Excerpt: 'The Abs Diet Get Fit, Stay Fit Plan'

How can building muscle actually fight fat? It's simple: For every pound of muscle you build, your body needs to burn an extra 50 calories a day just to maintain itself. So even a modest increase of three pounds of muscle means another 150 calories a day you're burning just by sitting around, staring at the walls, pondering the big questions like "What is the nature of God?" and "Why is Paris Hilton famous?"

In The Abs Diet, I presented the Abs Diet Workout, a program to reshape your body and replace unsightly flab with lean, healthy muscle. And the workout has been a phenomenon, spawning videos, magazine articles, and even a Web site that attracts loyal adherents who have seen their bodies change almost effortlessly--and who want to share their success stories with others.

But all workout programs--even the very best of them--are like those little tape recorders Mr. Phelps used to listen to at the beginning of Mission: Impossible. Even the very best workout plans are designed to self-destruct--maybe not after five seconds, but after five weeks or so, definitely.

That's because our bodies are incredibly adept at adjusting to the demands we place on them. Like toddlers, our bodies learn and adapt. And when we exercise using the same routine day in and day out, our bodies adapt too. Over time, we begin to lose the benefits of even the best workout program, simply because our muscles are like Bill Clinton: They mean well, but they just can't help cheating.

And that's why I wrote this book. I wanted those who had already seen tremendous success with the Abs Diet to keep improving, to keep reshaping their bodies the way they wanted. And I wanted those who were new to the Abs Diet to have a head start, to have at their fingertips a whole collection of easy, effective exercises.

With hundreds of exercises, I want this guide to serve as your ultimate training manual.

You'll be equipped to develop many different Abs Diet training programs. Best of all, I've given you options no matter what your situation--whether you belong to a gym or work out at home, whether you lift dumbbells or Junior, whether you have to exercise in a hotel room or cell block H. Even with thousands of exercise combinations, there's one thing that won't change when it comes to the Abs Diet Workout: that's the overarching principle about how to build your body and flatten your stomach so that throughout your life you can continually challenge your muscles and keep your body in the best possible shape. In short, the Abs Diet Workout system has its foundation in this acronym:

ABS3

The ABS3 system works because it allows you to put emphasis on the kinds of exercise that research has shown to be effective for speeding metabolism, burning fat, and building muscle. The book details how the principle works, shows dozens of different programs that you can immediately start using, and gives you the tools to mix and match exercises so that you can do what we're all wired to do: Keep changing. In short, ABS3 stands for:

A = Abdominal muscles. You'll work your abdominal muscles twice a week to develop a strong, lean, flat, 6-pack core of muscles.

B = Big muscle groups. You'll do strength-training that emphasizes the largest muscles in your body because those are the muscles that best help you burn fat.

S = Speed intervals. Interval training (cardiovascular work that mixes high-intensity effort with low-intensity effort) has been shown to be more effective for losing fat than steady-state cardiovascular exercise.

3 = 3 times per week. You can achieve results in just three workouts a week. Woody Allen once said that 90 percent of success is just showing up. That's probably not true for most things in life, but when it comes to the Abs Diet Get Fit, Stay Fit Plan, Woody's philosophy actually holds true. The program is so easy, all you have to do is make time for it.

But, ah, there's the rub: making time for it. That's why I've designed this program to be completed in just three sessions of 20 minutes each. Sixty total minutes a week--if you can find time to watch an episode of Desperate Housewives, you can find time for this.