Bill Phillips Body For Life

Bill Phillips

( Body For Life, Eating For Life )

Type of Counseling: no counselors, some interactive and support features on his website

Typical Cost: under $250

Type Program: do-it-yourself, based on diet book bestseller

Type of Foods Used: grocery store food and meal replacements

At-Home or Direct Mail Plan Available? Yes

Headquarters

EAS

555 Corporate Circle

Golden, CO 80401

(303-384-0080, 800-297-9776)

Website: www.bodyforlife.com

Summary

Bill Phillips, 38, wrote a NY Times bestseller called "Body For Life", that has sold more than 4 million copies. It was on the list for four years, so his plan is certainly popular and well-known. Phillips has received many honors for his work including the Make-A-Wish Foundation's® highest award. He was also honored by Paul Newman and the late John F. Kennedy, Jr. as one of America' s most generous business leaders. The United States Junior Chamber of Commerce honored Phillips in January 2000 as one of Ten Outstanding Young Americans. Phillips is a bodybuilder that believes strongly in regular exercise, supplements, and maintaining a healthy lifestyle.

How The Program Works

This is a regular food plan based on four main components:

1. the Right Foods, 2. the Right Amounts, 3. the Right Combos, and 4. the Right Times. When you combine these four ingredients. claims Bill Phillips, you will have the right recipe to feed your body in a balanced, healthy, satisfying and effective way.

In his book, Eating For Life, Phillips talks about the real problem that we face with obesity, and how to overcome it with today's lifestyle. He also offers motivational guidance, answers to common questions about how to Eat For Life, and the book contains over 200 pages of recipes.

He discusses the problems people have with fast food, and eating on the run. There is a Myth versus Fact chapter. This new information covers problems and misconceptions that we deal with today (diet pills, diet fads, and issues with protein and low-carb diets.)

The program is a 12-week program with time-sensitive goals. This can be seen as a disadvantage, since successful weight loss needs to be an ongoing rather than a limited engagement.

The majority of the book is recipes. Following up the recipes are full color meal plan examples for 2 weeks and a shopping list. After that is a blank meal plan for two weeks that can be written in directly.

This diet plan also uses an exercise journal designed to accompany the book, Body for Life. The journal includes daily nutrition and exercise charts, a place for dieters to record their progress, along with success stories .

People who like this weight loss program say that the guidelines for measuring portions of food are easier to use than many other popular diet plans. The diet also keeps you satisfied and energetic since you typically consume six small meals a day - except for a free day when you can eat anything you want. The theory is that eating small meals balances your blood sugar levels and reduces cravings.

Bill Phillips also uses dietary supplements and nutritional shakes in his program -a possible turn-ff for those who don't want to spend extra money on weight loss products. There is no surprise here, as Phillip's long-time involvement with supplement giant EAS is well-known.

Diet program critics say that Phillips' plan tends to be better than most because of its heavy focus on exercise. In fact, exercise is the one element that appears to be most crucial in long-term weight loss. Phillips, however, de-emphasizes cardiovascular exercise, and for good reason. Building muscle is the most effective exercise for weight loss. Not only do you burn calories while you exercise, but your increased muscles helps burn more calories. Weight training can elevate the metabolism for up to 48 hours after a workout--a benefit not provided by cardio.

Bill Phillips' program has also been licensed by eDiets.com, providing an online version.

The Website

The Body for Life.com website is actually a fairly substantial one that supplements the book and is free. It offers a variety of useful tools and information, but is is heavily focused on exercise. The main channels you will find include:

* Food & recipes: a Body For Life food list, nutrition articles, a recipe finder, sample meal plan, first week shopping list, first week meal plan. Very good features overall, including the recipes.

* Exercise: programs for high intensity weight training as well as a cardio program, neat animated diagram demos of how to correctly perform various exercises for each part of your body (about 10 different exercises for each body part--arms, legs, etc.), daily exercise journal/formatted daily progress reports you download as pdf files, tools such as body fat and calorie calculators, BMI calculator, etc., video clips of various exercises, exercise articles. This part of the website has the most "beef", in our opinion, and has features as good as we've seen on any diet website.

* Products: here one can buy nutrition bars, shakes, books and videos, sold under a variety of EAS brands (Myoplex, AdvantEdge, DynamX).

* Community: This section contains a guestbook, blogs, events, club directory, and newsletter

* Challenge: A single champion of the 12-week program will win a cool $1 million (until 7/4/2005). One has to send in an entry kit containing before/after photos, an essay, and have used Phillips' products at some time during the 12 weeks.

Comment

The Body For Life program is apparently popular, and is based on the use of regular foods. And, it places heavy emphasis on regular exercise, a good thing and a key component of any successful weight loss regimen. However, Bill Phillips also uses dietary supplements and nutritional shakes in his program--a possible negative for those who don't want to spend extra money on weight loss products. The area where this program falls short, in the opinion of BestDietForMe.com analysts, is with support in the psychological aspects of weight control. Neither the book nor the website really addresses these issues in any depth. Nevertheless, as a do-it-yourself, inexpensive option with a very good website, this may be a good option for many dieters, especially those that are more exercise-conscious.

Try our Top 60 Diet Quiz to find out which diet programs are best suited to your specific needs, and which ones will help you keep the weight off.

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The information on this web site is intended for information purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for medical advice. Before starting any weight loss program, it is recommended that you consult your physician or other health care professional.