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2.0 is Here
And why eDiets.com would rather you read no further
By Ric Rooney
The Personal Food Analyst (PFA) 2.0 upgrade is now on-line. 2.0 represents a major breakthrough in the technology of physique transformations, and it provides users superior results to PFA 1.0. I can't tell you how excited everybody here is to get this release out to you. Our initial 1.0 release in 2002 met and exceeded our hopes for an automated program that could analyze and customize unique physique transformation programs for one, one thousand or one million individuals and guide each member through the physique transformation process for only a few dollars each month. But we knew we could do better.
So eighteen months ago, with the benefit of all the data collected from thousands of actual users, we began what turned out to be a complete rewrite of the program. Our goal with 2.0 was to better mimic my interactions one-on-one clients to develop a program that is just as effective at producing results for you, online, as I would be if he sat across his desk with you each week. PFA 1.0 did a superb job in the beginning of a physique transformation by analyzing your current eating habits and generating a metabolic Conditioning Phase that is the correct mix of time, calories and nutrient ratios. It efficiently brought your metabolism to an optimal state of readiness for Fat Burning. However PFA 1.0 couldn't quite mimic me in Fat Burning and Maintenance. See, in Fat Burning, I would meet with you once a week to assess your progress. If you are hitting your fat loss goals I let the process run. Only when you hit an inevitable fat loss plateau would I make adjustments to your calorie levels, your cardio or both. And when you reach your goal with me, the game isn't quite over.
All those hard won gains may vanish if you don't exit the restricted dieting parameters of Fat Burning and properly return to a mainstream eating pattern. In my world, before sending you on your way, I show you how to gracefully transition back into a long term Maintenance eating plan that allows you to maintain your new weight, while eating significantly more calories at Protein/Carb/Fat ratios that anybody can fit into a permanent lifestyle.
The 1.0 version didn't have the level of programming sophistication necessary to make determinations about what adjustments to your diet, if any, are needed. And 1.0 couldn't generate a customized Maintenance program for you; the newest version of the PFA fixes these problems.
PFA 2.0 Major Enhancements: Fat Burning is no longer restricted to 12 weeks. The new 2.0 paradigm no longer automatically drops your calorie rotation at four scheduled three-week increments. Once you find your fat-burning "sweet spot," the PFA keeps you there for as long as you continue to hit your fat loss goals. If your metabolism starts to stall, the PFA then makes the appropriate adjustments to keep you on track.
PFA 2.0 let's you lose far more pounds of fat in a single rotation. You can stay in Fat Burning until you reach your final goal, want a break, or your metabolism completely runs out of gas and you simply must recondition your metabolism to continue to burn fat in a healthy way. PFA 2.0 allows you to hit your fat burning "sweet spot" much quicker by scheduling caloric drops based on your results. If you don't get results on the initial rotation the PFA set up for you, it drops your caloric rotation until you catch your rhythm.
Cardio: PFA 2.0 monitors your cardio and recommends the precise amount of cardio you need to maintain a 1.5 to 2 lb per week fat loss. Training Log: You now have a simple easy-to-use training log. This log is extremely powerful when you ask us or your fellow PFAers for help with your program. Your training log is passed to your public Fitness League Profile (at your discretion of course).
Fitness League Optimized: 2.0 was built around the principle that physique transformations are far more successful if you do them with your peers. Your fellow PFAers will help you get a fast start with your physique transformation and as you gain experience with the program you will most likely want to help the newbies and pass on your new-found wisdom.
PFA 2.0 passes a summary of your program each day to Fitness Leagues so fellow PFAers and the curious can view your progress with your physique transformation. Of course, the PFA 2.0 respects your privacy. You opt-in to Fitness Leagues and have multiple privacy settings. New Maintenance Phase: Once you reach your fat loss goal, the PFA now gives you a maintenance phase that reconditions your metabolism and methodically raises your calories to long term sustainable lifestyle levels.
Faster Searches: The PFA uses ESHA Research's newest searching algorithm for faster data entry. New code base: PFA 2.0 is built on a new, more scaleable code base that takes us into the future. This means that we can make smaller incremental upgrades to the program without having to take 18 months for a complete re-write. You will now see consistent .1 upgrades every few months where will introduce one or two new features and continue to enhance the program. 2.0 is a programming tour de force and is deadly effective!
So effective in fact that we are launching a new kind of guarantee on the results you get during your physique transformation. And we challenge every other weight loss company to follow our lead. We call it our "7X Sure" promise. Skeptics may roll their eyes, but there is no catch. Here it is, plain and simple: If you do a Physique Transformation program and successfully complete at least twelve weeks of Fat Burning and are not 100% satisfied with your results, we give you back 7 times the money you paid for the program during that time.
From the day we opened our doors in 2002 we have always offered an unconditional double your money back guarantee on the PFA. As I write this column, we have NEVER had a member ask for that guarantee. I think it speaks volumes about the quality of our program and the results you get when you follow it faithfully, and most importantly, FINISH what you start. My partners and I have debated whether an offer like this turns people off because it sounds phony, too unbelievable, something no reputable company would offer.
We realize that with a 7-times your money back guarantee there are SEVERE consequences if we fail to deliver results for you. We would be out of business shortly! It's that brutally simple, and that is why no other program has ever followed our lead. But think about it. If you take the time to read the free Secrets book and learn the principles we teach, you'll discover that we have little or no risk making a 7X or 1MillionX promise (we purposefully avoided the 1MillionX promise, because that just might motivate a few people to "fail", wink, wink).
Here's why. The PFA 2.0 first builds you a foundation from which to start Fat Burning called the metabolic Conditioning. Once it gets your metabolism spinning, it rotates calories in and out of your diet which burns fat, preserves muscle and keeps your metabolism spinning at a high rate. If the PFA misses, and it has not found your sweet spot, bam! It adjusts your diet and cardio schedule until you catch a rhythm of 1.5 to 2.0 lbs of fat per week. 2.0 takes you to your sweet-spot where you reach your weekly goals while effectively eating the MOST amount of food possible and doing the LEAST amount of cardio.
The program holds you there until you are done or your metabolism starts to stall. If you start to stall, bam! The PFA again makes the necessary adjustments. The PFA 2.0 cannot not fail you because you communicate with it each day and it continues to adjust to the messages you give it and keeps you in your zone!
The science behind physique transformation is rock-solid. Decades of consistent results by fitness competitors, body builders, athletes as well as everyday folks attest to its effectiveness. Physique Transformation is not some fast, easy, "lose thirty pounds in thirty days" miracle solution that comes in a bottle. It's not a four easy payments of $19.95 but wait! If you order now we'll take off one full payment!" solution that will erase years of dietary and exercise neglect in two weeks.
Physique transformation and the PFA 2.0 program is the real deal, plain and simple. You WILL exercise, you WILL learn how to eat correctly and consistently and you WILL learn how to manipulate calories and nutrient ratios in order to communicate to your body instructions to burn body fat and preserve lean, metabolically enhancing muscle. This is what the PFA is waiting to teach you. The question is "Can you handle the truth?" So, it's game time everyone! We're ready to get you in the best shape of your lifeif you're willing to step up and do a physique transformation program. Whaddaya say? YIF&H, Ric Rooney
Introducing New Fitness Leagues for 2004
For 2004, we have created something entirely new, something that has never been attempted before in the fitness industry, a new sport entirely called Physique Transformation. And best of all, a new way to compete and measure yourself as individuals as well as teams with other enthusiasts of our sport which we call "Fitness Leagues." My whole life I have tried to develop ways to motivate, measure and get results for people doing physique transformations. I have always known that if I could come up with a way to turn the science of physique transformation into a sport or game--a sport where people support, motivate and compete with one another as individuals and as groups, or teamsĀ?then I could change the world!
Fitness Leagues takes our process of Physique Transformation from something you do by yourself to something you do with your friends and colleagues. Fitness Leagues allows you to diet as a team and get results as a team. You and your friends get together and form a group with the goal of losing fat and gaining muscle together and each persons' efforts and results contribute to your team score. You then compete with other teams with similar attributes and test yourself and your group against each other.
For example, a personal trainer can form a group of his clients and challenge other personal trainers' clients in the same gym to a "Physique Transformation-Off." On a larger scale, one gym can challenge another across town in a fat-loss competition by assigning their members to two distinct groups. Companies can pit divisions against each other with the goal of creating healthier (and less costly) employees in a fun and supportive way. One city can even challenge another. Imagine Philadelphia challenging Houston to a fat loss competition. Think of the millions of pounds each respective city could lose with each mayor's reputation on the line. We can now track the progress of these groups in real time!
So let me give you a preview on how the game is played.
A new 'Fitness Score' is now in place and it's totally different from the 'Diet Score' that you're used to. The Fitness score is a weighted compilation of your diet, exercise and results as measured by six different factors: Diet score, cardio sessions & weight training sessions logged, as well as inches lost, pounds lost, & body fat lost as recorded in the PFA's body fat calculator.
Over the next few weeks we will continuously be introducing the new concepts of Fitness Leagues. Don't worry; you are already signed up if you are entering data into the PFA. The only thing you have to do now is ENTER YOUR MEASUREMENTS INTO THE BODY FAT CACULATOR NOW! This establishes your baseline for the January game, which will last for three months ending March 31st. You will have a better shot of winning the sooner you enter your measurements.
Our graphic designer is putting on the final touches to the look and feel, so you will see some changes daily over the next week or two, but it is up and running now. Be sure to see how you are doing by clicking on the link in the Fitness League widget in the Left-Nav of the home page.
I am so excited about Fitness Leagues and what it will do for everybody! Let's get started and change the world!
Ric Rooney
Physique Transformation takes on eDiets
By Ric Rooney
It looks like David vs.Goliath but remember what happened the last time!
Well here I go getting myself in trouble again, but for a good cause. I don't know what it is about Cathi Watson and her Chicago radio talk show I do. A couple of months ago it was Oprah and her so-called diet experts that I wound up taking to task and wondering if I was going to be besieged with nasty e-mails from Oprah's loyal base. But the response was all positive.
Well, in our most recent radio interview (click here to listen) eDiets was on the barbeque agenda and got roasted. But like Oprah's diet guru's, they started it! In this case it was David Humble, CEO and head honcho at eDiets, going on record with some statements that I'm sure warmed the hearts of the financial analysts that he was addressing, but would have sent chills down the spines of eDiets customers, who are jumping ship faster than Dave can say, 'We've changed prices and marketing strategies again!'
My basic beef with the giant commercial weight loss companies like eDiets, Jenny Craig and Weight Watchers is that as a publicly traded company, their first responsibility is a FIDUCIARY one to their shareholders, not the health and fitness of their clients. I'm not saying that these diet companies aren't concerned with those issues, but I am saying it takes a back seat to PROFITS.
If someone from any of those companies would like to contest that accusation, all they have to do is accept my challenge.
Make the same unconditional, '7X Sure' money back guarantee on your results that we do.
What you will hear is a deafening silence. It will NEVER happen. They would be out of business in short order, which of course is a violation of the prime directive (can't help the reference, Trekkies) of publicly traded companies; survive, make profits, give good ROI.
Don't believe me? eDiets recently made a desperate, radical change in their marketing plan. Instead of the diet strategy that they originally started with, eDiets now offers THIRTY ONE different diet plans to choose from! Multiple choices each month! Which is about how long their customers seem to stay on them.
In the publicly available webcast I mentioned in the radio interview, David Humble makes the following statement;
"What we found is that it's more important to KEEP the customer, then to keep them on a particular DIET." So what David is saying is that it's a better marketing strategy to have something for everyone's dieting tastes, then it is to have a program that actually works. If one diet fails, no problem, we've got LOTS more for you to try! Disgusting. Good marketing strategy, I grant you. But disgusting.
As a publicly traded company eDiets has LOTS of cash to burn. To the tune of about $4,000,000.00 in on-line advertising alone last quarter. Do you know how many banner ads $4,000,000.00 will buy you? HUNDREDS of MILLIONS! And here's what Mr. Humble had to say about all those banner ads;
"Mind share equates to credibility and credibility equates eventually to the ability to raise prices."
Mind share equates to credibility. Don't you just love that corporate ass-backward thinking? You don't actually have to BE credible, just bombard people with a zillion slick banner ads and you MUST be credible, right? It's the 'corporate speak' way of saying ' A lie told often enough, becomes the truth.'
Not once in Dave's 45-minute dissertation did he ever mention the CUSTOMER and how he or she is doing on the eDiets program. What does that have to do with profits?
What I will say in defense of eDiets is that they are after all, a publicly traded company. They're only doing what publicly traded companies must do; make their quarterly numbers or suffer the wrath of Wall Street. And I understand that. I might not like the way they exploit the weight problems of millions of people in their pursuit of the bottom line, but I understand it.
But here's what I can't understand. And when I jumped on this second group, some thought that I was biting the hand that feeds Physique Transformation. Because the group I jumped on was you! The American public.
Americans are getting fatter and unhealthier by the month, yet most of these people STILL cling to the belief that there MUST be a fast, easy way to get fit. And you continue to reward the heartless companies who make these ridiculous claims of looking fabulous in thirty days with a few pills and contraptions, with hundreds of millions of your hard earned dollars each year. And they laugh at you all the way to the bank. Then they come up with new infomercials, new miracle pills and contraptions and screw you all over again. And you fall for it time after time after time.
The statement I made on the radio show to the American public was, "you get what you deserve." Until you vote these companies and products out of business by closing your purses and wallets to them, you're giving them permission to steal your money and worse, your health.
Do I think we're going to overtake eDiets? Yes, I do and here's why. People are not stupid. Lazy maybe, but not stupid. Ultimately, they figure things out and find solutions to their problems. And when they do, they tell others. And once a grass movement gets started, no amount of marketing dollars, or banner ads, can match it.
I'm just a regular guy, with a very specific skill set. We will NEVER take Physique Transformation public. No board of directors or group of shareholders will ever hold a sword over my head and dictate the policy or direction of this company.
As an example, rather then waste money on banner ads, we've decided to invest our money in our CUSTOMERS. If its your customers who are helping you grow, THEY'RE the ones who deserve to get our marketing dollars, not some PR firm that tells you they can buy you 'mind share.'
The customer referral program we put in place is the only one I know of where customers can get their supplements for free and participate in weekly interactive conference calls for free just by referring a few people to us. And instead of giving credit just one time, EVERY time a referral spends a few dollars with us, we give a portion back to customer who referred them. It's been a huge success for us and extremely popular with our customers.
Bill Phillips had the right idea; the more you freely give, the more you receive. One man CAN make an enormous difference. Just look at what EAS has become since Bill let go of the reins, a company of suits that pushes no carb/ lo carb crap and sugar bars that Bill would NEVER have approved years ago. But it sells. And EAS makes its quarterly numbers.
So while eDiets tinkers with new talking, winking, sexy banners ads to draw fresh customers in, we are working on the new 2.0 release of the PFA and Fitness League that will educate people and set them free once and for all.
Cross your fingers for me and the rest of the team here at Physique Transformation. With your encouragement, we will give it everything we've got to make this company a model where success will be measured more by the cheers of customers then shareholders.
As I've said before, we are by all means a 'for profit' company, and soon we hope to turn one! But, seriously, we live by the belief that it's fine to make money in the SERVICE of others, not at the EXPENSE of others.
Ric Rooney
Not Bad, Dr. Phil. You Almost Hit it Out of the Park. Almost.
[Ric's note: This is an article that ran a while back but I thought we'd keep with the Dr. Phil theme for a few more days!]
Did any of you happen to catch the recent Katie Couric/Dr. Phil two-hour special 'Survival of the Fittest'? I happened to flip the channel just as it started and wound up watching the whole thing. Dr. Phil was promoting his new book, The Ultimate Weight Solution, The Seven Keys to Weight Loss Freedom.
I was curious to see if Dr. Phil was up to the challenge. I was in the mood for another round of expert bashing and wondered if Dr. Phil would fare better then Oprah's three 'experts.' more »