The New Lean for Life: Outsmart Your Body to Shrink Fat Cells and Lose Weight for Good

WHY THE NEW LEAN FOR LIFE WILL WORK FOR YOU, AND HOW TO USE THIS BOOK

How many times have you lost some weight while on a diet only to gain it all back later after you stopped the diet? Once? Twice?

More times than you can count? You're not alone. Nearly half of all dieters quit within the first month. This dire statistic from a 2012 study reinforces the fact thatstarting a diet program is easy; staying with it is the hard part. Yet the only way a diet program is going to work for you is if you actually stick with it. Now what if a diet could anticipate what you are thinking as you progress from day to day?

What if a program could actually address your feelings, frustrations and questionsas you feel them, and also provide success strategies at the very moment you need them most so you can stay on your program and reach your goal weight?

After more than 15 million visits with patients at the Lindora weight-loss clinics in Southern California, the Lean for Life program is able to do just that?using what we've learned from more than 750,000 people who have lost a combined 15 million pounds on our program in the past 40-plus years. We guide our patients on a day-by-day basis through four weeks of Rapid Weight Loss, easing them through the tough days and using the easier days to give them additional insights on what they need to know to succeed on the program to get lean and stay lean.

In just four weeks, our patients enjoy more than rapid weight loss; they get a blueprint to a leaner body, reduced stress levels, more balanced blood sugar levels and a new way of thinking?all in a simple, accessible program. An internal data analysis of Lean for Life patients found that 79 percent kept weight off and 43 percent maintained medically significant weight loss for up to 15 years after completing their program. Compare this to the widely quoted statistic that 95 percent of dieters typically regain the weight they worked so hard to lose on conventional diets. On this program, people really do get Lean for Life.

MORE THAN 750,000 SUCCESS STORIES . . . AND COUNTING!

You could say that I (Cynthia) grew up in the "waist-management" business. My father, weight-loss pioneer Marshall Stamper, M.D., opened his first Lindora weight-loss clinic in 1971. Motivated by the loss of his mother, who had died of obesity-related complications, Dr. Stamper created a comprehensive, resultsoriented program that helped people lose weight rapidly and safely. At the foundation of the program were Dr. Stamper's Six Essentials, which taught people how to change their behavior and change their physiology, making it easier to maintain their new, healthier weight. Throughout this book, you'll discover more about the Six Essentials?which remain a cornerstone of the program?and how they can help you reach your weight-loss goals.

Decades ago, Dr. Stamper was convinced that if people lost weight and learned healthier thinking habits, they could reverse or prevent certain ailments and health conditions. At the time, people called it "woo-woo science." Today, it's common knowledge that being overweight is a factor in type 2 diabetes, heart disease, cancer and more. Dr. Stamper and his program were light years ahead of their time.

Back when I was a teenager, I was Dr. Stamper's guinea pig. In order to help me lose a few pounds, he put me on his revolutionary Rapid Weight Loss plan. It went far beyond ordinary meal plans and included a blueprint to "leanify" not just my body, but also my stress levels, my way of thinking and my daily habits. It helped me get lean and stay lean?not just for a few weeks or a couple of months as with most diets, but Lean for Life.

Over the past 40-plus years, this same program helped people ranging from Hollywood stars wanting to drop those last 5 pounds to others struggling to lose more than 500 pounds. We've helped people not only whittle their waistline but also get off their blood pressure, cholesterol, type 2 diabetes and pain medications. We've helped lifetime yo-yo dieters get off the weight-loss roller coaster and maintain their new lean weight for years. We've seen people transform their bodies and their lives. You'll meet many of these "Lean for Lifers" within the pages of this book, including:

¦ Traci, who lost more than 300 pounds and has kept it off for more than 10 years

¦ Kimberly, who shrank from a size 18 to a sleek size 6

¦ Laura, who dropped 36 pounds and no longer has to take her cholesterol, blood pressure, or type 2 diabetes medicines

¦ Javier, who went from a 52-inch waist to a 34-inch waist

So far, we have more than 750,000 success stories, and there's no stopping! Each year, 35,000 real-life, everyday people like Traci, Kimberly, Laura and Javier visit our 40-plus clinics located throughout Southern California for in-person appointments with our staff of healthcare professionals, which includes M.D.s and registered nurses. Since I joined forces with Dr. Stamper (affectionately known as "Daddy") in 1988, I've been trying to make it easier than ever for people everywhere?not just those who live close enough to visit our clinics?to lose weight with our program. As a result, people can now log on to our personalized, interactive web-based program for daily support anywhere, anytime. People everywhere can also track the calories and nutrient content of our nutritional products on top-selling diet apps like Lose It! Thousands of people have gotten lean thanks to our books and products, which are sold in pharmacies and other stores nationwide. And millions of people have access to our program through their membership with some of the nation's largest health insurance providers.

Finding new ways and new strategies to help as many people as possible become Lean for Life has been my number-one goal. That's why, in the mid-1990s, I distilled the basics of the Lean for Life program used in Lindora clinics in my first book,Lean for Life Phase One: Weight Loss. I wanted the book to be not only a daily support tool for our patients as they progressed through the program, but also a way to make the program available to the tens of thousands of people who couldn't visit our clinics in person and who wanted to lose weight at home . . . but didn't want to do it on their own. It worked, and more than a decade after its publication, that book was still ranked as one of the top-selling books on Amazon.com.

Since the original book was published, however, a growing body of weight-loss science has emerged. This exciting new research provides insights into ways to enhance the Lean for Life program and proves why this program is so effective, validating the foundation of the program that has already helped so many people reach their weight goals. More than a decade of new science, new breakthroughs, new strategies and new techniques convinced me it was time to refine the program and update the book.

That's where a box of cookies came into play.

HOW A BOX OF COOKIES INSPIRED THE NEW LEAN FOR LIFE

In 2012, one of our Lean for Life patients returned from a vacation in Paris with a gift for me?a box of gourmet dark chocolate European tea biscuits. She told me they were incredibly delicious, and she couldn't wait to share them with me. I immediately buzzed our operations team and asked them to join me in the conference room. When they arrived, we broke open the box, peeled away the wrappers, and started munching?assessing the flavors, the crunchiness of the delicate biscuits and the richness of the chocolate.

There we were, a team of weight-loss professionals, nibbling on a box of cookies at 10:30 in the morning. Any passerby would have thought we were a bunch of...