The "Body for Life" program was tailor-made for folks who are basically rolling off their couches and beginning to get into shape.
Starting in couch-potato condition, you will see drasctic results quickly. Once you've been training for 3 years, that's when progress comes to a crawl (w/out AS, that is).
And, Yes, it does work very well for beginners.
As far as those pictures, it's my belief that some of those folks went above and beyond the program- either with steroids of double cardio or something.
They ARE impressive pictures!!!