Today was officially the last day of my 12 week challenge. I showed up at the Life Measure Labs van at 12:19, one minute before my appointment. I was a bit nervous, as I’ve been training really hard over the last months trying to hit the goals I set back in April.

I took off my shoes and all my metal and lay down on the table. LML uses a machine that slowly scans over your entire body, limb by limb. The entire process takes about 7 minutes, during which time I was wondering whether or not all my work had paid off. 12 Weeks is a long time, and though I definitely knew I had lost a little weight, I didn’t really feel all that much skinnier.

A few minutes later a cheap HP printer was spitting out my results as I sat in anticipation, chatting with Casey (whom also got the test for the first time today) about this and that.

When I was told my results I was shocked, surprised, and incredibly relieved. Not only did I meet my goal, I exceeded it.

On April 17 my test results had me at 23.6 percent body fat, with exactly 45.55lbs of fat total.

Today that same test produced the following: 16.8% body fat, with exactly 30.09lbs of fat total.

My goal was to hit 18% in the 12 weeks, which translated into losing about 10lbs of body fat. The truly exciting thing is that while I lost even more than that, (15.46 lbs of fat) I actually managed to put on 1.75lbs of lean muscle mass as well. Fat went down and muscle went up, and thanks to the advanced form of the LML test, I even know exactly where it happened. For me, it just happened to be the holy grail for men, the region that is often the hardest to lose fat in: the midsection (abs). I went from 26.6% (25.6lbs) to 16.4% (14.4lbs) in my trunk, and managed to increase my muscle mass in the region by 3%.

I’m absolutely thrilled with these results, as they provide concrete stats that my training program has been working.

So, how did I lose nearly 7% (15.46lbs) of body fat in 12 weeks? What did I do?

Let’s start with exercise.

On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays I do strength training at the North Boulder Recreation at 6am with Casey.

On mondays we do abs/chest/triceps.
On wednesdays we do abs/lower body (legs)
On fridays we do abs/biceps/back.

abs recover fastest so they can be trained more often

On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I do high intensity interval training (h.i.i.t.) by running sprints up the Mapleton hill here in boulder.

I start with a 5 minute warmup job to the hill, and then do 6 sets, one set involving sprinting up the hill which takes about 60 seconds. I then take 2.5 minutes to walk back down. After doing this 6 times, I slowly jog home with an optional flat straight away sprint about a block from my house.

On Wednesday afternoons I sometimes play ultimate Frisbee or go on the occasional hike, but that’s really all the exercise I do.

Now, my diet.

I’m vegetarian, which some people would say is crazy for someone weight training. It’s not a big issue for me as I’m not looking to get crazy huge, just toned.

I’m convinced that at least 75% of my fat loss results can be attributed to finally figuring out my diet.

My first step was deciding that I needed to learn a little about nutrition and what healthy eating habits looked like. Thankfully, the amazing team over at Phillips Performance Nutrition made this a snap, and Shawn’s excellent ebook The 7 Eternal Laws of a Red-Hot Fat Scorching Metabolism taught me all I needed to know, and more.

Based on that learned knowledge, my next step was deciding that I wasn’t going to diet, but just eat properly. This small but crucial decision meant that I was rarely, if ever, starving. Instead, by eating smaller portioned meals, but have 5 a day instead of 3, i would only be just starting to get hunger pains when it would be meal or snack time. Eating every 3 hours worked like a charm for me, 7:30am (I eat after training to increase the fat burning of my workouts), 10:30am, 1:30pm, 4:30pm, and 7:30pm.

On non gym days I have the following for breakfast: 3 scrambled eggs (3 whites, 1 yolk), 1 breakfast veggie sausage, and one piece of wheat toast. I always have this meal within 30 minutes after I’ve completed running my intervals, and also within 30 minutes of waking up on weekend mornings. On gym days, I bring a Cliff’s Builder Bar with me which I grub on immediately after lifting before hitting the showers. Again, I make sure to eat it within 30 minutes of lifting no matter what.

At 10:30, my second meal of the day, I have a Full Strength. I’ve tried a lot of protein/nutritional mixes in the past, usually ordering large buckets off ebay that would make me nearly gag upon consumption.

Full Strength is hands down 200% better than any of these. They taste good mixed with only water (which means you can have them ANYWHERE there’s water), are incredibly filling, and completely annihilate any desire for sweets (they’re like desert). 40 grams of protein and only 300 calories, incredible!

At 1:30 I have lunch, most usually a 6 inch veggie pattie on wheat at subway, but sometimes a burrito bowl at Chipotle or whatever else comes my way. Whatever it is, aim for mostly protein balanced with carbs and veggies. If nothing else a peanut butter and jelly with some celery and hummus generally did the job for me.

Another full strength at 4:30pm, usually mixed with peanut butter or a banana. (even once mixed Tabasco with vanilla!)

at 7:30pm I have dinner, which for me usually ends up being a bowl of soup mixed with high protein seitan. a GREAT bachelor meal, it takes only 4 minutes to make, is incredibly cheap, and is easy to keep exciting by mixing up the soup used as a base.

In between and during all these meals I’m always drinking WATER. If you don’t have enough water, your diet doesn’t mean shit, no matter what it is. If nothing else, just start drinking twice as much water as you think you should be, and only then will you be getting enough. The easiest way to gauge your hydration level is to water the color of your pee, which should almost always be clear, not yellow and stinky. Fairly quickly you may even learn that what you once thought were hunger pains are actually THIRST pangs. A glass of water will often killed over 70% of my hunger pains.

Also of note, to get my training rolling I started off with 30 days of sobriety to cut out many extra calories from drinking. Most alcoholic drinks have lots of carbs and zero nutritional content, so they often get stored as fat. Plus, no hangovers made it much easier to stick to my schedule that first month and start feeling some momentum to carry me through the following weeks.

Supplement wise I took the following during my 12 weeks: Full Strength (protein shakes previously mentioned), Lean System 7, and flax seed oil pills.

The final key to my success was my community.

Perhaps more important than anything else, I stayed consistent in my 12 week routine. This turned out to be amazingly easily because I surrounded myself with the right people. I would have never stuck out the 12 weeks without my training partners, mainly Casey Capshaw (with Rollie Stanich on the assist). Casey not only motivated me inside the gym to always work TO failure, but since we carpool to the gym together also motivated me to GET to the gym each morning. I knew he’d be waiting. His consistency reinforced my own.

The other key was this training log. While I could have done it in a notebook, putting it online where friends and family could view it meant my larger community, though not directly involved in my training, was able to both encourage and push me along the way.

So that’s how I lost 15 pounds of fat in 12 weeks, which was really just a beginning, not an end to my fitness program.

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