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We Found It! The Fastest Way to Sculpt Drop up to 14 pounds and trim an average of 9 inches off your belly with our reader-teste

Thu, 04/02/2009 - 14:00 — angela
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UPDATE: Chat with some of our testers -- Krissy Duke, Stacy Brennan and Kim Roberts -- and with trainer/writer Marianne McGinnis on our message boards the week of Nov. 5 for updated results on their sculpting routine and for more workout and exercise tips.

FOR MORE: Try out our Eat More, Lose More diet, which includes the nutrition guidelines our testers followed. If you're still up for more, try out some of these exercise band moves on your lunch break!

If we told you we'd discovered the world's most effective body sculpting workout--one that could make zipping up your skinny jeans a breeze in just 3 weeks, without hoisting a single dumbbell--would that be enough to change your entire exercise routine? Well, have we got a plan for you!

Prevention tested five ways to get strong--weights, resistance balls and bands, Pilates, yoga, and body-weight moves like push-ups--on 18 sedentary women to find out which could deliver a leaner, firmer figure the fastest. We were amazed by the winner: exercise bands. They have the undeserved rep of being "second best" to bulky weights or complex moves, but they pack a powerful workout. After 12 weeks, the women in our band group shaved 30% more inches off their bellies, hips, arms, and thighs, averaging a total loss of 15 inches. They also dropped 18% more weight--averaging 6 pounds each--while one of them built enough shapely muscle to rev up her metabolism by about 120 calories a day.

The secret? Band users exercised more. Lightweight, packable exercise bands are easy to use at home or on the road, and they deliver what experts call "functional training"--mimicking real-life actions, such as taking out the garbage, and targeting more muscles in the process. The result: Everyday tasks are easier, and you shape up quickly. Try the winning, ultimate firming workout yourself and tone up in less than 1 month!

The Expert Todd Durkin, a San Diego based strength coach and owner of Fitness Quest 10 who was voted Personal Trainer of the Year in 2004 and 2005, designed this workout.