"The Firm"

Review

The Firm is perhaps the most heavily advertised weight loss and fitness product on television. It is sold through its infomercial as well as its website firmdirect.com.

The Firm focuses on step aerobics, with the addition of light weights. It is sold as a "Body Sculpting System" of three videos, a "Fanny Lifter" step, several instructional guides to proper exercise technique, and the secrets of its founding instructors. The whole plan costs $89.95. There are also several optional upgrades, including dumbbell weights ($29.95), a four-pack of specific body part exercise videos ($29.95), multivitamins ($25.90 for 60 days), and an information and support club called "The Firm Believers Club" ($24.95-3 months, $39.90-6 months).

The Firm is one of the better commercial weight loss programs on the market, despite its expense. It focuses on what works in the long term: intense cardiovascular exercise with muscle building. Food is a side issue, which makes it almost the exact opposite of most commercial weight loss program. Most focus on food, at the expense of exercise. But virtually everyone who has ever lost significant weight and kept it off for good, focused primarily on the exercise portion.

The problem with The Firm is that it is pure exercise. Most people, after an initial burst of motivation, fail to maintain mundane forms of exercise like aerobics and especially video aerobic workouts. The lack of social interaction with people around to push you and keep you from embarrassing yourself, makes it too easy to lose your motivation.

Instead of falling prey to a marketing juggernaut, follow their recommendations: focus on intense cardiovascular exercise. But this is much better accomplished by following a basic food plan and structure which you could design yourself or use one of the convenient, inexpensive online programs. The real key is to use this basic structure while adding exercise sports to your life. Examples include tennis, hiking, biking, climbing, dancing, etcetera... It is in these physical activities that you don't think of as exercise that the mental battle of weight loss can be won for good. And they are first-and-foremost fun!