This Diet Means Business

By Andrea Sachs

Out-of-shape executives should restructure their physique by using the same techniques that have made them successful in business. That's the thesis of The Business Plan for the Body, a summer best seller. Author Jim Karas is a Wharton grad and former options trader and money manager who now works as a $10,000-a-week fitness consultant based in Chicago. He advises dieters to approach weight loss as a business with a twist--you want to spend more than you take in. Think of calories eaten as revenue and calories burned by exercise as expenditures, he writes. Publicly announce reasonable goals so you will be motivated to exceed them. And ask your "management team"--your spouse and office assistant, the staff at a favorite restaurant--to help make you successful.

--By Andrea Sachs