Body RX: Dr. Scott Connelly's 6-Pack Prescription Book

"You can have the body you want," promises A. Scott Connelly, M.D., a physician, personal trainer, sports nutrition specialist, and sports-supplement designer. His "6-Pack Prescription" is a program of four six-week cycles (strength training, sculpting, fat burning, and maintenance/endurance), each with its own eating plan, exercise program, and optional supplementation. Six months, promises Connelly, will give you the body you want. "To change how you look on the outside, you need to reverse what's happening on the inside" by reprogramming your body to manufacture muscle, says Connelly. He emphasizes "nutrient partitioning," the principle that "a metabolic traffic cop" directs nutrients into fat-burning muscles or parks them as stored fat. Ingredients and additives in the foods we eat cause nutrients to move into the fat-storage parking lot instead of the fat-burning expressway. He recommends eating plenty of high-fiber complex carbohydrates and low-fat protein, and eliminating processed foods containing fructose ("the Stealth bomber of sweeteners"). Although Connelly designed a line of supplements marketed by Met-Rx, he restricts his supplementation recommendations to one short chapter and does not push his own line. Connelly's exercise program focuses on weight training, with 20 exercises divided into four different weekly workout sessions. Illustrations of the exercises, which work all the major muscle groups, include both machine and free-weight options. Charts--both filled in with his prescription and blank for you to log your actual program--are provided for meal planning and exercise. --Joan Price Read More