What You Need To Know About The Body for Life Diet Plan

The Basics

Body for Life is an intense exercise and nutrition program based on the premise that you're more likely to stick with a diet and workout if you see results quickly.

It involves eating six small meals each day for six days a week, drawing from a list of healthy foods such as vegetables, brown rice, poultry, and fish. On the seventh day, you rest -- free to eat anything you want and take a day off from the rigorous workout.

The Body for Life plan also involves training with weights for 45 minutes three days a week, then alternating with aerobic exercise for at least 20 minutes three days a week. The program is challenging.

Things to Eat

The Body for Life program requires you to eat six moderate-sized meals a day. Each meal consists of a fist-sized portion of protein -- lean mean, poultry, fish, egg whites, or cottage cheese -- and a fist-sized portion of carbohydrates such as potatoes or brown rice. You must also eat at least two portions of vegetables, and drink 10 glasses of water each day. Nutritional supplements and a tablespoon or two of healthy oil (such as flaxseed) round out the diet.

The diet breaks down to about 40%-50% protein, the same for carbohydrates, and very little fat. (A traditional weight-loss diet is 60% carbohydrates, 20-25% protein, and 20-25% fat.)

They Claim It Works Because . . .

You eat fewer calories and you burn more calories in exercise.

The foods on the Body for Life authorized list tend to be lower in calories. By eating fist-sized portions, you're sure to consume fewer calories, even if you are eating six meals a day.

Also, the intense weight lifting builds muscle, which increases your metabolic rate all day. By exercising strenuously six days a week, eventually you'll burn more calories around the clock.

Some Opinions I Found

There's an element of truth and an element of science and a lot of hype to this program.

The Body for Life program is effective if you follow it closely, but it may require too much exercise for most people. Other than a tiny percentage, people will not do that much exercise.

Experts disagree on the value of a diet that's 40-50% protein. If you have normal kidneys, it's probably not a problem. When you limit carbohydrates, your body turns to stored fat for fuel. This process burns fat, but it also increases the strain on your kidneys.

My Thoughts

This program seems more sound than many of the "fad" diets out there these days. But, the high levels of protein consumption is definitely something I am concerned about. Also, the extremely low fat may be a problem for many people because it may leave them feeling hungry. Maybe the six meals a day will off set this.

I like the idea of the high amount of exercise, which will definitely build muscle and strength. And exercise has an incredible number of benefits besides helping you to lose weight.

Realistly though, I doubt that many people have the discipline to follow this kind of an exercise regime. And, as I said earlier, the high protein content could be a problem for some people.


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