Start Date: 3-16-09
Male: 36 yrs old
Level:Beginner
Starting weight- 211 lbs
Starting Height - 6'0 (I'm hoping to not lose anything here :p )
Measurements(in Inches)
Belly-44.5
Actual Waist-40 1/4
Right Arm un-flexed-14.5
Flexed-15 5/8
Left Arm un-flexed-13 3/4
Left Arm Flexed-14 3/4
Right Leg (mid Thigh) 21 1/8
LEft Leg (mid thigh) 21 1/4
Right calf (Mid Shin) 15 1/4
Left Calf (mid Shin) 15 1/2
Body Fat % (from a scale that can measure it) 25.7%

Pictures - Done and embarrassing as hell. (will post them later)
Goal: Id like to drop 15-20lbs of fat by the end of the 28 days. I hope to have lost an additional 5-7lbs by the end of phase two.


Day 1 (Mon). Medium 8-9 RM 40 reps per exercise
For the dumbbell squats an 85lb dumbbell
Dumb Bells press 2x 45lb dumbbells
bent over row 2x35lb
Finally the planks-1 min/45 seconds.
30 min NEPA walk

Day 2 (Tue) :
Rest day today. I got my 30 min NEPA walk in today.


Day (Wed) 3- light day 14-16 rep max 50 reps per exercise
Dead lifts- 75 Lbs. Performed approx 6 sets. Feeling it today but I need to work on form for this exercise.
Lat Pull down: 2x 25lb plates - this was too light even for the light day. Need to up this for next week.

Standing shoulder press- I started out with 30lb Dumbbells. I made it to about the 3rd set (about 30 reps) and was completely unable to lift it. I moved down to 25lb and was able to squeeze out the last 20 reps.
Side Planks.- Left side only about 30 seconds.Right side- Made it a bit longer 45 seconds.
NEPA walk 30 min

Day 4 (Thur): Today is very difficult. There's tons of free solid food at work and the aroma is killing me. Happily it was all eaten by my co-workers before lunch. I'm still hungry on a regular basis. Water helps for sure. I got my NEPA walk in today at lunch. 30 min.

Day 5- Medium 8-9 RM 40 reps per exercise
NEPA walk- 30 min
Sumo Dead lifts-110lbs
Incline Dumbbell Press-30lbs
Lat pull down(Wide Grip)-65lbs
Plank Hold-x2 45sec

Day 6- V-Burn Challenge (5 Circuits 10 reps per exercise)
Estimated Time: 15-20 min
Actual Time: 28

Day 7 - Weigh in
Starting Weight: 211lbs
Actual Weight:208lbs

Day 8: Due to travel I was unable to work out this day. (Monday) I will transition to the t/th/sat regimen to make up for this.

Day 9: Travel extended. No Gym available. I probably should have done a V-Burn but didn't. I will still attempt to get in the 3 workouts this week. Travel combined with this meal plan is easy and at the same time hard. Especially when you're expected to eat at business lunches.

Day 10:
Oops I accidentally did the Medium weight instead of the light. oh well...
Dead lift: 135lbs 9,8,7,5,5,5,1
pulldowns:100Lbs 14,9,7,6,5
barbell shouldpress,25lbsx2 ,13,9,7,6,5
SidePlanks- I was able to force myself to 1 min on each side! (my new record lol)

Day 11: today is the makeup workout for Monday.
Wow blizzard watch today in Colorado.Supposed to get 18 inches in 24 hours. I decided to go to the gym. But I get to the Gym and it's effing closed! bah.
NEPA 30 min inside today- Blizzard

Day 12: Medium day.
Some guy at the gym set up a second home in the squat rack today. This is the only place there is a bar that can be used for dead lifts. (24 Hour fitness) I had to do my workout out of order because of it.

Dumb bell press: 2x 40lbs. I think I've found the weight I need for this. 10,8,5,3,3,3,3,2,1
Latpull down (wide) 75lbs 11,10,10,9 I could go up here some more.
Sumo Dead lifts, 155lbs 9,8,5,5,5,5,3
Planks: 1m/45sec not much progress here as I was dead tired again.

Day 13:
Rest

Day 14: V-Burn
Challenge 23:33 (better than last time)

Day 15: Weigh in
Starting Weight: 211lbs
Actual Weight:206lbs -5lbs

Day 16 Needed to swap this week to tue/thur/sat V-burn Sun.

Day 17: Well even if I've screwed things up as I mentioned in my last post at the bottom, on the plus side, I'm getting the weights dialed in.

Dumb Bell squat - 1x 105lb 11,9,8,7,5
Dumb Bell press - 2x 40lb 10,8,5,5,3,2,2,2,3
Bent rows - 2x 35lb 11,9,8,7,5
Planks- 1x 1min 1x30 sec :(


Day 19 Light day
Rom. Deads - 135lbs 11,9,8,5,5,2
underhand lat pull downs- 115 lbs 10,10,6,5,5,3
BB Shoulder press 2x 25lbs 14,11,5,5,5,5,4,1
Side planks right 1 min left 50 40 sec.

Day 21-Medium
Sumo deads 155 lbs 10,10,9,6,5,5
Pulldowns - 90lbs 11,10,8,6,5,5
Incline DB press- 35lbs x2 11,9,7,5,5,3
Planks- 1min/45sec (these are still pretty tough)

Day 22- V-Burn
Previous best: 23:33
Actual time: TBD

Good to have you on board!

I'm having some difficulty with this program. It is really taking all that I have to stay on it. I can see how this diet would make you love to eat healthy food. Especially when compared to drinking your food every meal.

I'm working on my second week and I find that I'm still hungry between feedings. I don't know if this is a good or a bad sign. When I ate my HSM, it seems as if I really ate allot of food. I almost felt like I was stuffing but when I consider the actual amount, it really wasn't all that much.

I'm not sure but I think that I need to have one of the gym trainers watch me do my dead lifts and critique my form. I'm feeling allot of tightness in my lower back when I'm done with these. I'm not sure if this is normal or not.

Hey magic stay with it mate!!!!!

Only a few weeks more and it's almost over. What's a few weeks struggle compared to a lifetime of outstanding results!

all the best

Thanks for the encouragement. I didn't know what I was getting myself into but now that I've committed to it monetarily and on paper, there's no turning back now. I read the small blog on 'The Grind' and I see now that this is what I must do. If I made it through 9 weeks of Naval boot camp, I can make it through this too.

-MM

Still need to get my pics up. Can't find the USB transfer cable for my camera :(
After reading others blogs with the uniform reporting, mine looks like a mess. I need to document my sets better and I should have taken better measurements as well. Oh well, newbie mistake I suppose.

My third week is coming up really quickly. I've started to think about what I will do for HSM in the transition weeks. I need to search the forums to find out a couple of things

1. Once I've lost weight should I re-calculate my caloric intake for the new body weight? (not for every pound lost but say every 10lbs? 20?)

2. Currently, we don't worry about what we eat for the single HSM but once we get to transition and beyond, do I need to start making sure that I'm getting the same caloric intake and nutrient makeup as I'm currently taking in? The shakes are super simple and it's all done for me so I want to make sure that post transition I'm still getting what my body needs.

3. Do I continue to do the same workouts as I'm doing on the V-diet or should I search for a different program that will yeild the same or better results once I'm no longer on the V-Diet?

I realize that these are questions I don't need to answer right away but because I'm a procrastinator, I do need to get a plan together early so as not to get done with this program and then suffer from lack of planning.

The second week was much better in terms of not feeling hungry. As a matter of fact, I'm actually full all the time now. I'm drinking these shakes and I'm not really hungry to begin with. The only downside I can see to this is that I'm not drinking as much water as I was in the first week.

So far I've managed to up the amount of weight I'm lifting and feel like I'm really working the program. I'm not getting sore or very little soreness now, which is nice. I also managed to shave a few minutes off of my V-Burn Challenge but I'm still huffing and puffing. My short term goal for the challenge is to do all the exercises with no resting. My last one I rested for about 45 seconds or so 3 times. Who needs an elliptical machine when you have V-Burn?




Below are my Before Pics.

Finally found a way to get my pics off my camera. Here they are in all their embarrassing glory. These are "Before" pics.

side

Back

OK so I've been effing up this program a bit.
First, I discovered that at some point I decided to start putting two scoops of Lucine in all my shakes! I hope there aren't any side effects from this.

Second I didn't have someone else do my measurements and I don't think I'm going to get accurate measurements. I tried to take the same measurements today because I'm having a hard time seeing any difference in my body, sadly it appears that I haven't lost a single inch anywhere except in my flexed bicep measurement.

Third- I kind of rushed into the program and didn't take all the recommended measurements so I don't think the measurements are going to help me much until I see a major change.

Fourth- On more than one occasion I've forgotten that my last shake of the day I should put 3 scoops of powder and not just two.

There isn't much I can do about some of these things but I'm going to correct what I can and keep moving on this program.

I guess now the only thing I have to rely on is my actual results at the end of the six weeks and pictures and the folks here on the board.

I am worried that I might have sabotaged myself though :(

If you really feel like you screwed up big time, start your days over. Like when you took the measurements most recently and you didnt see any changes except in the bicep? Use that as your starting?

Then take some time and premeasure carefully all your shakes for the week and store them in the fridge and you're set for the week and by then you will have it down in your head what the right amounts of scoops are and what not.

I guess it would suck to start re-counting at day 1 again, and you'd have to buy more powders/supps but you could look at the last couple weeks as practice heh.

I know, not the best possible scenario but one I would consider were it me.

Thanks for the reply. That's something to consider. I should probably ask Mr. Shugart if this is something that is OK to do when I've already been doing the diet for over two weeks. I've been thinking about the times I put only two scoops in my last shake and I believe it to have started on Thursday of last week.

While this has gotten easier over time,
honestly I'm not sure I could tolerate an additional two weeks of liquid dieting.

Understandable for sure. Maybe just going back a few days to Thursday would suffice. Only you would know for sure when the best time would be if you decided to follow that route.

Whatever you do, you'll get results by the time it's all said and done. Maybe more NEPA or something is all thats needed. I feel like I got more results out of it throughout the week if I did more than half an hour NEPA. I started with half an hour the first several days because I felt so sick but now Im doing it at least one hour a day, if not a little more. (Not all at once every time, but sometimes).

I donno, and yeah Chris would know best. Wouldnt hurt to put it to him in the Ask Chris thread, see what he thinks.

Well I've decided that there is no use dwelling on the past. Whats done is done. I made some rookie mistakes for sure but hey, I'm a rookie.

I think I just freaked out a bit because I wasn't "seeing" progress. However, I am making progress, it's just not as fast as some folks here.

Sure, it would have been nice to have more accurate measurements, gotten a more accurate body fat measurement and not have made eating mistakes but never the less, I've lost some scale weight and I'm grateful for that.

I decided to take some pictures again last night and compare them to my first set. While I'm not dropping 11lbs in my first week, I can see that my belly has gotten smaller, my pants fit better, I've had to tighten my belt and some of my T-shirts fit better. (ha ha in my denial I used to think that they had shrunk in the wash)

This is only the beginning of my journey and while I will likely not be the poster boy for the V-diet, this is a great jumping off point. It's gotten me to the gym, thinking about my diet and eating healthily. In the long run, it will be these basics that ensure my success. If I were a less motivated individual, I'd have given up now and just decided that this diet isn't for me or I just can't get lean.

This diet does work and there is no way I'm losing muscle because I seem to be getting stronger. Either that or I was just lifting to light to start with.

Back in 2002 I did the Body-For-Life challenge and while I didn't win the contest, I dropped from 260 lbs down to 200. For the most part I've maintained that loss for the last 7 years.

I fully intend to strive toward my goal of 15-20lbs of fat lost in the first 28 days, but whatever the outcome, I will be better for having done it.

I have made some definite plans for after the V-diet, though some are still in progress.

1. Colorado State University has a dunk tank for determining body fat. Its $50. Pretty reasonable. I will get that done and have a good base of information to continue my fat loss journey.

2. researching the best way to determine my BMR so that I can use the diet plans on this site more effectively.

3. I will take a full set of measurements as prescribed for this program.

4. I've purchased a veggie steamer and a digital scale for weighing out my portions.

5. I will be purchasing the book by Dr. Bowden The 150 Healthiest Foods on Earth and The Healthiest Meals on Earth. To help me figure out what to eat and how to cook it.

6. Once transitioned off of the V-diet, I intend to add some HIIT in the mornings to help burn off some extra lard. Then once my body fat percentage is closer to average, (than it is now) I'll likely pick up a program here to add some more muscle to my frame. (who knows maybe even do the V-diet again)

7. Never eat like a dietary retard again.


8. For the duration of the diet, I've decided to do my NEPA in the mornings as I believe this will have a greater net effect than doing it at lunch time as I have been.

So from the setback I've imposed on myself I've learned a few things and I think I will be better off in the long haul for it.

Well here is a small comparison. As far as scale weight is concerned, I've only lost 5 lbs as of my last weigh in on Sunday. The pic on the left is the most recent, the pic on the right is from day 1. Not a major transformation but I'll take it!

Holy crap I just saw Carrot Top on Jay Leno. He's friggin' ripped. He used to be a totally skinny little guy.

It seems like a whole lot more than 5 lbs based on the picture. Way to go, and I love how you have planned everything out. That's awesome. Great positive attitude in light of the 'rookie mistakes' and not just quitting. Rockstar! ;)

Lisa

Thanks Lisa :) I appreciate your positivity and encouraging remarks. :)

I think I was probably fighting insulin resistance and I would guess that the 5 lbs came directly off the gut. I'll do another official weigh in on Monday morning.

Only one more week of Phase 1 to go. So far this week I've done the diet and exercise perfectly. Tonight is my healthy solid meal. I'm looking forward to it :)

-Brett

Hey Magic...even though you didn't get everything dead on the first week, you're still making progress. Now I'm sure you'll do even better. I'm only on day 1 and have screwed up twice...but I get it now.

Maybe find a better role model than Carrot Top though...he looks like a total freak.

So tell us how your HSM went. What'd ya have? How'd it taste?

fitatude,Thanks for the encouragement:) Regarding Carrot Top,I agree he's a strange looking cat but gotta give him props for all the hard work and dedication. Not a role model but rather just an example of what you can do if you really want to. The guy used to be weird looking and a bean pole. At least now he's an in shape weird looking guy lol.

Healthy Solid meal. - Well it was awesome as usual.
I went in to Old Town to a place call Hu-Hot. A Mongolian Grill. I chose this place because all the meat and veggies are fresh and uncooked until you put them on your plate. You choose the items you want to mix and they throw them on a grill for you (kind of like those Japanese places where you watch the guy do knife tricks and he cooks for you) the difference here is you choose for yourself the items you want to eat and give it to cooks in the middle of the restaurant.

I had chicken and some beef, bamboo shoots, spinach leaves, broccli, about 1/8 cup of red potato, about 20 peices of diced pinapple,garlic pepper sauce mixed that all together and the cook made it for me. I had a mixed green salad with Vinegar and oil. ( had to remove the croutons) and 3 glasses of water. It is all you can eat but I only went once. I couldn't eat anymore.

I loved it.

I will weigh in tomorrow in the morning and see where I'm at. I'll likely do more pictures at the end of week 4. And again at the end of week 6.

Thanks for asking :)

I've just spent about 4 hours or so soaking up as much information as I can. I've been doing this in preparation for Week 5 (or week 1 of phase 2) The one problem I have so far is that there are so many articles with great information in them, it's going to be hard to cobble it all together. The other problem is that there is conflicting information here as well.

Example: I see several articles that suggest having Omega enhanced egg white omelets for breakfast. Then I see Dr. Bowden state in his interview that he thinks that egg white omelets are the dumbest thing he's heard of.
I know eggs are controversial for some but I've never had an issue with them. The question is, to yolk or not to yolk at this point.

Ultimately my near term goals are to finish what the V-diet started for me. Fat loss. I'll set another goal once I've come to the point where I'm satisfied with how lean I am. I mean at this point I just want to look good with my shirt off. I know that is subjective but since I only care about what I think, it will be easy to determine what this looks like. It just seems that even this seemingly simple goal can be terribly difficult to plan for.

I'm looking for suggestions from people that have already done a diet from this site and have had documented success with it. Or, if you have happened across someone that has please post or PM me.

-MM

Im sorry, I dont know anybody from this site who has done any of the other diets. All I can suggest though is the Precision Nutrition system for after the vdiet. I got it and have read it from cover to cover and it really is as good as it says it is.