Wow, now there’s a question and a half.

As this is the highest-ranking blog on the subject of Body For Life that has been running for 18 months plus and receives hundreds of visitors every day you’re probably thinking my answer is going to be yes.

And you’d be right.

But there are a few things we need to discuss first.

The principles of Body For Life are tried and tested. They work. They’re also found in a variety of other fitness, weight loss and exercise plans, it’s just that it was Bill Philips who tied all the elements together and branded it Body For Life.

The eating plan is very similar to a number of others. The cardio element is commonplace.

The real strength here though is the “system”.

Every month there are new workouts, new diets, new ideas. If not, there wouldn’t be magazines like Men’s Health. They’d just say “eat healthily, exercise regularly and lift some weights” and that woul dbe their first and last issue.

Exercise fanatics by definition seem to be always looking for a magic pill. They’re always looking for that one workout or that one diet that will catapult their success. Sorry folks, but it’s not going to happen.

What happens with the Body For Life plan is that it forces you to commit to 12 weeks of effort. After that, you do what you like.

But that 12 weeks keeps you on the straight and narrow long enough to see some results. By then you’ll likely be so happy you’ll want to stay on the diet for a long time to come.

So the success is as much in the phychology of attaining a great physique as it is about the physical process.

Also, bear in mind that the plan covers every element in great detail.

Read, for example, the Atkins Diet book and you’ll be told you need to exercise.

However when you read Body For Life you’re told you need to exercise, then told when, how, for how long, how hard, how fast, what exercise, what frame of mind, how to track it, why to do it, how you’ll feel and more.

There simply is so little guesswork involved.

Body For Life is, to be brutal, weight loss of idiots.

No thinking required. No experience or knowledge of the fitness industry needed.

Just a burning fire inside you to achieve, the book and a few basic accessories.

So to reiterate my first comment here - is Body For Life real? The answer is yes. You will more than likely  lose weight. A lot of weight. I did. This blog is full of my own experiences on the BFL plan. I’ve proven that it works live here on the Internet with nowhere to hide.

One proviso though. It is just my humble opinion, but I don’t think your chances of looking like on the classic “after” photos is likely.

It *could* happen, but I doubt it. These people are genetically gifted. Their bodies just took to the program beautifully.

Most peoples won’t. Mine didn’t. I lost weight, I toned up, I put on a little muscle. There’s no denying I look a lot better now than I did then, but it didn’t make me look like a WWF wrestler.

So be realistic with yourself. Body For Life tends to be better for fat loss than muscle gain. Look closely at the before and after photos and you’ll notice the big difference is the fat that has been stripped away from the contestants. If there is a lot of muscle showing, it was most lilkely there before, just hidden by the fat.

If that doesn’t worry you, and you really want a tried and tested way to look and feel better about yourself I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend Body For Life. It’s changed my life, and I hope it does the same for you.

Popularity: 67% [?]

Let’s be realistic - eating 5 or 6 high quality meals a day is hard work. Eating every 3 hours or so while you’re awake can be hard enough to fit in anyway but when you consider your food choices it gets ten times harder.

No grabbing a candy bar or bag of chips. No we’re talking chicken, turkey, vegetables, eggs and so on.

No ideal “on the go” food.

You’d either spend your whole life cooking and washing up or would have to cook giant-sized portions and spread out the eating over several meals.

So if you’re going to eat right, you need a solution to this conundrum.

If you’re careful, you *can* do it with proper ingredients. A popular snack for me is king prawns on a bed of salad covered in a dash of salad dressing. It works. Or mix a fat-free yogurt with a protein shake. That works too. But soon after this my mind goes blank.

If you have healthy snacks that are acceptable on Body For Life please leave your comments at the end of this post so we can all share your ideas.

On the whole though, most people (including myself) end up relying to a certain degree on meal replacement drinks or MRDs.

There are a range of other terms used for them, and they don’t just come in drink format. You can get meal replacement bars for example, though I find them a bit dry and dull for my palette.

The meal replacement drink though is ideal. It comes in a range of flavors, it’s sweet so satisfies that element, is thick and creamy (the texture really is great) and lastly really fills me up.

One of these can be downed in 30 seconds or less then you can get straight back on with life knowing you’re good to go for another few hours.

Now I wouldn’t live on these things. These are just to *help* your diet. Meat and vegetables must be the basis. But to help you on your way, meal replacement drinks work just fine.

A highly recommended resource for your Body For Life success.

Popularity: 42% [?]

So you’re following the Body For Life program but you’re not seeing any results - no what?

OK, first things first.

How long have you been on the Body For Life plan and how are you measuring your results?

I recommend Measuring as many things as is humanly possible when you commence the diet. Have a professional measure your body fat. Weight yourself. Measure as many different parts of your body as possible. Waist, stomach, arms, chest and so on. Lastly take photographs of yourself.

The first problem might just be you’re not measuring the right things. If you lose a pound of fat but put on a pound of muscle yet the only measurement you do is to weigh yourself it’ll look like you’re not getting any results.

Also, if you’re taking measurements every day you may actually *gain* weight short term. Even sometimes on a weekly basis it’s too often to spot noticeably differences.

If you’ve been two weeks, have done all the measuring I suggest and *still* can’t see any difference, *then* you have a problem. If not, do the measuring I suggest and give it another two weeks - you’ll likely start to see some results by that stage. Certainly by 4 weeks but I know it can be hard to put your heart and soul into something without seeing any benefits.

OK, so assuming you still can’t notice any difference there are two other possibilities.

The first is that you’re one of the 1 in a million people who are just unfortunate enough that this diet won’t work for you. There’s no way of telling till you try, and it’s very unlikely. But it’s still possible.

Far more likely is you’ve misunderstood something on the Body For Life plan and so you’re not doing it right.

Have you overestimated the size of a portion when it comes to your diet, for example? Are you really putting 100% intensity into your workouts or are you taking things a little easier? Have you broken any rules by missing workouts or eating unauthorized foods?

If so, these too can throw you off course and lead to no results.

I would say the greatest reason for apparent lack of results is just lack of measurement or time, but if in doubt, go back over your journal (you have been keeping one like they suggest, havn’t you?!) and work out what needs changing.

Don’t be afraid to reduce your food intake a little or increase your exercise a bit. Do more rather than less and see how you’re doing in a couple of weeks time.

My own challenge involved a lot of subtle changes, and my weight loss wasn’t the same every week - it fluctuated up and down. It’s just the nature of the beast.

Worst case scenario, add your experience to the comments section at the end of this post and we’ll see if there’s anything obvious you need to brush up on.

Popularity: 34% [?]

HIIT stands for High Intensity Interval Training. I have blogged about the principles of HIIT several times over the last year or so so I strongly recommend you check out the related posts at the end of this one for further information.

Bill Philips has single-handedly introduced thousands of people to HIIT without anyone knowing what it is.

The principle of HIIT (and the cardio sessions on the Body For Life program) is rather than working for a long period of time at a low intensity on a cardio machine - such as spending an hour poldding away on an exercise bike - you instead do short bursts of high intensity exercise.

An example would be 5 minutes of moderate exercise, followed by cycles of 30 seconds of high intensity exercise then 1 minute of low intensity exercise. Finish with a 5 more minutes of moderate exercise as a warm down.

Only 15-20 minutes like this can burn more fat than doing an hour or more of “old fashioned” cardio.

Body For Life is quite prescriptive about exactly what intensity you do in what minute but you don’t have to stick religiously to it. I personally find it a bit too controlling and find I can’r effectively concentrate on my exercise if I’m trying to remember what minute I’m on and what intensity I should be doing.

So I just do the following. My cardio exercise of choice is running. Except when it’s cold when it is either the stationary bike or eliptical in the gym.

But let’s focus on the running for the Body For Life HIIT example…

I sent a stopwatch on my Casio running watch and start off at a gentle jog. The sort of jog I can speak during. I change my pace and gait regularly - small steps, long steps, high knees, low knees and so on to try and warm up and exercise every muscle in my legs for what is coming.

Then at 5 minutes I dash as fats as my legs will take me for 30 seconds. It hurts and I have no doubt I look daft because I put everything into it. I get red and sweaty *very fast* indeed. At 30 seconds I calm back down the original pace and keep changing the intensity like this until I get to minute 15 where I just slow right down and do the last 5 minutes nice and slowly again to cool down.

By the end of a Body For Life HIIT session I feel like my legs are going to fall off but it s a great feeling.

Be ready to really work hard, but appreciate the sessions are over very quickly indeed.

Popularity: 25% [?]

The successes at the Body For Life program say that diet is 80%+ of the battle. Get your diet right and everything else follows. Also, most people find it easier to do some exercise than clean up their diet. It’s the real decider between success and failure and I find it as difficult as anyone else.

Temptation is always just round the corner.

Luckily, having tried all sorts of diets over the years, I firmly believe the Body For Life diet is the best around. It’s not as powerful at fat burning as the Atkins Diet but it works well, it’s quite easy to stick to and you have quite a variety of tasty foods you can eat.

Leans meats such as chicken, turkey, certain cuts of beef, seafood and so on mixed with egg whites, fruit, vegetables, low fat cheese and so on make up quite a nice diet.

Breakfast might be oatmeal with dried fruit and cinamon. Or maybe an omlette with chopped peppers and onions in. A glass of low fat milk, water or green tea can accompany it.

Lunch might be a wholemeal tortilla with chicken, salad and a little salsa and so on.

You eat regular small meals to stoke your metabolism and keep it burning calories on overdrive while you enjoy a diet you can stick to.

This sticking point is important so allow me a few minutes to dwell a little deeper on it.

Not so long ago I blogged here about trying out the Atkins diet. I lost an amazing amount of weight but I found a lot of the food a bit “stodgy”. After a month I was dying for something a little lighter, a little sweeter.

On the Body For Life diet not only can you eat fat-free yogurt and fruit in moderation (so helping any cravings for sweet foods) but you also get a “free day” each week.

For one day out of seven you eat whatever you like. Some people just have a free meal each week and eat clean the rest of the time but you’re allowed a whole day of pizza, donuts, cola and everything else you love but know you’re not meant to eat.

This makes it so easy to stick to good food the rest of the week. The difference it makes really can’t be described. Saying “no” to junk food for the rest of your life is hard. The Atkins diet diudn’t have a free day. I was on it for a month solidly, and would have killed for a free day.

So you think “Wow, I really fancy a choc chip cookie”. No problem. Buy it, then save it till your free day. It’s only a few days away. Then eat it and enjoy it. You’ve done well. Enjoy the treat.

Then the next day, get back onto the program.

Honestly, the Body For Life diet is the best I’ve found so far and I highly recommend you try it out.

Popularity: 72% [?]