BFL Support - Why the Body for Life Program Works
By John P. Hussman, Ph.D.
All rights reserved and actively enforced.

The Body-for-LIFE workouts Nutrition Tweaking the program Crossing the Abyss Dr. Hussman's Main Fitness Site Bill Phillips

"The entire BFL Program is based on scientific research. Instead of going into great detail about that here and now, what I'd like to do is recommend a website which has been put together by a guy named John Hussman. John is a smart guy (he has his Ph.D., so he's done a lot of studying) and has completed the 12-week program. In order to help others experience the BFL breakthrough he invested hours of his time compiling a report called "Why Body-for-LIFE Works" and he has published it on his website. The address is [www.hussmanfitness.org]. You should check this site out. It really is impressive work. John composed this report to help other people. He has not received any money for doing this. This is a man who is putting the universal law of reciprocation to work in a big way. I'm proud of him. And I'm thankful for what he has done to help me help others." - Bill Phillips, Talk City, 12/14/2000 (Thanks Bill, Glad to help! - John)

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Welcome to my Body-for-LIFE support page! 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. I really believe that Bill did the right thing in keeping the Body-for-LIFE book simple and easy to understand. But you'll have a great deal more confidence following the program if you understand the science too.

This page is specifically geared to the Body-for-LIFE program. In addition, my main fitness page has very detailed information on energy systems, metabolism, fat loss, caloric deficits, body fat measurement, lifting technique, low-glycemic nutrition, sports supplements, and everything else you'll need to successfully transform your body.

There are two keys to the Body-for-LIFE program:

1) Daily, brief, progressive workouts: Alternating 20 minute aerobic workouts using 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, and a portion of carbohydrates, and since you'll be building muscle and burning fat, about a gallon of water daily to support these metabolic processes.

Let me add something else right up front that should be clear from Bill's "authorized list" but is too often overlooked: add a vegetable occasionally. Water containing vegetables such as spinach, carrots, broccoli, lettuce, celery, green beans and cucumbers, among others, are excellent, and have very low caloric content.

The key to the BFL workouts is that they are brief, daily, and progressive. They are patterned in a way that periodically drives you to reach higher highs. While there are several aspects that you can add to BFL to accelerate your progress (including low-glycemic nutrition, cross-training, proper supplementation, and a focus on the short-term goal for each day and each workout), it's very clear that BFL works because it is consistent with cutting-edge fitness research. Everything that Bill includes in the program is there for a reason. As I note on my main fitness page, an effective workout program should train every one of your energy systems. 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. 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 to lose 20 pounds in preparation for his before picture.

The Body-for-LIFE Workouts

Bill's "20-minute aerobics solution" is a type of "High Intensity Interval Training" (HIIT). Bill's solution is very effective. You start with two minutes of warmup at a level 5, then move to level 6 for a minute, then 7. This portion of your workout is aerobic. You should be able to carry on a broken conversation, breathing deeply but not out of breath. Your level 8 should have more bounce and push to it, taking you slightly out of your comfort range. Your level 9 effort is a "high point" and should be somewhat anaerobic. The goal is not extreme exertion. If you aren't getting somewhat winded and you don't feel a modest burn in your muscles near the end, it's probably too easy, but no gasping as if you've been held underwater. 

After your level 9, you drop back down to a level 6 (that's a level 6, not a 2 or 3). As noted on my main fitness page, you're shooting for "active recovery", or what physiologists sometimes call "recovery under stress."

The fourth time through this cycle, you add a "high point" - a level 10, after your 9. No gasping allowed, but you should be getting winded. 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 challenging your lactate system. After your 10, you'll get the most benefit from your 10 if you get your breath back to a fully conversational level before stopping. That may take an extra few minutes, but "Twenty-three-and-a-half minute aerobics solution" just doesn't have the same ring to it.

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'" 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.” That said, always check with your physician first to be sure what level of intensity is appropriate for you - particularly if you have any family history of high blood pressure, heart attack, or stroke. ALWAYS EXHALE during the concentric motion. Never hold your breath. 

Your weight training workouts are also geared to achieve the same kind of high point. On the BFL program, you alternate weight training with the 20-minute aerobic solution. 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. Bill's 46-minute weight-training workouts really are enough, as long as you focus on hitting intense high points.

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. The last couple of reps in your final 12 should require everything you've got. Bill describes it as switching from his muscles to his mind. But do concentrate on good form. Pushing a lot of weight in bad form just gets you injured. Most important is that you exhaust the muscle to failure. You do that not only by hitting a high point on the way up, but also by going slow on the eccentric (lowering) motion.

Nutrition

The core of the nutritional aspect of this program is to eat 6 limited, high quality meals a day. As Bill says, "A meal doesn't mean you have Mom lay out a napkin, and put a fancy plate of food out there. A meal simply means a portion of protein and a portion of carbohydrate. So a meal for me may mean a protein drink and a piece of fruit." If your goal is fat loss, remember: frequent, but limited (particularly in terms of refined carbohydrates).

Bill's advice seems to target about 40% carbs, 40% protein, and 20% fat (which is largely contained in the whole foods you eat, even "lean" meats). 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.

A few words about your free day. You should think of the free day as an opportunity to choose "unauthorized" foods. It's not about losing control. It's about making choices and enjoying those choices. The danger of going overboard is that a wild pig-out style free day can blow several days of "caloric deficits" that are essential for fat loss, and can also be detrimental for people who tend to be binge eaters. If you're not a little careful, the idea of "free days" can create an "all or nothing" mindset and sets up binge eating patterns that are hard to eliminate later. That said, kept in perspective, the free day may help counter the risk that your body senses a fasting state. Metabolically, you're trying to convince your body that it doesn't have to lower its metabolism, shed muscle, or defend its fat stores in response to the change in its "environment". You don't need a huge number of extra calories to do that. It's good if your free meals make you feel warm, and it's great if you actually break a light sweat. The free day gives you something to look forward to, keeps your body "confused", and gives you a chance to have that pizza and ice cream you've been eyeing all week, but don't go way overboard. 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.

If you prefer, 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). Don't try to "spread" your free day across the whole week and then kid yourself that you're following the program. That said, if you do have something that's "unauthorized," don't fall into all-or-nothing thinking and say "I blew it! I'm a loser! The day is ruined! Now it's a free day!" followed by a self-destructive binge. Just have a little bit less to eat later that day, or the next day, to make up for that small amount of lost ground. The main thing is that  you don't turn small indiscretions into self-destructive binges. We're all human. If you ate the cookie, you ate the cookie. Now get on with your program. 

As for how much to eat, Bill's "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. If you feel that you must count calories, or you want to do the calculations once just to make sure you're on track, see the section about "How calories work" on my main fitness page. You'll also see fairly quickly why Bill didn't include that discussion in his book. That said, try to keep it simple. The Body-for-LIFE program will work just fine using the "portion rule", as long as you're not holding your hand under a magnifying glass.

Tweaking the program

It 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? Generally 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 in the 12-20 rep range.
• What if I want more muscle growth? Emphasize higher weight/lower rep sets (mostly in the 6-10 range, occasionally in the 2-4 range, but never without a warmup set of about 12 reps first). Be sure to include multi-joint foundation exercises such as barbell bench press, squats/leg press, and cable pulldowns. Be sure to go relatively slow on the eccentric movement, and to vary your tempo and recovery periods from time to time. Have a supplement shake adding high-glycemic carbs (e.g. Phosphagen HP) about an hour after your weight session.
• What if I want more fat loss? Tweak the aerobics as noted below, as long as it doesn't "bonk" your energy. Don't restrict caloric intake excessively. Lean slightly toward more protein and less carbohydrate. Be sure to eat frequent, limited meals. Add lots of vegetables. And try to keep your carbohydrates low-glycemic (see my main fitness page for details).
• 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? Sigh. 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. If you use something other than Myoplex, check for adequate protein (15-30 g, 4 cal per gram), carbohydrate content that's not excessive (not over 35 g, 4 cal per gram preferably not all as sugars), and relatively low fat (0-6 g, 9 cal per gram). Also, there are some ingredients such as glycerine (the carbon-oxygen backbone of triglycerides) that have calories but are classified as "none of the above". Again, read the label.
• Can I eliminate carbohydrates from some of my meals? Too much carb restriction will 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. My understanding is that Porter Freeman had very few carbs in meals 2 and 4. But never eliminate carbs from the meal following an intense workout.
• Can I spread my free day a little over the entire week? If you're asking whether you can succeed on this program without discipline. The answer is no. But as noted above, never use a small indiscretion as an excuse to turn the whole day into a free day. That kind of all-or-nothing thinking is very dangerous to your success. If you ate the cookie, you ate the cookie. Strictly speaking, the BFL plan does not allow treats except for the free day. But I'm a realist, and this issue has been at the heart of many failures I've seen. My best advice is this. If you find that you frequently "ruin" your whole day by indulging in a treat, followed by a guilty self-destructive binge, then by all means, include a little bit "fun food" as part of your written daily meal plan (no more than 5-10% of your total daily calories). That way, you make this a program you can live with, and that little bit of fun food becomes part of the plan, rather than the self-destruct button. 
• 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. If you're interested in fat loss, lean toward modest carb restriction in a couple of your meals (never the one after a workout), and choose low-glycemic carbs for all but the post-workout meal. See my main fitness page for more details on this.
• 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
• Progressive weight training, striving for a high point in each exercise.
• 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

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..

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. And do exhale on the concentric movement. Or your head will pop off (it ain't pretty).

In studying the programs of previous Champions, I'm increasingly convinced that extra aerobic activity has been helpful to many of them. The weight training is also a must. You have to understand that a great deal of aerobics may reduce your muscle gains somewhat, but as long as you're doing the weight training, and following the nutritional aspect of the program, you won't lose muscle mass. So in the short term, 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 term, muscle gains are essential, because that will keep you burning calories even when you're not working out. As Bill Phillips writes, "building muscle is a long-term solution to being overly fat." I completely agree.

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. 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.  

Understand that it's extremely easy to undo any benefit from extra aerobics if you let your caloric intake creep up. So be disciplined in the nutrition part of your program as well. Clearly, if the "tweaking" is leaving you constantly wiped out, and you stop looking forward to your workouts, you need more recovery. You can tweak, but don't overtrain. You know you're overtraining if your performance (lifting ability, endurance) declines noticeably for several days in a row. If that happens, get more rest. It's that simple.

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 tunnelbefore 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. She also regularly went rollerblading with her family in the evenings. Her husband Rockett told me it was like a scene from the movie "Shane", where he would be left behind calling "Shane! Come baaaack!"

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. His nutrition leaned toward low fat, low carbs and high protein. 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, limit it to moderate-intensity aerobics after the weight session, or you'll deplete your muscle glycogen and reduce your lifting ability.]

Tom Archipley: "I did 20 minutes of aerobics every morning for the first 5 weeks of the challenge." Tom was doing weight training three times a week, so for three of those days, he was doubling up on high-intensity workouts. That's overtraining. He told me "At 5 weeks I realized that in order to lose fat I had to gain muscle, so I cut back my aerobics to 3 per week for 20 minutes. I think it's a temptation to do too much cardio and have that undermine the benefits of weight training. If you keep your intensity high enough, you shouldn't have enough left after your cardio to hit weights in the same day."

Mary Queen: "I spent 1 hour and 15 minutes each time I went. I tried to go at least 4times a week. In that time frame, I did my cardio as well as my weight training. So on the days I would go, the first 20 minutes would be devoted to cardio, and the remaining time to resistance training. I was really a 20-minute cardio person. I didn’t really enjoy it as much as a lot of people do. However, in the beginning of my 12-week program, I knew I had a lot of fat to burn. So, I was very religious about doing cardio. I would do cardio 4 times a week minimum, for 20 minutes each time. The favorite was the treadmill - simple running. Then went on to the weight training. Occasionally I would ride the stationary bike to get a break from the regular routine. I did not take a lot of “cheat”meals during the contest, because to me it was difficult to eat things that were very bad for me, and then have to turn around and take them away." Mary's comments are a bit different from the profile in Muscle Media, where her workouts are described exactly as in Body-for-LIFE. But it's fairly clear that she did both aerobics and weight training at least 4 times each per week. Given that, I'm still not certain how intense those aerobics were (I'll edit this if I find out more). Regularly doubling up on the high-intensity workouts can lead to muscle loss, and I don't advise it. Most people would be too wiped out to do it consistently. Also, as I noted in Porter's section above, if you're doing extra, moderate cardio within a few hours of a weight session, it is generally better to do the weight training first. Cardio depletes muscle glycogen and results in earlier muscle fatigue, which makes the weight training less effective. In any event, it's clear that Mary got great results from "tweaking" her activity higher, particularly in terms of fat loss.

Allen Beiber: "My resistance training was 45 minutes to an hour, 3 to 4 days a week. My cardio - the first four weeks was 20 minutes, 5 days a week. The second four weeks I increased it to 40 minutes. And the last 4 weeks I stayed at 40 minutes 3 days a week." Allen spent 13 years being over 100 pounds overweight, so he needed a significant amount of fat loss, which required more than one 12-week Challenge. Regarding fat loss, he advises "I would suggest that you watch your nutrition program very closely, increase the duration of the cardio solution, and maybe add another day of cardio. I would also suggest flexing each muscle group after the final exercise, as a way to get even harder, or more toned. I ate 3 Myoplex shakes and 3 meals. Don't be obsessed with the scale. Measure yourself, or use bodyfat - it's a much more accurate gauge of fitness."

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. Shawn Phillips (Bill's brother) notes "During some phases, I may spend as much as 10 hours a week doing cardio while most often I invest about three to five hours a week." Much of Shawn's cardio is a recreational, low-to-moderate intensity, rather than a high-intensity, all-out effort.

Notice the distinction we're making here: any tweaking should be done by adding moderate activity (certainly no higher than level 8, if you want to get that specific). Here's what Bill Phillips says: "There are a lot people following the Body-for-LIFE program that are involved in vigorous recreational activities like skiing, tennis, inline skating, etc... What I would suggest is that you enjoy those activities AND still do the exact amount of exercise outlined in the Body-for-LIFE program. I think most of the recreational activities that people participate in are not as intense as the exercise outlined in the Body-for-LIFE system and therefore will not interfere with recovery. Typically, 'active rest' enhances recovery and stimulates the mind."

So again, don't add more high intensity training than the program advises, but additional aerobic tweaking can be helpful if you want to accelerate your fat loss results. Just be sure that you don't compensate for the extra aerobics by significantly increasing your calories. And also make sure that your sleep is sufficient.

Crossing the Abyss

Want to know the single best tweak you can do? Here it is: write down three things: your goals, your reasons for wanting them, and a statement about moving forward: "Tomorrow, and every day, I will wake up leaner, stronger, and more muscular. I will have a more chiseled jaw, more well defined abs, (whatever motivates you). Today, I will do everything it takes to achieve that goal." Sign your name to it, MAKE yourself BELIEVE it, read it every day, and follow through relentlessly. It may sound goofy at first, but DO IT. If you're going to change on the outside, you've got to first change your mental image of who you are. You'll be amazed. 

As Bill suggests, make up a game you can win. Plan your workouts, plan your meals, and then follow through. Striving to hit a great high point in today's workout is a game you can win. Following your nutrition program today is a game you can win. Focus on progress. The perfection will come on its own. If you make the mistake of constantly comparing yourself to the "after" pictures of Champions, you run the risk of giving up too easily. Just focus on "doing it" and don't give up. The results will follow.

Remember also that the difference between being thrilled with the way you look and being totally dejected can often be just a few percent in body fat. Don't give up easily!! 

A 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. Most likely, the areas that always looked "too fat" will still look "too fat" for a little 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.

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. Nothing in Bill's program is there by accident. So stick to it. I also hope that the information on this page, and on my main fitness page will help you to reach your goal. To use Bill's words, it's one of my ways of "creating value for others." I know that you'll find ways to do the same thing for people in your own life.

GOOD LUCK!

Best wishes,

John P. Hussman, Ph.D., MSEd.