Body for Life
Body for Life
Body for Life is a 12-week diet and work out diet, and also an annual physique transformation contest. It was created by Bill Phillips, a former competitive bodybuilder and the founder of EAS, a manufacturer of nutritional supplements. It has made popular by the bestselling book "Body for Life".
One of the major benefits of the Body-for-Life diet is how easy it is. You can read the book quickly. You can start the program very quickly.
It is one of the few loss of weight programs which places an equal focus on diet and work out. When it comes to diet the rules are fairly simple:
The first annual Body for Life competition was held in 1996. Entrants document their experience of the diet, and send this to EAS along with their 'before' and 'after' swimsuit photos. Winners receive US$1,000,000.
Body for Life makes use of principles that have been widely known in bodybuilding. It has been marketed to appeal to consumers and the general public.
Body for Life Diet
The Body for Life diet consists of six meals a day, containing a lean protein-rich food, and an unrefined carb-rich food. Some meals include a vegetable as well. The vegetable provides dietary fiber and vitamin content. Portion sizes should be about the size of a person's hand, either open or clenched into a fist. You should eat every 3-4 hours.
- "Approved" protein-rich foods include skinless chicken or turkey breast, fish, egg whites, low-fat cottage cheese, whey protein shake, very lean ham or beef etc.
- "Approved" carbs-include brown rice, whole grain bread, pasta, potatoes, oatmeal, fruit etc.
- "Approved" vegetables include spinach, tomatoes, broccoli, carrots, cabbage, mushrooms etc.
You should add one tablespoon per day of safflower, flaxseed, and sesame or canola oil, perhaps in a salad dressing, to provide Omega-3 and Omega-6 necessary fatty acids. A popular alternative is a small handful of walnuts or almonds.
One day a week is considered a "free day," when you can eat anything you want. The idea of the free day is brilliant. Most people would not follow any loss of weight diet that stated you could never eat your favorite foods again. The psychological lift you will get from the free day far outweighs any downside.
Follow the rules and you will get the basic nutrients you need. Portion control is handled without tracking calories. Your fist size is proportionate to your body, so your portions will be right for your body size.
As with any weight loss diet, when first out it's probably best to focus mainly on changing your eating habits. Focus on changing your habits and attitudes towards food.
Food is designed to nourish your body during the changes you will experience on this diet. In order to build muscles you need to get proper nutrition
This is what separates a program like Body-for-Life from other diets. You expend a lot of energy with workouts, and you need to replenish that energy with muscle building nutrients.
Combining intense exercise with a proper diet is a great combination. The exercise burns fat off your body and the high protein diet feeds your muscles. This makes the Body-for-Life program far more than a regular weight loss program.
At several points in the book, Phillips promotes EAS nutritional supplements. This has attracted large amounts criticism.
The diet program relies on key principles:
Increased protein
This is considered crucial in the program. Phillips' reasoning behind this is:
- Unlike carbs, protein provides long-lasting energy without an insulin surge (which promotes fat storage).
- Protein suppresses the appetite.
- Protein is essential for building muscle.
- Protein takes a lot of energy to digest, which builds the body's metabolism.
- Lean protein-rich foods are lower in calories than carbohydrate-rich foods.
Smaller portions
Weighing food and counting calories can be hard. Phillips says estimating portion sizes by comparing them to the size of your hand is quite easy, potentially lowering mistakes and making it harder to cheat.
Eating more frequently
Carbs provide the main energy for the body, but three to four hours after eating with little glucose left in the bloodstream and slow down the metabolism. Frequent but small meals increases the metabolism slightly.
Exercise
Body for Life addresses exercise in addition to energy input. For best results, exercise should include lifting weights to build muscles and increase the metabolism.
Body for Life's workout diet is more complicated than its diet. It suggests exercising six days a week and alternating between weight training and aerobic workout. Weight training sessions alternate between upper body and lower body workout. This allows muscles time to recover before the next schooling session.
Intensity index
Body for Life uses Gunnar Borg's Rating of Perceived Exertion for assessing the intensity of exercise based on how hard you feel you are working on a scale of 0 to 10:
- 0 is no exertion at all.
- 2 corresponds to very light workout. For a healthy person, this is like walking slowly at their own pace for several minutes.
- 5 on the scale is somewhat hard exercise, but it still feels OK to continue.
- 8 is very strenuous. A healthy person can still go on, but they really have to push themselves. It feels very heavy, and the person is very tired.
- 9 on the scale is an extremely strenuous exercise level. For most people this is the most strenuous exercise they have ever experienced.
- 10 is maximal exertion: an all-out, 100% effort.
These levels accommodate differences in fitness. An unfit dieter may require a level 10 effort to walk uphill, but an athlete this may only be a level 3 effort. Over the course of the 12-week Body for Life diet an person would get noticeably stronger and healthier, so their intensity scale would be adjusted.
Aerobic workout
Most kinds of aerobic workout are okay. Well-known choices include walking or running, biking, swimming, or using a cross-trainer. However, exercise classes are generally not suitable, unless they are specifically designed for Body for Life.
Phillips claims that aerobic workout is more effective for fat loss when completed in the morning, because it increases the metabolism for the rest of the day, and because the body will burn more fat after not eating during the night.
|
