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Body for Life?
- Thread starter Phillip1
- Start date
stocksandbonds
New member
Did you try it? How is it going?
So, I've been on the Body For Life plan since I first posted that message. At that time I had hit a weight-loss plateau at 259lbs. As of today I weigh 240. I think making the move to the body for life program was a good choice. When you reach a plateau everyone says that you need to change something. So that's what I did.
The good. This program has you eating 5-6 times a day. The most I can do is 5. I just can't find the time for one more. Each meal consists of one serving of protein (about 4 oz. of lean meat for me) coupled with one serving of a complex carbohydrate (such a a whole grain, or a piece of fruit, or a cup of yogurt). I ususally do a half serving of carbs if I'm not eating fruit or yogurt (1/4 cup of oats, or 1 oz. of whole grain past or rice). That's the basics of the meal plan. At certain points the program encourages you to incorporate some good fats, and vegetables with a couple of your meals. This eating plan still keeps my carlorie intake fairly low for the day, plus supposedly it keeps my metabolism up because my body is always burning calories while digesting food. I have no scientific proof of any of this, but that's what it says.
The workouts. Basically the program requires you to workout 6 days a week. 3 days of resistance training and 3 days of cardio. The weight training is pretty serious. I worked out for 3 months before starting this program, but this system really builds a lot of muscle. It's very intense, however, it provides for plenty of rest between workouts. One week you'll do 2 upper body sessions and 1 lower body session. the next week you'll do 2 lower body and one uppper body session. The process continues like that, for 12 weeks.
As for the cardio, you're only required to do 20 minutes of high intensity interval training on tuesdays, thursdays, and saturdays.
Sunday is your free day. The program says you can eat whatever you want on Sunday, and not workout. The rest of the week, though, you need to stick to the program precisely.
When I first started I lost some weight and got out of my plateau, but then it the weight loss wasn't as great as I hoped. This program seems geared toward someone who's not as obese as I am. If you're a bit overweight (10-20 pounds), you'll probably have fantastic results fairly quickly. For me, however, in order to achieve the kind of weekly results I want I've added a lot more cardio work to my routines. On weight training days, I also do a 20 minute high intensity interval cardio routine. On cardio days I do 20 minutes on the treadmill, then 20 minutes on the row machine, bike, or eliptical, then another high intensity 20 on the treadmill again. On my free day, I don't go crazy and eat whatever I want. But if I want to have one meal out that day, I do. I don't really think about what I'm eating. I just try to eat somewhat sensibly.
The best thing I learned about doing this program, is the high intensity build up cardio. Everything I've researched tells me it's soooo much better to work this way if you're trying to lose fat (which I am), as opposed to just doing a medium cardio workout for 30 minutes to an hour. THe high intensity stuff is nothing but a fat burn, and (again this is what I've read from professional trainers) apparently your body continues to burn more calories after you're finished working out, then if you just do a 30 minute walk or jog.
So in short, it's a great program. You may need to adjust it a little to suit your needs the way I have, but I don't think you're doing yourself any harm if you check it out.
You should find it if you google it. There's a Body for Life main site, and there's also a Body for Life Forum site which I visit frequently.
Good luck everyone.
The good. This program has you eating 5-6 times a day. The most I can do is 5. I just can't find the time for one more. Each meal consists of one serving of protein (about 4 oz. of lean meat for me) coupled with one serving of a complex carbohydrate (such a a whole grain, or a piece of fruit, or a cup of yogurt). I ususally do a half serving of carbs if I'm not eating fruit or yogurt (1/4 cup of oats, or 1 oz. of whole grain past or rice). That's the basics of the meal plan. At certain points the program encourages you to incorporate some good fats, and vegetables with a couple of your meals. This eating plan still keeps my carlorie intake fairly low for the day, plus supposedly it keeps my metabolism up because my body is always burning calories while digesting food. I have no scientific proof of any of this, but that's what it says.
The workouts. Basically the program requires you to workout 6 days a week. 3 days of resistance training and 3 days of cardio. The weight training is pretty serious. I worked out for 3 months before starting this program, but this system really builds a lot of muscle. It's very intense, however, it provides for plenty of rest between workouts. One week you'll do 2 upper body sessions and 1 lower body session. the next week you'll do 2 lower body and one uppper body session. The process continues like that, for 12 weeks.
As for the cardio, you're only required to do 20 minutes of high intensity interval training on tuesdays, thursdays, and saturdays.
Sunday is your free day. The program says you can eat whatever you want on Sunday, and not workout. The rest of the week, though, you need to stick to the program precisely.
When I first started I lost some weight and got out of my plateau, but then it the weight loss wasn't as great as I hoped. This program seems geared toward someone who's not as obese as I am. If you're a bit overweight (10-20 pounds), you'll probably have fantastic results fairly quickly. For me, however, in order to achieve the kind of weekly results I want I've added a lot more cardio work to my routines. On weight training days, I also do a 20 minute high intensity interval cardio routine. On cardio days I do 20 minutes on the treadmill, then 20 minutes on the row machine, bike, or eliptical, then another high intensity 20 on the treadmill again. On my free day, I don't go crazy and eat whatever I want. But if I want to have one meal out that day, I do. I don't really think about what I'm eating. I just try to eat somewhat sensibly.
The best thing I learned about doing this program, is the high intensity build up cardio. Everything I've researched tells me it's soooo much better to work this way if you're trying to lose fat (which I am), as opposed to just doing a medium cardio workout for 30 minutes to an hour. THe high intensity stuff is nothing but a fat burn, and (again this is what I've read from professional trainers) apparently your body continues to burn more calories after you're finished working out, then if you just do a 30 minute walk or jog.
So in short, it's a great program. You may need to adjust it a little to suit your needs the way I have, but I don't think you're doing yourself any harm if you check it out.
You should find it if you google it. There's a Body for Life main site, and there's also a Body for Life Forum site which I visit frequently.
Good luck everyone.