Hello all,

My wife and I are in our 7th week of BFL. We are doing ok on the program. I’m so glad I found an active forum for support. The yahoo and msn groups have very few users and are full of spam. Anyway, I just thought I’d jump in and introduce myself. Anyone else in their last third of BFL? Any tips? Our progress so far has been good, although I don’t think I’m losing as much weight as I should. The first four weeks I lost 10lb, but the last 3 I’ve been going up and down a couple of pounds. Should I do more cardio than 3 time a week?



-Dave

Make sure to read that part of the book. In it he specifically warns against adding in more and more cardio. While you're weight loss may not be as fast as you like it, have you been gaining lean weight? When you first started did you take measurements?

What probably is happening is you are burning fat, but adding more muscle and bone density. While your weight isn't doing much, your body fat % is lowering. I am only on week 5, but I am having similar problems. I lost a whole of 2 pounds, but I had gained 3 pounds of lean mass. That means in reality I had lost 5 pounds of fat. The 2 pounds are back today, but I think I can blame that on water weight from eating out 2 meals yesterday, and having 3 large high cal meals instead of 6 small ones like I normally do (we were on the road)

Welcome Dave,

I am only on week 3 of my second challenge. My first challenge was November last year and I can't believe I have gone almost one full year consistently on an exercise plan!!!! Can't even tell you what a difference it has made in my life. I have more energy and am more toned than I have been for years. I do remember the weight loss slowing down towards the end of the challenge, but I continued to tone up my muscles. Keep going! Oh, and stick to only 3 cardios a week. Just make sure you don't eat more than you should during your meals, maybe that's making the difference.

Piano

Dave, I'd stick with the plan - it's obviously working Remember, it's a 12 week plan, not a 7 week one - so give it the time to work. Adding in more cardio right now could mess things up. Usually when we create too much of a deficit between what we eat and what we burn weight loss slows considerably. Adding in more cardio, especially HIIT/BFL style cardio, can put lean mass in jeopardy, if you're not eating enough calories in general and protein in specific.

Glad to have you join us!
Nat

Hi Dave,

Just wanted to say hi and welcome to this forum. You won't find a nicer bunch of people to share your BFL journey with anywhere.

As for tips, I'll just tell you the same thing I keep telling myself. Stay the course... Keep doing what you started out to do and then assess it at the end of twelve weeks. I try to think of each challenge as a twelve-week experiment. So I don't want to throw in too many variables, or I won’t know if I would have got the same results had I stuck to my original plan, or what changes made improvements. So I figure out what I’m going to do at the start of the challenge and then try my best to stick to it.

Arnie

Hi Dave:

I'm in my 5th week of BFL and really loving it. My only advice is to throw out the scale if you don't like what it says. I've hardly lost anything and my measurements aren't showing a whole lot of change (probably from user error), but my clothes are fitting tons better now and I'm seeing definition. I tried a pair of shorts on the other day that fit me when I was 4 pounds lighter than I am now. That's a lot for a small-boned, short woman.

So tell us how are your clothes fitting and what are you seeing in the mirror? Have you been taking pictures? I took "before" pictures and I just finished taking my post 4 week pictures. It should be interesting to see the visual changes as I go along.

Anyway, I mostly wanted to drop by and say "welcome", but as usual ended up writing more than I intended.

Wanda

Thanks All,



I think you all have convinced me that I’m paying too much attention to the scale, and overlooking the other signs of change. I did take a before photo, and measured chest, waist, arms, thigh, calf and body fat before I started. I’ve been hesitant to redo them because I didn’t want to be disappointed or discouraged. My pants are getting baggy and my shirt is getting tighter. I think I will redo measurements on Sunday before I start the 8th week. As for the extra cardio, I’ll just stick to the program. After all, a bunch of experts put it together.



Thanks again.



-Dave