, we went ahead and did a deep dive into the Revolutionary Diet and its ways of dieting to determine if it’s even healthy.
About the Author – Ian K. Smith
Ian K. Smith (born July 15, 1969) is an American physician who’s known for hosting The Doctors (2008 – 2022). He’s also made multiple appearances on other shows like the Celebrity Fit Club series and The View.
He received his Bachelor of Arts from Harvard College in 1992 and his Masters in Science Education from Columbia University in 1993. He also completed two years of medical education and graduated from the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine.
Ian K. Smith is also a renowned author, publishing books like:
- The Fat Smash Diet
- Happy
- The Truth About Men
- Super Shred: The Big Results Diet
- The Shred Diet Cookbook
- The Shred Power Cleanse
Is the Book Any Good?
It depends.
Overall, Shred: The Revolutionary Diet has the philosophy of “diet confusion,” which is supposed to ‘confuse’ your body into using fats rather than carbs. Your metabolism is revved up, and you turn into a fat-burning machine (apparently).
As mentioned, the book follows a 6-week plan, each with its own progression and idea.
Week 1: Prime
The first week isn’t too intimidating. You’ll start to slowly introduce the idea of reducing calories while also eating every few hours. You’re also encouraged to exercise a few times a week for 35 – 40 minutes.
Other ideas introduced include:
Is This Phase Good Advice?
For the most part, sure.
The problem is simply that we’re not all the same, seeing as your calorie intake needs are different from mine. So it might be hard for some to immediately jump into week one.
What doesn’t seem to make sense is the idea that you aren’t allowed to eat 90 minutes before going to bed. This myth is based on the idea that food will turn into fat if you don’t use it immediately.
Unfortunately, at least for those conspiracy theorists, food takes a long time to digest. Secondly, foods will be stored as fat if your glycogen stores are filled, not based on what time of the day it is. If you fill your car in the AM or PM, they both add fuel to your car.
The only thing that might actually be bad to consume before bed would be something extremely high in sugar.
Week 2: Challenge
Week 2 — or the Challenge week — is a slight elevation of the week prior. Not much, but it’ll certainly help you lose weight. This is the way all weight loss works: you eat less and less as time goes on, and this program is no different.
Other ideas introduced include:
- Maintaining that high protein intake
- Using fewer meals during the day
- An increase in your calorie deficit
Is This Good Advice?
For the most part, sure.
This follows the idea of progressively increasing your deficit. However, my only quarrel with this week is that the progression happens so fast.
Typical weight loss takes weeks and weeks, and you usually only adjust your calories when needed. The idea of weight loss is supposed to be ‘as much as necessary but as little as possible.’ The problem with the approach the book uses is that you don’t stop losing weight after one week.
You can continue to lose weight using the same calories for MONTHS before adjustment is needed. Overall, it will work, sure, but it’s the same as racing to the next traffic light only to be stuck at a red…
And once again, you still aren’t allowed to eat within 90 minutes of going to bed.
Week 3: Transformation
Week three jumps off by lowering the number of meals you’re eating but increasing the number of snacks you have. It’s a fun little way to get you to eat less.
Some days also have more calories than others, another interesting trick used by the entire industry but given a sexier name here. It’s commonly done in this industry, but it doesn’t make his method more special.
Other ideas introduced include:
- Maintaining that high protein intake
- An increase in your calorie deficit
It’s also interesting to see that the training doesn’t really change all that much. There’s a key focus on meal spacing and following the meal plan to lose weight, but there isn’t much info on training.
Is This Good Advice?
Good? No. Sound? It’s okay, I guess.
It’s not life-changing, and I do believe there are better ways of losing weight. However, this is effective enough that you’ll lose weight.
Week 4: Ascend
Despite the fancy name and food choices that are supposed to ‘elevate you,’ it’s just a normal diet week. There isn’t anything amazing about this other than fewer calories and the regular weight loss strategy.
Calories are down, meals are smaller, and you use more low-calorie foods. This is the 101 of dieting and shouldn’t be seen as anything else.
Week 5: Cleanse
This week is supposed to enhance your liver’s ability to detoxify your blood. Firstly, if your liver needed help, you would need help. You don’t need to detoxify your liver at any point unless a doctor determines it’s needed because you’re ill.
Don’t fall for internet (or book) scams.
Week 6: Explode
(Honestly, I usually mix cleanses with exploding due to all the fiber…)
The bathroom at work after you flush and then immediately evacuate because you’re three days into your “cleanse” and couldn’t clench any longer:
At this point, a few extra tips are given to help you make fitness more sustainable and a part of your life. This is an excellent feature. However, it should have come much earlier and well before someone pushed their body to the extremes of this diet.
At this point, some people have given up. Some people have developed eating habits that aren’t healthy. Some have come to the conclusion weight loss is too hard and just not for them.
For that reason, I believe the structure of the book really needs adjustment.
Conclusion
I give this a soft 2 out of 5.
Look, Shred: The Revolutionary Diet is well-structured, it’s legible, it’s engaging, and I can imagine to someone who doesn’t know a whole lot about fitness that it’d be life-changing.
There are, however, a couple of problems:
- Meal spacing or timing ain’t doing jack: There’s no evidence that meal spacing or timing makes a difference when it comes to fat loss. What matters most is purely calorie intake. It seems like the book doesn’t really want to acknowledge that.
- It’s too much too soon: There’s no need to push people to these extremes so early in their journey. You should only lower calories when needed, and this plan lowers it regardless of your progress! What’s more, if you’re someone who has a pretty high appetite, you’ll struggle even more.
- False ideas: There are some gems in this plan, sure. High fiber and protein diet, cool. Exercise, great. Eat veggies and low-calorie foods, excellent. Detox your liver? What? At various points in the book, did I sit back and think, ‘Well, that’s not true.’ And the problem is there are so many followers of these ‘revolutionary ideas’ online that you’ll be butchered if you say it doesn’t work.
- Not sustainable: Personally, I believe that if you have even remotely hard work or if you have an actual appetite, this won’t work for you. It’s just too hard.
Personally, I think you can do a lot better than this. There are better (free) online guides on how to lose weight — quickly. This plan will help you lose weight, surely, but it won’t help you lose as much fat as you think. People claimed to have lost inches with this plan, but I’m not so sure.
Is it all bad? No.
He advises you to train and use weights from your second cycle onwards, and he also helps you eat slightly more healthily. It’s just not worth the money, I think. I can get all this info from this very website.
For f*cking free.
Rating: 2.0 out of 5.0