Body for Life Will Give Your Body A Good Life
Written: Jan 24 '02 (Updated Jan 24 '03)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: A healthy way of eating that allows one free day a week.
Cons: Phillips advocates 3 of his shakes a day!
The Bottom Line: Body for Life is a great way to eat. You will eat healthfully and ensure you are getting good nutritious food.
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| jo.com's Full Review: Body For Life |
As I did with my review on Weight Watchers I am using epinions questions as a guide in my attempt to make my reviews a bit shorter. I am reviewing The Body for Life diet, or as he puts it in his book, "Body for Life," which I reviewed, nutrition for life.
Why did you decide to try this diet?
Bill Phillips’ name was well known to me as a personal trainer. He is the founder and editor-in-chief of Muscle Media magazine as well as the creator of EAS (Experimental and Applied Sciences) products. Before I was consumed (no pun intended) with epinions I was very active in many online boards and one e-mail loop that addressed physical fitness and nutrition. A former Mr. Universe headed the e-mail loop. His eating plan was much like Bill’s but stricter and I found that after awhile I needed a bit more variety since, unlike John, Mr. Universe, I am not a professional body builder. This is when I bought "Body for Life" and ate the Bill Phillips way until I lost my way and fell off the wagon. Weight Watchers is a wonderful way to lose weight and for many a wonderful way to eat forever. I do think that Bill’s way of eating is a healthier one which I will address in the next section.
How healthy is the diet?
~In my opinion, both as a professional and one who has been around food issues for most of my life, this is an extremely healthy diet. Unlike Weight Watchers, which would allow me to eat 23 points of junk a day, Bill’s plan does not. Unlike Atkins’ diet, there are no restrictions on healthy foods, though there are restrictions on portions. Unlike both, there is no counting of anything and unlike my friend John’s diet, salt is not off limits and sugar is allowed once a week.
~I will get into the foods later but for now I will sum up his plan. He has 3 food groups: proteins, carbohydrates and vegetables that he considers authorized foods. In other words, they should and can be eaten. A portion (Remember, if you don’t have a scale, a portion of protein is what will fit into your palm.) of protein and carbohydrates (usually one of something, like an apple, or ½ - 1 cup of something, like cereal) make one portion. He recommends 6 meals (I only ate 5) and a serving of vegetables should be added to at least 2 of those meals. Fruits are in the carbohydrate category (except tomatoes), so for those of you who wonder if you would get enough fruit, the answer is yes, you can.
Does it pose any health risks?
~Phillips has been highly criticized by some because his diet consists of 3 of his shakes per day. My belief is that there are too many calories in a shake for me to have 3 and 6 meals is one too many anyway. Is that a health risk? No. I am not a doctor but unless you are gaining weight from 3 shakes a day there is nothing harmful about them. I actually am a Myoplex user (or was) and think his shakes taste great, are nutritious, and especially terrific after a workout. I would perhaps have a Myoplex lite bar in the afternoon. It is the 9:00pm shake that I personally would avoid. For the average person, there is no health risk to having 3 shakes a day but I think it is a waste of money.
~Phillips advocates one free day a week which John, Mr. Universe, wouldn’t allow. I will get more into that when I get into specifics but some might say that one free day where white products, sugar, salt, flour are allowed isn’t healthy. I disagree. I agree with Bill that for both physiological and psychological reasons a free day is necessary for many. By overeating once a week, he says it helps tell your body it isn’t starving – that’s the physiological part. The psychological part is, of course, being allowed to eat whatever you want – that gives you the notion that you do have a say in what you eat and that you may set yourself up for failure if you don’t allow yourself those “treats” once a week.
For some a free day won't work because it may trigger a binge. Your Sunday (or whatever day you choose) will go into Monday, Tuesday, etc. That is one risk to this free day and one of the reasons John didn't allow it. All my trys on Atkins, however, never curbed my sugar cravings anyway, so if you can stick to one day, Phillips plan can work for you.
How noticeable were your results? How much weight did you lose and how quickly?
~I gained weight once before and hired a personal trainer. This was before I knew of Bill Phillips and before I became a trainer. He put me on what I now know is Bill Phillips' plan and I lost 25 pounds in 4 months.
~When I continued it after I became a trainer and knew what I was doing I wasn’t on this plan to lose weight as much as build muscle and stay healthy. I did, though, lose weight, about 10 pounds overall during the course of months and months. Again, I wasn’t planning on losing the weight, it just happened. This, in my opinion, is not a weight loss plan. For weight loss I highly recommend Weight Watchers. You can then maintain a point system forever, or you can then go to what I consider a healthier way to eat and that is Bill Phillips’ plan.
How restrictive are the portions and the menus?
~I already mentioned portions and I would like to put in here what I wrote in my Weight Watchers review in case you don’t read it. "I am getting recertified as a personal trainer. One of my courses is called, “Eating Out & Staying Healthy.” I want to either quote or summarize some facts: People who eat out eat about 300 more calories, 19 more grams of fat, and 400 more milligrams of sodium than if they ate at home. “In the 1900s plates were typically 8-9 inches in diameter. The average plate in restaurants now is 12 inches.” People underestimate their daily calorie intake by 50%! (Exercise, Etc. Inc. 1999)”
~I doubt people will feel too restricted or deprived if they eat 5 meals a day. I used to call it grazing. It seemed as if I were always eating and actually I was – every 2-3 hours. I will give you a sample of a couple of Bill’s suggested meals:
Mid-morning snack: Mix a portion of cottage cheese with a portion of fat free, sugar free yogurt with 2 cups of water. He advocates drinking at least 10 cups of water a day; Weight Watchers’ minimum is 8 glasses a day. What is a portion you ask? Look at the container. It will tell you what a portion is. A portion of cottage cheese is ½ cup. A portion of spaghetti is 1/2 cup! If you are finding that you are gaining weight because you don’t know the portions, then cut back – just have the yogurt as a snack for example.
Dinner: Baked Turkey breast with one tablespoon of cranberry sauce. Steamed brown rice and broccoli – don’t forget the water.
So although in his book he gives sample menus I think you can see that it is up to you to plan your meals. The only foods you’ll find in a box will be Myoplex shakes and bars. There are no frozen foods, Pritiken soups, or Atkins’ cheesecake in this plan.
For whom would you recommend this diet?
I recommend this diet to anyone who is not trying to lose weight but wants to maintain a healthy weight and a healthy lifestyle. You can, like I did, lose weight but you have to count calories. I ate 350 calories 5 times a day. I would recommend this to people who are active because there may be more calories in it than you are used to so if you have been sitting on the couch for 2 years and don’t think you can control your portions, this will not work. This is the way everyone should eat, with or without a free day. The free day concept is more for adults. I think the plan is great for children, but I have no problem with a child having low fat ice cream after school or cookies and milk. Obviously this doesn’t fit into Bill’s plan for adults.
Will you continue?
I will hopefully get back to this way of eating when I am down to the weight I was when I lost my way! That is actually my goal: eating healthfully 6 days a week with one free day. As it is right now, I am losing weight but eating sugar every day. I feel great as you may know if you read my Weight Watchers review, but I would like to eat, as we say in the body building world, “cleaner.”
Additional information:
~Authorized, quality proteins include: chicken, turkey (without the skin and not fried). He warns that if you buy ground meat, make sure it is breast meat that won’t have any “stuff” (My dad sold meat for 35 years.) in it that isn’t authorized.
Fish, shellfish and meat. Phillips is not against eating lean red meat.
Low fat cottage cheese, egg whites and egg substitutes.
~Authorized quality Carbohydrates:
Potatoes (you can put on salsa or ketchup); brown rice, oatmeal, barley, pasta, yams, yogurt, fruit, whole-wheat bread.
~Any vegetable is authorized. He especially likes spinach, broccoli, tomatoes, carrots, cauliflower, squash and mushrooms.
~Healthy fats include safflower oil, canola oil and the fat in avocados. Most people would mention nuts here (actually in the protein category on the food pyramid) but he does not.
The Free Day: Bill Phillips says to forget about everything above one day a week. Eat whatever you want. I remember for so long being offered, let’s say a piece of birthday cake, from a co-worker, and taking it home, putting it in my freezer and eating it on my free day. I found that at first I ate from morning until night that one day, but as I started seeing how good I felt all week and the hard work at the gym I started eating less on that free day and making choices, while still fulfilling my psychological and biological need to eat junk!
In conclusion:
Whatever you think of Bill Phillips set aside and think about his way of eating. It is a healthy one that will ensure you are getting enough nutrients every day while still giving you the ability to eat sugar once a week.
If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment or e-mail me.
Once again, this plan is in Bill Phillips’ book "Body for Life."
You may also want to read:
Body for Life by Bill Phillips- the book
The Atkins Diet
Weight Watchers
Get With The Program" (Bob Greene - Oprah's mentor)
Body for Life
Recommended:
Yes
Food Variety Restrictions A wide variety of allowed foods
Restrictiveness of Portions Satisfying
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