Travis Stork - The Lean Belly Prescription: The Fast and Foolproof Diet and Weight-Loss Plan from Americas Top Urgent-Care Doctor

To the lean you, the real youa person whos free from all that weighs you down and holds you back and threatens your health. Together, we can lift your burden.

I am not a doctor. Nor do I play one on TV.

But Travis Stork, M.D., isin real life and on TV. As an emergencymedicine physician in Nashville, he mans the E.R., caring for the injured and the ill, making split-second decisions that often spell the difference between life and death. As one of the hosts of TVs The Doctors, he spreads the gospel of good health to millions of Americans from a TV studio in Los Angeles. Wherever Travis Stork goes, he changes lives for the better.

With this book, he wants to change yours, tooin just 4 weeks! So if youre looking to get a lean, flat bellyand the improved health, longevity, and self-confidence that come with ityouve come to the right place.

Dr. Traviss Lean Belly Prescription might be the easiest, most sensible weight-loss-and-lifestyle book Ive ever read. And Ive read them all. As editor-in-chief of Mens Health, editorial director of Womens Health, and the author of the Eat This, Not That! series of books, I spend my days, and more often than Id like, my nightslistening to experts, poring over studies, and testing the latest and greatest health, fitness, and weight-loss theories. But Ive never come across a program as effective and as easy to stick to as this one. When it comes to slimming down, toning up, and (at last!) having the firm, lean belly youve always wanted, this book might just be the final word.

See, the problem with most weight-loss plans is that theyre not flexible, theyre not realistic, and theyre not adaptable to the way real people live their real lives. But The Lean Belly Prescription is different. Dr. Travis might call his belly-fat cure a prescription, but its actually the most flexible program youll ever find. His revolutionary PICK 3 TO LEAN plan doesnt require you to give up your favorite foods or to stop doing anything you love to do. Instead, he gives you a broad range of dietary changes you can make, based on your favorite foods and how you like to eat them. In a sense, you design your own weight-loss strategy. And if you get tired of following it? Heck, you just go back and design a different one!

But its not just the genius of the plan thats so terrific. Whats most touching and telling about this book is Dr. Traviss motivation for writing it. Simply put, he got tired of patching up patients in the E.R. only to send them back out into a world where twothirds of them will live their lives as overweight or obese people. Dr. Travis wants to change lives, not just for an hour on the television, or one night in the emergency room. With The Lean Belly Prescription, Dr. Travis has a much bigger mission: He wants to change peoples lives forever.

Starting with yours!

David Zinczenko
E DITOR-IN-CHIEF OF Mens Health
AND EDITORIAL DIRECTOR OF Womens Health

I would like to acknowledge my family and friends. Without your support I would not be on this mission to promote health beyond the E.R. You have taught me that friendliness, hard work, and honesty can never be taken away.

To the entire team at The Doctors, who work tirelessly to prove that an hour of television can and does make a POSITIVE difference. Thank you!

To all of my peers and mentors in medicine, many of whom dont get the credit they so greatly deserve.

Id like to specifically acknowledge the efforts and creativity of Peter Moore, David Zinczenko, and the entire team at Rodale and Mens Health for giving this book direction, meaning, and most importantly, information that will not only save lives, but also improve them. Thanks go to the Rodale books team, led by Karen Rinaldi, and Chris Krogermeier and Sara Cox; the Mens Health and Womens Health books juggernaut, including Stephen Perrine, George Karabotsos, Debbie McHugh, Erin Williams, and designer Mike Smith; Laura Roberson, for her wide-ranging research; Paul Kita, Maria Masters, and David Schipper; fitness models Jackson Bloore and Megan Hoffman, stylist Kathy Kalafut, and hair/makeup stylist Colleen Kobrick-Kuehne; copy editors Nancy Elgin, Susan Hindman, Dave Caruso, and Claire McCrea; and Adam Campbell, author of The Big Book of Exercises, and Jeff Csatari, author of the Belly Off! Diet, for their many contributions. A personal thank you goes to Lisa Furnish, Mel Berger, and Scott Zolke.

And lastly, I would like to acknowledge anyone reading this book. May this be your first step on a lifelong journey toward health and happiness.

Peter Moore adds:

Id like to thank my mom, Dorothy Moore; my late father, Richard Moore; my wife, Claire; and my sons Jake and Tyler, with whom Ive proved and re-proved the studies that show how family activity builds the most important muscle: the heart.

Americas top urgent-care doctor targets killer fatthe greatest risk to your health, your life, and even your bank accountwith a revolutionary new 4-week prescription that will grant you a lean belly for life!

I havent been too busyan unexplained rash here, a wrist sprain therewhich can mean only one thing: Its just a matter of time before somebody out there gets seriously hurt.

And sure enough, the PA system barks a warning, announcing an auto accident with multiple injuries. I leap to my feet and abandon a cup of coffee that I wont return to for several hours. Who needs caffeine when youre pumping high-test adrenaline? Ive been preparing for moments like this for my whole medical career: getting my E.R. patients through the golden hour, the critical 60 minutes that determine whether they will live or die.

I hear the sirens wailing as the ambulances near Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee, where Im on call in the E.R. whenever Im not in Los Angeles hosting The Doctors. If you think hosting a TV show watched by millions of people must be stressful, then you havent spent a night in the E.R.

Two ambulances arrive at the door, and in a flash the victims roll down the hallways and into my care. In the E.R., I have to determine immediately whats wrong and figure out how I can help the next patient who arrives, often on deaths doorstep.

So what is one of the first vital signs I check? How much they weigh.

Cmon, Dr. Travis, youre thinking. You dont check for a pulse or blood pressure? You dont check for missing limbs or scan the report compiled by the ambulance personnel? Well, sure, Im looking at a lot of things simultaneously, but often one of the most important indicators of how well a patient will manage a health crisis is how much excess weight he or she is carrying. In fact, research suggests that obese people are 37 percent more likely to die from injuries sustained in a car crash than people of ideal weight.