100kg @ 20% Bodyfat to 80kg @ 6.5% bodyfat


At the start of Easter this year I began my transformation. I planned a 5 week intense diet and training plan based around everything I knew, convinced that there was no way I wouldn’t be lean by the end, I was very wrong.

I had made two drastic errors in my preparation, firstly I assumed that I had very little fat to lose, in reality over 20% of my body was fat. Secondly, I assumed that I knew a lot about dieting – in reality, I’d never dieted successfully before, I knew the theory but little about the application.

What started as a 5 week fat loss blitz ended up being a 7 month, slow, yet radical transformation. I cut from a soft 100kg to 80kg at 6.5% body-fat, whats more, I retained most of my muscle mass and all of my strength. I did all this all while living a student lifestyle, I drank, eat pizza and stayed up late – everything a normal student would do. Here’s how I did it:

Start date (-1 week): Forced resentment

Before I started my diet I used a very controversial strategy, I ate all the junk I could manage…and then some more. It annoyed me how much cakes, sweets and fast food affected my emotions – they were comfort foods, rewards if i’d trained hard or pick-me-ups if I was tired, by forcing myself to eat more than I wanted – it made me HATE them. Sure, I probably, gained a pound or two of fat in this week, but I was able to be very strict and consistent for the whole initial 5 week period.

Weeks 1-5: Starting the engine

During the first 5 weeks of my diet I was super-strict, i rarely cheated and when I did, it was planned. I followed a low carb/high-fat diet and trained 5 times a week, any carbs I consumed were around training. I used very clean foods: venison, beef, chicken, eggs, protein shakes, olive oil and salad were all that I ate. It was tough but I dropped about 1-2lbs scale weight each week.

Weeks 5-20: Budget fat loss and temptation

After the 5 week blitz it was time to return to uni for summer term – this meant nights out, take-away, exams, revision and cheap food – it meant endless temptation. This made dieting very difficult indeed. My budget meant I was forced to buy cheap tuna, value chicken and replace meals with protein shakes. This lack of variety and unpleasant food led to a less consistent diet, I became frustrated with the lack of progress and began jumping between diet strategies and training plans. I lost some fat, but very slowly and my strength started to drop.

Weeks 15-present: No more breakfast

It wasn’t until my work experience started during the summer holidays that I “found my wings” so to speak. I was forced into a situation that would normally have made dieting impossibly hard – I was at a desk between 8:30am and 5:00pm Monday to Friday. Instead of letting this stall my progress, I used it as a platform for change – It forced me to adapt. While doing some research I stumbled across the concept of Intermittent Fasting - In a nut-shell, you don’t eat for 16 hours of every 24 and eat most of your food after training. So, I devised a very simple approach. I would train 3 days in a row, then rest for a day, on days I trained I ate mainly carbs and protein and on days I rested I eat mainly fat and protein, more importantly, I didn’t eat until I finished work at 5:30pm – surviving on coffee and diet coke beforehand. I lost a lot of weight very quickly and regained most of my strength.

I retained my strength throughout the diet.

What now?

Well, My transformation is far from over. After all, it’s a lifestyle, not a diet. I plan to gently reintroduce calories and gain some muscle while staying below 10% body-fat. This may seem like a strange way to do things, why would I get smaller before trying to get bigger? Well, individuals with low levels of body-fat (single figures) are much better at nutrient partitioning. This is a fancy way of saying, now, when I eat more calories then I’m burning, they have a higher marginal propensity to form muscle tissue, rather than being stored as fat. So, want to get big? – get lean first. Once I’ve added some size I plan to cut some fat again for summer, aiming to get well into single digit body-fat, hopefully with some newly added muscle mass. Stay tuned for the rest of the article series and further updates.



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