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Originally, I wasn't planning on having "before and after" pictures taken this year.  However, the online magazine T-Mag decided to have an informal contest along with their release of Hot-Rox, a new fat loss supplement.  I had already started my fat loss in January, so I wasn't sure about getting into the contest.  But, then I saw that they were giving away free T-shirts to everyone who entered.  SO, off I went to get my "before" pictures taken!

As I said, I wish this contest started back in January, when I was 154 lbs. @ 23% bodyfat. Oh, well. If my weight seems low, keep in mind that I am a towering 5'2". My official start date for the contest was 3/14/03, and I measured in at 140.5 lbs. @ 14% bodyfat. The "before" pictures were taken on 3/16/03. On 5/30/03, I was 126 lbs. @ 8% bodyfat. The pictures were taken on the same day. This equates to 9.59 lbs. loss in fat and a 4.91 lbs. loss in lean mass. (Note: body comp measurements were taken with a Tanita scale.)

As far as training goes, I started off with a program I had written myself. It was a three day a week program with 3-4 sets per bodypart per week, in the 8-12 rep range. Midway through the contest I switched over to Joel Marion's Ripped, Rugged, & Dense, a "5X5" program. This is a 3 day a week strength building program where you perform 5 sets of 5 reps with compound exercises.

What about cardio? Well, I tried to do HIIT-style sprints, a type of cardio where you do a short period of all intensity followed by a short period of very little intesity.  However, I was not very consistent with them. If I had done better with cardio, I may have seen faster/batter results. My nutrition turned out to be the big factor in my progress.

For nutrition, I started off with my low-carb diet that had worked in the past, which I unselfishly call "The Jeff Diet."  During the week, I would eat MRPs (meal replacement powders - sorta like Slim Fast, but good for you), meat, vegetables, flax seed oil, peanuts, and salads, the caloric intake being approximately 1400-1500 calories (I didn't start a food log until a few weeks into the contest.) On weekends, it was a free for all, with daily caloric intakes at more than twice what it was during a weekday. Instead of one cheat day, I would sometimes have a "cheat weekend" from Friday to Sunday night.  As crazy as this sounds, it is what I used to go from 154 @ 23% to 140.5 @ 14%. However, I hit a plateau for the first four weeks of the contest. After discussing this with Cy Wilson from T-Mag, I realized that this diet worked in the past, but only to get me down to about 12% bodyfat. It was not going to work to take me to the next level.

Vain, who is someone I met on the T-Mag forums, convinced me to switch to a Keto diet.  What's that?  In a nutshell, a Keto diet is a low carb diet. The most popular one is The Atkins Diet.

Vain convinced me to increase my overall daily caloric intake, but to drop my carb intake to a maximum of 30 gr./day. My target caloric intake became 1800 calories, with an approximate ratio of 50% protein, 45% fat, and 5% carbs. The main alterations to my diet were to drop the vegetables and to switch to a lower carb MRP. I started doing refeeds once every other week, and then switched to doing them once every week. For the reefed day, I consumed as many carbs as possible, with some protein, and as little fat as possible. I remember going to a party and holding my bag of Tostidos like it was a baby.  And, no, I didn't share!  This change in diet was the most significant factor is my results.

Ok, so what about the Hot-Rox?  This is what this contest was about, right?  Well, it took Hot-Rox for the first four weeks of the contest, which was also the time I hit the plateau.  Because of this, I was not able to give a fair evaluation of the product.  Did I use any other supplements?  Yes, I used Yohimbe and Alpha Lipoic Acid, both which I recommend highly.

If you want to see the "before" pictures, pictures taken midway through the contest, and the whole "after" photo shoot, click here.

     Here's the graph, showing my progress from 1/7/03 to 5/30/03:

     And this is me with my new shirt!

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