Well, here I am at the end of a 12 week transformation. Only 0.3% of my entire life and I’ve managed to do incredible changes in both lifestyle and body composition.
Though I’ve been in three previous transformation contests (1,2,3), I’ve never achieved my goals like I did this time. I only ended by losing 6-7 pounds in 3 months and switching to my old lifestyle immediately after. So what was the difference in TC 8? I’d say social support, consistency, nutrition, intense training, patience and optimal recovery after TT workouts.
Social support- only now do I realize that Craig was 100% right: it’s the most important factor in a fat loss contest. I’ve ignored it completely in the other contests and failed without exception. So special thanks to everyone: the TT Forum members, my university colleagues, my parents (who really tried to help me and stayed away from unhealthy food in my presence), my training partner, who’s been a huge source of motivation, to my wonderful girlfriend.
And above all, thank you, Craig, for making all this possible, for the contest, for the forum and for teaching me all I’ll ever know about fat loss and proper training.
Consistency- like never before, I simply went through my diet&training program everyday, almost robotically, without stressing out over the results. And this is where patience played its part: in the other contests I was expecting great results too soon (like in a week or two) and, seeing that they’re not coming, I’d then cheat more often on my diet& get discouraged etc. None of this happened this time. Patience. Great results come in time if you’re consistent enough.
Nutrition- this is what made a huge difference!! It’s like the source of 70% of my success. But I didn’t do anything complicated: just eliminated all sources of added sugar in my diet, all liquid calories, ate lots of fruits&vegetables because they fill you up and control your hunger. And that’s about it. I only ate when I was hungry and only as much as I needed to feel full. Sometimes less than 1500 calories/day, just because I wasn’t hungry at all.
And I found out something very important: I think that with proper nutrition, it doesn’t matter which TT program you use: I’ve lost the SAME amount of weight in both 2K6 and the preparation phase from the 6 month BW Manual (even if the last one would be considered an easy workout by many TT users ). I even dropped the intervals for 2 weeks and the results were the same.
Intense training&recovery- As for training, nothing new in this contest, as I always loved hard work. But again, I think I learned some new stuff about recovery (it worked for me at least): we’re not meant to work at full intensity for a too long period of time- personally, after 3 weeks, I was beginning to feel it. So I started at low intensity for the first week, do the workouts as prescribed in the second, and then try to constantly beat my previous achievements in the last 2 weeks.
I applied the same kind of rule to interval training as well. And it worked just fine for me: in short time I got rid of my knee&back pains and was feeling full of energy at all times. Surely the way to go for me!!
What did I learn in this contest? There’s nothing we can’t achieve as long as we’re determined enough and we stick to it. This is why I’m so eager to join the 9th contest. That’s when I’m finally going to get my 6 pack abs!!!
Height- 1.79m, age- 23
Before----------------------After------------Change
Weight- 95kg---------------79.6.5 kg----------15.4kg!!!
Lower abs-102 cm----------91 cm------------lost 11 cm
No measurements--------Middle abs- 87cm
No measurements--------Upper abs- 83 cm
Chest -109cm---------------100 cm----------lost 9 cm!
L arm -38 cm----------------34cm-------------lost 4 cm
R arm- 39 cm----------------35 cm------------lost 4 cm
L thigh-58cm----------------55 cm------------lost 3 cm
R thigh-59cm----------------56 cm------------lost 3 cm
L calve- 40cm---------------37.5 cm----------lost 2.5 cm
R calve- 41cm---------------38 cm------------lost 3 cm
Ion
