question for physique transformation fans

F

futurefitnessdyanmo

Cathlete
Anyone who has been or is currently a member of this program - I just signed up for the sounds-to-good-to-be-true free trial and figured out what my reservation was. Is this program going to require you to buy their supplements and vitamins and things in order to be "successful"? Is their advice based on nutrition and exercise alone, or all this other stuff? Waiting for your answers before deciding to fully join...
 
Hi,

I tried PT about 6 months ago..I didn't complete the program, but I can tell you that you don't need to buy their supplements or vitamins. You probably will need to take a multivitamin in order to get an "A" score each day. The reason I didn't complete the program was that since I was eating so few calories to begin with, the program made my "conditioning phase" 10 weeks long. As you may already know, conditioning is the part where each week you increase your calories. The calorie increases were too much for me to sustain for that period of time and I quit because I was feeling too bogged down. My advice to you before you sign up is 1) see how long the program creates your conditioning phase to be and 2) make sure your lifestyle accomodates for being able to eat throughout the day (I found myself trying to get the majority of my calories in the latter half of the day and it was just too much).

Best wishes,

Kathleen
 
Hi,

I am currently on week 4 of conditioning and starting fat burning next week. I haven't used any supplements apart from a standard multivitamin. Although they sell supplements they do actually advise you to get as many calories as possible from real food.

I am really happy with the program so far (although I don't know if I could handle 10 weeks of conditioning). I started on 1900 calories a day and I am now up to 2550 - without putting on any weight! (I am 5'1 and 115lbs).

The message boards are really helpful and it seems to be working for most people who have posted.

Katie
 
I'm a HUGE PT fan! It helped me lose weight when I hit a loooong plateau after going too low with my calories on Weight Watchers. You don't have to buy any supplements, and they don't push them the way Beachbody does. (Don't get me wrong, I love p90x, too, but despise those "recovery drink" commercials.)

I've been with PT for well over a year, and I feel I've finally found an eating plan that works for me long-term, but it's not for everyone. It takes a firm committment to succeed at this program, and it's a little rough at first because you're learning so much in a hands-on way, but it's definitely worth the time and effort. It's a very healthy way of eating. I'm not hungry, and I look and feel strong and healthy, rather than weak and depleted as I have with other programs.

Feel free to PM me if you have any other questions.

Shari
 
I'm sold! Thanks so much for your comments - what a relief! And I can't believe you get to eat so much - over 2500 calories! My eating is definitely a product of our diet society - its a little scary to imagine changing this long-standing habit, but if its working for you folks, I'm willing to give it a shot. Currently I'm getting around 1400 calories a day.

Shari, what would you say was "rough" about it at first? Is it time-intensive? I want to give it a full 100%, so I won't even start if I can't do that.

What do they say about exercise? It didn't sound too grueling from what little I've read so far, but just wondering...

Thanks again!
 
I'm another PT fan - I was on the program for 13 weeks earlier in the year. I had to cut it short but am looking forward to starting up when I have uninterrupted time at home (I travel a lot and found it very difficult to keep up the eating plan away from home). I bought the IBM (in-between-meal) protein-carb powder because it was convenient, but it certainly is not necessary. Besides a multivitamin, the only supplement I took regularly was potassium - I bought No-Salt, a kind of odd-tasting salt substitute.

Answering part of your question to Shari - I found it hard at first to plan my meals. The software takes some getting used to and the first week or so can be very time-intensive, until you figure out which foods give you great scores. You also have to get a little obsessive about your food - everything gets measured or weighed on a scale. And you'll spend a decent amount of time in the kitchen making food.

For exercise, the recommendation is strength training ONLY for the duration of conditioning, then adding in cardio work as needed once you start fatburning. I made killer strength gains during conditioning - it's amazing how heavy you can go and how psyched you are for workouts when you're eating enough to fuel yourself properly.

I cannot recommend PT highly enough and am looking forward to starting again.

Allison
 
Ditto what Allison said. Planning meals is pretty time consuming at first. I spent probably an hour or more a day for the first week or so. After that, ten minutes a day will do it. The hardest part, I think, is realizing that you have to actually change the way you eat. Yeah, I know that's a big "duh," but some of us resist it until there's no other alternative. Fortunately, this program allows you to change fairly slowly after the initial shock is over, and it gets MUCH easier as time goes on, even as you begin to lower your calories.

Be sure to check out the PT support board. If you'll click the files menu on the left of your screen once you're there, you'll find sample menus that received good scores. That should help you a lot in planning your first few meals. If you eat meat, think chicken and fish, especially tuna. Also, you'll probably want to include lots of potatoes and rice and pasta (brown and wild rice are especially good for you), as your calories climb in Conditioning.

Don't expect to get As and Bs right at first. Some people do, but most don't. It's okay if you don't, as long as you're making A+s by the time you start Fatburning.

Also, ditto Allison on the strength gains. Wowser! I can't believe how strong I got once I started eating. (BTW, I lost 6 or 8 pounds (can't remember which) as I made my way UP from 1100 to 2,840 calories a day. VERY cool!

Shari

P.S. One last thing. Most people worry about gaining weight during Conditioning. Relax; most don't, and if you do, you'll lose it all and then some during Fatburning. I've never talked to anyone who had a net gain after Fatburning, so you can rest easy (ier).
 
I have recently discovered PT as well and am also in the diet analysis phase. I'm glad to read all of your posts and how much you all enjoy it! I have to admit that I'm also afraid of gaining some weight--It says that I should already be consuming over 2200 cals per day for my frame! My question is that I'm a very healthy eater and avid exerciser/weight lifter, However, I try not to become too obsessed b/c I tend to miss out on fun stuff, like the "all girls" gathering at our favorite little mexican restaurant on $2 margarita night. If I can't eat the food or drink the drinks, it's not that much fun to just sit there and watch everyone else!! Does this program allow for "cheat meals" or more lax days? If not, is there a program that applies the same principles in a less strict/dramatic way?x(
 
I'm intirgues too, but I'm wondering about cardio. Did I read that there is no cardio for the first phase? I'm a runner - I know that I couldn't give that up. Would that make it impossible for me to do this program? TIA!!!
 
I have the same fears about Cardio. I teach two spin classes a week and typically spin a third time a week for my own conditioning, so I have to do cardio. I am assuming the program could adapt to this.

Also, I see that I should be eating about 2100 calories a day. When I play around with the menu planner/analyzer tool, it is amazing at what I would have to eat to make a b+ or a. I am pretty clean eater, so it is not what I am eating, it is just the quantity. If you are on this, do you find this overwhelming at first to eat the amount of food that is required. It seems like a crazy questions when considering a diet plan, but it sure is a lot of food.

Thanks for any help,

Linda
 
Some answers based on my PT experience:

Ashley, the program does allow cheat days - Sundays are not counted in your weekly score (you have to average an A on certain weeks in order to advance in the program). You use a cheat day at your discretion - if you're an easy weight gainer, or if "cheat day" equals "binge" in your mind, it's not a good idea to have a cheat day. The program is adaptable in terms of what foods you can eat - there are no foods that are forbidden but poor choices will affect your score. You can play with your menus - you might be able to fit in a virgin margarita without salt on a high-calorie day, but it's a lot of sugar (for the program) so the rest of your food choices that day will have little or no sugar, and you might only get a B or C score. You can definitely fit in baked tortilla chips and salsa, but you'll have to watch the sodium in the rest of the day's food.

Barbie and Linda, the cardio is one of the things that comes up most often in the program. PT believes in using cardio to stimulate fat loss. During conditioning, the goal is not fat loss but muscle gain and retraining/feeding your metabolism by giving your body enough food. If you do cardio in conditioning, your body becomes accustomed to it as one means of stimulating your metabolism. When you get to fatburning, it means you'll have to do even more cardio to force your body to burn fat. The downloadable book, called something like "Secrets of a Professional Dieter", explains this much better than I just did.

Linda, the quantity of food can be a problem, especially in the late parts of conditioning. I had a six-week conditioning phase and was eating 2600 calories my last two weeks. Even using calorie-dense foods like yams, bagels, potatoes, rice, nuts, beans and pasta, it was a LOT of food - sometimes a sickening amount of food. You learn to start eating early in the day and to eat often. Everyone has a story of stuffing in a plate of pasta at 11PM in order to fit in their calories for the day. For me, that was the hardest part of the program. Sometimes you have to eat even when you're not hungry, which goes against all the diet advice I've ever read.

Allison
 
Alison,

Thanks so much for the information. It sounds like a very good program. I will look for the section on cardio in the Secrets of a Professional Dieter Handbook. That will be a problem for me because I do teach two classes a week, but that may be all the cardio I do during that period of time.

What type of calorie levels did you see on the fat-burning portion? How low did the calories go? I know it will be difficult to get through the conditioning phase. I can plan the menus, but I am never hungry enough to eat the food. I can imagine I would be trying to eat late at night to get in the calories.

I have at least one more day on the diet analysis phase. I am anxious to see how that comes out, but give the scores I get on the standard profile, it will not be pretty.

Thanks again for your help.

Linda
 
Hi Linda,

If I remember my program correctly, my six weeks of conditioning were at 1800, 2000, 2200, 2400 and 2600 (for two weeks) calories. In conditioning you eat the same number of calories every day for a week. What changes over conditioning is your protein and carb ratios. Protein goes up and carbs go down but not drastically - you'll go from maybe 25% protein and 60% carbs to 30% protein and 55% carbs by the end of conditioning.

In 16 weeks of fatburning, you have a range of calories each week, with two low and two high days. Your protein goes way up, as high as 40-50% of total calories, and your fat is constant at 10%. The ratio of protein to carbs is juggled slightly every day. Every four weeks, there is another calorie drop. My first four weeks, my calorie range was 1800-2400 for the week - for seven days, it was 1800, 2000, 2200, 2400, 1800, 2000 and 2400 (two low days of 1800, two high days of 2400). After four weeks, the range dropped to 1600-2200. In my last four weeks of fatburning, the range was the lowest: 1200-1800 per day. When I got the program I panicked - "1200 calories per day?!?! I'll starve!" BUT it's only for two days out of seven, for four weeks - so for eight days of the entire program, I was at 1200 calories. I don't think the program will drop you below 1200, whatever your height, weight and goal weight loss is.

Allison

(edited for clarity)
 
Quick correction to my post above: Physique Transformation's fatburning phase is TWELVE weeks long, not 16, and the calorie range dropped every THREE weeks, not four. All the other info is right.

Oops,
Allison
 
Alison,

Thanks for the great description of the program. I really appreciate all of the information you have given me. It sounds like this could be very good for me. I like the idea of a structured program with well defined goals. It becomes a challenge to eat properly to get a good 'grade'. I will look at the analysis of my diet tonight and see with the program would recommend for me. I am getting excited about this.

Thanks so much for your information,

Linda
 
Hey Linda, maybe I'll see you on the PT support board at Yahoo. I'm getting ready to re-activate my membership because my food choices have gotten out of control. See you there!

Allison
 
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