Product Description
With more than three million copies of previous editions in print, this classic exercise manual has shown Americans from all walks of life the route from fatness to fitness. Now Covert Bailey has totally rewritten and revised FIT OR FAT for the first time since the book's original publication in the mid-1970s. His dramatically new approach to fitness incorporates the most recent scientific findings. Weightlifting, whose fat-burning potential is only now becoming fully understood, plays a large role in Bailey's new program, which stresses what he calls "the four food groups" of exercise: aerobics, cross-training, wind sprints, and weightlifting. He also stresses the importance of intense exercise, showing readers how to build intensity into their daily programs safely and effectively. Covert Bailey's ULTIMATE FIT OR FAT will not only be of interest to a new health-conscious generation but will be eagerly sought out by the millions of readers who have come to rely on the Bailey approach to keep their bodies in peak condition.

Amazon.com Review
"In my little way I'm going to rattle the world," proclaims Covert Bailey, who already rattled the world when he changed the way America looked at weight loss and exercise with his original Fit or Fat in the mid-1970s. Now he's back with a new spin on the Fit or Fat principles. This small book (180 pages, about 5 by 8 inches) teaches you how to get fit faster and raise your metabolism. To improve your fitness level most quickly, Bailey recommends his "Four Food Groups of Good Exercise": aerobic exercise, cross training (varying your exercise choices), wind sprints (short bursts of high-intensity activity), and weight lifting. "I'm not burning a lot of calories while I'm exercising, but my body is changing into a better butter-burning machine," he says. "The purpose of my exercise is to change my chemistry." As we expect from Covert, his style is clever and feisty--the book is fun to read, and the information goes down easily. He offers some witty, memorable principles, such as "The more muscle an exercise uses, the less long you gotta do it!", "If you're fit, exercise long; if you're fat, go short but often," and this motto for the older exerciser: "When you are over the hill--you pick up speed!" He includes a body-fat test and a find-your-pace fitness test. --Joan Price

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.0 based on 21 reviews)

The Ultimate Fit or Fat

Covert Bailey is the smartest man in America. How easy it all is when someone finally tells the truth. Through out the diet books and make room on the shelf for The Ultimate Fit or Fat! There are no quick fixes or majic pill, there is only commom sense. Follow what he says, it will change your live in ways you never imagined.
Thank you Covert Bailey.
February 26, 2007

not what I expected

It's nothing but an exercise book. I don't need a book to know that exercise is good for me. I'm not sure what I expected but this book wasn't it.
May 09, 2006

A totally new book, and it really works!

I had bought the original Fit or Fat book many years ago, and may have been the only person on the planet who didn't know that Covert Bailey continued to write new books. I bought this one recently, and discovered it is an entirely new book. The basic premise is still there, but everything else is new, like pulling into your driveway and finding a new, bigger house with more rooms on the old foundation. There is lots of additional information, and even the old jokes and illustrations have been replaced by new ones. Some reviewers are apparently annoyed that Covert does not endorse their pet ideas or theories on fitness, but the bottom line is that this book works. I lost fat with the first book before changes in my schedule caused me to neglect exercising for several years -- well, that's lame my excuse anyway. Then I decided to get serious again, and bought the new "ultimate" book and applied it (including wind sprints and weight lifting) and began losing fat again within weeks, and people are noticing! This book is my coach now, and I'm glad I discovered it. I do wish metric equivalents were included (we don't have pounds, inches, or miles where I live) but I can make the conversions easily enough myself.
September 16, 2005

very practical and understandable

Ultimate Fit and Fat is an easy and quick read. Just as he did in his earlier book Smart Exercise, Bailey discusses the importance of exercising over dieting in improving and maintaining one's fitness. The recommendations that he makes regarding exercise are practical and easy to implement. I would strongly recommend this book to people who would like to improve their fitness AND understand the process of improving their health.
March 16, 2004

Very readable, helpful guide to burning fat through exercise

This is a highly readable guidebook to burning fat through exercise. Bailey uses just enough science to back up his suggestions, but not so much that an unscientific minded reader (such as myself) gets bogged down.

Bailey is very adamant that burning fat comes through exercise, and that trying to burn (lose) fat through diet alone is not nearly as effective. The best fat-burning combination includes 4 components: aerobic exercise, cross-training, weight training, and sprints.

Bailey does a great job of explaining how each of these exercise components works to help retrain the body and muscles to burn fat. There are very helpful tables and graphs throughout the book.

My one disappointment with this book concerns his formula to measure percent body fat. Although he claims this formula is "nearly" as precise as expensive medical alternatives (especially floatation methods), it has a 2 percent margin of error. That means your final calculation is correct *plus or minus 2 percent.* That means you have a range of 4 percentage points. That does not sound very precise or helpful to me.

Nonetheless, I found the book overall to be very instructive, and it will help me design my exercise workouts for no doubt much better fat burning results.
October 02, 2003

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