Jun 23rd, 2007
After Photos and Conclusions
Today marks the official completion of my “4 weeks to fit”. As promised, here are my before and after pictures side by side:
I accidentally had the camera at a different perspective, so I dropped the images into Photoshop, superimposed my after shot on top of the before shot, and tried my best to scale the image to match the size.
These photos seriously crack me up! Aside from some very subtle changes, I look pretty much exactly the same. I lost almost no fat and I gained almost no muscle. So, I guess that’s what 4 weeks of training will get you with Tim’s program. Not much.
One thing that has been noticeable is an overall improvement in my general health. I have much more energy and in general I just feel great. Before starting the program I used to wake up with a sore back every day, but my back is never sore anymore. Weight training has strengthened my lower back and the pain has completely disappeared. I wasn’t too surprised about this, I always knew that a weak back is a sore back, but what is surprising is that my patellar-femoral pain syndrome in my right knee has gotten considerably better. I actually don’t have any “pain” in my knee, but it makes a horrible crunchy sound when crouching down or walking up stairs. The “crunchiness” has almost disappeared lately. Obviously the new strength in my quadriceps is providing much better support to my knee.
Although I did not gain 34 pounds of muscle, I am a little more fit than before, and my overall health is much better. More importantly, this “experiment” has gotten me into the habit of regular exercise and healthy eating. I did make a little progress in my 4 weeks of training, and based on that progress, I think that 12 or 16 weeks might do the trick. I’m going to look at some different diets and different workout programs though. Certainly this isn’t the end. A lifetime of healthy living lies ahead. I’ll continue posting my progress in monthly pictures.
Thanks for sharing your experiment! I’m in my first week of the slow carb/Colorado workout regimen and it’s great to see how other people are doing on this.
You and I have similar ectomorphic body types, so I suspect that gaining a lot of muscle may be difficult, regardless of the workout routine. Genetics is more more powerful than either diet or exercise. I’ll just be happy to lose a bit of fat.
Just one observation about your workouts - seems like you may not have been giving yourself enough recovery time? I’m trying to do only 2 full body weight training workouts a week (along with 1-2 cardio sessions). We’ll see if that improves results.
Anyway, thanks again for sharing your experience. Please keep posting on your future progress!
James
Hey.
I experienced similar results as you. I didn’t have much to brag about. On the other hand, like you, I feel better after my 28-day regiment… and I didn’t stick to it nearly as closely as you.
For what it’s worth, I can tell a difference in your before and after shots. Your abs are tighter, you stand up straighter and you display more confidence in your physical self. Kudos!
I hope your experience provided the motivation to keep you going. It did for me.
Maybe if you’d used tanning lotion and shaved your whole body maybe you would have revealed your incredible gains :p
While your diet was a healthy one, I don’t think that it was condusive to gaining mass. I have been doing alot of reading online in reguards to weight lifting and weight gain, and a common thread is getting alot of calories, with a good protien and carb mix. Your breakfast seems like it lacked even what Tim recommended in regards to protein intake for example.
I followed the workout Tim posted, and I loosely followed the diet, but made sure I had 20g or more of protein at each meal(most weight training sources I looked at recommended 30-50g per meal, while having 4 large meals a day), I tried to hit the 30g - 40g’s as often as possible.
Several sources recommend 1g of protien for each pound of body wieght. I was ~195lbs when I started, and I would say I took in around 160g - 200 grams a day.
Like you, most of my gains were ones that I feel more than I see, but I think my gains are slightly more noticable than the ones in your pictures. Right now i am 205lbs and i can see some muscle growth but I did not notice that much fat loss(there is possibly some minor fat gain as i was not strictly following the diet).
I wouldn’t doubt that muscle memory also had alot to do with tim’s gains, but I also think you may have had better results if you were eating alittle more.
Your upper back looks a bit better. I’m doing the diet but not as strict. I’m gaining quite a bit of muscle on my chest and shoulders. Did you do 5 - 5 cadence for the exercises? That might be why it didn’t work so well.
Hi Everyone,
Thanks for your comments!
James: I was actually thinking that I may have been giving myself too much recover time. Although I was working out 3 days a week, I would only be hitting each muscle group once every 7 days. For example, I would only do chest on Monday. I have been thinking about switching to a two full body workouts instead. I think I may actually have better results with less workouts.
Meta: Thanks! I did make some physical gains and as you point out I definitely made some confidence gains as well. I feel great about being able to stick to this program for 30 days, and I am going to work even harder now. I will be working out 5 to 6 times a week with morning cardio on the days when I do not weight train.
Joe: Haha! That’s what I was thinking. I’ll try it for my 60 days photo shoot.
Harold: You are right about protein intake. I was trying to to eat around 200g of protein per day, and if you check my daily food logs you will see that for the most part I did pretty well. My breakfast actually has 34grams of protein - 16g in the cottage cheese, 9g in the soy milk, and 9g in the cereal (surprising I know, but that optimum slim cereal is absolutely amazing). Also, I am eating 5 to 6 times per day. Perhaps I was a little light on calories though. I need to do some more research in this area.
Cory: Yes, 5-5 cadence. I work out with a partner and we count on our watches for each other. Check out my training page.
Here’s the thing. I think Tim had muscle memory in his favour, and I think that my ectomorphic body type makes it slower for me to make gains. No worries. I’ll keep at it, and the results will come. With the added cardio and adjusted diet (after some more research) I suspect my 60 day photos will show more significant changes.
I read in a nutrition paper that an athlete needs about 1.3 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight. In fact, as you get stronger your body gets more efficient and requires a bit less protein. All the extra protein you eat is excreted out. If you aim for 1.5g/kg, then you weigh ~86kg and need 130g protein. A normal diet plus supplement should do it.
I can definitely see a difference. Congrats!
[…] also seen that with greater amounts of protein, I can gain muscle mass. Others seem to be reporting similar […]
congrats on sticking to it for 30days. you do look better. But it’s funny when you compare it to Feriss’s claims. He has some good tips but is kind of full of shit to post those pictures of himself and claim he has the recipe for everyone to experience the same transformation.
you might want to lay off the soy in your diet, the pseudo-estrogens might be knocking your testosterone growth factors down. you should have the casein from real whole milk, not 2% anyway, because the fats in the milk will help you with the fat soluable vitamins that you need to grow.
I’ve been following his plan for a couple of weeks, and my results have been impressive so far, if not as visible as his.
First, I’m still in fat-loss mode, so I’m probably not eating enough for huge gains. Also, since I still have a bit of “padding,” The muscle is hidden. Finally, I’m a bit taller than Tim (it looks like you are, too), so while there are gains, it will take much longer for them to be as obvious as his.
On the other hand, I worked out for a few years back in the mid 80’s, so I might still have some muscle memory - I can tell that I’m making good progress even if it’s not visible to anyone else yet. Also, my strength is climbing much faster than it ever did with traditional workouts, and I’m increasing my flexibility.
Like you, I feel great.
Overall, I’m very happy with my results. I have to think that for those of you who have minimal results, it’s more due to physiology than anything else.
Hello
Very interesting information! Thanks!
Bye