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The Renaissance Diet
Are you confused about how to eat to maximize your performance?
Is your current diet helping you achieve the physique you want?
The expert team of PhDs from Renaissance Periodization has created a guide to help effectively answer your nutrition questions with scientifically sound principles.
Dr. Mike Israetel, PhD in Sport Physiology and professor of Exercise Science at the University of Central Missouri, handles the nutrition of top athletes in strength and physique sports and created The Renaissance Diet to help you perform better and get the body that you want.
Along with Dr. Mike’s expertise, Dr. Jennifer Case and Dr. James Hoffmann lend their expertise to create a comprehensive guide on how much to eat, what to eat and when to eat it, to maximize your performance and have a physique to match your strength.
The Renaissance Diet will help you…
-Understand how many calories you need to eat to maximize performance and burn fat.
-Correctly balance your macronutrient intake for your training and physique goals.
-Time your meals to get the most out of your nutrition.
-Select optimal foods to fuel performance.
-Understand which supplements actually work and why.
-Improve your health with proper micronutrient intake and hydration.
-Periodize your diet for long term effectiveness.
-Dispel common diet myths and fads
-Improve your training with the included ‘Trinity Powerlifting Templates’
-Understand your nutritional priorities from Dr. Mike's hour long video presentation from Juggernaut's Become Unstoppable Seminar 3
With so much information and misinformation available now about nutrition, you need sources you can trust. The authors of The Renaissance Diet combine scientific expertise with practical knowledge.
Dr. Israetel, Dr. Case and Dr. Hoffman not only have PhDs and are actively serving as professors and researchers, they are also high level competitors and coaches in powerlifting, bodybuilding, rugby, and combat sports. This combination of scientific knowledge and practical experience is the best in helping you achieve your goals.
The Renaissance Diet: A Scientific Approach to Getting Leaner and Building Muscle is your ultimate guide to learning how to more effectively and efficiently fuel your body for improved performance and a better physique. Let these experts take the guesswork out of your nutrition and starting reaching your goals now.
Is your current diet helping you achieve the physique you want?
The expert team of PhDs from Renaissance Periodization has created a guide to help effectively answer your nutrition questions with scientifically sound principles.
Dr. Mike Israetel, PhD in Sport Physiology and professor of Exercise Science at the University of Central Missouri, handles the nutrition of top athletes in strength and physique sports and created The Renaissance Diet to help you perform better and get the body that you want.
Along with Dr. Mike’s expertise, Dr. Jennifer Case and Dr. James Hoffmann lend their expertise to create a comprehensive guide on how much to eat, what to eat and when to eat it, to maximize your performance and have a physique to match your strength.
The Renaissance Diet will help you…
-Understand how many calories you need to eat to maximize performance and burn fat.
-Correctly balance your macronutrient intake for your training and physique goals.
-Time your meals to get the most out of your nutrition.
-Select optimal foods to fuel performance.
-Understand which supplements actually work and why.
-Improve your health with proper micronutrient intake and hydration.
-Periodize your diet for long term effectiveness.
-Dispel common diet myths and fads
-Improve your training with the included ‘Trinity Powerlifting Templates’
-Understand your nutritional priorities from Dr. Mike's hour long video presentation from Juggernaut's Become Unstoppable Seminar 3
With so much information and misinformation available now about nutrition, you need sources you can trust. The authors of The Renaissance Diet combine scientific expertise with practical knowledge.
Dr. Israetel, Dr. Case and Dr. Hoffman not only have PhDs and are actively serving as professors and researchers, they are also high level competitors and coaches in powerlifting, bodybuilding, rugby, and combat sports. This combination of scientific knowledge and practical experience is the best in helping you achieve your goals.
The Renaissance Diet: A Scientific Approach to Getting Leaner and Building Muscle is your ultimate guide to learning how to more effectively and efficiently fuel your body for improved performance and a better physique. Let these experts take the guesswork out of your nutrition and starting reaching your goals now.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
December 16, 2014
With the plethora of diet books already cramming the cyber shelves of many a fitness enthusiast, one has to ask, what can this offering add to the already burgeoning collective debate? With a title suggesting revolutionary brilliance, idea revitalisation, (or alternatively the dietary habits of 15th century European artisans), the answer it would seem is, very little.
This book is written to cater for anyone with the goals of altering their body composition via scientific based dietary methodologies. The concepts are discussed by experts in their field of study and champions of their respective sports. The explanations can at times ride the line of being overly technical which may overwhelm the novice reader. On the other hand, for the avid lifter, most of the info can definitely be filed under the heading of “heard it all before”.
It seems to be a common marketing trend among fitness gurus at the moment to attack whatever is trending as a way to give a voice to the lone dissenter. Paleo, Low Carb diets, Intermittent fasting and avoiding processed foods all get their share of slam from the authors despite many people reporting life changing results from adopting these eating methods. Although the authors aren’t “technically wrong” in their claims, their arguments are way too nuanced for the average Joe, and the message serves mostly to obfuscate and create confusion in the minds of the already confused.
Most surprising was the support of some claims dismissed by many as “bro-science”. Terms such as “anabolic window” which have become a cliched joke among lifters, is given its rebirth. The authors are also supportive of the spaced feedings theory that drove many bodybuilders of years gone into murderous rages if they missed or were late for a meal.
Another annoying gimmick employed in the book is the use of client before and after pics embedded in the various chapters. There’s no explanation or details surrounding the methods used or how the pics relate to the discussion. It’s advertising filler that I could really have done without.
In summary, the Renaissance diet is less “renaissance” and more a “re-hash” of information that can be found with a 2 second Google search. Yes, it’s nice to have an orderly compiled book with hyperlinks etc, but there’s many sites giving away similar pamphlets for free as part of their marketing material. The asking price for this book ($27) is fucking obscene when you can buy something like “Bigger, Leaner, Stronger” by Michael Mathews for a fiver. It’s a solid read as far as information goes and a novice/intermediate would be served well with the information contained within, but in this already glutted dietary book market, there’s better reads out their costing much, much less.
This book is written to cater for anyone with the goals of altering their body composition via scientific based dietary methodologies. The concepts are discussed by experts in their field of study and champions of their respective sports. The explanations can at times ride the line of being overly technical which may overwhelm the novice reader. On the other hand, for the avid lifter, most of the info can definitely be filed under the heading of “heard it all before”.
It seems to be a common marketing trend among fitness gurus at the moment to attack whatever is trending as a way to give a voice to the lone dissenter. Paleo, Low Carb diets, Intermittent fasting and avoiding processed foods all get their share of slam from the authors despite many people reporting life changing results from adopting these eating methods. Although the authors aren’t “technically wrong” in their claims, their arguments are way too nuanced for the average Joe, and the message serves mostly to obfuscate and create confusion in the minds of the already confused.
Most surprising was the support of some claims dismissed by many as “bro-science”. Terms such as “anabolic window” which have become a cliched joke among lifters, is given its rebirth. The authors are also supportive of the spaced feedings theory that drove many bodybuilders of years gone into murderous rages if they missed or were late for a meal.
Another annoying gimmick employed in the book is the use of client before and after pics embedded in the various chapters. There’s no explanation or details surrounding the methods used or how the pics relate to the discussion. It’s advertising filler that I could really have done without.
In summary, the Renaissance diet is less “renaissance” and more a “re-hash” of information that can be found with a 2 second Google search. Yes, it’s nice to have an orderly compiled book with hyperlinks etc, but there’s many sites giving away similar pamphlets for free as part of their marketing material. The asking price for this book ($27) is fucking obscene when you can buy something like “Bigger, Leaner, Stronger” by Michael Mathews for a fiver. It’s a solid read as far as information goes and a novice/intermediate would be served well with the information contained within, but in this already glutted dietary book market, there’s better reads out their costing much, much less.
January 6, 2016
I started following Mike and RP Strength because of their work with Juggernaut and the well-rounded, experienced staff on-hand. Despite their accolades, I actually disagreed with a good part of the things I'd read/hear Mike say in public. It wasn't that it just didn't jive with my own beliefs, but it was contradictory to many others who were just as, if not more, established and renown in the field.
However, the testimonials and before/afters spoke for themselves. Since I'm wanting to get into competition (Strongman) this year, I thought I'd see what they had to offer that might give me a bit of an edge with my diet and picked up The Renaissance Diet. While it was an easy read, there was nothing groundbreaking here: IIFYM + CBL + LeanGains.
"Science" says the weekly caloric balance trumps the day-to-day, so I never tried calorie cycling. It seemed like too much work/confusion, especially if I could get the same results by creating a standard deficit and sticking to it daily. However, as I said, I'm looking for the next step in my preparation for Strongman, so I'm willing to give it a try. Here goes...
I'll give it 4 stars, rather than 3, because of the way it laid out macro partitioning and glycemic timing. I'd like to bump it back to 3.5, since the intensity descriptions of the workouts (moderate vs hard) left a bit to be desired (I'm just going with 'moderate', despite most of my workouts being PE8+s, because of the rep/set scheme they tried to categorize with).
However, the testimonials and before/afters spoke for themselves. Since I'm wanting to get into competition (Strongman) this year, I thought I'd see what they had to offer that might give me a bit of an edge with my diet and picked up The Renaissance Diet. While it was an easy read, there was nothing groundbreaking here: IIFYM + CBL + LeanGains.
"Science" says the weekly caloric balance trumps the day-to-day, so I never tried calorie cycling. It seemed like too much work/confusion, especially if I could get the same results by creating a standard deficit and sticking to it daily. However, as I said, I'm looking for the next step in my preparation for Strongman, so I'm willing to give it a try. Here goes...
I'll give it 4 stars, rather than 3, because of the way it laid out macro partitioning and glycemic timing. I'd like to bump it back to 3.5, since the intensity descriptions of the workouts (moderate vs hard) left a bit to be desired (I'm just going with 'moderate', despite most of my workouts being PE8+s, because of the rep/set scheme they tried to categorize with).
January 7, 2019
A comprehensive view of diet requirements, varying by size, gender, and activity, this book provides an excellent overview of how to modulate calories and macros to hit weight gain or weight loss goals. Also covered are nutrient timing, special considerations for lifestyle, and review of common cultural diet conceptions.
This book is more a manual than easy read, and is best used in conjunction with a spreadsheet.
This book is more a manual than easy read, and is best used in conjunction with a spreadsheet.
May 4, 2015
One of the better books on food and fitness I've read in a long time. It takes a great deal of what are currently considered to be valid nutritional truths then adds detail and new information and groups everything to suit whatever your own personal fitness goal may be.
May 26, 2015
Πολυ ωραία και ισορροπημένη άποψη για διάφορες διχοτομίες στο θέμα της προπονητικής διατροφής. Ήμουν μεταξυ 4 ή 5 αστεριών, αλλά επειδή είδα να του δίνουν μικρή βαθμολογία άτομα τα οποία προφανώς δεν κατάλαβαν τι διάβαζαν, δίνω 5 καθώς YOLO
September 2, 2023
I've spent countless hours reading about nutrition and lifting in the past couple of years but there's always something new to learn. This book though, is a one-stop shop for all-things-nutrition when it comes to lifting, not just general health unlike some of my earlier readings. The primary focus of this book, though, is making use of periodization to optimally alter your body composition whether that's by being on an iso, hyper, or hypocaloric diet.
The book starts off by mentioning the various factors that affect one's diet and the results one is aiming for. I then assign weights to each of these factors and explain each and every one of them. We then move on to diet design where calories are assigned to macros and meal timings are discussed. All these are further explained in the light of a fat-loss, maintenance, or weight-gain phase. This is the part I especially liked. I've been running fat-loss and weight-gain phases for far longer than ideal and to have explained to me why this is not optimal was an "aha" moment. I immediately started to incorporate certain changes into my current goals and diet.
Lastly, there are talks—more like debunking sessions—on the now-common diets and myths around diets. This is mostly common info but there was also quite a bit of conflicting information for instance, the discussion on intermittent fasting in the book goes directly against what has been presented by the likes of Andrew Huberman and Satchin Panda respectively. But given the complexity of human physiology, I think it's always better to gain insights and then arrive at the solution that works best for one by trial and error. It's a really good book if you're interested in nutrition and lifting.
The book starts off by mentioning the various factors that affect one's diet and the results one is aiming for. I then assign weights to each of these factors and explain each and every one of them. We then move on to diet design where calories are assigned to macros and meal timings are discussed. All these are further explained in the light of a fat-loss, maintenance, or weight-gain phase. This is the part I especially liked. I've been running fat-loss and weight-gain phases for far longer than ideal and to have explained to me why this is not optimal was an "aha" moment. I immediately started to incorporate certain changes into my current goals and diet.
Lastly, there are talks—more like debunking sessions—on the now-common diets and myths around diets. This is mostly common info but there was also quite a bit of conflicting information for instance, the discussion on intermittent fasting in the book goes directly against what has been presented by the likes of Andrew Huberman and Satchin Panda respectively. But given the complexity of human physiology, I think it's always better to gain insights and then arrive at the solution that works best for one by trial and error. It's a really good book if you're interested in nutrition and lifting.
October 10, 2018
This book is a scientific justification and description of a nutritional practice to efficiently control body composition (i.e., muscle gain and/or fat loss). It makes sense and is similar but sufficiently different from the keto-based way of eating that has been so successful for me that I may try some of it. Worth wading through.
July 16, 2019
One book with concise and data driven tools to help you understand how nutrition affects your body, different aspects of nutrition sciences and how to mold them to keep a healthy lifestyle and not get side tracked from your daily routine.
One of the best books I've ever read for nutrition science.
One of the best books I've ever read for nutrition science.
February 2, 2019
One of the best dieting books there is. Clear, concise, and evidence-based. Hard to ask for more.
July 8, 2019
Straight forward, accurate, no nonsense nutrition guide for performance and aesthetics (not health focused). Been following the Renaissance folks for a while, they know their stuff
December 20, 2019
Comprehensive and easy to follow. A great choice for anyone interested in making their health better and/or eager to learn more about nutrition.
January 22, 2019
Hm, I read most of the book, while skimming on sections that weren't too relevant to me.
While there's a lot of great information, and the writing is relatively matter of fact, which I appreciate, I have to say that I feel like there are some problems here. Some claims, conclusions, or opinions seem premature, if not just wrong. I really wish some references were made inline.
This review probably makes it seem worse than it is. It really does seem to contain a great review of nutrition, and at the very least will serve as a comprehensive understanding of the topic and point you in the right direction if you want to know more.
While there's a lot of great information, and the writing is relatively matter of fact, which I appreciate, I have to say that I feel like there are some problems here. Some claims, conclusions, or opinions seem premature, if not just wrong. I really wish some references were made inline.
This review probably makes it seem worse than it is. It really does seem to contain a great review of nutrition, and at the very least will serve as a comprehensive understanding of the topic and point you in the right direction if you want to know more.
February 4, 2017
Great book focused on eating with a certain focus on performance. It's basically about meal timing and carb-cycling, but it essentially teaches you to create your own meal plan to gain/lose/maintain weight without sacrificing strength and performance.
If anything, the writing is a bit poor, though mostly straight-to-the-point. I feels like some blog posts or articles organized into a book. Also, the before/after photos spread through the book make it look a bit cringey, but the information is good.
If anything, the writing is a bit poor, though mostly straight-to-the-point. I feels like some blog posts or articles organized into a book. Also, the before/after photos spread through the book make it look a bit cringey, but the information is good.
April 8, 2015
Generally a very solid resource on how to setup your diet, some of the facts inside shouldn't be taken for granted since there's always new research coming out on the topic. Still I believe this is one of the best diet books out there for athletes.
January 5, 2016
Great info
January 22, 2019
Learned some interesting stuff, but don't necessarily agree with everything stated. But that's okay, even the book says skepticism is a smart thing to have in the fitness industry :P
September 21, 2019
A simple framework supplemented by adequate depth. Very well written.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews