In order to avoid frequency aliasing caused by the expansion of zero component in Fourier transform profilometry, empirical mode decomposition is introduced here, by which only one frame deformed fringe pattern is needed. The deformed fringe pattern is discomposed into a series of intrinsic mode functions, which vary form high frequency to low frequency by using empirical mode decomposition. So the high-frequency components are separated from the low ones. The zero component could be eliminated, which leads to the measurement range of FTP to be extended to nearly three times like using the π phase-shifting method. Experiments verify that it is an efficient method to extend the measurement range and keep the measurement speed.