Body for Life (BFL) is a 12-week nutrition and exercise program, and also an annual physique transformation competition. It was created by Bill Phillips, a former competitive bodybuilder and owner of EAS, a manufacturer of nutritional supplements. It has been popularized by a bestselling book of the same name.
The first annual Body for Life competition was held in 1996. (It was then called the “EAS Grand Spokesperson Challenge”.) Entrants write about their experience of the program, and send this to EAS along with their ‘before’ and ‘after’ swimsuit photos. Prizes vary each year, but in 2005 the first prize was US$1,000,000. Since, it has gone down significantly with the last payment being US$25,000 for the past few champions. Most recent champions include 2008 Grand Champions Emily Alvers and Colby Knight.
Body for Life makes use of principles that have been widely known in bodybuilding. Its differences are in the way it has been packaged and marketed so as to appeal to consumers and be understood by the public. It supports an extensive ancillary industry of gyms, nutritionists and personal trainers.
Contents [hide]
1 Exercise
1.1 Intensity index
1.2 Weight training
1.3 Aerobic exercise
2 Diet
3 Body for Life books and videos
4 External links
5 References
Exercise[edit]
The human body adapts itself to changes in nutritional intake. If the calorie intake is reduced, the body responds by slowing down its metabolism, and by burning muscle in preference to fat[citation needed]. This reduces the metabolism long-term. When the diet comes to an end and normal calorie intake is restored, the individual starts to gain weight even faster than before. This is known as yo-yo dieting. Diets that focus exclusively on calorie reduction often fail in this way[citation needed].
With these concerns in mind, Body for Life addresses energy expenditure (i.e. exercise) in addition to energy input. For best results, Body for Life holds that this exercise should include weight training to build skeletal muscle and increase the metabolism over the long term. This also helps to maximise the energy expenditure and fat loss from aerobic exercise.[1]
Body for Life’s exercise program is more complicated than its diet program. It suggests exercising six days a week, normally Monday to Saturday, and alternating between weight training and aerobic exercise. The seventh day, usually Sunday, is a rest day (referred to as the “free day”, during which no exercise is done and unhealthy, normally fatty foods may be eaten). Weight training sessions alternate between exercises for the upper body and exercises for the lower body. This allows the exercised muscles enough time to recover fully before the next training session.[1]
Each fortnight follows the same pattern:
Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday
Week 1 Upper-body
Weight
Training Aerobic
Exercise Lower-body
Weight
Training Aerobic
Exercise Upper-body
Weight
Training Aerobic
Exercise Free Day
Week 2 Lower-body
Weight
Training Aerobic
Exercise Upper-body
Weight
Training Aerobic
Exercise Lower-body
Weight
Training Aerobic
Exercise Free Day
Intensity index[edit]
Body for Life uses Gunnar Borg’s Rating of Perceived Exertion (known as the Borg scale) for assessing the intensity of exercise based on how hard you feel you are working. It uses the variant developed by the American College of Sports Medicine, which uses a scale of 0 to 10:
0 is no exertion at all.
2 corresponds to very light exercise. 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 st
