Rating: 
Summary: Must read if you are serious about making changes.
Review: The wonderful book deals with a three-times-a-week weightlifting program and if you've spent any time in the gym, you've already done all the exercises. Phillips arranges this book into a 12-week program, along with nutritional and motivational tips. The goal is for the reader to transform his or her body in 12 weeks, and in the process learn that changing one's physique can help one make other changes in life. If you truly are serious about making changes in your life this is a must read! Forget about all the Hollywood diets out there with fake promises and overnight successes this is the real deal! I lost 28 pounds on this program and never felt better. FinancialNeeds.com
Rating: 
Summary: Pass This One Up
Review: This book is simply OK. It is at times inspirational and does contain a few nuggets of information, but for the most part the program is unrealistic. It was my impression that the types of food and exercise methods are not the most practical for your average person--speaking not of intensity, but of availability. It is simply too complicated. I read this book a year ago and didn't follow it. Since that time, I have joined a gym and simply worked hard and ate right and I've seen the same results that the followers of this program claim. Save your money.
Rating:
Summary: It works, period.
Review: I have been working out and "dieting" for over a year with mixed results. You see when I say "dieting" I was eating 3 meals a day, but reduced my portions. I lost around 35lbs, but also lost muscle mass along the way. I picked the book up 4 weeks ago and started the program. Within one week I had more energy, and my weight lifting that had previously stalled started to ramp up again. Is it magic? No. I had a couple of simple flaws in my approach to fitness. First, I was just not eating enough. You have to eat enough in the course of a day to maintain energy levels, and build muscle. Second, I was still eating unhealthy meals, that included too many sugar based and high carb foods. The book gives an excellent outline on what to eat, when to eat and how to workout. Perfect for the beginner or the experience person who has not put the pieces together. No, you don't have to use Myoplex, but the product is well priced ...in the supplement meal market. Since starting the program 4 weeks ago I have already reduced my body fat percent another 2%, my wife who is participating in the program is experiencing similar results!
Rating: 
Summary: This program WILL work
Review: Even looking at the poor reviews for this book one thing is certain, if you eat right and excercise properly you will loose fat and gain muscle. The best part of this book however is how it makes the entire process VERY easy to follow. You don't worry about calories at all. You follow the basic guidlines and you will loose weight. For all of the na sayers who claim this pushes supplements I say read the book again. The suppliments are not necessary as Bill Phillips mentions. If you have the time and desire to cook 6 meals a day, do it...if not, get a supplement. You can't loose with this book....I am living proof and the only reason I bought the book is because a friend of mine had such amazing results with it.
Rating:
Summary: Get this one -- forget the others
Review: I've read just about every diet book on the market, and read about the studies they are based on. If you want to get your body into shape, this book is about as good as you can possibly get. First, it is SIMPLE. Really easy to follow. The principles used here are pretty basic, well-accepted, and other people have written about them -- but Bill Phillips has put them together in a program that you can follow without devoting your entire life to 'health'. You don't need to buy much of anything except the book. Second, it WORKS. I found out about it from a woman who made a rather amazing transformation -- and she was a really busy housewife with minimal interest in 'dieting' or 'health'. The principles here, like I said, have been written about quite a bit. Bill doesn't go into the science behind the program much: presumably he has in his other articles and magazine, but I've read them elsewhere. It's not gimmicky or hocus-pocus: basically if you eat moderate portions of the right kind of foods, your calorie count will be pretty moderate, and the flow of sugar into your bloodstream will be steady. Combine that with a good dose of (short, hard) excercise, and your body gets in shape real fast. The diet part includes protein and carbohydrate with each meal. There is more protein than some folks would recommend, but certainly not enough to put you into 'ketosis'. But like the Atkins, Zone, and other people have found out, a good dose of protein does wonders in keeping you appetite under control, and while some folks would say you don't need that much protein, it is certainly less harmful than any appetite suppressant. Also it is LEAN protein, so you aren't clogging your arteries. And the body builders do say it adds muscle faster. The carbs are mainly the slower-digesting kind (brown rice, potatoes, pasta)which also helps your appetite and your glycemic factor -- eating 6 times a day helps too. The drinks are optional, but they taste good and are very convenient (I carry them when I leave the house, in case I can't find anything decent to eat). The nutritional information might not seem very scientific -- it's too simple -- but I did figure out my actual caloric/fat/protein intake based on the program and it was in a good range. You can eat like this the rest of you life, and all you will get is healthy. Enough of my favorite foods are included that it's easy to stick to. The one day off a week is pure genius though. That's where you get what WON'T fit in the guidelines (like chocolate chip cookies). And the excercise -- well, this ain't the 'no sweat' kind of program. The excercise is very much a part of it, but it's managable (even for a programming geek). After a week of good hard machine-weight training though, I feel better than I have for a long time! All in all, you won't find a better program among the books out there. You can do more reading and find out more of the science, and you can count calories if you want: but if you follow this program you WILL get in shape without doing anything else.
Rating:
Summary: Great!
Review: I didn't have a whole lot of weight to lose when I started, but I did get more cut and in shape. I liked the open, honest approach and I think I'll keep going after it's all over.
Rating:
Summary: GOOD PROGRAM
Review: THIS IS A GOOD PROGRAM TO FOLLOW. ONE DAY I WILL FOLLOW IT FOR THE COMPLETE 12 WEEKS. THE LAST YEAR I HAVE BEEN GOING THROUGH CANCER TREATMENTS AND HAVE NOT BEEN ABLE TO FOLLOW THE PROGRAM. I WILL SOON.
Rating:
Summary: This book has changed my life!
Review: I had wanted to review this book before, but decided to wait until I completed my first 12 week challenge. This book was really a life-changer for me. After years of spending an average of 1 1/2 - 2 hours a day, six days a week, in the gym and seeing little or no results (performing an average of 70-80 minutes of cardio each time and some unfocused weight training) I was skeptical at first of Bill Phillips' claims that performing 20 minutes of cardio three times a week, plus three weight-training workouts of less than an hour each a week would give me any measurable results - but they have! .... At this point, though, I must correct some errors made by earlier reviews - first off, Myoplex is only a convenience - not required. There are other meal replacements out there that work - or you can choose not to use them at all. And shop around for the best price .... The only other supplement he recommends by name is Betagen, but you don't even HAVE to supplement at all - I would recommend multi-vitamins at the very least (generic versions from your local drugstore). Brett Sharpe below states that Bill Phillips recommends four Myoplex shakes a day, when in fact he recommends that at least THREE of your SIX meals consist of 'whole foods'. I myself use 2 Myoplex Lites a day on average. If you can't afford boneless, skinless chicken breasts, you're looking in the wrong aisle of your supermarket. Try the frozen-food section - most groceries now sell the big bags of IQF chicken breasts .... And bread IS authorized (albeit reluctantly). I myself do not eat bread unless it's my Free Day (a great part of the program by the way!). And about eating before you exercise - if your goal is to burn bodyfat, you should exercise on an EMPTY stomach ... All in all, a great program that I'd recommend to anyone! Looking forward to my second challenge starting on Monday!
Rating:
Summary: from a fat slob's point of view
Review: As I perused this book, I kept thinking to myself: Do I REALLY want to look like these guys? Actually, the answer is probably yes, but it all seemed a bit silly. Take, for e.g., the "Before/After" pics pasted on the inside of the cover and around the book in a neat little photo strip. They're amazing, but the men have laughably shaved the hair off their chest and belly and slathered Vaseline over themselves so they look as plastic as He-Man action figures. They all have perfect, dental teeth and blow-dry hair under better lighting. Open the book and the text has a simplistic, breezy, infomercial style with lots of "life-stories"-style of phrases that you can find in Reader's Digest. All the feel-good philosophy behind the inspirational stories scream "Oprah!" The people in the pics would probably say I'm jealous. Well, actually, they probably DO feel better than me. They'e certainly in better shape. So sarcastic thoughts kept coming up as I flipped through the book, trying to find reasons to not like it. Sigh. But I hafta admit: it's a really good, solid book, one that is not bad to have even if you never lift a finger. The advice is practical, even insightful, and I was impressed with some of the ideas. While the inspirational stuff sometimes tends to be on the cheesy side, the author is so sincere and straightforward (for e.g., donating funds to the Make-A-Wish Foundation or offering his $200,000 Lamborghini Diablo as the reward in a competition), that you can't help but like him, even trust him. So buy this book. Why do I say this? Because in the end, despite my complaints, I'm still a fat slob and Bill Phillips is not. By the way: The only thing is that I don't think I will do is repeat the cadence out loud of "I am building my Body-for-Life!" while lifting dumbbells. Sorry, but that's on par with the girls in Judy Blume's "Are You There God? It's Me Margaret" who chant, "We must-We must-Increase our bust!" Other than that, this is probably one of the most straightforward and practical books I've read on fitness. It's worth it.
Rating: 
Summary: no bread
Review: I think mr philips has come up with a mnagable program for people who don't have alot of tme on their hands. He helps you to eat better and get results. However I disagree with no bread in nutrition. Whole wheat in the morning with a little peanut butter tastes great. Also, eat befor you exercise!
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