6 Days a Week, Jake’s in the Gym at 5

Fitness means more to Jake Steinfeld than I imagined. We hooked up for lunch at Toscana in Brentwood, where he talked about how he was a fat kid--wore a size husky suit to his bar mitzvah--and how he was a so-so student and stuttered.

Here he is today, “Body by Jake,” with his “‘Fit TV” cable show, his exercise equipment sold on Home Shopping Network, his own fitness magazine and a new book, “Powerliving by Jake” (Random House).

And there’s family by Jake--he and his wife, Tracey, and their children, Morgan, 5, and Nicholas, 3, live on the Westside.

Jake smiles when he describes the turning point. That was in the fall of 1972 when he was 14 and loving his Twinkies and Yodels. He was in his own room in the basement of the family home in Baldwin, Long Island, N.Y., where he was supposed to be doing his homework. Instead of poring over social studies, Jake took a pair of weights off a laundry room shelf. He propped up a mirror on an ottoman, put on a Frank Sinatra album with live audience applause and started lifting the weights. He recalls that his tummy hung over his pants. He began to work the weights and hear the wild applause coming from the album.

“Here I was, Jake Steinfeld, doing his bicep curls in front of 50,000 screaming fans at Madison Square Garden. I have to tell you, from that day on what working out did for me. . . .”

Q: You must’ve gone through a transformation while you were just in high school.

A: I was building my body, and I sent away for the Charles Atlas exercise manual. I was standing up straighter and the girls were saying, “Jake, wow, what’s this?” and grabbing my arms and, you know, when you’re 15 years old, that’s a pretty cool thing. I started to stutter less and less. I was never in speech therapy.

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Q: Did you go on to college?

A: For about an hour. It was in upstate New York. Not conducive to walking around in your gold lame posing trunks in 18 inches of snow, you see. Midterm, December, I knew this college thing was not for me. I called my mom up on the phone and said, “Ma, look, I’m going to California to become a bodybuilder.”

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Q: She must’ve fainted.

A: After she got up off the ground she said, “Hang on, talk to your father.” My dad gave me a couple of grand. I moved to L.A.

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Q: What are you now, 40?

A: Don’t push it. I turned 39 in February. I’ll be 40 soon enough, 40 next year.

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Q: What exercise program did you design for yourself?

A: First of all, I love to train. I love what it does for me. So six days a week I’m up every morning at 4:30 and in the gym at 5 with a buddy. We push each other. I combine cardiovascular and muscular workouts with moderate to heavy weights, a lot of repetitions and no rest in between sets. I like to keep it quick and to the point, get in and get out. Basically, 40 minutes per workout--Mondays and Thursdays, chest and triceps; Tuesdays and Fridays, back and biceps; Wednesdays and Saturdays, shoulders and legs. Calves and abs are every day. You’d never know that I work my calves every day.

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Q: The calves aren’t cooperating?

A: The calves are shaky. I get nervous when I walk on the beach. My wife says I’m going to sink up to my knees. That’s why I wear three or four pair of socks.

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Q: Did you outgrow Twinkies and Yodels?

A: I love to eat. There are very few meals that I miss. You have to understand. So what I do is save one day a week and eat whatever I want. Saturday after my workout instead of a bottle of water I have a one-pound bag of M&M;’s, and then I quickly move to my Haagen-Dazs ice cream and then I usually wash that down with a cheese pizza. By the end of the night, I’m rolling around, complaining to my wife, “I’m never gonna do this again.” But come Thursday . . . I’m sorry, but I can’t wait till Saturday.

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Q: What keeps you going Sunday through Friday

A: I usually have cold cereal and I use nonfat milk for the most part, fruit and a bagel, and then I don’t eat bread for the rest of the day. But with my kids every once in a while I’ll have Froot Loops. Every time I take my son to the market, he goes, “Hoop loops, daddy.” I go, “Nicky, what’d you say?” “Hoop loops, daddy.” “You got ‘em, my man.”

I really stick to fish, chicken, a lot of vegetables, a lot of fruit and I love Gelson’s low-fat rice pudding. I drink a lot of water or else I would snack a lot.

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Q: I’m still on Saturday, Jake.

A: You don’t have to do it to that extreme, but you have to do something or you’ll make yourself nutty. One day you’re going to see a commercial for Sara Lee and put your head through the television set.

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Q: Do you ever have a drink?

A: My wife got me into having a glass of red wine, but I think if you put the most expensive glass of red wine in front of me and a glass of Manischewitz, I wouldn’t know the difference, you know?

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Q: One more thing. Did you ever receive that Charles Atlas manual?

A: I’m still waiting for it. I want my money back.

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Guest Workout runs Mondays in Health.