If you’re a regular visitor you’ll know that during the final three months of 2012 I ran a pilot programme to test out the fat loss plan I’ll be recommending in my book. I’m really excited now to be able reveal the amazing results the participants achieved.
I’ll share some of their success stories here during January, illustrated with inspiring before and after photos to show what a fantastic difference can be achieved in just 12 weeks. Plus I’ll include lots of tips and advice both from myself and the programme participants themselves.
First up, meet Kat.
Kat is a 26 year-old post-graduate student. When she joined the programme she weighed 12st 6.5lb and her body fat level was at 31%.
She says:
“I needed to lose weight quite desperately, however I was lacking completely in motivation. But I am getting married in April 2014 and I want to buy my wedding dress in January 2013 so I really needed to lose the weight for that!”
The training methods and eating recommendations were totally new to Kat. She had never trained with weights before and although she’d been running regularly for three years, the long slow jogs she’d been taking had not helped her shed fat. She was ready to try something new and once she embraced my programme her shape quickly began to change.
“I have followed various diets, like WeightWatchers, but I never really lost the weight I wanted to, and always ended up putting any weight I had lost back on. I now understand more completely what eating healthily is. I didn’t see this programme as a diet, but I did make an effort to eat in a way that made sure I got the best results from all the exercising I was doing. Previously I thought running would help me, but even when I ran a half marathon and did all the training involved in that, the weight just didn’t move. With Julia’s programme the exercises are easy to slot into your life and the fact the plans changed every month helped as boredom never got a chance to set in!”
Despite a couple of big social events and a bout of norovirus to contend with over the course of the programme, Kat stuck with it and was rewarded with fantastic results as you can see in her Before and After photographs below.
In just 12 weeks Kat dropped almost 19lb in weight and reduced her body fat percentage to a much healthier 24.4%.
Now, you may have heard of people achieving even more dramatic weight loss than this by crash dieting, but the problem with those methods is that people lose a lot of lean muscle tissue in the process. Then what happens is that their metabolic rate slows down, their bodies start to burn calories from food at a much slower rate and this means that the weight goes straight back on as soon as they stop following a severely restrictive diet. Maybe that sounds familiar…?
By following my exercise programme and dietary recommendations, Kat has increased the amount of muscle she has as well as her general fitness levels. Not only will this make it much easier for her to continue shedding fat, she also feels more energetic, confident and strong.
Kat says:
“Initially I never would have dreamed of losing this much weight! I really didn’t think that in under 12 weeks I could have such a change in body shape. It’s so lovely now getting lots of positive compliments and feeling 100% better about myself. I still have more fat I’d like to lose, however I am much further down the line now than I anticipated. Now I know that I can do it I have more motivation to finally get the body I have always dreamed of.”
Kat advises anyone starting out on a fat loss mission to take a “Before” photo right at the start.
“I think taking Before photos is an excellent idea. Many people, including me, fool themselves into what their body looks like. Keeping the pictures on my phone helped, when I had a weak moment I looked at them to motivate me.”
She also recommends focusing on the all the positive differences losing fat and getting fit will make to your life.
“Julia encouraged us to be 100% committed and know our reasons why we wanted to lose fat. I wrote down 26 reasons and that certainly helped as did sharing my training log and photos with her. Having a set routine to follow and making the commitment is certainly a lot easier than just joining a gym and doing endless exercise which might not be challenging you enough.”
Kat will be using the methods she learned during the programme to continue shedding fat and sculpting her body. She’s determined to achieve her dream body by her wedding day in 2014 and now she has the right tools to make it happen.
I’ll keep you posted on her progress. Feel free to leave messages for Kat or comments or questions for me via the box below.
Full details on the programme will not be available publicly until the book is published in January 2014. However, I will be taking on a small group of fat loss fitness clients during January 2013 for online coaching similar to the pilot programme. Please visit my website if you’d like more details.