Has anyone here read "Escape Your Shape: How to Work Out Smarter, Not Harder" by Edward Jackowski? Here's the premise of the book ...

Everyone -- men and women alike -- has a natural shape:

Hourglass -- just what you think it is!
Spoon -- those who are bottom-heavy.
Ruler -- straight as stick types.
Cone -- those who are top-heavy.

If anyone's interested, maybe we can start a group based on this idea? I have tried so many "diets" and, unfortunately, I'm still 25 lbs. overweight and very bottom heavy. Maybe it's time to give exercise a try?!

i've never read the book, but i'm constantly exercising (unless it's finals time, and then i get lazy).
exercise does help, but i prefer to play. playing is much more fun, and it doesn't sound horrible to do. i mean, i'd play tag in a heartbeat, but run a mile? **** no.
i really like martial arts, so that's been my thing. when i do go to the gym on campus, i'll do the precor machine, cuz it's cool to use. i'm also trying to get into a weight lifting program, but that's been harder.
i also try to eat less processed foods....it's great, but it's time consuming at times, so sometimes i'll just have pasta and spagehetti sauce and a salad with whatever veggies i have on hand.
and i drink lots of water. i do feel better with the water. yesterday, i had 2 sodas instead of my usual 8 cups of water, and i felt soo sick.
sometimes i'll add a bit of koolaid to the water to make it different, buta that's about it.

Hi Hollygirl,
I too used to be bottom heavy. I can truly say that the best thing (apart from proper nutrition & supplementation) for this problem is doing squats and lunges. I started these and the weight just dropped off this area.

I follow a (fairly) healthy eating plan too so that's a HUGE part but I guarantee that these will help. Try doing the lunges with dumbells (one in each hand) and the squats are usually easiest with a barbell.

Hope this helps.

Hey everbody!!!

I think exercising and dieting to suit your shape is a very interesting idea. I mean there are some machines at the gym that certain types should go light on and I wonderif that is also the sam with food. I loved the poll!!! Tracy

Hi Hollygirl! I just bought the book Escape Your Shape after seeing a convincing infomercial on it, and I started this week. It makes a lot of sense...I hope it works because although I've been exercising hard and doing Atkins for 1 and a half months I've only taking off 5 pounds. Now that I've started this program, I'm hoping for a miraculous drop of 25 pounds. I'm so miserable and I don't know what else to do!!!!

Carrie