Review: Precision Nutrition versus Metabolism Advantage

Metabolism Advantage (MA) is a book by John Berardi, available in bookstores and libraries. Precision Nutrition (PN) is a more detailed, customizable package of a binder and a cookboook, as well as access to online forums and some mp3 files to support it, also put together by John Berardi. PN is very widely respected among the online fitness forums I visit, and lots of people get great results with it, so I of course had to find out the real deal. Here's what I found out.

Both programs are essentially the same, but MA is specifically targeted to fat loss, while PN talks about fat loss, lean mass building, cutting, etc, through the "individualization guide." I checked MA out of my local library, devoured it, and then decided I needed to have PN as well. I think that your money is better spent just buying the PN cookbooks (both 1.0 and 2.0) and not the whole package. The principles are the same in MA and in PN, and the "personalization" stuff that PN comes with is very brief. Basically, if you don't like the results you're getting, make a small tweak for two weeks and re-assess. I don't think that's worth the money for the whole PN binder, and the extras you get in the binder are really only a few pages of further elaboration and explanation of what you've already learned in MA. You can definitely do this without the extra printed material from PN.

Now, to be fair, I bought my PN used, so I didn't get access to the forums and the downloadable mp3 files, but I can't imagine that they would make the $83 price difference worth it. Maybe $20 more, but not $83...

I really like the cookbooks, though. That was definitely worth it for me. The binder, not so much. I read through it once, and I'll probably never crack it open again.

So my recommendation, if you're interested in PN, is to buy MA for $17 and try it out. If you like the recipies and need more, I recommend the hardcopy of the Gourmet Nutrition 2.0 for $50 (which not included in PN's price of $100) anyway), and then, if you like the recipes and need more, then buy the ebook version of Gourmet Nutrition 1.0.