I received an ARC from HCI Books, this review is my opinion.

All do, this book has a lot of useful information. In my opinion, it has too much information and it is hard to digest all of it and I must say how to put it in on practice?. However, I believe this book could a great choice for people who wants to lose weight and follow the fueling plate program that Dra Maharam describes through his book.

"Food is your fuel". In my practice as a pediatric nurse practitioner, I say this often to my young patients who don't like to eat breakfast. I use the analogy of starting your car without any gas. They usually roll their eyes at me. Dr Maharam uses the same analogy in his book, so who's the crazy one here? He takes it a little farther than I do and breaks that fuel down into carbs, proteins, and fats, and introduces his plan for healthy eating called Fueling Plates.

Fueling Plates might remind you of the USDA's My Plate Program, which divides plates in portions of what should be part of a healthy diet. But as opposed to calculating calories and fat grams, Maharam's Fueling Plates has you divide your food into quadrants without needing to calculate a thing. Fueling Plates can and should be adjusted, depending on your training needs. He walks the reader through that process as well.

Maharam has a good grasp of nutrition and he explains it in a way that is easy to understand. The majority of the book is devoted to discussing sports nutrition. Besides discussing the big 3 components of nutrition, he talks a lot about hydration, particularly overhydration. There is a large chapter devoted to supplements--which ones to take and which to avoid. And by the way, he is not a fan of GU and other gels, which he states should only be used just once during an event to give you an extra push. He states that if you follow his Fueling Plates plan, using the Training Plate, you will have enough stored energy to fuel you through a long distance event. This does not include the prerace past dinner, which he abhors--unless you add some protein.

Overall, I found his book to be full of solid nutritional advice. It is clear that Maharam has a good understanding of the nutritional needs of endurance athletes, which is refreshing. The book is an easy, quick read that you can go back to for reference. I didn't find anything earthshattering, which is a good thing, especially when we live in a time of fad diets (keto anyone?) and sports nutritional fueling products. Maharam's plan is all about eating real foods in appropriate portion sizes.

On the other hand, I struggled a bit with dividing the food via the Fueling Plates that he proposes in the book. While I think attention to dividing up your calories to meet your fueling needs, the very idea of sitting down to a meal, dividing up my food on my plate into 4 prescribed categories (fat, protein, slow-acting carbs, and fast acting carbs) seems a little over the top to me. Maharam says that "chefs hate him" because he will deconstruct a beautifully presented meal into the 4 categories on his plate.

Hey, whatever works, right?

Maharam recommends that you weigh yourself every day. This is to monitor your weight as you adjust to the Fueling Plates program. He talks a lot about eating to fullness and then to 80% fullness; the daily weight is a way to make sure you are paying attention to your body's signals. But Maharam also recommends that you weigh yourself every day for the rest of your life. I don't necessarily agree with that-daily fluctuations can mess with some people, which can lead to disordered eating.

At the very end of the book, Maharam spell out how his Fueling Plates can work for everybody. There's even a chapter for women where he addresses pregnancy, menstruation, and disordered eating. He does not discussion nutrition for the post-menopausal woman, which as I've shared in this space before, is quite a challenge. There are still a few of us old ladies out there running who could benefit from some guidance!

Aside from those minor quibbles, I found this to be a solid sports nutrition guide. While I won't be dividing my food into portions, after reading this book, I will definitely be paying attention to the amount of fat, protein, and carbs in my foods. I can say that the Running Doc's Guide to Healthy Eating gave me a lot of food for thought.

I found some of the information and advice really useful. For those interested in nutrition it is an interesting read. However, I found the layout a little hectic but this may be due to the way it is laid out digitally and a paper copy of the book I imagine would be a lot better and easy to follow.
Thank you to netgalley, the author and publisher for the opportunity to read this book.

This had a bunch of information, but the way it was presented was a bit confusing. Not a fan.

Thanks to author, publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book. While I got the book for free, it had no bearing on the rating I gave it.