Extreme product testing — RESULTS

After the release of version 5 of Gym Plan, I set myself a challenge of dropping 3.7kg (around 2lb/week) in 30 days using the new personalized plan builder.

It was my way of putting our app to the ultimate test.

The results are in… and I smashed it! 😅🎉

26th June to 26th July

I dropped 3.8kg (8.4lbs), gained strength and feel pretty good with those extra pounds off.

View my spreadsheet of calories and macros each day. Notice I didn’t follow the 2000 calorie daily perfectly. Close is close enough.

You don’t have to be perfect to get the progress you want.

Life gets in the way and motivation isn’t an endless resource. This test was to prove that above all, consistency and following a plan pays off.

I wasn’t out of shape at the start of this test. I’ve been working out regularly my entire adult life, so in many ways it’s harder to get significant progress in only 30 days. I’m super happy with the results and achieved.

As a bonus note for beginners, if you’re new to working out you’ll enjoy faster and often bigger results.

What I got right

I only thing I got right, was the one thing I needed to get right.

Complete all 20 workouts of the plan in 30 days with 100% effort.

I appreciate this isn’t easy, but trust me it gets easier as you see the results come. It’s the ultimate way to boost to your motivation.

What I got wrong

The list below proves to you that you can live a normal life, make mistakes and still hit your goal.

1. I ate too much — 6% more calories than I should have.
2. I only hit a 13% deficit. 15% to 20% is achievable and would mean a bit faster progress.
3. I drank alcohol on several occasions due to a week off work that coincided with our wedding anniversary, my wife’s birthday and two days away in London on business, where food my decisions are pretty poor.
4. I ate good food but could have done better. Less dark chocolate and sugar filled protein bars for a start.
5. I had full cream in my coffees.
6. I didn’t drink enough water on some days. Big mistake.

A few things to note

It’s worth mentioning the following points to help dispel some of the myths you may have for getting in better shape.

1. I didn’t do many fat loss specific training, like circuits and HiiT. I mainly did muscle building style training but at a high intensity with short rest periods. If your workouts and nutrition are putting you in a calorie deficit you’ll still drop body fat.
2. I did no cardio. Nothing wrong with cardio and I do enjoy it but it’s not the only secret to dropping body fat. If I’d done some additional cardio I’d have probably dropped a few more pounds. But I didn’t ask for cardio in my plan.
3. I didn’t take any supplements other than fish oils and an Amino energy drink before I trained.
4. No protein shakes. Yep, no protein shakes and I gained strength and muscle from food alone.
5. I didn’t get my macro splits right. I had 6% more fats and 5% less protein than I was supposed to. I love eggs, salmon and spinach, cooked in coconut oil for breakfast 😋 that bumped my fats up. No matter, it’s good fats. And good fats don’t make you fat.
6. During week three I gained 0.3kg. I was on holiday, my schedule was disrupted but I didn’t feel bad or guilty.
7. At the beginning of the plan I was recovering from an MCL tear. This didn’t help with the big calorie burning leg days.

To summarise

I’ve found a renewed love of training now that the plan builder unlocks a huge amount of variety in my workouts. There’s something exciting about not knowing what challenges lie ahead each session while still knowing that you’re following a structured plan.

I got the results I wanted and didn’t feel like I was in any way suffering for it. My energy was not depleted and I never felt hungry. Win win :)

Time to build another plan…Who’s next?