Your Body Your Experiment

I haven’t told any of you yet, but as of the moment I am writing this I’m in the middle of a 120 hour (5 day) weight loss experiment.

Arnold and the boys were constantly experimenting

I’m documenting it on video and you’ll all get to see it when I’m finished.

I’m just testing a few theories out to see what kind of results I’ll get. The actual methods I’m using aren’t exactly ground breaking…they’re pretty simple…but weight loss itself is pretty simple anyway.

Having a theory is one thing, putting it into practice is another. You and I could read every weight loss book ever written and debate the merits of each for the rest of our lives…but until we try them we’ll never really understand what they’re like.

There is a difference between the knowledge you get from reading about something, and doing something. It’s this second kind of knowledge that I’m interested in. –> Experiential knowledge.

I’ve tried just about every ridiculous diet there is. I’ve tried all kinds of muscle building diets, supplements and drugs.

Sure I read about each things before I tried it…but the key point is that I tried it, I tried them all.

The sum total of my experiences have led me to my conclusions thus far..and that is as follows:

1. To lose weight you must find a way to eat less calories than you burn (and enjoy the process)

2. To gain muscle you must continuously lift more weight (and enjoy the process)

Everything else beyond these rules is minutia.

Your body is your experiment. No matter what diet or workout philosophy you read about you still have to give it an honest try before you know if it will work for you (and work over the long term).

For me, weight loss and weight maintenance is easiest with Eat Stop Eat.

And of course the muscle building program I wrote is what I follow (I would never follow another persons workouts)

So that’s what I do.

What do you do? (and I don’t care about what you READ about, I want to know what you DO)

John

Posted by johnbarban in Fat Loss, Weight Loss
Tags: body weight, proportions |17 Comments

17 Responses to “Your Body Your Experiment”

  1. Mickey Sparx Says:
    March 2nd, 2010 at 11:31 am

    I, too, am a follower of ESE. However, I have worked with my Clubbells for about five years now and found the function of my strength has far outstripped what I managed through conventional weight training. Part of what holds me back from purchasing the AI materials is the fact I use a completely different tool to work out.

    Show me how it could incorporate into the program and watch me win the next competition…

    -msx

  2. Steve Philp Says:
    March 2nd, 2010 at 11:53 am

    Hi John,

    Coincidentally I’m also starting out on my own little experiment:
    Taking weekly calorie maintainance figure, deducting apx 6000 cals before exercise and trying an ESE regime with calorie cycling to fit my training:

    Mon: 2300 (Weight Training)
    Tues: 1200 (Rest)
    Weds: 0 (Crazy 8 x 5 circuits)
    Thurs: 1950 Maintainance Cals (Weights)
    Fri: 1200 (Rest)
    Sat: 1200 (Crazy 8)
    Sun: 0 (Rest)

    … Just to see what happens to fat loss. Should generate over 7000 cal deficit.

  3. Jordan Says:
    March 2nd, 2010 at 12:35 pm

    I’m about a week into my diet experiment. I’ve only been keeping track of snacks and meals. For five days I’ve had two snacks and dinner, for two days I’ve had two meals, and I started off my diet with an IF (one meal) last Monday. No strict calorie counting, but I will occasionally informally estimate the calorie count of a snack (not dinner,) just out of curiosity mostly. Two snacks + dinner has been a nice fit. It’s much less food, but it’s very comfortable. Very little hunger so far. I’ll probably use IF’s to compensate for higher calorie days. I haven’t had a high-cal day yet, but obviously it will happen from time to time, and I think an IF would be the perfect compensation.

    Of course, I’m not eating “clean,” although I have turned down fast food burgers twice, and Chinese food once. I probably won’t be eating a lot of restaurant food, it’s just too much of a calorie bomb. Then again, I haven’t had to turn down pizza yet! lol. But my first snack today was a small piece of chocolate cream pie and an apple, so my diet is clearly not too restrictive. :-) I estimated the pie at ~320 calories, and the apple is 80 or 90, so that’s a reasonable snack.

  4. johnbarban Says:
    March 2nd, 2010 at 12:41 pm

    Mickey,

    That’s great that you’ve got a system that works for you. By no means do I think my system is the only one worth using, it’s just the one I personally like best to fit with my goals.

    I’m not familiar with clubbells, however I do know someone whose made a clubbell workout program.

    JB

  5. johnbarban Says:
    March 2nd, 2010 at 12:43 pm

    Steve,

    This is a great way to divide up the week, it’s dynamic and kinda exciting. I do something similar, the days aren’t necessarily the same but the goal for the overall week is what determines everything. I think focusing on the weekly calories vs the daily calories is a big advantage psychologically and is something most other diet strategies fail to consider.

    JB

  6. johnbarban Says:
    March 2nd, 2010 at 12:44 pm

    Jordon,

    Sounds good, please keep us updated as you progress.

    JB

  7. Jordan Says:
    March 2nd, 2010 at 1:01 pm

    Oh, I definitely will! :-)

  8. Lars Says:
    March 2nd, 2010 at 2:09 pm

    I follow the 5/3/1 program by Jim Wendler. Which means one day military press, one day front squat, one day bench, one day deadlift. Followed by sets of 5×10 of the same lift with less weight for hypertrophy, and 5×10 of a balancing lift (like rowing for bench). When I build muscle (like now) I eat a lot, when I want to lose fat, I follow eat stop eat. No diet slave here, I prefer to be fit AND enjoy life!

  9. Ralph Says:
    March 2nd, 2010 at 4:21 pm

    No truer words have been spoken. I spent the last 13 years hopping from one diet to the next. There was a period of many years where I used myself as a guniea pig and I tied many crazy diets on myself only to have them all STOP dead in their tracks and I just got tired and gave up for a long while. I then started researching more diets to try and see where the hell I went wrond which put me into the information overload catagory but……..my travels finally lead me to Brad Pilon, Then to Brad Howard and then to you. My conclusion thus far is that I simply ate to many calories on every crazy diet that I tried….Yes……It’s that simple. When I looked back at my old logs I finally realized that i ate way to many calories….PERIOD. eND OF STORY. mOST IF NOT All of the previous diets I tried even allowed me to overheat and most of them actually recommended it lol. With that said since using ESE Ive lost 27lbs without even using weights and the crazy thing is that even though I know that ESE WORKS I almost got caught up believing more BS from another guru and tried another diet. I have finally ditched everything accept for ESE. The Point is….. IM DONE NOW. I just bought the Adonis effect and I’ve put everything to bed now after being an Information overload lazy..ho!I cannot thank you guys enough.
    YOU ROCK!
    ~Ralph~

  10. Andrew Says:
    March 2nd, 2010 at 9:33 pm

    I don’t really have to watch what I eat simply because of how much exercise I get. Most of my lifting is low rep, high weight stuff because I’m happy with my size and don’t want to get bigger. So, I’m concentrating on getting stronger.

    Monday: Lifting, core work
    Tuesday: Spinning, core work
    Wednesday: Lifting, core work endurance running
    Thursday: Soccer
    Friday: Lifting, core work
    Saturday & Sunday: Soccer

    Once every 2 months or so, I’ll do a week of lower weight, higher rep stuff just to mix it up a bit. But my variation usually comes from changing the exercises instead of the reps and intensity.

  11. Brandon Says:
    March 2nd, 2010 at 10:08 pm

    In the AI workout for exercises such as Step Ups and alternate dumbell press, when it says 2 sets of 8 reps does that mean 8 reps each side then alternate 8 reps on the other or simply a heavier weight with four reps per side?

  12. Jay Says:
    March 2nd, 2010 at 10:44 pm

    Right now I’m testing out static contraction training, and trying to progressively get stronger at isometric holds once a week to see whether I can gain muscle or at least maintain muscle doing this.

  13. Jordan Says:
    March 3rd, 2010 at 1:55 pm

    Ralph, I’m with you 100%. I was exactly the same way. Several years ago, I lost some weight on a low-ish carb diet. Sure, I ended up eating less, lost some weight, but then plateaued and slowly gained most of the weight back. The “eat less” concept was hidden underneath the “low carb” concept, so I didn’t learn the real lesson. Not learning the real lesson doomed me to failure. After that failed weight loss effort, I spent years just reading and reading and reading, trying to find an answer, but never really putting anything into practice. Finally that search is over. What a relief! :-)

  14. B. Howard Says:
    March 3rd, 2010 at 3:03 pm

    Brandon,

    It’s each side… so 8 one side, 8 the other

    B

  15. Ralph Says:
    March 3rd, 2010 at 3:08 pm

    Jordan,
    You have no idea how great it is to hear that I’m not the only one! I tried Low carb diets,Carb rotation diets, Eating low carb for a week and then carbing up on the weekends,(Duchaine/di paquale type diets) Calorie manipulation diets blah blah… You name it lol. All of them stopped dead in their tracks. Most of them never addressed the calorie issue and the ones that did alotted for WAY TO many calories to be injested. The real ass kicker is that looking back before the start of my so called EDUCATION I lost more weight when I didn’t know what the hell I was doing! lol! I am Done with it all and Ive unsubscribed to all of the health and fitness sites that I belong to other then anything related to Brad x2 and John B. Don’t even get me started on the good ol boy network that seems to be prevelent in the Internet diet and fitness industry lately lol!! I actually laugh at most of the REPEAT e-mails I get from the “NET GURU’s: out there :)
    Anyway, Thanks for the reply and I wish you and yours
    All the best!
    Ralph

  16. Jordan Says:
    March 3rd, 2010 at 4:56 pm

    Thanks, Ralph. I agree that we were better off before all the “information overload.” I think we all know intuitively that we simply have to eat less, but we get bombarded by so much misinformation that we become distracted and confused, and that separates us from our common sense. This approach is bringing us back to that intuition, that common sense.

  17. Miika Says:
    March 8th, 2010 at 7:31 am

    I feel so lucky since I have read so many stories about training w/o goal or dieting with no success etc. I am 19 years old and I bought AI program 6 weeks ago and also have almost implemented idea of Calories in Vs calories out in my lifestyle. Even when my new eating style and fasting meets loads of scepticism from my friends.

    Just want to thank you guys for making things so simple!

    Miika

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