Tom Venuto is a natural bodybuilder, fat loss expert, freelance writer and best-selling author.

Since 1989, Venuto has been involved in virtually every aspect of the fitness and weight loss industry - as a personal trainer, nutrition consultant, motivation coach, fitness model, health club manager and author / writer.

Tom is a freelance fitness writer whose popular articles on nutrition, training, fat loss and fitness motivation can be found on hundreds of websites worldwide including Bodybuilding.com, About.com, Lee Labrada's Lean Body Coaching Club, Christian Finn's Facts About Fitness.com, Will Brink's Bodybuilding Revealed.com and too many others to list.

Tom has been featured in bodybuilding and fitness magazines including IRONMAN magazine (US, Italian and Australian editions), Natural Bodybuilding, Muscular Development, Exercise for Men, Men`s Exercise and Men's Fitness.

Tom has appeared in the mainstream press including Oprah magazine, First for Women magazine, Experience Life magazine, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times. He has also been a guest on dozens of radio shows including Martha Stewart healthy living (Sirius), WCBS-AM, 1250-ESPN and BlogTalk Radio.

"Offering the opposite of a quick fix, Venuto is honest about the effort it takes to drop a significant number of pounds." - Polly Brewster, Oprah Magazine.

Tom holds a bachelor of science degree in Adult Health/Fitness (Exercise Science) from Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania and was recently honored to appear in the University's Alumni magazine honoring his writing and publishing achievements. He is a member of the International Society for Sports Nutrition (ISSN), the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), the National Strength And Conditioning Association (NSCA) and all of the weight loss research societies.

Venuto is a competitive bodybuilder and has competed 28 times. His titles include the Mr. Natural New Jersey, Natural Pennsylvania, Natural New York State, Natural Mid Atlantic States and NPC Natural Eastern Classic championships. Tom has also won 2nd place in the Mr. Natural USA and 2nd in the Mr. Natural North America contests sponsored by the ANPPC. (Click here to see Tom's contest history

Tom is the founder and CEO of The Burn The Fat Inner Circle and author of the best-selling e-book, Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle.

Tom Lives in Hoboken, New Jersey (near New York City). He trains at Strong & Shapely Gym in East Rutherford New Jersey and at Club KO in Hoboken, NJ.

A: Thanks for your questions! I`ve answered each one of them below.

An Information-Packed, Full-Length Book, in E-Book Format

Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle is an information-packed book. Many readers call it their "fat loss bible." A lot of e-books these days cost upwards of $47 or even $77 and they contain only about 50-70 pages. Not Burn The Fat. Burn The Fat is a real full-length book, in digital format.

If you like to know WHY you`re doing something instead of just being told WHAT to do, you%u2019ll appreciate the detail in the 300 pages.

If you like to have structure, if you enjoy planning and are you`re detail-oriented, then Burn The Fat is ideal for you (accountants, engineers, math buffs and other analytical types will LOVE the Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle program).

The entire e-book is text, with the exception of the appendix, which contains charts for calorie and nutritional content of recommended foods, protein, fat and carbohydrate tables, sample menus and a progress chart.

You'll Learn Exactly Which Foods Are Best For Burning Fat

In the book, you`ll find lists of the exact foods you should eat and which foods to avoid. (The bonus reports, Foods That Burn Fat, Foods That Turn to Fat, and 'The A Food, B Food Lecture' go into even greater detail about food choices).

There are no weird or unusual foods to eat in this program. It's basic, healthy, "clean eating." The meal plans consist of regular foods you can get at your local grocery store, natural foods store or farmer's market, and the variety is virtually endless - it's a very flexible program when it comes to food choices.

No supplements, drinks or shake mixes are required (although you may use meal replacement shakes or protein for convenience if you choose). You don't have to eat anything you don't like, but you DO have to eat healthy, natural foods most of the time (some free meals are allowed, so no foods are completely forbidden!)

NOT a Traditional Diet Book or Recipe Book

In Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle, you will learn EXACTLY what to eat to lose fat and build muscle. However, This not a recipe book or cookbook. It's also not a traditional diet book.

The typical diet book you get at the bookstores these days is about 1/3 - 1/2 information and 1/2 - 2/3 recipes. Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle is 100% information - no filler - just valuable content designed to give you an education and help you lose fat and get in shape fast!

Training Programs To Burn Fat And Build Lean Muscle

There's an entire chapter on cardiovascular training for fat loss, including the recommended types of exercise, plus the ideal frequency, intensity and duration for your workouts. The cardio training can include both traditional cardio as well as high intensity interval training (HIIT).

There are four complete weight training routines from beginner to advanced, including "aggressive" routines plus routines that require as little as two to three days per week for time-crunched people.

The two advanced programs are based on bodybuilding and fitness/figure model methods of training, which are designed to sculpt a beautiful, cosmetically-pleasing physique. The workouts will get you in shape, but they are not for conditioning or sports training per se (these workouts are designed to make you look good naked!)

You do NOT have to join a gym to follow this program, although some very basic weight training equipment - at least a set of dumbbells, barbells and free weights - is required to get maximum benefit. As you become more advanced, you may want to join a gym or add some additional equipment to your home gym set up.

Optional: Follow Your Own Workout And Use The Burn The Fat Nutrition Program

NOTE: I've found that many people already have a favorite workout, but they are lost when it comes to nutrition. Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle is so flexible in its 4-element structure (mental training, cardio training, weight training and nutrition), that you can pick and choose which elements you want to use.

For example, you can follow your own favorite training program and simply use the Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle nutrition program. Burn The Fat nutrition works with any training routine.

Not a Picture Book

Some books were designed to be photographic guides to exercise routines, and for many people, that type of picture book can be invaluable. However, Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle is an information manual, not a picture book.

This program does assume that you already know the basic weight training movements such as how to curl a dumbbell, perform a lunge or do a bench press exercise. In the future, we may add an extra bonus report with photos demonstrating the basic exercises, for the benefit of our readers who are new to weight training.

World-Champion Motivation and Goal Setting Techniques Explained

No other diet, nutrition or fitness book goes into such detail about mental training techniques to end procrastination, increase motivation and help you stick with your program. These are the EXACT methods that Olympic and pro athletes use for peak performance.

In chapter one of Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle, you will learn dozens of easy, practical goal setting and motivation techniques that will not only inform you, but INSPIRE you to apply what you learn and develop habits you will stick with for life.

Remember, even if you already know what to do, you still need to get yourself to do it!

Q: How quickly can I expect to lose weight on your Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle program?  

A: Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle is a FAT LOSS program, not a weight loss program. That's not just a play on words, this is a very concept important to understand if you ever want to lose fat and keep it off permanently.

Losing weight too quickly is one of the biggest mistakes you could ever make because rapid weight loss slows down your metabolism and causes muscle loss. You may get instant gratification from quick weight loss programs, but inthe long run, you'll damage your metabolism and almost always gain back the weight (95% of the people who lose weight on conventional diets gain everything back!)  

On the BURN THE FAT program, you can expect to lose about 2 pounds per week of PURE FAT. (that's body FAT, not water weight or your own muscle tissue). How will you know it's PURE FAT? Simple - you'll be testing your body composition on a regular basis as you go through the program.

If you have a lot of weight to lose, for example if you weigh 250 to 300 lbs, then 1% of your total body weight per week (2.5 to 3.0 lbs) is safe and realistic because fat loss often tends to be relative to total body weight. This is steady, long term fat loss and doesn't count any water weight loss you may experience on top of this during the first week or two (which is very common, but remember, the initial water weight loss is not the same as body fat loss!)    

I'll teach you how to get your body fat percentage measured accurately and reliably. You'll even learn a simple method to quickly and easily test your own body fat at home with surprising accuracy if you don't have access to professional testing. 

Don't fall for the common diet scams that claim you can lose 30 pounds in 30 days or lose 10 pounds this weekend. Anything over two pounds per week (or 1% of total bodyweight, whichever is greater), is almost always water weight or your own lean musce tissue. 

Burn The Fat is NOT a fad diet or a fast weight loss diet. You will find no quick fixes in this program. It requires a lifestyle change, exercise, good nutrition and some patience. However, your rewards will be well worth it: You'll keep all your muscle, lose nothing but pure fat, and never gain back the fat back again!

If you're looking for crash weight loss, this is not the program for you. Go try all the others first if you must, but when you gain it all back, (and the odds are 19 to 1 against you that you will gain it back), then remember this one - Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle.    

Q: I'm not a bodybuilder, I'll never be one, and I don't want to get bulky - I only want to get really lean and see my "six pack" without adding any bulk. Will your program work for me? 

A: "Is this program just for bodybuilders?" I hear that question so often, that I am seriously considering changing my subtitle from "Fat Burning Secrets Of The World's Best Bodybuilders and Fitness Models" to: "What Every Man And Woman Can Learn From Bodybuilders About Permanent Weight Loss." That subtitle is much closer to what this manual is all about. 

BURN THE FAT, FEED THE MUSCLE was written by a bodybuilder (me, Tom Venuto), about the bodybuilder's method to fat loss. However, it's not just for bodybuilders. It doesn't matter whether you're a gym veteran getting ready for a bodybuilding or fitness contest, or you've never worked out a day in your life - this program was designed to allow anyone to understand and apply the same techniques that world class physique athletes use to literally get rid of every ounce of visible fat. 

Why would you want to learn about fat loss from a bodybuilder, and what's so great about the bodybuilder's way to fat loss? 

The answer is: Bodybuilding, fitness and figure competitors have mastered the art of steady fat loss, while maintaining their muscle. Conventional diets are focused on rapid weight loss at the expense of losing muscle, which slows down your metabolism. 

Psychologists and neuro-linguistic programming experts have proven that the fastest way to reach any goal is to "model" someone who has already achieved excellence doing what you want to do. You simply find the people who have already achieved what you want to achieve, find out how they did it and copy what they did. 

Who better to "model" than natural bodybuilders and fitness competitors? No athletes in the world get as lean as quickly as bodybuilders and fitness competitors. The transformations they undergo in 12 weeks prior to competition would boggle your mind! Only ultra-endurance athletes come close in terms of low body fat levels, but endurance athletes like triathaletes and marathoners get lean at the expense of chewing up all their muscle. Some of them are nothing but skin and bone. 

It's obvious that the bodybuilders must know something about getting lean that the rest of the world doesn't. So your strategy is really very simple - find out how the bodybuilders do it and copy what they do. That's what BURN THE FAT, FEED THE MUSCLE IS ALL ABOUT: The fat-burning secrets of the world's best bodybuilders and fitness models are revealed in this e-book, without anything held back. 

Some of these techniques are so effective, that you don't even need to use all of them. There are literally dozens of fat burning tactics in my program and even applying a single one could be the spark that ignites your fat burning furnace beyond anything you've imagined before. 

Not only is the bodybuilder's way to fat loss highly effective, capable of slashing your body fat well into the single digits (if that's what you want), it's also a healthy lifestyle. Diets don't work because they are temporary. This program teaches you nutrition habits that will get you lean which you can maintain for life.  

Bottom line: BURN THE FAT, FEED THE MUSCLE is an incredibly powerful fat burning system that will work for anyone, anytime, anywhere, for any goal. 

"Thanks for making it a mission to help people of all kinds and that you are not just for bodybuilders. I might also add I have gotten hooked on running again which is my primary cardio activity, in addition to swimming and biking, I am now training to try for a my first marathon a year from now at age 55. Thanks again for your wonderful book!"- Paull Thomas

"Tom, thank you for providing not only athletes and bodybuilders with the secrets to sustainable weight loss, muscle gain and healthy living, but those of us with medical issues with seemingly no where else to turn!" - Brian Harrington

A: That is not a silly question at all. In fact, there are a lot of programs today that use the words toning, shaping, or sculpting in order to appeal specifically to women, while others seem more geared towards men. That is great for marketing, but the truth is, there are actually very few differences in the way men and women should train and eat for fat loss.  

The biggest difference between the genders is in calorie needs. Women require fewer calories than men, and the BURN THE FAT program gives you the exact calculations you need to determine your perfect calorie intake for maximum fat loss while maintaining muscle. 

There is also a special section in the goal setting chapter specifically for women because women are often motivated by different goals than men and struggle with issues regarding self image. There are also sample menus specifically for women in the appendix. 

The training program was developed to work equally well for men and women and there is even a section that explains training for tone versus training for bulk. 

Keep in mind that with the tools you'll learn in this program, you will be 100% in control of how you want your body to look, so you never have to worry about looking bulky. 

You can literally choose any body you want: 

a) The body of a fitness or figure competitor

b) A lean and ripped body with six pack abs and nice muscle definition

c) A fit and lean body with nice shape, and enough definition so you can see your abs and look good in a bathing suit

d) Just look better than you do now.  

One last thing - after looking over my customer database, I noticed that almost half (about 45%) of the people now using the Burn The Fat program are women! (Also, if you scroll through the Success Stories pages you will see the impressive results that so many women have achieved using Burn The Fat principles.