The logic Bill uses is definately good, but it takes forever to get to the point! As in his magazine, he tickles you with a feather all the way through, but never reveals the "secret".

This might sound like sour grapes, but all I am urging you to do is watch your wallet! There are pleanty of sources out there for this information on the net, and best of all, they're FREE (ie, See Lee Labrada's site. Did you know that several of the past EAS $1 million champions followed this diet as opposed to Bill Phillips?).

Buyer Beware!


This is truly a diet plan for life!   March 20, 2003
 123 out of 126 found this review helpful

I am writing this review for the benefit of anyone contemplating this diet and exercise regimen. In addition to reading the book, I read almost every review on Amazon both good and bad because committing yourself to this diet is not as simple as joining weight watchers or some other diet plan. First, let me cut to the chase and tell you that it works incredibly well AND you will probably feel the best you have ever felt in your adult life. I am probably the average guy in terms of what shape I was in. I am 39 years old, 6 feet tall and weighed 199 lbs. I am currently in my seventh week of the program and have lost 17 lbs! The program is amazing. Like anything else, success is not easy but it is absolutely attainable.

I had been on weight watchers for approx 8 months and had lost 20 lbs. I could not get beyond that initial loss of 20 lbs. My opinion is that Weight Watchers is a great diet for the average person but Body for Life is more of a regimen and it gives you a thorough plan for exercising. I broke down the rest of my review into 4 categories:

1.PREPARATION - The key to success, as Mr. Phillips points out, is planning. You need to plan every aspect of this diet or else your risk of failure will be high. This diet is not for last minute planners. Give yourself time every day to plan the next day, especially during the first couple of weeks.

2.FOOD - Many of the reviewers complained about the book implying that you need to buy the nutritional supplements. Ignore them. The book is not a sales pitch. I gave into one shake per day and a "carb lite" bar a few times per week. The shakes take some getting used to but after a while I actually enjoy them. It also takes the pressure off of having to plan 6 mix meals a day. A pleasant surprise was how good egg substitutes could be. The best thing about the diet is the free day because there is a tremendous psychological advantage knowing that if you crave something, you can have it on your free day. I have used that free day to eat the meals that I really enjoy. Going off the diet actually rejuvenates you because you feel guilty at the end of the day and you can't wait to get back on the program on Monday morning. I always taken advantage of that free day and was still able to lose weight every week. I want to emphasize though, that I did not binge on anything. I ate 3 meals that I really like and had dessert but did not eat to the point where it was binging. Do not view the day as a free-for-all.

3.EXERCISE - I do not like working out in a gym. I would much rather work out in the privacy of my home. Therefore, for approx $200 I was able to buy a bench and a couple of dumbbell sets. The reason I bought two sets of dumbbells is that you only have 1 minute to rest between sets and you need the time to rest. Look through the book before you buy the bench and decide which exercises you are going to do.

4.MISCELLANEOUS - Buy and utilize his Success Journal. Every morning after I workout I plan out my meals and record other data as I am cooling down. Utilize the Body for Life website. Not only is there an expanded food list, but you can submit questions that get answered in the same day. Make sure you take the "before" pictures of yourself. You will not be sorry at the end of the 12 weeks.

As I was reading the amazon reviews I did sense that some reviewers read the book and critiqued it without actually doing the diet. This book cannot be properly reviewed unless the reviewer follows the plan for 12 weeks. No diet program is perfect but this one has dramatic results. In summary, I feel the best I have ever felt in a long time. It is also an incredible feeling actually having tightened-up my body to the extent that it shows. Let's not forget that there are many ways to lose weight and get in shape, but this book had the best results. Also, the major aspect of this plan that attracted me to it is that it is not a radical plan. He really does not eliminate anything from your diet 100%. You still get proteins and carbs but just in moderation. I had read, for example, Dr Atkins' book. To me, that is not a diet that can be maintained long-term. And, I know two people who were on Atkins and lost a significant amount of weight. Within a year or two they were both fatter then when they started that diet. I hope this review encourages at least one person to start this diet because it truly is life changing without being unrealistically restrictive.


Not a Magic Pill, but IT WORKS!   December 18, 1999
 113 out of 128 found this review helpful

I have to say that this book has changed my life and my body.

I've been doing the program for about 5 weeks and I am looking and feeling great. Other people have noticed the changes in my body and they all want to know what I'm doing. I can't wait to see what I look like when I complete week 12.

Hey, this program is NOT easy, so if you're looking for that magic pill, you're in the wrong place. But if you're willing to work hard and you follow the program as outlined in the book at the proper intensity levels, you will see results. The extent of the results you see will be up to YOU, NOT Bill Phillips. Nobody can control how hard you train and how good you eat, except you. This book can only give you the spark, but you have to keep the fire burning yourself (there are also Body for Life reps who you can call 24/7 to answer any questions concerning your training and/or nutrition).

Just a word on supplements: Yes, I use them, and yes, they can be expensive (there are places on the internet where you can get them for 40% - 60% off, do your research); but they work. I am very busy, so the only way I can get six meals a day is by replacing three meals with Myoplex, which tastes pretty good. And yes, Myoplex has Aspartame.

A word on Aspartame: I see that many of you people have fallen into "Big Sugar's" powerful trap.

There has been plenty of research that proves that unless you have, PKU, which ia a very rare congenital disease, aspartame is completely safe. The Center for Disease Control estimates that only about 15,000 Americans have PKU. Over 100,000,000 people use aspartame.

The average American consumes over 100 lbs. of sugar per year. Whenever any product comes along that threatens Sugar sales, such as Apartame, the Sugar Lobby in this country will make sure that research is done to find something wrong with it! Heck, if you inject rats with enough of anything much of anything, they will develop cancer. The FDA has tested Aspartame on HUMANS, and have found no evidence to suggest that it is anything but safe.

All I know is this; I've never met one person who has become sick from the use of Aspartame, but I see hundreds of people everday that are overweight and unhealthy because of SUGAR! Think About It!


It's fast, it's effective, it works. What more do you want?   July 20, 2000
 111 out of 113 found this review helpful

I'm on the 11th week of this program and while I'm not in two weeks going to look like the photos inside the book--those are the champions of the Body-for-LIFE challenge--it will probably only take me a month or so more to get there. This is not bad considering prior to this I had more-or-less given up on being much more than thin, since muscle-building programs always seem to take hours. And I have built more muscle working with weights for 45-minutes a day, three times a week, than I have in any previous program I've tried, no matter how lengthy.

The thing to keep in mind, if you use Mr. Philips' system, is that you will be gaining weight as well as losing it. I've only netted about a pound a week weight loss--but I've lost much more than that in fat, since I've gained considerable muscle mass. This is a good thing unless you're obsessed with the numbers on the scale.

The system for eating isn't a diet in the traditional crash-weight-loss sense. You don't measure stuff out with scales and tape-measures; you do have to maintain your integrity when picking portions for yourself. (There's a simple guideline.) You eat six meals a day from a simple menu. (Philips recommends a powdered drink mix but I don't care for those, and the program still works for me.)

This is the real genius of the diet though: One day a week, you can eat whatever you want, however much you want. In the book, Mr. Philips says that you'll be happy to get back to your regular eating pattern after your "free day", even after only six days on the diet. I didn't believe it when I read it; I was astounded to experience it for myself. (I'm a binge eater, normally: I eat one or two huge meals a day, easily go 15 to 24 hours without food, enjoy fasting. This program changed that, quickly and rather easily.) I've enjoyed my free days, and some weeks I've looked forward to them more than others, but I'm glad to go back to (my new) normal diet afterward, every time.

This really =is= something you can do for the rest of your life without completely organizing your life around exercise and diet. The exercise routines are quick and remarkably effective. The diet is flexible enough to where you never have to cheat. What more do you want?

Well, if Amazon would let me, I would knock a half-a-star out for a few annoying things: The graphic design of the book is not helpful. (Even the typesetting of the title is obnoxious.) The graphics for the workouts communicate the concept, but don't really help you if you're sweataing through one. And why is it that the three groups of foods (proteins, carbohydrates, vegetables) have exactly the same number of entries in the table? Seems like the list could be expanded a bit.

And, let's be honest: the number one source of philosophers in America are diet/exercise gurus. This book is no exception, being filled with insights and philosophies of how to live and take control of our lives and so on. I don't have a problem with this (and Mr. Philips' philosophy is fairly workable) but the sheer amount of it can make it difficult to just =find= the meat of the program (the exercise and diet patterns).

I also always get a chuckle out of specious analogies like "grazers are horses" where "bingers are bears", so which do you want to look like? Oh yeah? How about cows (they graze) and lions (who binge)?

But these are minor points. (Like the editorial review that thinks it's weird that carbohydrates and vegetables are listed separately--well, the vegetables are all of the low-cal variety and it wouldn't do to replace lettuce with a plate of pasta, would it?) The major point is that it works, and is manageable.