Body for Life, anybody have any good luck?
- Thread starter MRSchultz
- Start date
Hi Marcia,
I'm a WW, too. I hit my 25 lbs a couple weeks ago and could not seem to get back on track. A friend of mine has been doing BFL for about 3 months, so I borrowed her book and have been following the food program (combining protein & carbs at each meal - 5 to 6 meals per day). I just started a couple days ago. The morning after my first day on the program I was down 4 lbs. Now I am still doing my points and have a WI tonite. I don't think this is something I could do indefinitely, altho I really like the clean eating. I say give it a try and see how it works for you.
Susan
I'm a WW, too. I hit my 25 lbs a couple weeks ago and could not seem to get back on track. A friend of mine has been doing BFL for about 3 months, so I borrowed her book and have been following the food program (combining protein & carbs at each meal - 5 to 6 meals per day). I just started a couple days ago. The morning after my first day on the program I was down 4 lbs. Now I am still doing my points and have a WI tonite. I don't think this is something I could do indefinitely, altho I really like the clean eating. I say give it a try and see how it works for you.
Susan
Hi Marcia,
I am a lifetime member of WW and I ran across this site where they use WW point system but mix up the amount of points you eat daily so your body doesn't get used to eating the same amount and then plateau. I haven't tried it but the concept sounded good. Here is the link to the website if you are interested and good luck. http://communities.msn.com/POINTingmyWaytoaNewLife/wppointsranges
Debbie
I am a lifetime member of WW and I ran across this site where they use WW point system but mix up the amount of points you eat daily so your body doesn't get used to eating the same amount and then plateau. I haven't tried it but the concept sounded good. Here is the link to the website if you are interested and good luck. http://communities.msn.com/POINTingmyWaytoaNewLife/wppointsranges
Debbie
C
candice
Guest
Hi,
I bought the BFL book and after one day I could not follow the eating plan anymore!!! You have to eat 6 protein meals a day. This is very hard - both to stick to, and to plan for! It seemed a very strict diet to me and I can't do that. I want a plan I can do for life and that just isn't it. Also, I did not find the workouts challenging. He has you lifting weights a particular way and I think at home (i.e., not in a gym) it is hard to fatigue your muscles using his style - you have to have lots of weights. I have a lot of weights but I think I would have had to buy a lot more.
The one thing I did get out of the book is cutting back on cardio. I'd been interested in this before and that's why I got interested in his plan. He advocates only 3 20-minute sessions per week. They are intense, interval sessions though. I've been cutting back on cardio and it hasn't caused me to gain weight or flab or anything because I make my cardios very intense.
My suggestion - go to a bookstore and leaf through the book - look carefully at the diet part - there is one page listing the "approved" foods - and if you think you can follow that, buy the book and go for it! I think the diet is probably 80% of the battle. If you can eat like that and do any exercise at all I think you would get great results. But if you're like me and can't be too strict on your diet then I'd pass it up in favor of just eating as clean as you possibly can, and doing Cathe workouts! Good luck to you.
Candice
I bought the BFL book and after one day I could not follow the eating plan anymore!!! You have to eat 6 protein meals a day. This is very hard - both to stick to, and to plan for! It seemed a very strict diet to me and I can't do that. I want a plan I can do for life and that just isn't it. Also, I did not find the workouts challenging. He has you lifting weights a particular way and I think at home (i.e., not in a gym) it is hard to fatigue your muscles using his style - you have to have lots of weights. I have a lot of weights but I think I would have had to buy a lot more.
The one thing I did get out of the book is cutting back on cardio. I'd been interested in this before and that's why I got interested in his plan. He advocates only 3 20-minute sessions per week. They are intense, interval sessions though. I've been cutting back on cardio and it hasn't caused me to gain weight or flab or anything because I make my cardios very intense.
My suggestion - go to a bookstore and leaf through the book - look carefully at the diet part - there is one page listing the "approved" foods - and if you think you can follow that, buy the book and go for it! I think the diet is probably 80% of the battle. If you can eat like that and do any exercise at all I think you would get great results. But if you're like me and can't be too strict on your diet then I'd pass it up in favor of just eating as clean as you possibly can, and doing Cathe workouts! Good luck to you.
Candice
Hello, I had tried it and was bored with the workouts. But, I spoke with a friend of mine today who began the challenge 5 weeks ago....since beginning she has gone down one pant size and has lost 4% body fat, next week she gets measured so Im very curious as to how much shes lost. The eating plan is a good one, but does take alot of planning. Its not a protein diet, its eating 5-6 small meals a day, where you have one portion of protien, one portion of carb and eat veggies at a couple of your meals. Bill Phillips advocates his EAS products, but you dont have to use the supplements he recommends.
Andrea W
Andrea W
I am doing the Body For Life program. I love it. I have lost 25lbs doing it. I thought the food part was easy. It took about a week to get on track, but after that, no problems. Plus you get a free day to pig out on. I can't say I follow the program to a T either. I use it as a guide for food and lifting weights. I do Cathe's tapes for cardio instead of the high intensity interval workout. You can tweak the program to fit your needs. But I do love it. Never EVER have stuck with a diet this long and it is lifetime for me now.
Kelly
Kelly
Hi Marcia,
I tried the BFL plan last year and I enjoyed it. I am slim and was interested in gaining muscle mass and I did notice improvements. I think I noticed changes first in my legs by the third week. I did have to go out and buy a set of 25 lb. dumbbells to do my lat rows and was surprised by my strength gains. The exercise plan can become boring but I had a list of exercises for each body part so that when the boredom set in all I had to do was switch some of the exercises. This worked for me. Aslo I own a barbell with several sets of plates, so working out at home was no problem for me. I prefer it.
As far as the nutrition plan is concerned, I looked over his food list and found other foods to substitute. The first few weeks I only used the items on the list and then later made a few substitutions for variety. I basically planned my meals on Saturday, my cheat day, for the following week. On Sunday afternoons I would baked a full packaged of skinless chicken breast or fish and each day pack my lunch. I also bought several packages of either stir fry veggies or the "california" mix to go with my protein for that days' lunch. For my 10:30 am and 3:30 pm snacks I would have an EAS bar. Most days, because I wasn't that hungry, I would split that bar in half - eat on half in the am and the other in the pm. I had good results and I was never hungry. At first, because I love to eat, I thought the portion sizes would not hold me over from meal to meal or meal to snack but that wasn't the case at all. Some people may find the meal plan boring but I liked not having to do much "thinking" about what to pack eat day. At least for that week I knew what I would have - just pack and go. Chicken at lunch, fish or a meal replacement shake for dinner - this would depend on what time I finished my workout and which workout it happened to be. Obviously the cardio sessions went quicker than the weight training.
Also, I steered clear of the pasta and potatoes! These are my two biggest weaknesses.
I can eat pasta for breakfast, lunch and dinner and have done it too! So this may be why I saw results so fast. I had pasta, potaotes and or rice on my cheat day only. This made the first few weeks easier to bear because I knew that come Saturday it was on - I could have my favorites all day long if I wanted too. I found that as I got further in to the plan my cheat days were becoming a little cleaner, my pasta cravings practically ceased and my migraines were diminishing. This was one other reasn for starting the BFL plan. I had been reading about migraines and triggers and my doctor wanted me to keep a food diary, so I figured I'd kill two birds with one stone.
With this method, I found it easy to monitor my progress, because you're doing the same workout for the full 12 weeks or in my case 3-4 weeks. It definitely helps to switch out one or two exercises here and there. At first keeping the journal was a pain and time-consuming but if you print out the chart from the website and fill in the exercises and the poundage while sitting around watching television (usually on my rest day), then when you're doing the workout itself all you have to do is record any changes when you're doing the workout (like an increase in weights for your lat rows, instead of your 3 sets at 10, 12 and 15 lbs, you used 12, 15 and 20). Figure out a system and things will run more smoothly. On cardio days I only filled in the amount of time and the number of steps on my stairstepper. I don't have a stairstepper that increases in intensity with the touch of a button, you have to switch the levels on the pedals. But I would do 5 minutes at a steady pace and then one minute at a faster pace - just alternating back and forth between the two. Then some sessions would be one long moderate paced extended workout, meaning I would step beyond the recommended 20 minutes.
I found keeping the food journal the most troublesome. So after the first 2 weeks I quit. I guess I should have just carried the journal pages with me to work but since I was pretty much eating the same thing for a full week at a time, I found it unnecessary or maybe just my excuse for not doing it!
I recommend at least giving it a try. Even 4-6 weeks to break past your plateau would be helpful. Plan to start a few days or so after you finish the book. Give yourself time to print out the journal pages, plan your weekly menu and purchase any products you choose to use, if any. I bought bars for the snack times and the EAS ready to drink shakes (at Wal-Mart) for the late evening post-workout meals. I have a hard time getting to sleep if I eat a regular meal late like that, so the drinks were perfect. I think I also had a protein mix but it wasn't the EAS brand. I had a protein shake shortly after rising every morning because I could feel hunger coming on. Then 45 minutes to an hour later I would have my regular breakfast.
I know this is long and I hope I've helped. If you're curious about anything else just ask!
I tried the BFL plan last year and I enjoyed it. I am slim and was interested in gaining muscle mass and I did notice improvements. I think I noticed changes first in my legs by the third week. I did have to go out and buy a set of 25 lb. dumbbells to do my lat rows and was surprised by my strength gains. The exercise plan can become boring but I had a list of exercises for each body part so that when the boredom set in all I had to do was switch some of the exercises. This worked for me. Aslo I own a barbell with several sets of plates, so working out at home was no problem for me. I prefer it.
As far as the nutrition plan is concerned, I looked over his food list and found other foods to substitute. The first few weeks I only used the items on the list and then later made a few substitutions for variety. I basically planned my meals on Saturday, my cheat day, for the following week. On Sunday afternoons I would baked a full packaged of skinless chicken breast or fish and each day pack my lunch. I also bought several packages of either stir fry veggies or the "california" mix to go with my protein for that days' lunch. For my 10:30 am and 3:30 pm snacks I would have an EAS bar. Most days, because I wasn't that hungry, I would split that bar in half - eat on half in the am and the other in the pm. I had good results and I was never hungry. At first, because I love to eat, I thought the portion sizes would not hold me over from meal to meal or meal to snack but that wasn't the case at all. Some people may find the meal plan boring but I liked not having to do much "thinking" about what to pack eat day. At least for that week I knew what I would have - just pack and go. Chicken at lunch, fish or a meal replacement shake for dinner - this would depend on what time I finished my workout and which workout it happened to be. Obviously the cardio sessions went quicker than the weight training.
Also, I steered clear of the pasta and potatoes! These are my two biggest weaknesses.
I can eat pasta for breakfast, lunch and dinner and have done it too! So this may be why I saw results so fast. I had pasta, potaotes and or rice on my cheat day only. This made the first few weeks easier to bear because I knew that come Saturday it was on - I could have my favorites all day long if I wanted too. I found that as I got further in to the plan my cheat days were becoming a little cleaner, my pasta cravings practically ceased and my migraines were diminishing. This was one other reasn for starting the BFL plan. I had been reading about migraines and triggers and my doctor wanted me to keep a food diary, so I figured I'd kill two birds with one stone. With this method, I found it easy to monitor my progress, because you're doing the same workout for the full 12 weeks or in my case 3-4 weeks. It definitely helps to switch out one or two exercises here and there. At first keeping the journal was a pain and time-consuming but if you print out the chart from the website and fill in the exercises and the poundage while sitting around watching television (usually on my rest day), then when you're doing the workout itself all you have to do is record any changes when you're doing the workout (like an increase in weights for your lat rows, instead of your 3 sets at 10, 12 and 15 lbs, you used 12, 15 and 20). Figure out a system and things will run more smoothly. On cardio days I only filled in the amount of time and the number of steps on my stairstepper. I don't have a stairstepper that increases in intensity with the touch of a button, you have to switch the levels on the pedals. But I would do 5 minutes at a steady pace and then one minute at a faster pace - just alternating back and forth between the two. Then some sessions would be one long moderate paced extended workout, meaning I would step beyond the recommended 20 minutes.
I found keeping the food journal the most troublesome. So after the first 2 weeks I quit. I guess I should have just carried the journal pages with me to work but since I was pretty much eating the same thing for a full week at a time, I found it unnecessary or maybe just my excuse for not doing it!
I recommend at least giving it a try. Even 4-6 weeks to break past your plateau would be helpful. Plan to start a few days or so after you finish the book. Give yourself time to print out the journal pages, plan your weekly menu and purchase any products you choose to use, if any. I bought bars for the snack times and the EAS ready to drink shakes (at Wal-Mart) for the late evening post-workout meals. I have a hard time getting to sleep if I eat a regular meal late like that, so the drinks were perfect. I think I also had a protein mix but it wasn't the EAS brand. I had a protein shake shortly after rising every morning because I could feel hunger coming on. Then 45 minutes to an hour later I would have my regular breakfast.
I know this is long and I hope I've helped. If you're curious about anything else just ask!