Today we have an interview with Todd Burgette who placed 4th in the latest Adonis Index Transformation Contest.

Check out his pictures:

Stop making excuses an get on the path to building a better body today.

Todd is 6 foot tall and was 240 pounds. He lost 60 pounds over the course of 14 weeks. That’s a pretty big accomplishment.

Before training with Adonis Index he was going to the gym regularly, he just lacked any structured workout program. However, the bigger issue was his diet. Or more specifically his binge eating.

As a consultant he had an expense account and was supposed to go out with clients and make them comfortable – recipe for disaster. And of course things got out of control pretty quickly. He was overeating and binging and this combination is what got him to 240 pounds, sounds familiar?

He never had an easy time losing weight, and always envied those people could keep the weight off.

Eat Anything You Want…Wait…What?!?

Todd has been an Adonis Index Member for a while, but when he tried the Anything Goes Diet protocol he started seeing diet and nutrition in a totally different way.

This is what he learned from it:

• How to manage his weekly calories budget and stopped thinking on a daily basis
• He could use his personality to succeed rather than to keep struggling
• Each week he felt like he was moving forward and was achieving his goals
• It allowed him to take the pressure off of the diet and enjoy the process
• It’s not about “winning” the day, but rather “winning” the week
• With his weekly plan he aimed ahead and saved calories for the weekend (yes you can enjoy social eating events!)
• He can have anything he wants, but it can’t exceed his calorie budget for the week

Calories are exactly like finances.

To acquire wealth you need to spend less than you earn and invest the difference. So in order to lose weight and get a six pack, you need to eat less than you burn, so your body will have to tap into its fat storage. You can look at it as an future investment for a better looking and healthier body.

Here is the harsh truth. If you get in debt, you have to pay it off some day including the interest rate.

…And the longer you wait the worse it gets.

So, when you are dieting you have to realize that the uncomfortable feeling is just a feeling of burning the Sunday pancakes you had for your breakfast 20 years ago.

Nothing gets lost in your body, it’s either used or stored. It just can’t disappear.

And if you don’t lose it, it will stay there wrapped around your body as fat…FOREVER.

What you are doing with dieting is basically paying that fun-eating-debt off. If you never allowed yourself to gain weight, then you don’t have to go through it, but if you did, there is no other option.

Well, at least if you want to look good.

Shield Yourself from the BS Information Out There

There is a lot of information nowadays. And a lot of crap too.

It’s more important than ever to find the truth, what works, quality advice and shield yourself from everything else. People that try to “consume” all of the information there is and not act up on that look the same month after month, year after year.

You need to differentiate what information is true and what impact it will have on your life.

What is the key factor in your diet and training?

Will antioxidants help you lose weight? Or rather will it be your ability to maintain a caloric deficit over a couple of months? What do you think?

And what about the training? Are you making sure you drink your protein exactly 5 minutes after your training (because some trainer said so) and that you always squat with your squatting shoes? OR are making sure you have the best training routine you can get and you are following it 100%?

Find the key factors that will give you the maximum benefit. Most people focus on the new flashy, fancy things that are trendy and sexy, but not so much on what really works.

Here is something to think about – if we were to shoot a movie about someone getting in shape, building muscles and losing weight, it would be the worst, most boring and painfully frustrating movie ever made.

…Oh and it would be freakishly long too!

There is no sexy answer to fat loss or quick magic pill for muscle building.

The stuff that works is simple – follow a good workout plan, train more and eat a balanced diet with less calories.

Plain and simple.

Take home message from Todd:

1. Diet Tips

• Be proactive, think in advance, plan, save calories, so you can enjoy social eating events over the weekends
• If you are struggling with a eating disorder, take it slowly, small steps moving forward every day/week/month
• Figure out when it’s easier for you to fast
• Don’t eat too often, taking breaks will give you more control
• Try avoiding snacking
• Eating breakfast will most likely make you overeat, try to put the first meal off as late as you can
• If you are a boredom eater, you need to plan to be social
• If you eat less, you will save time

2. Training Tips

• Have a well-structured workout plan
• Have a workout plan written months ahead
• Keep a workout log/diary that will help you track your progress

3. Mindset Shifts

• You’ve got to identify the key drivers of your success and work on them
• It’s all in your head, your body can do it, but you have to believe it’s possible
• Clear your mind before your workout
• Work on your key habits and issues every day
• Find someone who has done what you want, seeing it will give you the confidence to do it
• Reward yourself with vacation and clothes
• Be covert, you don’t have to tell anyone what you are doing

Links form Todd’s interview:

• Anything Goes Diet – No BS Diet Book that lets you in on how fat loss really happens (Hint: It’s different than what you hear from media)
• Eat Stop Eat – Lifestyle approach to get lean and stay lean all year round, by Brad Pilon
• Adonis Index Workout – The Main workout program, also responsible for one of the most amazing transformations online
• Adonis Index Community – The friendliest and most supportive community in the fitness world. UPDATE: Free access when you buy any Adonis Index program here

Read Todd’s experience in his own words:

Participating in AT7 has literally changed my life. Overeating has been a life-long affliction for me, and in the beginning of AT7 I didn’t really believe I would ever be able to escape my bondage to food. I was, however, willing to keep working and trying to find a solution that would work for me. I have successfully overcome this barrier, my confidence in all areas of my life has increased, and I’ve learned the skills necessary to make this change permanent in my life.

Throughout AT7 I focused on…

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Listen to the interview here:

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Today we have an interview with Robert Robinson who placed 4th in the Transformation category in the latest Adonis Index Contest.

Check out his pictures:

Chances are that you too are just a couple of pounds away from being ripped!

You would say that a 30 year old guy who works in a lab and is getting a job as a teacher AND planning for his wedding in his spare time will be pretty busy (and maybe too busy) with his life to be concern with getting in shape or even entering a fitness contest.

As impossible as it sounds Rob proved to us again that it can be done, no matter how busy you are and how stressful your life is.

Rob told us that contrary to what we would guess, a busy life provides structure and it’s actually easier to get things done when you have very little free time. You may have noticed this yourself, that on some days when you have a lot of work, and need to get your workout done, you are really productive, because you have so much planned out, you have to keep going until it’s all finished, no laziness or looking for ways to kill time – productivity only.

Most people would consider being ‘busy’ as an excuse and would complain about how they have no time to go to the gym or eat properly. Not Rob, he saw an opportunity in this (that’s the spirit!).

Before we dig into his approach, let’s look at his diet and training history (expect some interesting stuff).

Everyone Expected Rob to Be Big for the Rest of His Life

Believe it or not, but at one point Rob was 300 pounds!

He was big, but like he said he wasn’t big like bodybuilders, he was big and overweight.

Back then he didn’t think about the look of his body and since it didn’t affect his work, he didn’t concern himself with it.

He loved Arnold’s movies, so he thought being big is a good thing.

It was also sort of expected from his family.

Rob’s transformation over the years, he lost an impressive 140 pounds! (The last two pictures are his transformation with the Adonis Index)

Then he had a moment when he visited a friend of his who had Arnold’s encyclopedia of bodybuilding. After reading it and going through the pictures he realized that he doesn’t look the way he wants or should and he needs to change.

Using some diet approaches he found on the internet he got down to 216 (from 300) and basically lost 80 pounds in six months (pretty impressive).

And then he stalled at that point for a while.

After some time he got even further down to 180 pounds, but he wasn’t sure what was causing the results. Which is pretty interesting, because even though he managed to lose that much weight he was still afraid of gaining the weight back…this is because everyone who lost weight he knew always gained it back.

At first he thought that just because he was eating a diet low in carbohydrates he was losing fat. Later  after finding Adonis Index he realized that what really caused his massive weight loss was a reduction in calories, combined with a drastic increase in activity, and most importantly – consistency in these two areas over time.

He lowered calories somewhat unintentionally since he though that carbs are the bad guy or he would do hours of activities and not realize hoe many calories it was burning.

Being Big vs. Being Ripped

Rob was glad he lost all that weight, however like he said he was skinny-fat, he had (in his words) “no muscles at all” at that point.

At the beach when he would take off his shirt, he would just be smooth with no muscle definition.

He was low in bodyweight, but not satisfied with his physique, he simply didn’t look the why he envisioned for himself.

This is further proof that there is a huge disconnect from how you look and what the scale says.

People don’t understand this concept and get scared as soon as the scale number gets low (in their opinion).

The truth was that Rob never focused on developing any muscle mass, so it doesn’t come as such a surprise when you think about it.

We are so culturally focused on the number on the scale, but completely ignore the “quality” or the “whole picture” that makes up the look and health of our body.

Then at the end of 2010 Rob found Eat Stop Eat and Adonis Index.

He started listening to the podcasts, got the workouts and followed them as written.

Was it enough or did it work?

Well, scroll up and take one more look at the pictures.

Here are some tips from Rob you can incorporate into your approach:

• Don’t get caught up in day-to-day look
• It’s a process and the transformation is both physical and mental
• Enter the contest!
• You will not get abs in 8 days as you see in the ads, it will take more time, but it will happen
• What’s a couple of month or years of dedication compared to living the rest of your life as a happy and healthy person?
• Don’t get pressured into being ‘big’
• Realize that for most guys it’s not realistic to be 200 pounds and ripped (look at all the Adonis Index contest winners, NONE of them are over 200lbs)
• Stop looking at the scale and start looking in a mirror and best of all – take pictures
• There is no reason to do more work for the same results, be smart about your approach
• The podcasts are huge, listen to all of them
• Macros don’t matter, calories are responsible for weight loss or weight gain
• Eat the food you like, just eat less of it
• Don’t eat breakfast if you don’t want to
• You don’t need to live the bodybuilder lifestyle to have a great physique

Useful links from Rob’s interview:

• Adonis Index Main Workouts – The Main workout program, also responsible for one of the most amazing transformations online
• Adonis Index Community – The friendliest and most supportive community in the fitness world. UPDATE: Free access when you buy any Adonis Index program here
• Eat Stop Eat –  Lifestyle approach to get lean and stay lean all year round, by Brad Pilon
• Anything Goes Diet – No BS Diet Book that lets you in on how fat loss really happens (Hint: It’s different than what you hear from media)

Read Rob’s experience with Adonis Index in his own words:

The result was an undeniable success, to me. Adonis not only helped me to get lean so that I discovered the great physique I had, but Adonis also helped me to do that while planning and organizing my upcoming wedding, moving into a new career field, and maintaining my normal social life. How can…

Read the whole story here

Listen to the interview here:

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Today we have an interview with Adam Murphy who placed 4th in the Open Category Level 1 in the latest Adonis Index Contest.

Check out his pictures:

Since you are getting in a killer shape, it's a good idea to schedule one studio photoshoot and then one more photoshoot outside the day after.

Today Adam looks at training and lifting differently, they are two different terms. Before finding the Adonis Index Adam was already very familiar with going to the gym and working out. However, just like he said, he was just lifting, not really training and that’s a big difference.

This is an important key factor that will determine what results will you get. We’ve talked about this concept countless times, but let’s go over the basics quickly:

• If you go to the gym to chat with your buddies and staff you are really only working out not training
• If you go to the gym to work on your “mirror muscles” like chest and biceps you are working out not training
• If you focus on lifting as much as possible you are working out not training
• If you go to the gym determined and focused, not minding other people you are training
• If you have a purpose, some kind of goal and plan, then you are training
• If you are hitting all of your muscles from various angles with different rep/set/rest patterns you are training
• If you aim to fully contract your muscle, you are training

Print this list and review it each time before going to the gym, seriously.

Adam’s Journey

6 months ago Adam purchased the Adonis Index Workout and for the first time in his life really started training in the gym. Since he finally had a clear goal (achieving the golden AI ratio) and solid workout plan it was almost inevitable that will get into amazing shape.

The pictures he took are cover model quality, which is why we’ve decided to put him on one of our covers, just take a look:

Free motivation: If you get into really good shape and take quality pictures, you might end up on one of our covers. How cool is that?

Adam has been involved in the fitness community for a while. He has hundreds of magazine issues in his office and even teaches this kind of stuff.

He wanted to achieve the look the models had in the magazines, but despite following their advice, he just wasn’t getting there.

Then everything changed as he found Adonis Index.

And Like Adam said, the program and philosophies made so much sense that he was hooked right after he read it. He finally had a goal to shoot for – Ideal Male Body Proportions. A look that he could accomplish and be happy with.

Getting in shape is not magic and we always try to give you the facts, exact numbers and specific research to make a point, not just what we think is right.

It’s All About the journey

Building muscle takes time, lots of time and effort.

And that’s not the only thing Adam learnt during his AI journey.

He would listen to all of the interviews and listen to how other guys would handle their challenges. And this is really important, you can take a look at the pictures and numbers to know what’s possible and what’s not, but without listening to people’s stories you won’t know how to get there.

The easiest thing you can do is to listen and study successful people and people that have been through what you are going now and learnt from them and how did they achieve their goals.

The interview are what tell the whole story, there isn’t anything better than when people discuss their challenges and what worked for them.

If you want what somebody else has, you have to do what they did to get there, no matter what it takes.

To give you two different examples: If you want to compete in the top bodybuilding contests then that will mean some serious dedication, big sacrifices, and drugs. If you want to get there that’s what you gotta do.

Now more realistic goal. Maybe you like Adam’s pictures and you want to look like him in the next 6 or 8 months. Well, that means you have to do what he did, you can’t expect to sit on the couch and watch TV and just show up in the gym twice a week and get his results.

So, what was his approach?

Adam’s High Frequency Training Approach

Adam shadowed the first contest and then started with the basic AI 3.0 module  (link in the section below) and the rages (overreaching workout plans that are part of the AI 3.0 module).

He was a bit disappointed with his results though, because other people started posting their pictures in the AI community and it seemed to him like they were getting to their goals quicker than him.

So, he decided to experiment and see if he can push himself more.

He would hit the gym with his friends and then once he got home, he’d do the same program again (about 10 hours later), but just a miniature version of it. So, after a few weeks, his buddies were still out-gaining him, but no longer as much and as quickly as before.

This may sound like to much to handle and you may be thinking you will overtrain if you do such a thing, but you couldn’t be further from the truth.

This way Adam would get 10 workouts in a week instead of just 5. That’s some serious workout frequency.

Lots of guys are afraid of overtraining so they end up going to the gym 2-3 times a week thinking they are doing good themselves, but then they wonder why the hell do they still look the same even after 5 months.

Well, you have to train hard, but you also have to train often.

If you can’t handle a higher workout frequency it’s not because you are overtraining, but because you are rather underconditioned.

Most athletes train every single day, several times a day. They might know what overtraining really feels like, not you.

If you can’t handle 6 workouts a week, then you need to work on your conditioning, not scale it down like most guys do when they feel a bit sore.

Adam just listened to his body and when it told him that he should take a break, he would just do one workout a day for a couple of days and get back to twice a day after several days of “resting”.

You are stronger than you think, you just need to improve your condition to handle more volume and frequency and then keep it up, the results will come.

Adam’s take home message for skinny guys:

• Don’t stress yourself over things you can’t control
• Listen to your body
• Realize that you wouldn’t get in shape if you were the only person in the world
• Your limits are further than you think
• Push yourself, analyze results, and adjust
• Don’t do it if you don’t enjoy it
• You will come up with excuses if you don’t really want it
• Surround yourself with people who are willing to support you
• If you can’t handle a higher workout frequency it’s not because you are overtraining, but because you are rather underconditioned
• Stop being chubby and unlock your potential
• Even if you are lean, you need to watch your calories
• Play the cards as you are served, everyone has his own challenges
• Don’t compare yourself with other people
• You will most likely find your answers in the Adonis Index Community
• You can always do more
• At some point you won’t be able to hide your progress and people will notice
• If you test different approach, make sure you test it for long enough to see any noticeable changes
• You don’t need to do cardio to get ripped
• If you don’t have healthy functional shoulder, use dumbbells instead of the barbell
• You have time to work out, you just have to find it
• Change your mindset and change your body

Links from Adam’s interview:

• Adonis Index Main Workout – The Main workout program, also responsible for one of the most amazing transformations online
• Adonis Index Specializations – The program that Adam made on the cover
• The Theory of Ideal Male Body Proportions – Adonis Index theory about proportions
• Adonis Index Community – The friendliest and most supportive community in the fitness world
• Golden Ratio Is the Key to Building an Ideal Body Shape – Interview with Vivek that Adam mentions
• Satisfaction With Your Body Starts With the Right Goals – Interview with Pierre that Adam mentions

Read Adam’s experience with Adonis Index in his own words:

This has been a transformation of mind, body and education. I have learned so much about the way my body reacts to foods, calories and training. I am looking forward to the rest of my life with the knowledge and body that I am taking forward. I could look at this as a twelve week transformation but for me it really has been nonstop since the day I purchased my copy of the Adonis Index. So for about the last six months…

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Listen to the interview here:

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Today we have an interview with Ross Goldsack who won the Open category level 1 in the latest Adonis Index Contest.

Check out his pictures:

This is the Adonis body. Lean and masculine.

Ross looks great and he was really happy with his look and how the pictures turned out.

Here’s one more:

Ross is ripped. If you met him on the street would you think he always looked like this or would you believe that he was over 210 pounds just a few years back?

Ross has a very common story and experience with fitness. A few years ago he decided to work on his physique and started going to the gym with his buddies and also started consuming fitness information, mainly the fitness magazines.

The workouts became a habit and he was really enjoying them.

And like everyone else in this position he naturally wanted to improve, so he progressed into reading bodybuilding magazines and started reading more about various ways to build more muscle and lose fat.

However, he felt victim to the traditional fitness advice and made a lot of mistakes.

Let’s discuss a few of them.

Mistake No.1 Consuming Lots of Fitness Information

Fitness industry is full of companies making billions in revenue.

The goal isn’t to get you in shape though. The goal is to continuously have you buying their products.

And as a result, you start to feel that you absolutely have to get the new magazine, full of the latest tips that nobody knew about four weeks ago, or the new “functional workout” protocol, or the new protein supplement that just came out promising those amazing gains in the first three weeks… and we could go on and on.

If you have been in this industry for a while, you are probably overwhelmed by all the fitness information and various approaches. At this moment you should take a completely different approach. You should detach yourself from the fitness industry and focus on doing the simple things that will get you the most results.

Mistake No.2 Comparing Yourself to Bodybuilders

One of the biggest mistakes Ross made at this early stage of fitness, before finding Adonis Index, was going through the bodybuilding magazines and comparing himself to the photos in them. The issue with this magazines is that they are full of pictures of professional bodybuilders.

With the transformation contests here at Adonis Index, you’ll get pictures that can be compared with fitness covers, because we give advice on how to make yourself look bigger or leaner by posing, show more muscle definition with a tan or water deplete. However, comparing yourself to bodybuilders is a bit ridiculous if you are not willing to take the “extra” mile.

Yes, that would mean taking steroids.

If you are not taking anything beyond supplements, why are you comparing yourself to guys, who inject themselves with stuff you have never heard about and in a dose that would scare off a horse?

Mistake No.3 Doing the Bulking & Cutting Stuff

A few years back Ross got caught in the conventional bulking and cutting approach.

Ross got to a point where he would weigh about 210 pounds. He could fill out a large shirt, but still not have the look he desired.

Like he said, he looked like crap. He was feeling bigger, but fatter.

And no surprise, because what he gained was all fat, he was basically trying to eat his way up to bigger muscles, which is a bit ridiculous and biologically impossible.

There is nothing wrong with being big in a shirt, but most guys will probably prefer looking good shirtless than in a shirt.

So, what will it be shirt on big and shirt off fat or shirt on fit and shirt off ripped?

Make a choice.

FYI when Ross did the cut down and lost the fat, he lost the exact amount of weight he gained during the bulking phase.

So, he went through the misery of gaining fat and losing it again all for nothing, muscle mass as we would expect did not change at all.

What’s the point of that?

Slowly Re-Focus on Building a Natural Body

After finding Adonis Index through Eat Stop Eat, Ross started listening to all of the podcasts and reading every article at Adonis Index he could get his hands on.

He realized that he is not interested in stepping on stage or becoming a bodybuilder, so he re-focused on building a body that is lean and masculine, not big and bodybuilder-bulky.

Ross cut off all of the other streams off fitness information and decided to just follow one simple fitness approach – eat less, workout more.

This worked pretty well. In one year he lost about 20 pounds and got ripped (take a look at the pictures above).

At the age of 30 he got to the best shape of his life.

Take Home Message from Ross:

• If you are spending hours every day consuming fitness advice, but look the same month after month, then realize that you don’t need any more information, you just need to take action
• If you take the photos correctly, they will represent the effort you’ve put into diet and workouts in the past 12 weeks
• If you do a fitness photoshoot expect to shoot hundreds of pictures, but choose only a few
• Take pictures today, even if you don’t like the way you look, you will regret not having the before pictures later when you will want to compare your progress
• As you progress, lose fat and get closer to your ideal body towards the end of the photoshoot or contest, the fat loss will happen at a much slower rate
• You will not get anything from discussing your approach with other people, so don’t
• There are talkers and doers, which one are you or which one would you like to be?
• Find what works for your and stick to it
• Don’t make your life about fitness, balance the other aspects of your life, don’t be the “fitness guy”, the point is to be fit, not obsessed with fitness
• Switch from relax and maintenance mode to contest mode once or twice a year for a few months, enjoy the rest of the year looking good
• Gain muscle and stay lean
• Find the source that you want the information and advice to come from and then block everything else
• Do your own testing, don’t rely on other people
• If its works, keep doing it and don’t stop!
• Get into the Adonis Index Community and post your measurements every week or month to keep yourself accountable

Links from the Interview with Ross:

Theory Of Ideal Male Body – Build your natural ideal body shape

Adonis Index Workout – The Main Adonis Index workout responsible for the most amazing transformations online

Adonis Index Community – Hang out and talk to the Adonis Index winners, workout authors and ask your most pressing fitness questions

Eat Stop Eat – Lifestyle approach to get lean and stay lean all year round, by Brad Pilon

Read Ross’ experience with Adonis Index in his own words

The contest has turned out to be great and I feel I have followed through on my plan and I am hoping that I can find a nice equilibrium post contest. I did AI 3.0 and loved it! It was so cool to just turn up, open the page and just follow it as written. I liked the variety and the timing of the program; it meant that I never got board.

Click here to read the rest of the story

Listen to the interview here:

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