Why the BodyforLIFE program worksJohn P. Hussman, Ph.D., MSEd.

All contents copyright 2000. Personal copies and direct links to this site are encouraged.One of my 12-week goals is to write for Muscle MediaGrab a Myoplex - you're going to be here for a while...

Latest updates: May 12, 2000 (expanded comments on Phen-Free, protein, HMB, etc in "Supplements")June 2, 2000 (added information on fat loss and lowering your set point in the Q&A page)

June 4, 2000 (expanded the "tweaking" section with more EAS champion routines)Contents

The Basics Where Energy Comes From Workouts Supplements How Calories Work Tweaking the Program for Success You Really Do Change from the

Inside Out The Bottom Line Q&A Page and Guestbook

Thanks for signing my guestbook! Some recent comments...

Hi everyone! The goal of this page is to help you stick with the Body-for-LIFE program by taking you through the physiology of why the program works. If you study the academic research on exercise and supplementation, you'll be amazed at how deeply Bill Phillips' program is rooted in effective, tested principles. Speaking personally, the program integrated a lot of things I understood, but never could quite put into practice. So before I even started the program, I already knew it would work, and I think that's been a real advantage. I really believe that Bill did the right thing in keeping the Body-for-LIFE book simple and easy to understand. But I also know that a lot of you have "tried everything" (as I have), and because there are so many approaches that have failed you, there's a real risk that you'll quit this one if you don't see results immediately, or if you don't fully understand why it works. My hope is that this information will help you to stay on track and reach your goal. To use Bill's words, this is one of my ways of "creating value for others". And frankly, it seemed like a good way to thank Bill for my own results, and help him reach his goal of transforming a million lives. The first thing I can tell you is that THIS PROGRAM WILL WORK FOR YOU! The exercise component is based on effective principles of exercise physiology, and the nutrition component is remarkably different from popular weight-loss approaches (Atkins, Stillman, etc) which are restrictive, unnatural, slow, frequently ineffective, and always highly unbalanced. The Body-for-LIFE program is an integrated program that works with your body, creates fast results, and makes sense in terms of physiology. While my immediate goal is to help you get through your first 12 weeks, my real goal is to give you enough information and confidence to make this program a habit. The combination of aerobics, resistance training, and balanced nutrition really is the single best way to improve fitness, and to reduce some very serious health risks. So if the program is not working for you yet, for any reason, we've got to make it work. Period. There are two keys to the Body-for-LIFE program: 1) Daily, brief, intense workouts: Alternating 20 minute aerobic workouts using intensity intervals, and 46 minute weight training workouts using the "high-point" technique. 2) Frequent, limited, high-quality meals: Six meals a day, consisting of a portion of protein, a portion of carbohydrates, an occasional fibrous vegetable on the side (preferably a low calorie "water" vegetable like lettuce, carrots, or steamed broccoli), and a gallon or more of water daily. These two components take advantage of the body's ability to adapt to intensity. It's that daily intensity that forces your metabolic rate higher, and the frequent meals that keep it there and provide the nutrients to recover. The variety of exercises is also important, because the body perceives a certain amount of variety as more intense than the same workout day after day (in fact, alternating between two different aerobic exercises on different days may offer additional cross-training benefits). In the weight training, it is the stress on the muscle fibers (not the duration of exercise) that stimulates muscle growth.

For the best results, you really have to maintain a daily workout routine. If you give your body too much time to rest and recover, there is no pressure to adapt. If you try to do the program half-way, you won't get half the results - and you may get next to nothing. But remember: if you're extremely out of shape, a "level 10 intensity" for you may initially be simply walking up a hill. That will improve. Of course, if just thinking about getting up off the couch is your high point ("Whew! Hand me a towel!"), well, we've got some work to do. In any case, remember - no gasping allowed. On the nutrition side, it's important to have both protein and carbohydrates in your meals, and as Bill points out, there's no need to completely eliminate fat (your cell walls are nothing but a tiny pair of fat layers). If you severely restrict carbohydrates, you'll "bonk" and slow down your metabolism. You'll also lose muscle. See, when you run too low on carbohydrate, the body first tries to burn fat, but if that's not sufficient, your body starts using protein for energy (gluconeogenesis). If you overly restrict protein, you won't build muscle, and you increase the risk that your body will feed on muscle mass. That said, if your main goal is fat loss, and you're unsure, err slightly on the side of a little more protein and a little less carbohydrate. If your main goal is mass building, just err slightly on the side of more, both protein and carbs. Since you'll be doing weight training, shoot for at least a gram of protein per pound of lean weight daily, regardless of your specific goal. So that's the essence of the program - you have to briefly experience a specific level of intensity every day, and follow it up with frequent, carefully limited, high-quality nutrition and sufficient rest.

Where energy comes fromNow some specifics. If you really want to understand why the program works and why Bill has patterned your workouts the way he did, it helps to know a little bit of biology. It will help you to understand exactly what you are trying to achieve in your workouts. Your body gets its energy from a molecule called ATP

(adenosine triphosphate), which has three "phosphate groups" in it. When you pop one of those phosphate groups off, ATP gives off energy like a little Chinese firecracker, and is converted to ADP

(adenosine diphosphate). The body then turns the ADP back into ATP, using fat or sugar (little chains of glucose called "glycogen") for the energy needed to put that third phosphate group back on.

There are several ways that the body gets the energy to put that phosphate group back on, and they vary by speed, and by whether they burn oxygen or not. Explosive Force: The ATP-CP System. By far the fastest way to get that third phosphate group is to grab it off of a molecule called "creatine phosphate" or CP. When you are doing very explosive exercise for 10-30 seconds, such as an all-out sprint or an extreme high point, the burst of energy is delivered by the ATP-CP system. Fast, doesn't require oxygen, but extremely limited to short periods of explosive force.

ADP + Creatine phosphate (CP) ==> ATP + CreatineSugar Burning - Step 1: Anaerobic Glycolysis. The next fastest method of getting energy is to turn a sugar molecule into lactic acid. This doesn't require oxygen either. This system is effective for vigorous exercise of between 1-3 minutes in duration. When the intensity of the exercise requires more energy than what can be burned with the oxygen you are breathing, your body kicks into anaerobic glycolysis. This is the system you want to be using when you are hitting a 9 or a 10. This is a system that has to be trained in order to get fast results, but again, this system can be used only for a limited period. As lactic acid builds up in your muscles, you start to feel them "burn". If you go beyond a few minutes of this, the acidity of the muscle tissue increases and the muscles start to have difficulty generating meaningful amounts of energy.

ADP + glucose ==> ATP + pyruvic acid (which converts to lactate if not burned with oxygen)Sugar Burning - Step 2: Aerobic Glycolysis. This is the next system, and for all practical purposes is the one you use most often when exercising. Once glucose has been converted to lactate anaerobically (without oxygen), the body then burns the lactate using oxygen to create more ATP.

ADP + lactate + oxygen ==> ATP + water + carbon dioxide Fat Burning: Aerobic Lipolysis. This is by far the slowest system. It is, in fact, too slow to contribute extensively to energy production during exercise (in fact, if you ever deplete your glycogen stores so much that the body has to rely on lipolysis for its energy, your muscle movement slows down dramatically). In order to mobilize fat, a "triglyceride" has to be broken down into fatty acids, bound to proteins, and other time-consuming feats. The good news, is that lipid (fat) metabolism is the main way that your glycogen stores are replenished after exercise. That's why it can be useful to work out in the

morning on an empty stomach and wait about an hour after your workout before eating - your glycogen stores are more depleted by the end of your workout and you burn more fat afterward.

Fat + oxygen + ADP ==> ATP + water + carbon dioxide

WorkoutsNow that you know where the energy comes from, let's take a look at the Body-for-LIFE workouts. The

key to those workouts is that they are brief, daily, and intense. Humans are at the top of the food chain because of their remarkable ability to adapt, and the Body-for-LIFE workouts are designed to provide the precise amount of stimulation to trigger those adaptations. They are specifically designed to train every

one of your energy systems, and as a result, your aerobic capacity improves, your lactate tolerance increases, and your metabolism stays revved up all day long. And that's the key to the remarkable transformations in as little as 12 weeks - you want to maintain a persistently high level of metabolic

activity every day. Notice the phrase as little as 12 weeks. The original EAS Physique Transformation Challenge required a minimum of 12 weeks. For example, Everett Herbert's transformation took just over 14 weeks. Brad Wadlow's took 16. The Body-for-LIFE Challenge has a 12 week limit. Those pictures are real, but you also have to understand that many of them are the champions out of thousands of entrants. Depending on your initial physique, it's very possible to make that kind of transformation in 12 weeks. But if it takes you longer, THAT'S OK!! Don't go beating yourself up, getting frustrated, and going on the verge of quitting every time your progress doesn't seem to match those champions. Just get tough and stick to it! The typical EAS "after" pictures are generally less than 10% bodyfat for men and less than 20% bodyfat for women. That means that if you start at over 20% bodyfat for men, or over 30% bodyfat for women, you probably will need more than 12 weeks. Even Porter Freeman worked out for weeks and weeks to lose 20 pounds in preparation for his before picture. Athletes who incorporate periodic high-intenstity intervals into their workouts show much greater performance gains than those who use long-duration, low intensity training. There's no scientific evidence that multiple training sessions or very long daily workouts improve performance more than a single well-structured session. In competitive swimmers, subjects that trained for 3-4 hours a day, 5-6 days a week actually lost muscular strength and speed, compared to those that trained just 1-1.5 hours a day. If you're trying to gain muscle, intensity of muscle contraction is much more important than duration, and anything more than an hour of intensity will exhaust your glycogen and creatine phosphate stores, which you'll experience as muscle fatigue. And while aerobic training is essential, excessive aerobic workouts reduce the ability of the muscles to recover and grow. So longer aerobic sessions come at the cost of less muscle growth. That's why Bill's workouts are brief but intense. In the "20-minute aerobics solution", you start with two minutes of warmup at a level 5, then move to level 6 for a minute, then 7. At those levels, the majority of your energy is coming from aerobic metabolism (burning glycogen and fat using oxygen). At this point, you should be "conversational" - breathing deeply and rhythmically, but still able to carry on a broken conversation. Then you kick up to a level 8 effort, which should bump you out of your "comfort range". It is still aerobic, but more challenging. Your level 9 effort, however, should get you somewhat winded. No gasping as if you've just been held underwater. At this level of effort, your energy demands are above what can be produced aerobically, and you are challenging your anaerobic systems - right at the threshold where lactate starts accumulating. Near the end of your 9, you'll probably start feeling a burn in your muscles. After your level 9, you drop back down to a level 6. That's a level 6, not a 2 or 3 (which is harder than it sounds). This is crucial. After you challenge your lactate threshold, you want to move down to a level that is still a reasonable effort - it's called "active recovery". That active recovery phase produces tremendous improvement in your metabolism, because your body is forced to recover from the high level 9 effort while still under stress. Then you do it all again. The fourth time through this cycle, you add a "high point" - a level 10, after your 9. Though you are taking in a lot of oxygen at this point, the energy demands are still greater than can be produced aerobically, so you are really challenging your lactate system. Try not to "tighten up" during your 10. Relax into it, smile, and visualize yourself as a well-oiled motor. You'll get more power, and you'll reduce the cardiovascular resistance that way. The last 20 seconds of your 10 may seem like forever. They do for me. By the end of your 10, you're toast, so you drop down to a level 5 (which again, is not a level 2 or 3) for a minute, and

you're done. In general, you'll get the most benefit from your 10 if you get your breath back to a fully conversational level before stopping. That sometimes takes me an extra few minutes, but "Twenty-three-and-a-half minute aerobics solution" just doesn't have the same ring to it. You don't have to go a great deal beyond this, because the intensity you've experienced will have you burning a lot of calories for even hours after the workout - something you don't get from long, low intensity aerobics. This kind of interval training contributes greatly to your aerobic performance, and has also been found to improve the neurological pathways your body uses for recruiting muscle fibers. How do you gauge a high point? Kelly Adair says "My high point is when I’m going 'Boy, I don’t know if I can last one more minute of this'. You kind of start to doubt whether you’re gonna make it or not". On the strength training, "if you’re not making that ugly face at the end of those last few reps then you’re probably not pushing yourself as hard as you could.” Or as Dan Reeves says, “You ask yourself one question – 'Can I do any more?' – and if the answer is 'yes', it’s not intense enough” The same intensity principle applies to the weight training workouts. Weight training is essentially an anaerobic activity, since you expend a very high level of concentrated effort in a succession of short sets. Your ATP-CP system runs like mad during a weight training workout. So at the end of every two-day period, you've trained every energy system in your body intensely, but with workouts that are brief enough that you can do it again and again. What you're trying to do in weight training is contract the muscle enough to make micro-tears, which then stimulate new growth and repair. In order to do that, you should go relatively slow (never jerk the weight), concentrate on contracting the muscle more than moving the weight, contract the muscle hard at the top of the concentric motion, and go slowly on the eccentric (lowering) motion as well. Don't lock (fully extend) any joint, as it reduces the stress on the muscle and the resulting benefit. Remember, it is the intensity of the contraction, not how long you work out, or how many exercises you use per body part, that stimulates muscle growth. The reason for varying both the weight and number of repetitions for each set is that you are trying to train two sets of muscle fibers, generally called "fast-twitch" and "slow-twitch". The fast-twitch guys have more force and size, relying more heavily on the ATP-CP and anaerobic energy systems. You train them with low-rep, high-weight sets where time under tension is as little as 20 seconds per set. Both Abb Ansley and Anthony Ellis included high-weight sets of just 1-2 reps to cap off their sequence (which you can insert after your set of 6 if you use a spotter and are careful about your form). The slow twitch guys are the endurance fibers and the fat burners. You train those with high-rep, lower-weight sets, where time under tension is still only about 45 seconds per set. If you occasionally see muscular but fat bodybuilders walking around the gym, it's partly because they focus only on low-rep, high-weight sets that develop bulging fast-twitch muscle groups but leave them aerobically unconditioned. Just look at the guys in competitive Powerlifting (which could easily be made into a triathalon by adding a Sumo wrestling match and a pie-eating contest). Bill's 46-minute weight-training workouts really are enough, as long as you focus on hitting intense high points. Muscles adapt and grow when they are forced (with proper form) to overcome a resistance they have not experienced before. In every workout, for every exercise, pick at least one of your sets (starting with that short set of 6) to make your "personal best". Go beyond what you have ever done; either by raising the weight or adding 1-2 extra reps to that set. Then gradually add weight to the other sets in that exercise until you can raise the resistance on the entire sequence of 12/10/8/6/12&12. As fitness writer Dave Tuttle notes, "weightlifting is not an endurance sport. It is a peak-intensity sport based on the overload principle. Your muscles grow from the one set when you lift more than you ever did before, and not from the ten sets you did at a weight you have lifted for years." Bill didn't choose the rep pattern by accident. He knows what he's doing. The pattern would be recognized by muscleheads as a "half pyramid, with a compound pump set". It's an intense pattern, but it also substantially reduces the risk of injury. The first set of 12 reps is an essential stretch and warm-up. You then move to a higher weight for 10 repetitions, higher again for 8 reps, maximal weight for 6 reps, then dropping to lower weight for a "compound set" - 12 reps followed immediately by another 12 reps using a different exercise for the same part. For each body part, the last 3 sets (8, 6, compound) should be near "failure". The last couple of reps should be a challenge, and the last 2 reps of your final 12 should be a slightly out-of-body experience. Bill Phillips describes it as switching from his muscles to his mind. Arnold Schwarzenegger describes it as "substituting the feeling of pain with the feeling of pleasure". If you can "rep-out" that last set with more than 12, it's time to add some extra weight. Always, but particularly on those last reps, be sure that you aren't "recruiting" other muscles to do the work of the one you're

trying to focus on. If your hips or back are lifting off the bench, your elbows are flaring out, or you are arching your body one way or another, cut it out! It's a good way to get hurt, and you're taking the stress off the target muscle. Keep your abs tight, and your neck and pelvis in a "neutral" position - stable, with the slight curvatures intact. Some tips from Arnold Schwarzenegger:"From the very start you should look on soreness as a positive, as a sign of building, of growth. "Use the time on your way to the gym to outline some immediate goals for yourself, to decide what you want to accomplish in this particular workout session. Don't just go to the gym and say, 'Oh no, another workout.' Your attitude should be: 'Okay, this is another training session, and today instead of a 100-pound bench press I'll do 105 pounds. I feel stronger today; I can do it.' "You should set goals for yourself that make you eager to go in and do bench presses, or squats, or barbell curls. Have a definite reason for wanting to do bench presses. Not just because you want to look better next year. That is a long-range goal, which is very important - but you should also be setting little short-range goals all the time. For example, tell yourself that tomorrow you want to get a good pump in the pectoral muscles. Or, yesterday you saw a picture of a bodybuilder whose waist was 29 inches, and you would like to have really good abdominals, so today you'll do more repetitions: by next Monday you ought to be a half inch smaller in the waist. These little goals are fantastic. They've helped me a lot." If you seem to have hit a "plateau" in your results after several weeks, be sure to change your routine. Your body is very good at adapting to stress, and if you give it the same set of exercises every time, it will become very efficient at those exercises, and the pressure to adapt will diminish. Again, even holding the level of effort constant, variety is perceived as more intense, so you should occasionally vary the speed of your repetitions, and the amount of rest between them. Changing your weight routine once every 4 weeks (not much more often) is also effective - even changes as small as switching from the flat dumbbell press to the incline dumbbell press for the chest, or switching from side raises to the overhead dumbbell press for shoulders. You'll feel it the next day. Ditto for fat loss. One of the best ways to kick-start your results from a plateau is to add a new aerobic exercise to your week. You can also add a different aerobic exercise on alternate workouts (e.g. treadmill one day and stationary bike two days later). My main cardio exercises are Nordic Track and Schwinn Airdyne (both which require coordinated upper/lower body movement). But when the weather improved, I added outdoor running along a trail with a few steep hills. That threw me for a loop, especially the first few days, but had a noticeable effect. Don't change your routine every week, because you want to develop "neuromuscular coordination". But do toss in something to keep those muscles confused about every 4 weeks. Your body will be forced to adapt. Your resistance-training routines should include at least one multi-joint "foundation" exercise. For chest and arms, the barbell bench press is excellent, because it requires balance and recruitment of numerous muscle groups. A closer grip focuses on the arms. A wider grip focuses on the chest. Cable pulldowns are a good choice for the upper back. For lower body, squats or leg presses are excellent, but be very careful about proper form. A leather weight belt is a great investment to protect your lower back. You don't have to be a hero either. I can't emphasize enough that resistance training gets results when you achieve powerful muscle contraction. That depends more on form and focus than on poundage. Pushing a lot of weight in poor form just gets you injured. Free weights are generally very safe. The most significant danger is improperly executed leg exercises. Deadlifts have the greatest shearing force on the lower back. I prefer squats in proper form, or super-slow leg presses. Push from the heels, focus on straightening the knees, and come just short of locking the knees at the top. That allows you to achieve the same stress with lower poundage. Don't let those knees travel over the toes. When you pick something heavy up, you should usually bend at the knees, keep your lower spine relatively straight, and lift with your leg muscles, rather than bending at the hips and straining your lower back. Never lift and twist at the same time. There is a whole list of metabolic benefits that comes from this approach, including improved aerobic capacity, higher lactate tolerance, greater capillary density, increased fat-burning enzymes and transfer agents, expansion of muscle glycogen stores, and increase in mitochondria (the parts of the cell that produce energy). But the bottom line is that you'll feel great. The first few weeks are challenging, so you should plan extra sleep. You may also feel a very strong need for a nap in the afternoon or early evening, which you should take, in order to lower your susceptibility to colds early on.

SupplementsThe supplements that work in the Body-for-LIFE program fall into two main categories: nutritional support,

and exercise/recovery support. The EAS products are excellent. The value that the company creates in terms of free information , tapes, videos, and motivation also really builds loyalty to the EAS brand. EAS

publishes a comprehensive "Sports Supplement Review", which is a great reference. But rather than recite that literature, I'll give you an idea what I use, and why. I really do think that Myoplex is essential for

this program, and I couldn't have done my program without it. The others have been great, but they're add-ons. If you follow the intensity and nutrition well, you can get excellent results even if your budget

doesn't accomodate them. Myoplex is the most basic staple of the program. It comes in a powder that you mix as a shake, or in bars which are great on the road. One thing to notice, though, is that both the protein content and the sugars vary a lot across the different Myoplex products, so tailor your other meals accordingly. Amino acids are the building blocks for protein and muscle, and whey protein is an excellent source. The whey protein in Myoplex is derived from micro-filtration and ion-exchange, which keeps it intact in its most usable form. It also helps to support immune function, and if you tend to catch a cold a few days after starting a workout program (as I used to), the Myoplex seems to help. Since whey protein is low in the essential amino acid phenylalanine, EAS properly and intentionally adds aspartame to compensate. I generally use the Myoplex Lite shakes for meal replacement, a Myoplex Lite bar for a mid-morning meal at the office or outdoors, and Myoplex Deluxe for at least one of my meals on weight-training days (which has more protein, and some added amino acid content including glutamine and taurine). As for flavors, the Tropical and Chocolate are excellent, particularly if you blend in some ice. Conjugated Linoleic Acid (CLA) is a fatty acid that is incorporated into cell walls, and seems to promote fat burning and inhibit cancer growth in animal research. I usually take two capsules with breakfast, and two capsules with dinners that are on the low-fat side. A few notes on protein. Protein is made up of 20 building blocks called "amino acids". The body doesn't "store" them. Either you use them to build new tissue, or they are converted to glycogen or fat. To do that, the liver rips the nitrogen off of the amino acids, which is then excreted. That's why you have to eat 6 times a day; to maintain an environment rich in amino acids required for new muscle growth. When you're weight training, shoot for at least a gram of protein per pound of lean weight a day. Since amino acids are the only way you get nitrogen, scientists can measure whether you're bulding muscle or breaking it down by comparing how much nitrogen you take in versus how much is excreted. If you're building muscle, then by definition you're maintaining a "postive nitrogen balance" - excreting less nitrogen than you're taking in. One of the other facts about muscle building is that cell volume is an important trigger for protein synthesis. There are several things that enhance cell volume, including creatine and glutamine. There's also increasing evidence that availability of protein closely following intense exercise, particularly the "branched-chain" amino acid leucine, can kick-start new muscle synthesis. When the body needs energy, it metabolizes glycogen, then fat, then protein. If one isn't fast enough, it goes down the list. But if it's going to feed on protein, you want it to go after something other than muscle tissue. Phosphagen is pure creatine monohydrate. That's the same creatine that's used in your ATP-CP system, but creatine itself is not "energy" - it has to be phosphorylated into creatine phosphate by the body. Creatine is an essential factor in producing energy for explosive force activities like weightlifting. My understanding is that Phosphagen HP is essentially creatine plus dextrose (a sugar), which increases the transport of creatine into muscle cells. HP has about 140 calories of dextrose per serving, so it's really a supplement geared to muscle gain rather than fat loss. Phosphagain 2 is creatine plus extra carbohydrate, protein, glutamine and taurine, and is specifically for people trying to add lean muscle without much emphasis on fat loss. BetaGen is a combination of Phosphagen, dextrose (only about 10 calories), and HMB (beta-hydroxy beta-methylbutyrate). HMB, a metabolite of the amino acid leucine, is effective in reducing the breakdown of muscle tissue during intense exercise, and has also been found to enhance fat metabolism. If you ever think you smell ammonia (basically nitrogen) after a hard workout, it's because intense exercise can induce protein breakdown, and the BetaGen will help. I use BetaGen three times a day, timing one serving about an hour before my workouts (or first thing in the morning if I'm working out right away). The creatine really seems to have helped both my lifting strength, and odd little high-force tasks, like swinging my little boy into the air. I don't have a personal baseline with which to compare muscle gain with vs. without HMB, but I am sufficiently compelled by the research to use it, and my results have been great.

CytoVol is primarily the amino acid glutamine, plus several other amino acids, and sodium phosphate which again increases the transport of glutamine into muscle cells. The effects are in some ways similar to those of BetaGen - enhanced cell volume and reduced tissue breakdown, but through a different mechanism. I take one serving of CytoVol a day - split as ½ after workouts, and ½ just before bed. What I notice most is a longer lasting "pump" in my biceps and pecs. Precision Protein is essentially ion-exchanged whey protein, and I keep a container on hand to kick up my protein intake every now and then. Very recent research with mice suggests that supplementing with leucine immediately after exercise can kick-start protein synthesis, which usually takes a little vacation after hard workouts. Leucine is the precursor to HMB, and is also found in whey protein and lean meats. So in addition to the BetaGen before workouts, your faithful lab mouse has started following his workouts immediately with a serving of Precision Protein (20 g of nearly all protein, 100 calories). I notice that I get very warm about 20 minutes later, which is a good sign. Still wait an hour before eating carbs, since carbs are a "quick" source of glycogen, and waiting increases your fat burning. Also, I sometimes shake a scoop into a cup of water if I happen to wake up in the middle of the night. Protein synthesis is particularly active at that time, and it also gives me a chance to get another little meal in (about 100 calories) if I've only had 5 during the day. Phen-Free is a thermogenic product, made of an herbal equivalent of the caffeine-ephedrine-aspirin stack. Despite the name, it is not related to "Fen-Phen", which contains a drug called fenfluramine that was pulled by the FDA because of reported heart valve complications. The idea of thermogenics is to mobilize and burn fatty acids, using what are essentially stimulants. Phen-Free uses a fruit extract called Citrus aurantium, which contains the mild stimulant synephrine. Your adrenal glands respond to it by releasing norepinephrine which stimulates nerve, muscle and fat cells. The caffeine and St. John's Wort act to reduce "inhibitory feedback" which would normally shut this process down. In effect, Phen-Free kicks your metabolism into a high-response condition. Now, if you mobilize fatty acids without burning them, they go right back into the fat cells, so thermogenics are best used before workouts and about a half-hour before meals, when your glycogen stores need replenishing. If you've depressed your metabolic rate through restrictive dieting in the past (which is a really bad idea, particularly if you've been fat since childhood), Phen-Free may help to normalize it. Studies indicate that thermogenics can contribute to a significant increase in fat loss from exercise. But Phen-Free is not for everyone, and should be avoided if you are pregnant, lactating, taking anti-depressants or other nervous-system drugs, or have high blood pressure. Regardless of your condition, don't ignore the instruction to limit use to 4 days a week maximum, and to take a week off after each 4 weeks of use. If you don't use it, you can still get some benefit from a small cup of caffeinated coffee before your morning workouts. You can buy supplements directly from EAS at their web site www.eas.com. You'll get a nice discount if you click the radio-button where they ask whether you are competing in the Challenge. It appears just before you confirm the order. If you are on a limited budget, you can often find significant discounts on EAS products at other sites such as www.sportsnutritiondepot.com and www.vitamins.com.

How calories workA note about calories. Bill's right, nobody can count them effectively, and you're better off watching

portions and sticking to authorized foods. The "portion rule" is simple, and gets the job done. To keep it as simple as possible, Bill advises scaling your portions by the size of your open palm or closed fist. That said, I've included information on calories by request. It will help you to get your portions right if you're

unsure. If you do it once, you'll know how to set the portion size to reach your goals. You'll also see fairly quickly why Bill didn't include this discussion in his book. The next several paragraphs are going to look like 7th grade math. And the reason is, they're 7th grade math. I know. Ugh. As David Letterman says,

50% of Americans are mathematically illiterate, and the other two-thirds aren't much better. Bear with me. And grab your calculator.

A pound of fat is 3500 calories. And though the late-night ads for Ab-thumpers and mylar spacesuits may try to convince you otherwise, nobody has repealed the First Law of Thermodynamics - energy cannot be created nor destroyed, only converted from one form to another. What that means for you is that to burn a pound of fat, you have to metabolize as energy 3500 calories more than you take in. That difference between energy use and intake is called a "caloric deficit". Now here's where it gets tricky - severe caloric restriction triggers a fasting state that slows your metabolism down, and also causes

muscle loss. Moreover, it causes your body to increase the level of "fat storing" enzymes in the body. Exactly what you don't want. So you can't succeed at this program while severely restricting your calories. But that doesn't mean you have to have that third bag of fries on your free day either. Those fries still have to be burned off. The free day is great, gives you something to look forward to, gives you a chance to have that pizza and ice cream you've been eyeing all week, and may help to counter the risk that your body senses a fasting state, but don't go way overboard. I've seen people so frustrated at their lack of fat loss, and it turns out they're eating 4000+ calories on their free day alone. My impression is that you can substitute the free day with 2 "free meals" between any Sunday-Saturday period (following the program for other meals on those days), but don't try to "spread" your free day across the whole week and then kid yourself that you're following the program. Unauthorized foods just throw off the metabolic processes too much. High sugar intake, for example, raises insulin levels and inhibits the release and metabolism of fatty acids. Yes, there's some evidence that cycling high and low caloric periods with weight training can help muscle gains, but the effective cycle is evidently about two weeks, not one day. And if your primary concern is fat loss, I wouldn't try to get that fancy. Your daily "caloric deficit" on the BFL program depends on all sorts of factors, including your height, weight, lean mass, gender, workout intensity, and portion sizes. It's unlikely for anybody to get the deficit beyond about 2000 calories a day by working out harder or eating less, because you'll either interfere with proper recovery, or throw yourself into a fasting state. If you're following the program effectively and specifically targeting fat loss and muscle tone/gain, it is not unreasonable to target fat loss from 1 to 2 lbs a week for women, and as much as 2 - 3 lbs a week for men. (Over 12 weeks, with muscle gain and better health, those results add up!). Unless you score basketball points by throwing the ball downward, it's very difficult (and generally unadvisable) to lose more than about 3 pounds of fat per week. Let's start by calculating your lean weight. Lean weight is your total weight minus your fat weight. For instance, if you are 160 pounds and your fat percentage is 25%, your fat weight is 0.25 x 160 = 40 pounds, so your lean weight is 160 - 40 = 120 pounds. In terms of nutrition, you don't want to be so restrictive that you hit a fasting state. Your body needs a certain amount of intake just to support your "Base Metabolic Rate" or BMR. Unless you're a Munchkin, your BMR is rarely less than 1100 calories a day. The actual BMR calculation (see below) is the best estimate of your own, personal MINIMUM . So let's calculate your BMR. I've replaced my original section with the Java-based calculator below, with the eventual goal - as in the Dilbert cartoon - of making this website into a complete Broadway musical. CLICK HERE TO CALCULATE YOUR BMR. At a sedentary activity level, your daily caloric burn is about 1.3 times your BMR (less if you've been dieting restrictively, which can drop your metabolism by 20-30%). On the Body-for-LIFE program, your daily caloric burn will be closer to 1.7 times your BMR. To lose 1 pound of fat a week, you have to generate a weekly caloric deficit of 3500 calories, or a deficit of 500 calories per day. So take 1.7 times your BMR, and subtract 500 for every pound you want to lose per week. That's a rough estimate of the daily intake averaging in the free day needed to achieve your goal. Any fat loss goal that would require your daily caloric intake to drop below your BMR is unrealistic. You'll quickly lose muscle, not fat. And you'll become more sedentary without even realizing it. Peak fat loss probably occurs somewhere between 1.0 and 1.3 times BMR. As long as your intake on any given day is above BMR, you can set your portion sizes with confidence that your goal is in reach. Now, a warning. This discussion is meant to get your portions right. There's a good reason Bill Phillips doesn't want you thinking about calories all the time. Too much caloric restriction will destroy your muscle gains and slow your metabolism. Don't cut your intake significantly below your Base Metabolic Rate (BMR), which is never less than 10 calories a day per lean pound, or 1100 calories per day. THOSE ARE MINIMUMS! I'm yelling and waving my arms. The Body-for-LIFE program will work just fine at higher levels of caloric intake, but those figures are the lowest you should go even if you are aggressively targeting fat loss. Go much lower than your BMR, and you'll SLOW YOUR METABOLISM, lose muscle, and hurt your progress. As noted above, you can take in as much as 1.7 times your BMR on this program if your fat loss goals are less aggressive or if you are focusing on muscle gain. Beyond about 1.8 times BMR, you'll gain fat, with little additional increase in muscle growth. And now you know why Bill left that out of his book. Whew!

Tweaking the program for successIt is nothing short of amazing how many ways people can come up with to tweak this program. I've

received hundreds and hundreds of questions with all sorts of minor adjustments. Most of them can be answered by simply applying the basic principles we've already covered. Here's a sample ...

Should I mix upper and lower body in the same weight workout? Probably not, since neither will be fully recovered when you hit them again 2 days later

What if I want less muscle growth? Emphasize lower weight/higher rep sets What if I want more muscle growth? Insert additional higher weight/lower rep sets Can I double-up my workouts to twice a day? Not unless both happen to be moderate intensity

aerobic sessions. If you double-up the high intensity workouts, you'll compromise recovery - your muscles will be chronically depleted of glycogen, they'll look flat and uncut, and you may actually experience a reduction in strength.

Can I drink coffee? Caffeine is a good fat mobilizer, just don't use it as a substitute for water, and use an artificial sweetener because sugar inhibits fat mobilization

Can I crush almonds into my yogurt? They've got some useful fatty acids, but significant calories, so be sparing

Can I use Slim-Fast instead of Myoplex? No. Read the label, Slim-Fast is sugar water Can I eliminate carbohydrates from some of my meals? No, you'll disrupt your blood sugar levels

and increase protein breakdown. You can lean slightly toward more protein and less carbs, but don't strongly restrict either

Can I spread my free day a little over the entire week? No, you're really asking whether you can succeed on this program without discipline

How often should I use Betagen? Oh, man. Read the label. I've put many of the most common or important questions on my Q&A page, but there is such an endless array of minor tweaks people come up with, there's no way I can answer them in the sliver of free time I can devote to this project. So I thought it would be best simply to emphasize what I see as the key aspects of this program, and frankly, to let you fend for yourself on the minor issues. Things you can't compromise on:

Frequent meals. At least 5 a day if you can't get that 6th in, but do your best Balanced, limited portions containing both protein and carbohydrate High quality nutrition. Bacon-lettuce-and-tomato on white bread doesn't cut it About a gallon of water a day Daily workouts, with the possible exception of your free day Intense weight training, striving for a new "personal best" in one set of each exercise Variation in the number of repetitions and amount of weight 20 minutes of aerobics using high intensity intervals, at least once a week if you're after muscle

gain, and three times a week for fat loss Intense high points

Now what follows here is my opinion. Educated opinion, but opinion nonetheless. On the aerobic training, those of you who are strictly after muscle gain can safely limit your aerobics to just once or twice a week. But using the intensity intervals is extremely important, because it will increase your lactate tolerance. And when you're lifting weights, that burn you feel is nothing but lactate. So the cardio will improve your lifting, and you don't want to give that up. That said, Abb Ansley, Anthony Ellis and Jeff Seidman did very little aerobics, since they started out thin and had muscle gain as the primary goal. And remember, if you're not interested in losing fat, your caloric intake can be as high as 1.7 times your BMR. Remember that since weight training is really about peak-intensity (with proper nutrition, recovery and supplementation), there are a lot of training variations which can be successful. Bill's recommended pattern is excellent. In the final sets, do make sure the last rep is all you can possibly do. Some people, like Brad Wadlow, have achieved great results from doing a few warmup sets followed by just one or two sets of 6-8 reps to total failure. Anthony Ellis and Abb Ansley finished their routines with heavy, short sets of just 1 to 2 reps. Jeff Seidman generally did a couple of warmup sets, then 4 heavy sets (6-12 reps each) of 3 exercises per body part. All of them included multi-joint exercises such as the barbell bench press, cable pulldowns, and squats or leg presses. They also alternated body parts on different days. Most trained with weights every other day, though Jeff Seidman usually did 3 days on (chest &

back, legs, shoulders & arms) and one day off. So again, lots of room for variation. Do what will give you the absolute maximum intensity of contraction. But however you "tweak" the weight training, emphasize proper form, at least one heavy set to failure, multi-joint exercises (sometimes called "foundation" or "compound" exercises), and sufficient recovery before you work a particular body part again. If muscle growth is your main goal, you have to stress those "fast twitch" fibers. As Jeff Seidman advises, "train like an animal". And do exhale on the concentric movement. Or your head will pop off (it ain't pretty). For those of you who want to see major fat loss, I'm increasingly convinced that extra aerobic activity is essential. You have to understand that a great deal of aerobics will reduce your muscle gains somewhat, but as long as you're doing the weight training, you won't lose muscle mass. So in the short run, more aerobics will lead to greater fat loss, since the extra calories you burn will probably exceed what the new muscle would have burned anyway. In the long run, muscle gains are essential, because that will keep you burning calories even when you're not working out. Here's how it works. At normal activity levels, a pound of pure muscle burns about 50 calories a day. To put that in perspective, a pound of fat is 3500 calories. The more lean muscle you have, the easier it is to burn fat. Suppose somebody goes on a restrictive or unbalanced fad diet such as Atkins, does nothing to preserve muscle tissue, and loses 10 pounds of muscle (which is not unusual), some fat, and a lot of water. They may look at the scale and think that's progress. But as soon as they go off the diet, the water will rapidly return and the scale will shoot higher. Worse, they'll find that a caloric intake that used to keep their weight constant will now cause them to gain a pound of fat a week. The less muscle mass you have, the harder it is to lose weight and keep it off. So even if your goal is purely fat loss, you've got to keep up the strength training so that your lean mass at least stays constant. If you do add more aerobics, my own recommendation is to use the high intensity 20 minute pattern no more than three times a week. You can do more aerobics at lower intensity, but too much of the high intensity cardio will bonk your energy and compromise your recovery. A mild tweak would be to do the 20-minutes at high intensity, and to add up to 10 minutes of moderate level 6-7 activity to the end of each. A more significant tweak would add yet a fourth 30-40 minute moderate session (no high points) on your free day. And the maximum tweak would be to do three 20-minute sessions at high intensity, adding up to 20 moderate minutes to the end (40 minutes total), and then add an additional 30-40 minute session on the free day at moderate intensity throughout. Two capsules of Phen-Free about half an hour before aerobic workouts can also be effective (see the "supplements" section of this page). And get plenty of rest. That maximum tweak will trade off muscle gains for fat loss, so it's not something you want to do over the long-term. Here's what some of the previous Champions have shared: Kelly Adair : "This is it; this is what really counts! I know it's ONLY 20 minutes - I feel like I can see light at the end of the tunnel before I even take my first stride - and I love that! I did do 20 minutes of HARD cardio using High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT), and then sometimes I cooled down by walking on my treadmill for an additional 5-10 minutes while I meditated! I always did three days a week using High Intensity Interval Training - however, some weeks I did four days of cardio, and some weeks I did five days. I was working for major fat-loss, so I wanted to do more - but never more than 20 minutes of HIIT. I can confidently say if it weren't for learning about INTENSITY, I would have not had the success I did. It's paramount you zone in on your intensity levels." Kelly's nutrition plan averaged about 1500 calories a day (her BMR was about 1350). She also regularly went rollerblading with her family in the evenings. Porter Freeman: "I did two exercises. One exercise was shutting my mouth and keeping it closed, and the second exercise was the stationary bicycle." Several weeks before the Challenge began, Porter did aerobics as much as twice a day to get himself down to a good starting weight. During his transformation, Porter worked out with free weights four times per week, for up to one hour per session. He attempted to hit every body part twice each week. Porter did aerobic exercise four times a week, starting at 25 minutes early in his program, and working up to 40-45 minutes in the later weeks. Porter also moved more during the day, used the stairs instead of the elevator, and made a conscious effort "to use the muscles that I had". [Note: since Porter did 4 days of lifting and 4 days of aerobics a week, he typically had one day where he did a shorter weight workout and then aerobics. If you try this, do the aerobics after the weight session, or you'll deplete your muscle glycogen and reduce your lifting ability.] Drew Avery: Trained with free weights 3-4 days a week for about one hour per workout. Drew separated his program into two parts, emphasizing muscle gain in the first half and a fat cutting in the second half.

He increased his aerobics from 20 minutes four days a week at the beginning to 50 minutes, five days per week in the final week before his photo shoot. Everett Herbert: Trained with free weights four days a week for about an hour. Everett used machines and free weights, typically doing 3-4 sets of 2-3 exercises per body part, and working each body part approximately once every 5 days. He did aerobics first thing in the morning for about 40 minutes, 4 days per week. In the Encyclopedia of Bodybuilding, Arnold Schwarzenegger notes that he does about 30 minutes of aerobic activity about 4-5 days a week, and advises about 45 minutes 4-5 days a week for individuals targeting fat loss. Though the intensity intervals will help to achieve the same fat loss in less time than that, you shouldn't be afraid to tweak the aerobics if you want to accelerate fat loss. Just be sure your caloric intake is above BMR, your protein intake is at least a gram per pound of lean weight, your weight training is intense, and your sleep is sufficient.

You really do change from the inside outFrom the notes I've received from some of you, the most common concern seems to be fat loss. Nearly everyone feels better and more energetic almost immediately (aside from the perpetual soreness). But

even after several weeks, some people do not see a noticeable change in the mirror, so far as fat is concerned. And the scale! You've busted your bottom for weeks, and there's no change! Of course, if you've really been half-hearted about following the program, it's clear why this may happen, but it can

also happen when you have honestly been experiencing intensity every day, and have been careful about limiting your portions. I've received messages from people literally in tears at the frustration. Kid, the road

to Easy Street runs through the sewer. You gotta get tough (words spoken to me at 14 by my calculus teacher, Father Arnold Perham).

Here's what's going on. Bill Phillips says "real change always starts on the inside", meaning psychologically. Well, I'm here to tell you, that's true at a metabolic level as well. Fat is stored in two places, within the muscle as intramuscular fat (which is why pork is "the other white meat"), and under the skin as "subcutaneous fat". If you're inactive as you get older, the fat starts depositing in the muscles first - the muscle tissue gets "marbelized". After the intramuscular stores are full, the fat spills over to subcutaneous stores, which are more noticeable. Well, now take that process in reverse. Intense exercise (and specifically intense interval training and progressive weight training) tends to draw significantly from the intramuscular stores early on, so instead of seeing a major change in the mirror, you may instead feel your muscles getting firmer and less "mushy". That's a good sign. Don't give up! The subcutaneous fat loss becomes more evident once the intramuscular stores are whittled down a bit. Second, if you've been lifting weights, you'll also be adding to muscle mass while you lose fat. Regular exercise also increases blood volume. And since protein synthesis typically goes along with increased cell volume (especially if you're using creatine and glutamine), the scale will be an awful measure of the improvements that are going on metabolically. It's ironic - cell volume, blood volume - exactly the things that will be helping you to get fit, can be the things that initially make you think you're making no progress. Fat calipers are a better measure of progress, but even here, if you vary your pinching technique a little bit, you can get inaccurate readings on a day to day basis. Believe me, you're going to have nights when you look in the mirror and say "all this work, and I look the same", and mornings when you just can't believe the improvement. Don't base your enthusiasm about the program on either of those short-term impressions. Do try to troubleshoot by periodically reviewing your diet, intensity, and variety, but stick with it! Now, if you've gone for a whole 12 weeks without any measurable fat loss, there's only one reason, and it's that you aren't creating a persistent caloric deficit. You can't starve your way to a caloric deficit, or you'll slow your metabolism. Nor can you overtrain your way to a caloric deficit, or you'll compromise recovery. The solution is to widen the gap at both ends: move your daily caloric intake down modestly closer to your BMR (never below), and "tweak" your aerobic activity somewhat higher as I note in the "tweaking" section above. A fat mobilizer like Phen-Free may help, particularly before aerobic workouts, as long as you don't have contraindicating conditions such as pregnancy or cardiovascular problems. You also simply have to move more, by taking more walks, using the stairs, and so forth. Don't just do the workouts and then sit around the rest of the day.

Again, if this program isn't working for you yet, you've got to make it work. You will not find a better program than the combination of balanced nutrition, cardio, resistance training, and proper supplementation. For most people, the initial drop in the scale will probably understate your fat loss in the first few weeks. For very overweight people, the drop on the scale will probably exceed your fat loss. That's particularly true if your diet was very high in carbohydrate before you started. In very overweight individuals, even the increased muscle cell and blood volume is typically less than the initial loss in water weight. A lot of people seem to think that water loss is not "real" weight loss. Well, if your fat level stays the same, that's true. But your body's water retention is largely determined by its fat content. So if you lose the fat, the water stays off as well! Because of these significant differences in fluid-volume changes, some people will notice immediate changes, while others (and I would expect, most) will see only limited changes for the first 5 weeks or so. That seems like an awfully long time to wait, but remember, fat doesn't "spot reduce" - it comes off in sheets, like an onion. So the areas you've always thought were "too fat" will still look too fat for a while, even though you feel good, look "healthier", and can even measure that your fat percentage is going down. There's so much pressure to see quick results that it's easy to forget the point of this, which is quite frankly to save your life. Day by day, you're trying to measure your progress in the mirror, on the scale, with fat calipers, and maybe even with a fancy bioelectrical impedance device. The problem is that you're trying to measure things like fat loss and muscle gain, and all of that is taking place under the skin, along with a lot of other things you can't see, like blood volume and fluid retention. Until the fat loss and muscle gain become significant as a proportion of your body weight, it's just next to impossible to get a useful reading, because the tools you are using all have measurement error. A meaningless two-millimeter caliper error translates into about 2.5% bodyfat, and can drive some people to tears. And as I explain on my Q&A page, the muscle gain figure can easily be off by 4% of body weight. Think of it this way. A woman doing relatively well on this program might be losing over 1 pound of fat a week, while gaining a fraction of a pound of muscle. So while she might be on track to lose 12-15 pounds of fat and gain a few pounds of lean muscle over 12 weeks, by the 5th week she might be looking at a scale change of less than 4 pounds. And since that's about the weight of a meal and a couple of glasses of water, she may not even see the scale move at all. This is especially true at high bodyfat levels, where shifts in water retention over a monthly cycle can be quite large. But gradually, the changes are happening anyway, as long as she doesn't give up. For women at high bodyfat levels, progress may not show for weeks at a time. The reason is that your readings will zig-zag within their downward path. If you measure from a peak in weight to a recent trough, you'll be elated at the "jump" in your progress. But other times you'll get a trough-to-peak reading and be totally frustrated. Don't extrapolate either of these impressions. Just chart your numbers and measure progress from peak-to-peak or trough-to-trough. Also, don't ignore increases in strength and overall feeling of health and well-being. Those are goals too. Please understand that if you're following the daily intensity and carefully limiting your portions, the progress is happening, whether it's obvious or not. I've just seen too many individual cases to think any different. How much muscle gain is reasonable? In general, even a fraction of a pound a week is great, and a pound a week is outstanding. If you calculate that you've gained several pounds a week, with a similarly dramatic fat loss, you've probably either overestimated your initial bodyfat level, or underestimated your current bodyfat level. As Lee Haney (who has won more consecutive Mr. Olympia titles than anyone in bodybuilding) states "The first year you train steadily, you might be fortunate enough to put on 20 pounds of muscle, but the second year it may be only 10, the third only 6, and the fourth only 4-5. Since it gets harder and harder to make gains in lean body mass, I'm happy with an average of 2-3 new pounds yearly." Muscle gains can be unusually fast for beginners, but be realistic in your goals and progress estimates. Men generally need bodyfat at about 9% before they start looking "cut". The percentage is closer to 15% for women. Depending on where you started, it may take more than one 12-week program to get there (which is fine). Bodyfat percentages of 6-15% for men and 12-18% for women are generally considered "lean". Those lower bounds should be respected. Women with much less than 12% bodyfat typically wreak havoc with their estrogen regulation, and put themselves at risk for osteoporosis. Below 6% for men and 12% for women is not healthy (a lot of nutrients rely on fat-solubility to be stored in the body). Conversely,

extremely fit bodybuilders only have to gain a few percent in fat in order to "look" unfit (Hint: the EAS guys know this - In the Body-of-Work video, there's a scene where Bill is looking at pictures, and remarks about the "tight" skin that bodybuilders get when they intentionally fatten up).

Another good way to see this is to look at Clark Bartram's pictures in the EAS "New Theory of Evolution" ad above (I don't even get revenue from it. Darn). Unlike the Physique Transformation Champions, Clark is an experienced fitness model who gained weight for a series of transformation photos over 12 weeks. Those extra few pounds make a significant difference in definition. Though he shaved and stood up straighter, even his 4-week photo must have made him think "Gee, I'd better get tootin' here - I'm under contract to lose this in 8 more weeks". I suspect that it takes between 6 and 8 weeks to see enough changes to stop the second guessing. But again, the areas that always looked "too fat" will still look "too fat" for a while, even if you're making incredible progress. If it took you years to get into this condition, at least give the program at least 12 weeks of solid discipline. I guarantee you'll be glad you did. Lastly, if you've been sedentary for a long time, your fat probably hasn't seen an ounce of circulation since high school. This causes your fat to turn thick and hard, or "blubbery" (yes, Scrabble fans, that is a word). Marine animals have this sort of fat deposit, called a "blubber lay". When you start working out consistently, some of you may find that your fat becomes more like Jell-O initially. In whales (forgive me - this is not personal), increased activity also forces a change in circulation strategy so that there is increased blood flow near the body's surface. I suspect that this occurs in humans as well, so you may be a little "pink" for even hours after a hard workout.

The bottom line Use intensity

Experience that intensity every day (except possibly your free day) Hit your 9's and 10's (no gasping allowed) Focus on contracting the muscle, not on lifting the weight For every exercise, in every workout, make one set a new "personal best" Eat frequently, to maintain the nutrient stream and keep your metabolism up Watch your portions carefully, but don't go below your BMR Don't "tweak" the program excessively (see the "tweaking" section) Stick to the authorized list of foods (preferably including Myoplex) Drink lots of water Use other people's "after" pictures as inspiration, and to visualize your own success Don't compare yourself to those "after" pictures ... yet AND DON'T GIVE UP! Everybody's body starts out a little different.

A final note - I am not a physician (my parents wanted me to be a medical doctor… but I can't stand blood, so there you are). And while I've studied the academic research in an inexplicably wide range of fields, I'm not qualified to advise you about unusual health-related issues. You should rely on your doctor for advice on whether this program is appropriate for you, particularly if you are extremely unfit and have high blood pressure or a family history of heart disease. It's not likely that you'll have any problem with "overtraining" on this program, but it's useful to know the signs. Unusual tightness in the chest, extreme shortness of breath, and acute chest pain that radiates to the arms or jawbone are signs of cardiovascular stress. Sudden, strenuous exercise may raise the risk of heart attack in extremely unfit individuals with cardiovascular disease, by disrupting arterial plaques. For these individuals, gradual increase in fitness is much more important than fast results. Also, use a fan if you tend to get uncomfortably hot. Excessive sweating doesn't burn more fat - it just throws off your electrolytes (sodium and potassium) and leaves you exhausted. Since a large amount of energy use is dissipated as heat, you shouldn't compound it by exercising in extreme heat. If your skin becomes hot and dry and you feel confused, or you suddenly feel chilled and get goose bumps, go somewhere shady immediately and drink cool fluids (not ice-water).

Depending on your circumstances, your doctor may advise a blood profile, EKG, stress test, or other diagnostic routine. Assuming everything checks out fine medically, try to stick to the program without changing it much. Bill Phillips has studied the transformations of tens of thousands of people, and it's clear that he knows what works. There's no need to overtrain, or to try to reinvent the wheel. Everything is here for a reason, and if you follow this to the letter, it will work! For the first few weeks, just resolve to yourself that you will equate success with the daily progress of doing your workouts and carefully following your nutrition plan. If you don't see amazing results immediately, stick with it - you're typical. The fact that you've made the decision to change your life already means that you're more than ordinary. GOOD LUCK! Best wishes, John P. Hussman, Ph.D., MSEd. P.S. If you found this helpful, I would really appreciate an e-mail or a note in my guestbook (click here). I do a lot of research, and one of my goals is to write for Muscle Media, so it helps to hear about your experiences. I plan to add to the contents based on your comments, so do bookmark this page and visit every now and then. There are also a lot of specifics on fat loss, caliper use, weight training, diabetes, fatty acids and other topics on my Q&A page. Let me know how you're doing! Thanks!

www.hussman.com/eas