Today we bring you an interview with Vivek. Vivek placed 3rd in the latest Adonis Index Contest in the Transformation category.

Vivek lost weight and now he can just focus on one goal, building muscle.

Getting to this level of leanness requires some serious effort and commitment..

This is an awesome progress!

Vivek started with no experience or knowledge about exercises whatsoever. If you told him that bench press is for building bigger legs, he would probably believe you.

From a diet stand point it wasn’t so much different. Vivek is vegetarian, but he had no idea what any of the diet claims meant. Calories were basically just something the brand put on the label along with the logo.

Until 2011 dieting and exercising were unknown concepts for him.

Finally he decided to get in shape and lose some weight. He went with the conventional fitness approach and started eating “healthier food“. For two months he was basically eating brown rice, fruits and vegetables. However, since he wasn’t paying any attention to calories, he didn’t lose any weight at all. He was basically eating the same amount of calories, but from different sources of food and so called healthy sources. This “healthy eating” made absolutely no difference in how he felt or how much he weighed.

Like he said, Vivek wasn’t obese, but he was a bit overweight and needed to lose a few pounds and since eating ‘healthy’ wasn’t working, he kept looking for something different.

What Does an iPhone and Your Body Have in Common?

Vivek has an IT company, so working with software and technology he understands that the golden ratio is an important aspect in developing any application and that aesthetics are the key. Just take an iPhone, you would have a really hard time finding a phone that would be more aesthetically pleasing than the one from Apple. And it’s no coincidence either. The developers used the concept of a golden ratio in the development process. Same ratio that Vivek uses. Same ratio that Adonis Index workouts are designed to shape your body into.

When he stumbled across the Adonis Index he was excited because somebody actually  quantified and put some science around the concept of aesthetics, took concepts he knew and applied them to building the ideal body shape.

Seeing the same concept he used in technology development, for shaping his body was incredible revelation to him and he immediately knew it made sense.

He started studying the program and implementing the advice. The implementing part is important, because you don’t learn by gaining more knowledge, you learn when you change your behavior and take action.

Learn to Use the Metrics

Vivek made an interesting observation, and that is people have a poor understanding of how to use metrics, they either don’t use them at all, or they don’t use them correctly.

He created a spreadsheet, tracked what he ate and realized that eating “healthy” is not an answer. Despite what the fitness magazines, personal trainers, dietitians and other “certified experts” say, in order to lose weight you can eat whatever you like, but you have to stay in a caloric deficit.

Eat a balanced diet, with lot’s of vegetables, but stay in caloric deficit, then you will lose weight, the answer is not by eating some magic, “healthy” food.

Next thing is that your daily fluctuation will show on the scale, so the only way to know whether you are progressing or not is to measure your weight on a weekly basis. And that’s exactly what Vivek did, he looked at what he ate on weekly basis only.

He calculated his RMR multiplied it by seven and had a number of calories he burned each week without any additional exercise. And for every pound of fat he wanted to lose he would subtract 3500 from this number, being left with the calorie budget for that given week.

At the beginning he pressed for a larger deficit when he had the most fat to lose and ate really low calories the first few weeks.

It was way easier and simpler and the only thing he did was to log what he ate. He didn’t eat six meals a day, didn’t over-consume protein, didn’t count macro-nutrients, didn’t weigh food, didn’t cook all of his meals at home, non of those, just ate lower calories.

He knew that it was just a guesstimate and that there will be errors in his calculations and in what is on the food label. In order to find out how many calories her was burning he even got his RMR clinically measured. This test only cost around $100.

Now he knew the hard numbers and could work from there.

And if you though that other people knew what he was doing, you would be wrong.

Are you anxious about telling other people? Are you afraid of what they might think of your goals or approach? Well, you don’t have tell them. They won’t even notice.

Vivek didn’t tell anyone what he was doing, all people saw was the end result.

One of his goals was to be able to have a good social life while doing all of this. He didn’t want to look weird when he was out with clients or had dinner with friends.

And that’s what this approach allowed him to do. Since he could eat anything he wanted and still keep losing weight he kept this to himself and nobody knew. Then when they saw the results it seemed like magic.

Vivek made a huge transformation for this contest, but interestingly enough he actually lost 20 pounds before it even began. Before the contest started he already went from 200 to 180 pounds.

It’s about how you change, not how well you place in the contest. If you are considering entering in the next one, don’t wait start today. You will have momentum that others who wait will not have.

What seems to work the best for most people is to lose the fat first and then focus on building muscle.

Here are two points to consider when thinking about building muscle first:

1. Muscle building takes time, especially if you are not in your teen years
2. Your muscles won’t be visible until you lose the fat that is covering them

This is why it’s better to focus on losing fat first, get it over with as quickly as possible and build muscle afterwards.

That’s where Vivek is now. He can just eat at his maintenance level, have lots of energy and focus on pushing at a gym.

What to do to transform your physique:

• Find a pattern that works for you and stick to it
• Track whatever it is you are doing
• Analyze your progress every week
• Record your weight in the morning to keep the water and food fluctuation to minimum
• If can afford it get your RMR clinically measured
• Expect your RMR to be lower than you want it to be and don’t lie to yourself that you can actually eat more and not gain weight
• Eat normally when you are out with friends or clients and watch yourself when you are alone and nobody is looking (The opposite of what most people do)
• Be rational not emotional when it comes to success, especially building the body you want, because emotions keep you from the truth and support beliefs molded by media and marketing
• Remember that your mind will try to justify any action you take or don’t take, so take actions that will ensure your personal growth
• Be brutally honest with yourself when tracking your metrics
• Have long term and short term goals
• Deal with your problem now, later never comes and there is only so many tomorrows in your life
• Don’t deny what happens, because then you get in trouble. People that ignore the results, get in debt and gain fat

Words & phrases mentioned in the interview:

• Muscle Index – Specific calculations for measuring muscle gains
• Muscle Building Foundation aka MBF is part of the Adonis Index Workout Program
• Brad Pilon’s fat and debt analogy – Big Fat Debt

Listen to the interview here:

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Android | RSS

Today we have an interview with Keith Taylor who placed fifth in the Open category in the latest Adonis Index Contest.

Check out his pictures:

Everyone can get in shape, it's a matter of determination.

You need to get really lean to show your muscles.

Keith's side chest shot.

Never Give Up, Ever!

Keith started lifting as a kid, all of the big guys were going to the gym, so it seemed like a good idea. He was basically mirroring what they were doing, which wasn’t so hard considering they lacked any structure and always just picked the weights and pushed them up as many times a possible.

There was very little back or shoulder work, basically it was just about working the “mirror muscles” – biceps and chest, and then they tossed in some squats for good measure.

After high school Keith tried going to a public gym, but he didn’t like it very much, so he decided to invest in a home gym.

Back then he was just following advice from magazines and pretty much working out like he did at high school, without any structured program.

He got stronger, but he didn’t gain any size. You could look at him and tell that he was fit, but he was never ripped.

Keith was also eating a lot and ate his way up to 170 pounds, which at height of 5’4” is not exactly shredded.

Then a few years later in 1991 he injured a nerve in his back while trying to lift something at work. As a result of this injury he couldn’t do any lifting for the next 20 years.

Yea, you read that right, it wasn’t until 2011 that he was able to get back to weight training.

And if that wasn’t enough, he also had asthma.

He couldn’t run or do any high intensity training.

So, if someone had a good reason to pity himself and blame the world for what has happened it would be Keith. Well, that wasn’t what he did. Keith didn’t give up and started researching for a way to get rid of his asthma.

Then one day as he was looking for something that would help with autoimmune issues he found fasting. It didn’t take long that he stumbled upon Eat Stop Eat.

He didn’t think twice about it and immediately tried it. And believe it or not, he got better in just 30 days.

Keith just couldn’t believe how much better he could breath after 30 days.

It worked, he significantly improved his asthma to a state that he could do some physical activity.

Determination Is the Key

Next step was to work on his injury. He would try to start working out every year since the injury, but it was always the same, he just couldn’t lift the weights.

Then in 2011 he noticed a difference, he could finally lift something. Not that he would be strong, but the pain was bearable and he could move the weights. This was great news.

He knew that in the Eat Stop Eat manual was a link to a workout program, so he went home opened the book and clicked on it and got to the Adonis Index website.

Since he could lift some weights and improved his asthma he decided to jump on board and give it a shot.

He started with some shoulder specializations and worked his way up to the regular workouts. After a while and with a few adjustments he could handle the volume and follow the full training program, for the first time after his injury.

Keith’s Diet and Interesting Findings about Gluten

Last thing he tried was dropping gluten. And in just 30 days he lost about 20 pounds. This basically meant cutting out most of the refined and processed stuff, but since he likes to cook, he didn’t mind. He wasn’t sure that it was really the gluten, so he decided to put it back in his diet and he got worse and started gaining again. This was an obvious proof that it worked, so he decided to cut it out and keep it that way.

He stayed away from gluten and could keep the fat off and asthma in control. Ultimately he figured out that he can have gluten a few times per week, but only a few times, because he is highly sensitive to it. And that’s how it works, most people don’t have any problem with gluten at all, some are completely intolerant, and some are just very sensitive to it. If you don’t have any issues, then good for you and you don’t have to change anything in your diet, if you do then you can try taking a similar approach and see how it works.

As a result Keith’s medical test came back at 90% of his full lung capacity and function, which was his highest number so far. And he got there just by using Eat Stop Eat and cutting gluten.

Other than cutting gluten he didn’t change much, and there was no reason to, because eating less and fasting twice a week did the job of losing weight pretty well.

He ate a lot of vegetables and about 70 grams of protein per day, which sounds pretty reasonable for someone his height. And in general, you don’t really have to consume insane amounts of protein.

And since he likes to have a large meal, he experimented with volume a bit and was trying to find the best choices that would be as low calorie as possible. At the beginning he was eating one meal a day and tapered it up later on.

He was eating more towards the end of the contest. He was basically using the principles from the new Transformation Diet protocol. He started eating low at the beginning of the contest and as things got harder and more intense, he started optimizing his calorie intake for his maintenance.

This is a pretty good approach, because a lot of fitness models try to go as extreme as possible at the end of their prep for the contest, but they often times end up gaining as much as 30 pounds afterwards. And that’s just plain stupid and ineffective, it should be about looking good, not winning a contest. So, for most people it seems like a better choice to just eat more towards the end.

This worked and at the end Keith was even shocked that he placed in the contest.

Take home message from Keith

• Lots of guys try to over analyze things, keep it simple and do what the successful people tell you to do
• Keith barely read the manual, he just went to the workouts and started there because he likes to learn from experience. He takes action!
• Nobody cares what you weigh, it’s about how you look
• Keith rarely took any measurements or weighed himself, he just takes a look in the mirror…when you get really lean the mirror will likely be your only accurate measure of progress
• Be sure that whatever approach you try it really works. Keith saw that cutting gluten works, but he wanted to be sure, so he tried adding it back up for few weeks just to be certain.
• Eat less than you burn and fast on a regular basis
• Take action, do the work, try the program, nobody can tell you what will it do for you until you try it yourself

Programs that Keith used to get in the contest shape:

Adonis Index Workout – Here are the original workout plans that have been responsible for some of the most amazing transformations online.

Eat Stop Eat – Diet and lifestyle protocol that will help you stay on track with your weight loss while enjoying social eating events at a same time.

Listen to the interview here:

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Android | RSS

Today with have an interview with Blair Baxter and he placed 5th in the latest Adonis Index Transformation Contest.

Check out his before and after pictures:

Blair is very muscular, but before he dieted down, the muscles just weren't visible.

If you have been training for a while, the muscles are there, but you need to get rid of the fat for them to become visible.

Blair is a personal trainer and in the interview he says that he’s probably let a few people down, because he has given advice that he now understands was useless. He openly admits the fitness industry is pretty pathetic and leaves us with more questions than answers.

He always thought that he needed to eat every three hours or his body will go into a starvation mode.

It’s an irony that at college he pretty much understood how the body works, when he wanted to lose fat, he just cut out the calories and instinctively ate less. Without any nutritional courses he knew that it’s just about calories in and calories out. Later on when he started following the fitness magazines he got mislead and bought into the whole bodybuilding lifestyle.

Blair’s Experience with the Adonis Index

Being a personal trainer made the decision to start following the Adonis Index workout a bit tough. Blair just wouldn’t want to follow a different training routine, after all he was fully capable of designing his own effective workout. He would follow the Eat Stop Eat and Anything Goes Diet principles, but not the workout, he felt like it wouldn’t work and he knows better. He was predicting that his shoulders would hurt, that it would not help him build any more muscle mass and it seemed too complicated to him. He was just sitting at his gym and finding excuses why he didn’t want to follow this training program.

It took him a while to get his mind over the fact that he is going to do somebody else’s program and not change anything. But Blair saw the pictures of the previous contestants and he knew that if this worked for so many guys before him, it would work for him too. So he decided to put his ego away and just try it for three months.

Blair said that he works out not because he likes working out, but because he likes the results. However, in the past he was usually jumping from program to program every month. For the first time he was able to stick to one program alone and finish it.

The basic Adonis Index program changes so often with so much variety because more variety and change keeps the program interesting and helps you to stick to it for longer periods of time. Make no mistake, this is completely by design. We know that most people have a very short attention span with their workouts and half the battle with designing a good workout is keeping you interested in it long enough to see the results.

If You Want to Show the Work You’ve Done in the Gym You Have to Eat Less

Blair was amazed by the results of just eating less, his muscles were actually starting to show up. He always thought he is supposed to just bulk up otherwise he would lose muscle. Now he was doing exactly the opposite and surprisingly enough, it worked.

In reality the muscles were always there, but covered by fat.

In the past there were a few attempts to lean out, but after a while he would always think that he is getting too small, so he would start bulking again.

Now he has quite a different perspective. Here is how he put it: “When you feel like you are getting too small and you are almost there you have to keep going”. And that comes from somebody who spent a good chunk of his life bulking up.

The permission to be light seems to be a big challenge for most guys, especially for those not used to being lean and light. But truth to be told, no matter how it feels or what you now think, being big and heavy doesn’t equal being a bigger man, that is not how it works.

And while Blair was afraid that he will disappear if he drops a few more pounds, he persisted thanks to support of his friend that got him to Adonis Index in the first place and got himself a fine placing in the transformation contest.

It may not make any sense to you now, especially if you are in your early twenties with the ‘skinny-guy complex” and you want to just get bigger, but eventually you will learn that it’s about looking bigger, not necessarily being bigger.

Once your body fat is lower, then your muscles will show up and create an illusion of you being bigger than you actually are.

Dieting Doesn’t Equal “No Fun”!

Sometimes when people hear the term calorie restriction they get scared off and think that they will suddenly lose all the fun in their lives. Well, that’s not how Blair felt during the transformation.

He had a barbecue every week at least once, went to several weddings and a few all you can eat events. That doesn’t sound like restriction or a “no fun” lifestyle, does it?

And that’s the key, if you understand that you have something like a calorie budget, then it’s no different than balancing your bank account. If you have 200 bucks a week for purchases, then you can buy smaller items each week for four weeks in a row or just save it up and buy something bigger at the end of the month, it’s up to you. Same with calories. If you fast during the day, then you can have some chicken wings and a muffin at dinner, it’s all about choosing what you want to eat when you want to eat it within your calorie budget.

Ever had a lean friend that would “eat for three” every time you went out for dinner? Many people would assume he was just born lucky with a high metabolism…

…or could it be that he was just using his calorie budget more wisely than you and didn’t each much (if anything at all) earlier that day and not telling anyone about it?

Let’s take a look.

Here is the thing, you don’t know how other people eat when they are alone and usually those who restrict themselves at social events are those who are out of shape, trying to put on a show to get praise on their hard work and blame the weight on their genetics.

Remember this, it’s never what you do socially, but what you do when you are by yourself and nobody is watching that will win the battle.

If you can manage yourself, you are halfway there.

Yes, you may not get all the comments about how you can stick to your diet, but it really comes down to whether you want to impress other people with your effort or your results. So, what will it be?

This is why the concept of “Never Let Them See You Sweat” is so great.

Blair’s friends would see him losing weight, but he was always eating more than anybody else around him at social events. To his friends it may have seemed like magic, but now you probably understand that he was just restricting, no lets say “managing” himself when he was alone. Blair didn’t want to impress everyone else with his dieting effort, he wanted to impress them with is dieting results.

If you have a big eating event coming up tomorrow, then just take a break from eating today and you will be able to eat pretty much whatever you want. Like Blair found out, you can live a day without food.

Does fasting scare you?

Well, do you think that your metabolism will suddenly break down if you don’t eat for few hours?

Doesn’t that sound a bit ridiculous?

Do you think that people in the past were timing their meals like they do now? What about regular people that are lean, but never cared about fitness? What about monks and other religious groups that regularly fast? Do you think all those people have “broken metabolism”?

If you look more closely you will find that there is no proof that your body will go to ‘starvation mode’ if you stop eating for 24 hours. It’s quite the opposite actually. It is quite healthy to provide your body a break from constantly processing food.

People will tell you that this kind of lifestyle is unhealthy, but what they are doing is just making excuses why they are not in great shape like you and justifying why they are not trying to improve themselves. And don’t kid yourself, this happens constantly…when you get in shape, be prepared for the negative comments and naysayers to try and diminish your effort and results. You have to grow a bit of thick skin and learn to shrug off these comments. Instead view them with sympathy because they desperately want what you have, but since they cannot fathom how you’ve done it they turn to criticism instead of asking for advice. Unfortunate as this is, it’s more common that you would think, and all of contest winners can attest to this.

Take home message from Blair:

• Follow the workouts as they are laid out, don’t try to ‘improve’ anything
• Most people have never committed to something for three months, be different, commit to sticking to the workout and really improve your shape
• Don’t spend your best years of life trapped in a bulking phase while you can be lean and ripped
• Listen to your body, if it needs a break, take it
• Don’t label food. There is no healthy vs bad foods, it’s just a source of energy and nutrients, nothing more
• If you save calories during the week, then you can enjoy your social eating events on the weekends
• Keep a food log, Blair writes down everything he eats, so his clients can take a look at his food choices
• It’s not about eating less than you are currently eating, it’s about eating less than you are BURNING
• Take action without hesitation, don’t predict what will happen before it actually happens
• There is a difference between working out hard intelligently and working out stupidly
• If you want to lose fat, find a way to eat less
• Keep going until you get where you are headed, don’t quit like most people
• Eating more doesn’t make sense, you can’t boost your metabolism by eating more food
• Understand that when you’re losing fat you will begin to feel small, but push through that feeling nonetheless. It’s just in your head and once you get lean, it will actually reverse and you will create the illusion of having bigger muscles.
• The hard work you’ve been doing in the gym will show only after you diet down
• Don’t listen to the conventional fitness industry advice. Everybody keeps repeating that you should eat six meals a day, bulk up, but nobody knows where they heard it, they just heard it so many times they think it must be true, so they keep repeating it

Words & phases mentioned in the podcast:

• Eat Stop Eat aka ESE – Lifestyle and diet protocol by Brad Pilon focusing on balancing social eating events with fat loss.
• Anything Goes Diet aka AGD – “Diet without rules”, forget about carb cycling, macro-nutrients or unhealthy foods. Eat what you like and lose weight.

Listen to the interview here:

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Android | RSS