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Jumpstart your way to a slimmer (and healthier) you with the Walker Diet Super Slim Down Program. Dr. Walker recently began to personally follow this plan, and already, his clothing is more loose-fitting!

The Walker Diet is a great way to lose those unwanted pounds, and keep them off. The three phases of the diet allow you to get a quick start, continue the weight reduction and maintain your desired weight. One of the best aspects of the diet is the combination of variety (the low carb foods that you choose) and convenience (the products that help support you in your goals).

I advocate the Rapid Reduction Phase for 2 to 4 weeks, depending on how much weight you need to lose. A typical amount of calories on the Rapid Reduction phase will range from 1,600 to 2,000 calories, depending on how much you eat. Now, I don't ask you to count calories per se, but there is no getting around the math. If you take in more calories then you expend, you will gain weight. And yes, you will gain less if it is low carb, but you can still gain weight.

Conversely, if you limit your calorie intake, and take in fewer than you expend, you will lose weight. Studies have shown that if you take in an equal amount of calories in a low-fat and low carb diet, the low carb dieters will lose more weight. But what if you restrict your calories a bit more on a low carb diet? Will you lose weight more quickly? The answer is "yes" if you do it properly.

Weight reduction can be tricky. If you starve yourself, you will lose weight. Unfortunately, it will be both fat and muscle. And muscle is a good thing for you to have. You don't have to be ripped like Arnold Schwarzenegger to benefit from muscle. You see, for each pound of muscle you add to your frame, you will burn an extra 50 calories per day. And if you starve yourself, or follow a low-fat, low-protein diet, you may also lose muscle mass.

When you lose muscle, you are not only losing weight, you are decreasing your calorie output. It naturally follows that you will then need to restrict your calories even further to maintain your weight reduction. All in all, not a good situation.

One of the advantages of the Walker Diet is that if you use our shakes and bars, you are getting the benefits of low carb AND low-fat, and you are going to allow yourself to preserve your lean muscle. This will be especially true if you incorporate some resistance training in your regimen, as I recommend you do.

So now let's put this all together. If there were a way for you to decrease carbs, fat and total calories and maintain muscle mass, chances are you would decrease fat weight rather quickly.

Enter the Walker Diet Super Slim Down Program.

This program is like a corollary or adjunct to the standard Walker Diet. It will allow you to lose weight more rapidly, and really turbocharge the effects of the Walker Diet. By limiting calories, exercising and taking in enough protein to maintain your muscle, you will avoid the negative effects of a low-calorie diet. This could be an intense, one- or two-week program to help you get started even more quickly than the standard approach. It requires some dedication, but can reap big benefits. Then you can move right into the Rapid Reduction phase and continue your weight reduction at a brisk pace. After another two weeks, you will be ready for the Continued Reduction phase, where I introduce more carbohydrates back to your diet.

In the Walker Diet Super Slim Down Program, you are going to make use of one of the best sources of protein on the market: Walker Diet shakes. Because these shakes also contain 6 grams of fiber per serving and a full array of vitamins and minerals, you will not lose out on these essential nutrients, as you would in the early stages of the South Beach Diet. The one thing you will be lacking is fat, and since some fats are essential, I will strongly recommend that you supplement your program with Walker Diet EFA Formula.

The concept of the Walker Diet Super Slim Down Program is simple:

• Monday through Friday of weeks 1 and 2, the majority of your nutritional intake will be from the shakes. You should drink 4 shakes throughout the course of the day. You can have any Walker Diet shake flavor you want: Banana crème, chocolate, vanilla, peach, or strawberry. Since one serving of a Walker Diet Shake is 175 calories, 4 servings would be 700 calories.
  
• For dinner, you can have a small salad with vinegar or lemon juice (no oil for these two weeks) and 6 ounces of grilled chicken, turkey or fish.
  
• If you get really hungry after dinner, have another shake. You can substitute one Walker Diet low carb bar for a shake each day, if you desire.
  
• Additionally, you will take one Walker Diet EFA Formula softgel 3 times each day. This will supply the essential fatty acids that you need.
  
• The 3 softgels of EFA Formula that you take during the day will be 40 calories (total) and the protein at dinner, plus the extra shake if you are hungry, should bring the total daily calories to less than 1,200 per day.
  
• This will certainly promote a rapid weight reduction. The fiber (a total of 16 grams in six shakes, plus fiber in the salad) will help keep you full, and will promote normal bowel function. The vitamins and minerals will make sure you have all the requirements for proper metabolism, and the 1,600 mg of calcium will help your muscles and bones, and may help promote further weight reduction.
  
• You should avoid all alcohol during this time, and I would also limit your intake of diet soda, as it does contain sodium, which can sabotage your weight reduction. And remember to drink 8 to 10 glasses of cold water each day.

As to the issue of losing muscle mass, you are going to be getting over 100 grams of high-quality protein, so this should help spare your muscle. To further improve the situation, resistance workouts twice a week would be beneficial. If you notice that your energy is down during the workout, the next time you may want to eat one cup of old-fashioned oatmeal 30 to 60 minutes beforehand. This will provide some carbs to help fuel your muscles, and because it has a low glycemic index, will not boost your blood sugar too much. Plus, it will not add many overall calories, and you will burn them up working out, so don't worry about that.

• Saturday and Sunday, I would encourage you to strictly follow the Rapid Reduction phase program. You can stick with the shakes if you like, but I thought 2 days of increased variety would be welcome at this point. And you will not be sabotaging your weight reduction. In fact, it will continue, but you will just be taking in some extra calories.
  
• If you want to go straight to Rapid Reduction after one week, that's fine. Or you can go for another week with the Walker Diet Super Slim Down, then go to Rapid Reduction.

This program is safe because of the high nutritional value of our products, and the use of appropriate supplements. Because of its strict nature, it is not designed to be a long-term program; it is unlikely you could keep this up very long. However, the remainder of the Walker Diet can help you do just that.

By the way, if you are very successful on the Super Slim Down, you can skip Rapid Reduction and go straight to Continuing Reduction. This is another good option for you.

You can also return to the Super Slim Down program any time you want, as you continue your low carb lifestyle. Say you are celebrating some major event in your life, and you find it difficult to obtain some low carb options. Jump right back into Super Slim Down for a week, then pick up where you left off, be it Rapid Reduction, Continued Reduction, or even Maintenance. You will enjoy the Walker Diet Low Carb Pasta, Walker Diet Low Carb Soy Pretzels and Walker Diet Low Carb Quick Potatoes even more after you have not had them for a while.

You may wonder if you can use the bars in place of the shakes. The answer is yes, but I would not use them as the only source of food. The shakes contain more calcium and are lower in calories. Also, while the sugar alcohols in the bars don't stimulate insulin, they can cause loose bowel movements in some people if taken too often.

A great addition to the Super Slim Down approach would be Walker Diet Tonalin XS CLA. This amazing nutrient has significant scientific evidence supporting its use to decrease body fat and improve lean muscle mass. In fact, in a one-year study, CLA was shown to decrease the body fat mass in healthy, overweight adults, according to a paper published in the June issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Other studies have supported this research, and also pointed to CLA as a potential anti-carcinogenic nutrient. The dose of Walker Diet Tonalin XS CLA is one capsule 3 to 4 times per day. I highly recommend that you add this to the Walker Diet EFA formula during the Walker Diet Super Slim Down Program, and stay on it thereafter, if you so desire.

So get ready to look great and feel better, and enjoy the delicious and nutritious Walker Diet products that we have available. And don't forget to check back with us frequently, as we are coming out with many delicious and exciting low carb products in the near future.

As always, I wish you the best of health.