Fit to Fitter in 4 Months – Weight loss Transformation with complete program details

Transformation time :

4 Months . January 2019 to April 2019 at the age of 34.5 years.

Main Goal :

Get stronger, Get healthier, Lose body fat. I assure you that I never targeted 6 packs as shown in the image. You will know why I say this when you read the complete article.

Weight reduction

From 77 KG to 67 KG.
Body Fat % reduction : from 18% to 10% (as shown by BIA (bio-electrical impedance) analysis machine, but I think realistically fat% could be around 12% in above pic)
Visceral Fat% reduction : from 7% to 2%

Workout program

Early morning: 1 hour 15 min early morning at 6 AM.
5 days – Weight & Strength training , 1 day – HIIT or cardio, 1 day Rest.
Training Program design – Self.
Training Resources: Health and fitness books, videos, articles.

Diet and Lifestyle

Foods : Chicken, full eggs, almonds, peanuts, cashews, milk, curd, whole wheat chapattis, vegetables (curries), lentils (dal), rice, fruits.
Followed a High Protein diet. Moderate Carbohydrates and healthy Fats. Macronutrient ratio could have been close to 50 % protein, around 30% carbohydrates, around 20% fats. I was not very specific on calorie count every-time, but just focused on eating whole/unprocessed foods during feeding time.
Water : Around 4 Liters per day.
Intermittent fasting (16/8) – Daily 16 to 17 hours water only fasting i.e. only water from night 8 PM to next day afternoon 1 PM .
- 1 cup Black coffee or 1 cup Green tea during fasting time.
- 7 to 8 hours feeding window – only eat 3 meals between afternoon 1 PM and night 8 PM
24 hour water only Fasting – Once per week (on Saturday or Sunday).
Used to workout early morning in fasted state. No pre-workout or post-workout shakes till my first meal in afternoon.
In calorie deficit.

Nutritional Supplements

Whey protein Isolate.
Multivitamin capsule.
Fish oil Omega 3 capsules.
Vitamin D3 + K2 capsule.
Creatine.

Sleep

Around 6 hours. Up at around 5 AM morning and go to bed by 11 PM.

Work Life :

IT professional – Full time.
Normal work hours including office commute : 9 AM to 7 PM.

Summary and lessons I have learnt with this experience:

Important lesson 1: Target fat loss in a weight loss program. While reducing body weight, loosing body fat is a healthy way to get leaner. 80% of my weight loss is fat loss and rest of weight loss may be a combination of muscle protein, glycogen, water weight.
Important lesson 2: Instead of focusing on weight loss. Just try to become stronger and fitter with optimum nutrition and good sleep to recover. This process makes you leaner and lose weight automatically.
Important lesson 3: Nutritional Supplements work and definitely help us with our efforts. They do not replace natural food but they support the metabolism and efficient functioning of different systems of our body. They compensate for any missing micronutrients in our diet. They aid our diet as it is not possible to eat all food varieties to cover all vitamins/minerals each and every day.
Important lesson 4: Six pack abs is achievable by anyone without paying a special fee for a program or a personal trainer, only if you are interested to self-educate yourself. Though having six pack abs feels good and quite a physical achievement, for a regular person this must not be our goal. It may not be sustainable for long time for majority of common people including me. I recommend to target becoming fitter and stronger, healthier and feel more energetic both physically and mentally. A good physical appearance and better self-image are by-products of a fit body and healthy mind.
Truth is I never planned for 6 pack abs in the beginning. I just kept going with my plan and program. Then in the 3rd month, I started to see abs slightly. Then I went hard on doing some ab specific exercises and HIIT in 4th month. Truth is, abs were always present but they were covered with a layer of fat. When my fat% went down by 2 levels in 4th month, abs were more visible. Same with nerve vascularity, our nerves tend to appear more as we lower our body fat.

All of us can reduce body weight, but it would be sustainable in long run only if it is a healthy weight loss. Means target fat loss -Drop body weight in the form of ‘Fat’ while keeping muscle and strength in-tact. During weight loss we loose a combination of fat and muscle. But if we want to loose more fat and less of muscle, we need to focus strength training and high protein diet. Remember that muscle is needed to keep our healthy metabolism in tact and it is absolutely needed for our longevity.
When we gain strength and improve energy levels while losing body weight, it is a positive indication that we are following a good training program, diet and resting schedule.
Intermittent fasting enables healthy weight loss. Fat loss is just by-product of among many other mental and physical benefits of Time restricted feeding (TEF) and Fasting. Remember that one needs to be in calorie deficit even while doing IF or TEF. IF is a lifestyle and not any diet. It is a way of life which instills discipline, self-control. It indirectly puts us in calorie deficit(which is needed for weight loss) as it is very difficult to eat a lot of food in a small time window.
It is fine not to immediately have a high protein meal or protein shake after working out. I used to workout at 6 AM in morning and have my first meal at 12 PM or 1 PM afternoon. Again, there is nothing wrong to have a high protein meal immediately after workout but it is not a rule. Having a post-workout meal will help to replenish depleted nutrients and trigger the recovery process. Just try and see what works for you best.
We need to be in calorie deficit to lose weight. Our energy expenditure must be more than the energy we derive from food. Only then our body uses our stored energy sources (glycogen, fat and then protein) for energy. However, there are few exceptions where some people can gain muscle while being on calorie deficit like first time lifters or beginners, very obese people with no lifting experience, exceptional rare genetics and people who take anabolic steroids (even all these people need to be in high protein diet to grow muscle in calorie deficit, Protein is building blocks of muscle).
A high protein diet helps to conserve our muscle tissue during weight loss. This enables minimum muscle loss in overall body weight loss.
Lifting weights and doing strength training would also let the body to conserve the muscle tissue and rely more on stored glycogen or fat for energy.
Keeping track of food calorie intake definitely helps. Even if one may not be diligent every time and everywhere, just consume a balanced meal rich in protein, healthy fats and complex carbohydrates. A nutrient dense diet with high protein and fiber would not allow us to eat more and keeps us satiated for long after we eat. Nevertheless we do need to have an understanding on the nutritional facts of foods and their nutrient proportions if we don’t track calories.
Avoid snacking in between meals and just have plain water. Teach the body to rely on its stored energy resources (fat and glycogen) in between the meals.
We can live without eating junk food, processed foods, baked or fried foods, sugary drinks and can replace them with healthy yet tasty foods to satisfy our taste buds. May need some additional effort and time but, we get used to this quickly.

Now coming to the thought that crops up in your mind after reading this article

“The program looks pretty simple without many complexities. Will this work for me? Can I immediately start with this program?“

My answer is – The program may work for you or may not work for you. It’s simply because every person’s body is different, hormonal efficiency is different, genetics are different, mindset is different, life priorities are different . You are the right person to try it and see if it works or you could take help from a qualified expert.

However, I can tell you what are common things that would work for all of us.

Mindset – Discipline, consistency, showing-up and not quitting, doing the best I could do with what I have and where I am.
Nutrition – Well balanced diet from whole natural foods. High protein, complex carbohydrates, healthy fats.
Workout – Train to gain strength and power. Focus on longevity and sustainability.
Recovery – Sleep and take enough rest for body to repair, grow and develop .
Supplements – Take good quality supplements to support the diet regimen.

Just to give an idea of my profile so that you could compare and analyze for yourself

I have been working out from from past 8 years (to the day i started with this program in 2019). Not rigorously but i have been doing some form of exercise daily at-least for 1 hour for 5 days a week for sure. So i have a certain level of conditioning with respect to muscle and nervous system.
I have been eating a balanced diet from long time.
My body was able to become fat adapted (burn body fat for energy) quite quickly when I stated Intermittent fasting. This could be because of the body conditioning I had and also due to a fairly good nutrition plan.
My body was able to take the stress and strain even with less sleep. Sleeping for 7 to 8 hours never happened for me due to my job and personal life challenges.
I have a good understanding of my body and I have a strong mindset to stick to the plan.
Ability to do research myself and practice what I have learnt. Ability to read books and watch expert videos. Analyze which is relevant to me and which is not.
Ability to keep my ego aside and unlearn what was not working even though I have invested a lot of effort and time already in it.

Finally do not compare yourself with anyone out there and do your thing. All of us are unique.
With the exact program above, some of you may achieve better results in lesser time and some of you may take more time.
Just focus on taking right decision and stick to the promise you made to yourself.
Show up !!! Just show up and do not give into your negative self-talk.
Do not quit and give up in the middle. See it to the end.
Have the discipline to be consistent. Many of us do not realize that the minor insignificant and small activities we do daily consistently are the ones that add up to be a huge success one day.
Try to be resourceful and create all the reasons for making it through till end.