Through his 25 years of experience and as a diet and fitness expert on television's Extreme Makeover, Michael Thurmond has helped thousands of people from every walk of life take off pounds quickly. Now, in 6-Day Body Makeover, he shares his secrets of accelerated weight loss and reveals his easy-to-follow, proven program to help you shed pounds quickly and keep them off!

Because no two bodies lose weight in the exact same way, Michael has developed an exclusive "body type blueprinting system" that allows you to customize a diet regimen that's effective for you. Just fill out the simple questionnaire, pinpoint which of the five types best describes your body, and follow the targeted meal plan designed to maximize weight loss for your body type. Together with Michael's exclusive, fat-burning, low intensity exercises, you'll have a scientifically balanced regimen that can help you quickly lose as much as 10 pounds-and keep it off. Complete with menus, recipes, foolproof tips, and a maintenance schedule for the seventh day and beyond, 6-Day Body Makeover shows you how to:

• Identify the RIGHT foods to spark weight loss
• Exercise LESS while increasing the amount of fat you burn
• Break through plateaus when the scale won't budge
• Maintain your weight loss without deprivation or unhealthy gimmicks
• Quickly take off pounds gained during vacations or holiday time.

After just six days you'll look and feel so fabulous, you'll have the confidence to continue losing until you reach your total weight-loss goal. Eat more, exercise less, and reshape your body in just 6 days!

Suppose today is Sunday. Imagine gazing in the mirror next Friday-just six days from now-and seeing yourself leaner, lighter, and fitting into a dress, jeans, pants, or some other outfit that is one size smaller than you normally wear. There you are, ready for the weekend: You are slimmer. Your tummy is flatter. You look better than you have in a very long time.

Wouldn't it be terrific if that image in the mirror could become reality for you? Well, it can, and it will. And you won't have to starve yourself down to size. Or punish yourself with unending reps, sets, laps, and other sweaty, exhausting forms of exercise.

Welcome to my 6-Day Body Makeover, a one-of-a-kind plan that is completely customized to your own body type and metabolism, and designed to accelerate your weight loss so that you see dramatic results-quickly. How quickly? In just six days. You can lose up to a pound each day, or more, depending on how much you weigh to begin with, plus trim off flabby inches from your body. What you'll experience will be so motivating and so simple that you will want to continue your weight loss beyond those six days, right on toward your goal weight, because you look and feel so fabulous.

There's more: To achieve your goal weight, you can apply the very same principles of this program, modified for longer-term weight loss, and ultimately get to your goal. You'll find out how to transition from the 6-Day Body Makeover to a program that will help you keep going toward your ideal size. What's more, you can stay at that size by putting into practice the keep-it-off guidelines you'll learn here. Once you lose all the pounds you want to lose, you'll want to stick to your new eating and exercise habits because you will look and feel so terrific. In fact, those new stay-in-shape habits will become your normal way of life.

How can I be so sure?

Because over the past two decades, I've worked with thousands of people, from every walk of life-people just like you-to help them transform their bodies into a shape they once only dreamed about. They turned their dream bodies into reality by using a diet designed just for them to totally make over their bodies in a very short time, melting away as much as 10 (or sometimes more) pounds in just under a week, then going on from there to shed even more weight. And you can do it, too. I'm very excited for you because you're going to see over the next six days such a dramatic change in what your body looks like and feels like that everyone you know will keep asking for your secret.

That "secret," found in this book, is an accelerated version of my 6-Week Body Makeover, a program that I've developed over the past 20 years that allows you to eat more and exercise less, yet still lose weight and reshape your body, all in as little as six weeks. It's a comprehensive program that includes targeted body-sculpting routines that you can follow if you need to lose more weight. Later in the book, I'll give you more information on how to get started on that program. For now, let's get focused on the next six days.

When I set out to design the 6-Day Body Makeover, I wanted to fill a huge void in the weight-loss market. Thousands and thousands of "diets" are available telling you how to lose weight, but most of them are usually difficult to stick to because it takes too long to succeed, and these diets typically involve deprivation. So when faced with any temptation, whether it's an ice cream sundae or a bag of chips, most dieters throw in the towel, get discouraged, and feel like they can never succeed on any type of diet. Until the 6-Day Body Makeover, there really hasn't been a practical program for rapid, short-term weight loss that allows you to lose a lot of weight in a short time, and do it safely, without deprivation.

Working directly with thousands of people over the years gave me the unique opportunity to listen to what they most desired in a weight-loss program. And what they wanted was to see results fast-so that they could lose weight quickly and keep it off. People were constantly asking me, "How can I get in shape for my daughter's wedding . . . for a pool party next weekend . . . for an important date . . . to fit into a dress that's now too snug?" They'd tell me, "I don't have time to lose weight. I've only got a week! It's too late to start a diet!" Desperate questions and comments such as these made me realize that millions of people could benefit from a simple, practical program that would take off pounds and inches in a very short time-just six days-and drop one whole dress or pant size. Yes, there's a need in this country to shed multiple pounds to help eradicate the alarming rise in obesity in this country. And this program will help jump-start your metabolism so you can begin this journey. The 6-Day Body Makeover is the tool that will help people like you begin to see positive changes in your weight in just under a week-and teach you to maintain those positive changes. That's why I decided to create this program. My clients who have used the 6-Day Body Makeover are amazed at how quickly they see results, and it gives them the confidence to go on to lose even more weight if they need to. This is a simple, doable program, with a refreshing and unique promise: dropping a whole dress or pant size in six days. And I know you can do it.

Okay, ready, set . . . put your thumb in the waistband of your jeans or skirt. Could you use a little more room there? Do you want to fit into a smaller size? Or do you have a party or a big date this weekend that you want to look your best for? How about an upcoming class reunion or a family gathering? Wouldn't you like to fit into that new outfit you just bought in order to make a great first impression? Do you need to fit into a wedding dress, a cocktail dress, or a tux? Do you wish you could drop those stubborn, final pounds and get closer to your goal weight? Wouldn't you like to shed unwanted weight that you gained over a holiday or vacation?

The 6-Day Body Makeover is a surefire way to get that weight off very quickly-and do it with maintainable results. It's a very practical tool for achieving any of the above goals. The story of Margaret, one of my makeover clients who used this tool, is typical.

Margaret had a closet full of two sizes of clothes-what she considered her "fat" clothes (size 16s) and her "thin" clothes (size 10s). Using one of my makeover programs, Margaret lost 32 pounds in six weeks and was able to fit in size 10 dresses. But to hit to her desired weight of 135, she had to break through a plateau. Margaret had been in a holding pattern above 140 pounds for a couple of weeks.

Frustrated by her inability to reach her goal, she wanted to smash her scale into smithereens because the pounds wouldn't budge. I suggested that she try the 6-Day Body Makeover in order to get the needle on her scale out of the "stuck" position. She agreed to give it a whirl. After completing the six-day program, Margaret lost 6 pounds. She was looking better than ever and feeling more energetic than ever. She fit beautifully into a size 10 and looked gorgeous in her new clothes. (Incidentally, I told her to rid her closet of those "fat" clothes so that she would no longer have reminders of herself as a "fat person," or think of herself in that self-defeating way.)

Here's what Sally, another makeover client, told me recently: "I love the 6-Day Body Makeover! Last summer, I used it to get in shape for my son's wedding. I lost 9 pounds and 11H inches that week. The program took me from a size 18 to a size 16."

Sally continued to use my makeover techniques to lose additional weight, ultimately reaching her goal of wearing a size 8. At one point, she gained several pounds over the Easter holiday. This discouraging experience motivated her to use the 6-Day Body Makeover again. To her surprise, she lost 8 pounds in just six days. "I never would have believed I could lose that much weight, so quickly. The 6-Day Body Makeover has made all the difference. It's just a part of my life now." Even today, Sally still uses the program to manage her weight and stay at a size in which she looks and feels her best.

Nancy also represents the type of client who knows how valuable the 6-Day Body Makeover can be. Listen to what she told me: "This program has changed my life and prepared me for one of the most important days of my life, my wedding! I've successfully used the 6-Day Body Makeover several times. It is amazing and really works! I use it when I feel like I've added a few pounds and want to get them off quickly; when I'm on a plateau, it seems to shake things up and start the weight loss again. I've lost anywhere from 4 to 6 pounds in the six days and easily an inch or more on my waist. I've recently gained back over 10 pounds since my wedding, and I'm planning a 6-Day Body Makeover next week! I'm sure it will be just what I need to get back on track."

As you and I go through this book together over the next six days, you'll learn in greater detail how you can make the 6-Day Body Makeover part of your life, too. Once you discover how you can lose pounds and inches and drop an entire size in just six days-and once you learn how easy this is to do-you, too, will become a believer.

For now, I understand how frustrated you've probably been with your efforts because you've gotten nowhere. Why even put in the effort if you're not going to see results? I always say, "Don't go to work unless you're going to receive a good paycheck." Like that paycheck, you need a reward, and you'll get lots of rewards with this program! This time will be different. This time you'll lose fat, trim inches, eat foods that love your body, and recharge your self-esteem. You'll feel good, you'll be energized, and you'll be in a positive frame of mind.

If you follow the exact instructions outlined in this book, in just six short days you'll lose enough weight to fit into clothes that are one whole size smaller than you are wearing at this very instant. There are no gimmicks, because the program is based on basic, sound science. It isn't one of those diets where you eat nothing but cottage cheese and grapefruit. This isn't one of those programs where you have to mix up foul-tasting powdered drinks or take pills. On this program, you eat nothing but delicious natural foods. In fact, this plan uses food as a tool to burn fat.

The 6-Day Body Makeover approaches the goal of weight loss from an entirely different perspective than the low-calorie model or the low-carb model. You eat, and eat a lot-and drop pounds without feeling deprived or having to count calories. In fact, for the 6-Day Body Makeover to work, you must eat frequently in order to speed up your metabolism to the point that it burns calories faster. Eating constantly and eating all the required food on the plan are very important to your success. This plan is designed to produce quick results-and let's be honest, that's what you want-not because it starves you down to size but because its carefully designed balance of food adjusts your body metabolically so that you burn fat, day in and day out. You'll probably eat more than you've ever eaten on any other diet before in your life. Because the key to this program is just that: eating. You'll eat five to six times a day and you'll still lose weight, steadily and efficiently. This is just the kind of reward that can turn these next six days into a lifelong desire to achieve and maintain a beautiful body.

There's no carb counting on this program, either. When you follow the eating plan that is tailored for you, you automatically consume the correct amount and type of carbohydrates for your metabolism. You do not want to cut carbs from your diet, since this practice is extremely self-defeating. If you cut out the carbs, at some point your body will go into what is known as a catabolic state-it begins consuming its own muscle tissue for energy. You need muscle tissue for body shape and to support an active, fat-burning metabolism. Carbohydrates supply the bodily energy to support the growth and repair of muscle tissue, as well as the fuel to support brain function. You cannot build and maintain lean, toned muscle without carbohydrates. And you need muscle for curves, definition, tone, and overall shape.

There's another crucial problem with low-carb diets: They deprive your brain of its favorite fuel source: carbs! Brain cells need glucose from the breakdown of carbs to function; it is the fuel your brain normally uses. In absence of glucose, you can feel spacey, unable to think or perform correctly at work, at school, or anywhere. Plus, it can cause you to be moody, and even unmotivated to achieve your weight-loss goals. Faddish low-carbohydrate diets are unhealthy and damaging to your body, mind, and spirit.

And if you're hypoglycemic (low blood sugar), which is relatively common in our society, you really don't want to cut out carbohydrates, because carbs help keep your blood sugar at an even level. You shouldn't go on a low-carbohydrate diet of any type if you expect to look and feel your best.

With this book, I'll take you through easy-to-follow, step-by-step guidelines on what you can do to succeed. Essentially, this plan provides customized menu plans that can help you drop inches and pounds fast. Through my exclusive Body Type Blueprinting system, you'll determine your body type, how your body reacts to food, and how your metabolism is programmed to process the foods you eat. Some people can eat foods such as pasta or bread and not gain an ounce of weight. With others, it seems all they have to do is think about processed carbohydrates, and they pack on the pounds. That's because everyone's metabolism is different. Your best friend may be able to burn up bowls of pasta, while you do better by staying away from it. Because of these metabolic differences, everyone must select the specific types of food to work with their individual metabolism. You have to take into account your body's own chemistry and know which foods work best for you. Once you have this information, you can stop the frustrating cycle of going on and off diets that don't work. When you eat foods especially selected for your body chemistry, while eating more meals each day, you experience the rapid weight loss you are hoping for. My unique Blueprinting system will help you identify your specific body type and identify the right foods to spark weight loss for you. Blueprinting is what makes this program work, and it is what other weight-loss programs lack.

The 6-Day Body Makeover will also introduce you to a totally different approach to cardiovascular exercise that will accelerate your fat loss, but without the drudgery of high-intensity workouts. By moving your body at an acceptable pace and using a special form of breathing known as Abdominal Breathing to oxygenate your body, you'll become trimmer and more fit, plus feel more energetic and invigorated than you have in years.

As long as you eat according to your Blueprint, this customized strategy of eating fat-burning foods-and lots of them-along with my unconventional approach to cardiovascular exercise will result in dramatic, quick weight loss in just six short days.

There's more. This approach to eating can help you feel and look younger. It's no secret that eating the right kinds of foods does have an anti-aging effect. Eating fish, for example, improves the tone and texture of your skin and slows down the aging process, due to this food's protein and fat balance. A diet rich in fruits and vegetables, like you'll eat on this program, supplies antioxidants, too. The eating plan you'll follow on the 6-Day Body Makeover helps replace these anti-aging nutrients. You'll be drinking plenty of water on this program, too. Apart from being essential for life, water helps you achieve a better complexion by making your skin look plump and practically wrinkle-free. So you see: The healthy foods you'll be eating over the next six days-and hopefully, for the rest of your life-will boost your body and your health. Food is really the best makeover tool there is!

Let me emphasize too that none of my makeover programs was created by accident, but rather through years of research and experimentation. Their genesis really began when I was growing up in Los Angeles, California. Remember the fattest kid in school? Well, that was me. In fact, I was overweight as far back as I can remember, and that is a very painful way to grow up. On top of being fat, I was uncoordinated and unathletic. In school, kids constantly teased and tormented me, and when it was time to choose teams in gym class, I was always picked last.

Whenever I looked in the mirror, I hated my flabby, awkward body. I felt that I wasn't as good as anyone else, and I had no self-confidence. Even so, I would daydream about what it would be like to have large, chiseled muscles, a washboard stomach, and a thin waist. But I didn't know how to make that dream come true.

By the time I was 11, I was clinically obese, so my parents put me on a medically supervised diet that included mild doses of Dexedrine, better known as uppers. That approach didn't work, nor did other countless diets that I went on. I had practically given up on life-and I was just a kid!

As a teenager I learned to lift weights. I didn't lose weight; I just got stronger. I still had no idea how to change the shape of my body in order to achieve the physique I had always dreamed of. That all changed when I was 17 and found myself stationed on an aircraft carrier on the way to the Gulf of Tonkin in Vietnam. It was there that I met a shipmate from Brooklyn who was a bodybuilder, affectionately nicknamed Bugsy. Training with Bugsy taught me how to use weights to sculpt and shape my body. It was an entirely new way of exercising contrary to everything I had ever done. I discovered that working harder wasn't necessarily better and that changing the shape of my body was relatively easy once I knew what I was doing. This discovery would lead to the development of my Precision Sculpting System, one of the components of my 6-Week Body Makeover program.

Still, something was missing-and that "something" was food and how the body processes it. After being assigned to kitchen duty in the mess hall, I had the opportunity to experiment with my diet. Over the next several months, I learned how food worked in my body-which foods made me gain body fat and which foods made me lose it. Once I started eating the right foods for my metabolism, the fat pounds started melting off my body.

Over the next 10 years, I continued to research and experiment in order to refine my program. I scoured all the information I could find on biology, physiology, and chemistry-any science that would give me insights into how my body reacted to food and responded to exercise. Soon I had refined my program to the point that I had the power to make my body change in any way I wanted. This led me to competitive bodybuilding where the ability to change, shape, and sculpt my physique gave me a tremendous advantage, and I won numerous titles. I felt like I was in control of my body for the first time in my life.

Soon others began asking me to help them make over their bodies. I started with a couple of overweight teens in my neighborhood and worked closely with them so that they would never have to go through the same suffering and pain that I had endured as a child. I taught them how to eat and to sculpt their bodies in my small home gym. Their bodies began to change-and change dramatically. Other teens filtered in, and I taught them how to use food to lose fat, how to employ simple cardiovascular exercise to accelerate fat loss, and how to use weight training to sculpt their bodies.

The results these kids achieved were phenomenal, and pretty soon their parents, relatives, and other adults wanted the secret to having a beautiful body. So I began training adults in my makeover approach. Word of mouth traveled to the entertainment industry, and before long actors, actresses, and models, desperate to make over their bodies for new roles and photo shoots, came calling. By 1985, I had codified my makeover methods into what is now known as the 6-Week Body Makeover. Today, my company, Body Makeovers, Inc., employs more than 100 trainers, each one personally schooled in my makeover methods and techniques. These are the very same methods and techniques I use with people selected to appear on ABC's hit show Extreme Makeovers. As a member of the show's "Extreme Team," I help these people lose weight quickly prior to, and after, having plastic surgery, plus help them add lean, curvaceous muscle to their physiques and sculpt their bodies before and after surgery.

One of the results of these many years of experience, exhaustive research, experimentation, and trial and error is the 6-Day Body Makeover program you have in your hands. On this program, you will be surprised and delighted by how fast the results come when you use food to lose fat. When you do that, your body has no choice but to drop pounds, and drop them fast. If you start your makeover on a Sunday, by the time Friday arrives-the start of a new weekend-you will see a significant difference in the way you look and feel. You can be slimmer by Friday.

The proof that these makeover techniques work is in the measurable success, in both pounds and inches lost, that we see in our clients.

I know the testimonials you'll read throughout this book sound miraculous, like something that should be filed away in the "too-good-to-be-true" department, but they are all true. And you can experience similar results. Your body will start changing the first six days. Transforming your body really isn't as hard as you think it is once you learn the right information. You're holding that information in your hands right now, and with it you can start giving your body a new lease on life. So let's get started. Let's take the first step toward making you a whole dress or pant size smaller in just six days.

© 2005 by Michael Thurmond and Provida Publishing, LLC

About the Author

Michael Thurmond, a renowned weight loss and fitness expert, is a member of the Extreme Team on ABC's Extreme Makeover. He also manages the popular body makeover program featured within the luxury spa at the Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel, and his company, Body Makeover Systems, employs more than 100 trainers in over 30 locations throughout Southern California.