Amy (Baylor Nutrition Science Student): I just finished my fall semester at Baylor University, where we had a project to evaluate pop-science diets. I thought it would be fun to evaluate a diet book that could be purchased for less than $3, so I picked up a copy of BodyRx by Scott Connelly. My professor didn’t like the idea at first, stating that I should evaluate a diet created by a published nutritionist or scientist, his opinion was that medical doctors receive very little training on nutrition. I argued that since this author was behind a popular supplement that this book would be a fair critique of the science that fuels the supplement industry. He relented and I spent 90 days following this diet to the letter.

I won’t rehash my entire paper, but here is a quick summary:
First of all, the book is very poorly written. I suspect this is one of the reasons why you have never heard of this book. The repetition of the phrase: “6-pack Prescription” is found on every page and is pathetically redundant.
The book is clearly a “Me-Too” attempt to respond to Bill Phillip’s much more successful “Body For Life” best seller. The book covers even look alike, but I have to admit that Phillips is much better looking and actually looks healthy.
In my opinion, this diet is very dangerous. In 90 days, my body fat % increased 3%! My cholesterol and triglycerides went up, same with my blood pressure and water retention. When I started this diet, I was a fit 125lbs 5’8” 20 year old woman. Now I’m weighing in at 135 and I’ve increased two dress sizes. My doctor was shocked and said that my kidneys were at risk. He felt that if I followed this diet for another 90 days that I’d have type 2 diabetes and kidney failure. I told him that this was the diet prescribed by Dr. Scott Connelly, the Met-Rx guy. My doctor said he’d heard a lot of negative things about this author and suggested that I do more research on him and abandon the diet immediately.
I was shocked about what I discovered in my background research. In my opinion, Scott Connelly is akin to a snake oil sales men. He has a psychology degree and was a practicing anesthesiologist. I could find no published research, studies or publications from this author that would justify him calling himself a scientist, nutritionist or expert. He wrote this book when he was sued by the FTC for fraudulently calling himself a nutritionist, which is why this book appears that it was rushed to market. The FTC didn’t feel that this book qualified him as an expert so he ultimately settled with the FTC.
Dr. Scott Connelly has been sued countess times for fraud, was sued by the FTC for selling steroids to kids and is rumored to have spiked early Met-Rx with Clenbuteral.
His Met-Rx product contained Aspartame, Hydrogenated Oil, and High Fructose Corn Syrup (along with gelatin and other questionable ingredients) - definitely not ingredients that you’d expect a “nutrition expert” to put in their products.
Connelly calls out other nutritionists and claims that so-called experts should be willing to debate him in their swimsuits. I did a Google image search and the recent pictures that I’ve seen of Connelly are huge red flags for anyone tempted to read this book and follow his diet. If this diet is responsible for his health, you should steer clear.

In summary, there are better diet books, by bonified scientists and nutritionists. This book is dangerous and should be avoided at all costs, because, frankly, it could kill you!