BODY WATCH : Building a Sleeker Physique in 6 Weeks

Until recently, Jolinda Saindon was a sporadic exerciser. She’d go in-line skating or cycling when the weather and spirit moved her. Then the 29-year-old West Los Angeles waitress took a spill while cycling on city streets and said “No thanks” to that workout.

What she wanted was a regular routine she’d stick with, fair weather or foul--one that would leave her with more energy. That was her motivation for enrolling in the “6-Week Personal Reconstruction Program” at Better Bodies Cross Training Center in West Los Angeles.

Like several similar programs, it’s geared around the concept that six weeks can yield noticeable results while persuading clients to adopt a healthier lifestyle.

The Choices: Six-week programs designed to launch (or relaunch) you down the health and fitness path vary greatly in terms of costs and contents. But here’s a sampling:

* The “6-Week Personal Reconstruction Program” at Better Bodies Cross-Training Center offers nutritional counseling, one-on-one personal training, use of the workout facility and a weekly massage for $1,500.

“In six weeks, you’ll reduce body fat and increase metabolism,” says Dana Vatanpour, one of the center’s personal trainers. Clients are encouraged to check with their physicians before beginning the program and to alert the trainer to any special medical conditions.

* Michael Thurmond’s 6 Week Body Makeover includes a personal trainer for four weekly one-hour workouts conducted at area health clubs, a personalized eating program and analysis of food diaries, which clients fax in regularly. Both the exercise and eating programs must be approved by each client’s doctor, says Thurmond, who charges $840 to $900 for the program.

* The FreshStart program is offered through a handful of health clubs and through employee wellness programs at some major corporations. Designed for exercise dropouts, the six-week program includes twice weekly slow-paced workouts, says Mark Caffey, spokesman for the Austin-based company that launched the program a year ago. It includes not only gentle exercise but discussion and education about exercise.

In development is a series of exercise and nutrition videos geared around the six-week time frame, says Gin Miller, an Atlanta fitness expert and consultant for Step Reebok. Her first, expected out by January, will be “Six Weeks to the Wedding.”

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The Premise: Why six weeks?

“Six weeks can give you a start,” says John Foreyt, director of the Nutrition Research Clinic at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. “The average (obese) client can make changes for 42 days,” he says. After that, motivation can decline. “But the chances of making changes in exercise or diet permanent (after just six weeks) are nil,” he adds.

So how long is long enough to make fitness and nutrition practices solid habits?

Probably six months to two years, Foreyt estimates.

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The Short-Term Results: Near the end of her six-week “reconstruction,” Saindon was elated. She’d dropped 12 pounds, reduced body fat and believes she has found an exercise program--weight training, stair-climbing and treadmill walking--she can stick with.

Her eating habits have improved too. “I used to have some coffee in the morning and eat nothing all day (until dinner),” she says. But she soon learned that eating wisely before workouts gave her more energy.

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The Caveats: Foreyt won’t advise people against six-week programs nor encourage them, but he has some advice for those who do enroll. “Don’t focus on the outcome, but the process,” he says. He considers making the switch to a healthier lifestyle, with better eating and exercise habits, “a process rather than an outcome.”

If you’re debating whether to work harder first on diet or on exercise, Foreyt advises focusing first on exercise. “Exercise leads to a sense of well-being,” he says. That well-being, in turn, leads to a sense of control. And that control can make it easier to improve eating habits.

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Perspective: “People need to understand they are not going to rebuild Rome overnight,” says John Duncan, chief of clinical applications for the Cooper Institute for Aerobics Research in Dallas. Within six weeks, exercisers might notice weight loss and increased energy, he says. There might be improvements in their cholesterol levels.

“The programs can motivate people to get going again,” Duncan says. “But after six weeks, that’s just the beginning of the good news.”

After that, he suggests, people should approach exercise much the same way as taking medication for a chronic condition. “Unless you take your nearly daily dose of exercise, the benefits you worked so hard to achieve are going to start being lost.”

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