“I didn’t choose the flex life; the flex life chose me!” — well, it was a recommendation, anyway. As such, I didn’t have astronomically high expectations for it, and largely it to be rather like so many books of its genre: a lot of fluff and a couple of useful ideas. I figured that’d be ok though; if I get something of value, I’m happy. In this instance, the book seriously overdelivered.
Flex, which is much bigger than most books I’ve encountered in this genre, by the way, sets itself apart from most also in that citation references appear throughout the text while usually unsubstantiated exclamation marks are the norm (ie, often unfounded but very bold claims). Instead, not only do we have a book that’s well-referenced, but the references are worthwhile too; mostly from peer-reviewed journals. All too often, writers in this and related fields do reference their work (albeit, usually much more sparsely than this), and then upon checking the bibliography, it turns out that the majority of the references are from sources that are questionable at best (personal blogs, established “woo” sites, quasi-scam marketing companies, and so forth). Not so here, so that was a huge plus.
Equally refreshing was the recurring theme of pragmatism and realism; going with what is psychologically optimal rather than what is technically optimal, to include physiological aspects of willpower, postponement of things one should avoid, “out of sight, out of mind” issues, and advice on how to keep on top of things even if (like the author and, I must admit it, myself), one is naturally inclined towards drinking too much, and doesn’t seem likely to change on that front.
For number-crunchers, there were also a lot of tables of figures to optimize various aspects of diet and exercise, down to even tweaking for maximum protein utilization and balancing the “fat loss vs muscle gain” aspects that trip many (commonly, trying to do both and succeeding and neither; this book suggests a methodology for keeping both in order—again, pretty close to optimally, by the numbers).
If I were to find criticism of this book, it’d be minor points indeed. For instance, a section on sugars lists sucralose in a table as nutritionally comparable to sucrose, despite it being followed by a section on the marvels of dietary fibres (sucralose is indeed a sugar that would be nutritionally comparable to sucrose, if it weren’t for the fact the body doesn’t metabolise it and instead processes it as a dietary fibre, hence its popularity as a practically zero-calorie sweetener). But such tiny aberrations are few and far between and do not detract from what is on the whole an incredibly valuable book.
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Top reviews from other countries
Oliver Turner
Best health and fitness book I have read in 14 years of keeping fit!
Reviewed in Canada on January 2, 2018
Qwerty3
Great, informative, transformational
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 3, 2019
Helen
Flexible approach dieting that works!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 3, 2019Gabbie
How Flex Life ACTUALLY transformed my life
Reviewed in Canada on February 21, 2018