The Bodybuilder's Kitchen

My husband and I both lift weights 6x a week and I’ve only recently begun counting macros. I was looking for a cookbook to make it easier but was having a hard time finding one that had recipes/servings that were adequate for a 120 lb female in a cutting phase. A lot of the body building cookbooks had recipes that were 600-900 calories per meal. Maybe that’s great for a 200 lb guy but it’s way too many calories for me. Erin Sterns cookbook was exactly what I was looking for. All of the entree recipes are from around 160 calories to 300 and 20-35 grams of protein and there is a section of great sides that are pretty low calories. This works well for me to get my portions right and it allows me to easily double the recipes for my husband, if need be, who requires more protein and calories. She has each one clearly noted for it being low carb also, which is great for the cutting Phase. Most importantly, ALL of the recipes I’ve made so far have been absolutely delicious. I’ve made around 25 so far. They are seasoned perfectly and the ingredients are easy to find. It’s also budget friendly as there aren’t a ton of ingredients in each recipe. The almond crusted chicken and the ginger green beans have become one of our all time favorite meals. My kids will even eat it, which says a lot about how good it is! I make the almond crusted chicken in my air fryer and they cook up perfectly crusted. The bison and portobello sliders, ginger soy shrimp skewers, Tex mex fajitas, And Meatza have been ones we make often. The protein bars have also all been great and it’s awesome having a sweet treat that packs some protein when you have a sweet tooth. I use Sukrin Gold sugar substitute instead of the stevia that the recipes call for because I find the taste of it better and it has less of the sugar alternative after taste and often double the protein powder in the recipes, But even with those alterations, they still turn out great. This cookbook and Kendall Lou Schmidt’s the Ultimate Body Building Cookbook (which is similar to this one) have become my two favorite bodybuilding cookbooks and I highly recommend them.

Tired of eating rice cakes, peanut butter and egg whites to hit your weightlifting goals? Then this recipe book is for you. I am highly impressed by the structural breakdown of this book (calories, alternatives, strategic timing of carbs, etc.) in addition to the recipes. For those who are just getting into a healthy diet plan, you may find these recipes need to be “spiced” up or even a little bland compared to the high sodium, littered premise foods you use to make your meals. However, for anyone who is cutting for weight loss/definition, bulking for a show, or in need of a Keto-friendly menu, please refer to this book: the recipes are so clean and VERY simple to make. The most “unusual” ingredients you’ll use is protein whey powder and liquid aminos, which are found easily! Even my young kids enjoyed these meals. I used the lean menu for a week, and I could hardly eat everything per day because they were so filling. Plus, I immediately saw more definition by week’s end after eating right. Just be warned that if you follow a plan, you may have leftovers so you can duplicate the same meal the next day vs. making every single item: you could be cooking all day in that case (although the recipes are fast turnarounds). My only negative is that I followed the shopping list for the cutting program, but found as I made some recipes that the ingredients had not been listed. Therefore, a future edition may want to re-edit this aspect, and for customers: double-check the actual recipe. I was so impressed, I ended up buying her Train Like A Bodybuilder book, too. This book is equally awesome and very insightful with easily digestible information, as well as exercises.

I'm actually excited to start making some of the dishes On this book. Figuring out healthy ways to education muscle us important to me at this stage in my life.

I love the quality and simple organization of the book. The recipes are easy to make, healthy, and don't require too many ingredients. They also make it very easy to check your macros. I won't even buy a cookbook that doesn't list basic nutrition facts, has a bunch of obscure ingredients, or calls for ingredients that require you to make other recipes just to make the current recipe. In this regard, this book doesn't disappoint.The author even creates week by week meal plans for specific goals (ie cutting, bulking, keto, cycling, etc). However, this is where the book falls short. Like many meal plan and workout plan, this one seems to have not been tested out sufficiently. My two biggest complaints are in this category.1) For each plan there will be a seemingly comprehensive shopping list (a great feature to have imo). There is even a section on the shopping list for additional ingredients/staples (ie coconut oil, cocoa powder, whey protein, etc). So you go out and make sure you have everything on the shopping list and start making your recipes only to find out that you need cinnamon, pepper flakes, aminos, fresh scallions, coconut flour, syrup, baking powder, fresh sage, smoked salmon,, puffed rice cereal, strawberries, chia seeds, coffee cheddar, milk, tons of spices, etc. The list goes on and on. Virtually EVERY recipe you go to make will have ingredients that were missing from your shopping list. Sometimes the items will even be wrong (get unflavored almond milk but recipe calls for vanilla almond milk). Which makes me think nobody actually tried the plans out before publishing. Which brings me to my next point...2) The recipes are usually too large for one person or one serving. Every meal/snack will be different every day of the week, which is fine, but some recipes make 1 serving, while others make 4. It would be one thing if you were meal prepping and using those other 3 servings for another day in the plan, but that is not the case if you are following it. So unless you are cooking for a household of 4 bodybuilders, there will be a lot of leftovers of things that don't last well in the fridge. Just another thing that make me think the editing/testing was passed over. Yes, you can make your own and do all the math, but why include that feature if it's not practical?Also, it would be nice on the meal plans to have page numbers for the recipes.All in all though, as far as a cookbooks goes, this is one of the best for bodybuilding. There are a lot of options here for whatever macro ratio you are looking for. The recipes are terrific, simple, healthy, and the science is mostly correct, and it gets people started somewhere. Sometimes they don't at all if you follow directions to a t (see photo). Just beware if you were getting this for the easy plans/lists to follow feature. I'd still recommend this. Just wish authors of fitness books would do a better job at testing out their plans before sending off to the publishers. I'm interested in the author's upcoming workout book, but after seeing how the planning portions in this one doesn't seem to be carefully edited, I am a bit weary.