FIT 2 FAT & BACK AGAIN

Sounds like a Bilbo Baggins book but it's not. It's my journey from fit, healthy and feeling good, to a lethargic lazy slob and then the return journey, warts and all. Follow me as I go on the journey of a lifetime!

Basic Premise

Apart from our transform class myself and the other trainers at b2b perform approximately 30-40 hours of Personal Training per week. Our clients are a lovely bunch of people trusting us with their well earned cash to motivate, guide and support them. Sometimes it’s for the short term and sometimes it’s ongoing depending on their personal goals. A vast majority of our clients aren’t looking for body stardom, they don’t want to be the next cover model for mens or womens health magazine and they don’t want to be 4% body fat, they just want to be able to feel comfortable at the beach, look good in their new outfit on a night out and be able to finish the next 10k in a reasonable time. They want to achieve these goals whilst maintaining their weekend social life (including brunches) and not cutting out too much of the fun stuff.

This is possible but it will take longer than the monk like route of eating chicken & brown rice six times a day which would get them to body stardom in the quickest possible time. I also can’t help but feel that each brunch or stumble off of the wagon isn’t just pushing their goal further away but costing them financially at the same time.

Another trend I witness is seeing lots of my clients having a flying first month losing up to 38cm and smashing their fitness tests to pieces. This is fantastic but what they really struggle to comprehend is what amazing changes in the appearance of their body will come to fruition, if they could just stay focused for month two, three and beyond. Unfortunately, most fly off the wagon faster than a toupe in a soft top on Sheikh Zayed Road.

I wanted to show my clients and anyone else that might take an interest, how achievable it is to transform your body in just 3 months. To highlight this best I would have to put on some pounds first, both to show how to lose the fat but I also wanted to let my fitness lapse so that I could experience the physical struggle that so many of my clients face when battling back from a state of ‘unconditioned’. It actually highlights how cheap you can make eating healthily in a place that can easily cost you up to $1400 per month in food bills as well.

My fighting weight is around the 98kg mark, I can comfortably sit at this weight with around 13% body fat whilst maintaining a good level of strength and fitness and if there is a yacht party that rears it’s ugly head I’ll put in 4 weeks of hard training and diet to cut up a bit as being a PT you’re physique gets scrutinized more than most, it’s just par for the course.

Pic: 34th birthday. Mountain biking in the Alps.

So my idea is to gain 12-14 kg in 3 months and then lose it again to the point where I reach yacht party status of around 8% body fat. For a big guy like me the gaining part shouldn’t be too difficult. I am taking a 6 week holiday in France so the idea of sipping Kronenbourg and eating pain au chocolat on a daily basis, although alien, doesn’t seem like a tough one! I refuse to be totally sedentary so a smidgen of long mountain walks and slow jogs will be indulged in but not at an intensity that will harm my weight gain.

Pic: Tartiflette in Courchevel (circa 2000kcals)

The Plan

Once I have gained the weight (early september) I will be taking the monk like route. The plan is to train three times a day on ‘working days’ and twice a day on ‘rest days’. This will be broken down into two daily 20 minute cardio session (running, cycling, elliptical or swimming) and one weights session in the gym. No days off from exercise and no excuses. With regards to food I will be eating six to seven small meals per day with no sugar, fruit and no fat in my diet, the only sugars will be from vegetables and the fat will come from the meat that I am eating. I won’t be going carb free because 2 hours of exercise a day demands carbohydrate for energy and I want to build precious muscle to aid in calorie burning and obviously aesthetics. For more details on the Training Program and Nutrition you will have to wait for the full program to be launched in the new year but I will be sharing lots of helpful info with you over the coming weeks.

3 months, Zero to Hero it’s a simple as that. I am hoping to highlight that it is possible to achieve amazing results with dedication and if this level of dedication is needed to achieve these amazing results then you can work out what level of results you can expect in 3 months if you add in two burgers a week or two piss ups or whatever extras you ingest in addition to the prescribed food below. I particularly want to show you the difference between the results at end of month one compared to the results at the end of month two and three, because anyone can be dedicated for one month but for the people that can commit to two or three months on the wagon, you will deserve the dramatic change that is inevitable.

Prepping for Success

So the weight gain was a resounding success. Beer, cheese, wine, more beer and tartiflette were the main contributors. I have gained 14.2kgs and although it sounds great (and it was for about 2 weeks) for a majority of the gaining phase, I felt sluggish, constantly tired, unmotivated, at times grumpy for no reason (sugar lows) and generally like a clogged up hippo. I am chomping at the bit to get back and clean up my act. I desperately need to eat some veggies and resume the avoidance of those things that really aren’t meant to be consumed by a living human organism ie sugar, trans fat and alcohol. I feel and look like shit and am well over it.

Fail to prepare and you prepare to fail couldn’t be more true when referring to food preparation. The difficulty is that when living with a wife and child I can’t expect them to toss out all of the junk so I’ve commandeered my own cupboard and shelf in the fridge and I will try not to avert my gaze towards the fresh bread, lumps of cheese and the occasional dairy milk that crops up on the top shelf…(she is pregnant). I’ve calculated what macronutreints I need per day and then worked out exactly what shopping I need to do. The accuracy is so precise that I know that the entire weekly shopping bill comes to exactly AED422. Now for 6/7 meals per day that’s pretty damn good! Supplements bump that up by AED168

2.5kg of chicken in Geant for AED35

2.5kg of fish in Geant for AED40

2.5kg of Beef Tenderloin from fish market for AED90

2.5kg of Organic Oats from Milestone JVT for AED55

2.5kg of Brown Basmati Rice from fish market for AED30

2.5kg Sweet Potato Geant for AED60

60 eggs from fish market for AED30

Coffee from Geant for AED22

6 Bunches of Broccoli from Geant AED60

Protein AED25

Aloe Vera AED 18

BCAA’s AED 30

Fish Oils AED 30

Greens AED 35

Multivitamin AED 30

Pic: Supplements :)

I have also constructed a periodized training schedule that I’ll talk about a bit later on in the blog. So now all that’s left is to let the games begin. See you in a week.