Re: Skwigg's 12 week

[Guest guest]

Thanks, Diane. :-) It is funny how BFLers seem to get progressively

more bronzed as they lose weight. Must be all the carrots and yams.

LOL

I guess it was my own thing, but I never stray very far from the basic

BFL principles of challenging weights, intense interval cardio, and

small frequent meals. During that 12 weeks nothing about my workouts

changed, but I slashed my calories by almost 1,000 a day, tipped the

nutrition ratios a little more toward 40/30/30 (the zone), and didn't

take a " free " anything for the first 7 weeks.

On 1/2/06, Diane <dmiller91@...> wrote:

> , I was looking at your website at your 12 week photos, where you got

> the tan LOL. What program did you follow for 12 weeks? Was that BFL or

> your own version? Your pics look great!!!

> Diane

[Guest guest]

Can we clarify something about this post?

You're saying that you slashed your calories by almost 1000 per day,

and didn't take a free anything for 7 weeks.

Was this at the beginning of your relationship with BFL? Or was this

because you had entered a 12-week contest at your gym?

ie, I know you usually recommend that folks start out by doing the

program as it is written; I think my sister read this post and thinks

that she is eating too much and should modify her freeday and I'm

concerned that others may be reading it that way too

Thanks!

n T.

><SNIP> During that 12 weeks nothing about my workouts

> changed, but I slashed my calories by almost 1,000 a day, tipped the

> nutrition ratios a little more toward 40/30/30 (the zone), and didn't

> take a " free " anything for the first 7 weeks.

[Guest guest]

That was four years into BFL when I was in an egomaniacal battle with

men possessing freak metabolisms and nursing moms who were losing 4

pounds a week. :-)

Whether you adjust your portions or modify your free day should be

based on your own results. If you're feeling great, and your clothes

are looser, and you're starting to see some changes in pounds and

inches don't mess with a single thing. If you're at least 6 weeks into

the program, walking around stuffed, not seeing any changes at all,

and eating out of control every free day, then yes, you might want to

look at your portions and scale things back just enough to start

moving in the right direction. (See, Uh-Oh, a Plateau!

http://www.skwigg.com/id66.html)

The important thing for your sister to remember is that if you take

every drastic measure you can think of during the first few weeks of a

new program, then you have nowhere else to go when your results slow

down later on. Leave yourself wiggle room. That way as the weeks pass

you can always step up the cardio a little, or scale back the free day

a little, or increase the fruit and vegetable intake and you'll

continue to see positive changes. PLUS it will be a lifetime habit

that delivers permanent results. That's a biggie. :-) If you get

impatient, go berserko, and turn this into a restrictive fad diet,

you'll fail at it, just like every other restrictive fad diet.

I can tell you that I would poke both eyes out before I would go back

to that starving, obsessive, no free day routine. It made me nuttier

than ever.

On 1/4/06, n <mtpaper@...> wrote:

> Can we clarify something about this post?

>

> You're saying that you slashed your calories by almost 1000 per day,

> and didn't take a free anything for 7 weeks.

>

> Was this at the beginning of your relationship with BFL? Or was this

> because you had entered a 12-week contest at your gym?

>

> ie, I know you usually recommend that folks start out by doing the

> program as it is written; I think my sister read this post and thinks

> that she is eating too much and should modify her freeday and I'm

> concerned that others may be reading it that way too

>

> Thanks!

> n T.