[Pzychotix]

As much as your simplification sounds reasonable, if you dive down into the details, it falls apart.

Mark Rippetoe is a well respected strength coach in fitness circles. He may not be delivering Olympic-level athletes, but certainly good at delivering strength knowledge for the lay person.

"Ultra-high calorie diets" is a suggestion that needs to be taken in context. His focus is strength, not diet. Excess calories are required to gain muscle and strength, and for one of his target demographics, young skinny teens who lack muscle altogether, ultra-high calorie diets are exactly what they need. Obviously for heavily obese people this advice would not necessarily apply if their goals were to lose weight.

Regarding the supplement, don't judge things by the marketing fluff, but rather by what it actually does and its ingredients. DMAA is a well-known stimulant that does what a pre-workout supplement should do.