What Are YOUR Results From The 31 Day Challenge?

Hey Vic,

Unitl now I was a silent participtant, so here are my results.

Beginning: 249 pounds
Now: 230 pounds

I followed the diet more or less, I also follow Marks daily apple. My excersis plan was similar, but I changed days were I did pullups, etc. Hopefully you keep on doing videos with your clients, they were a great motivation.

Thanks and greetings from Germany. (I hope the calculations were right)

that BEER LOOKS AMAZING..hahaha.. however I started ‘late’ in the challenge due to a slight back strain that I wanted to be completely healed b4 i got into the challenge. I am so glad i did. Today is day 28 for me..and I plan on continuing thru till the end VIC. I have LOVED this challenge… I did the FAT LOSS for beginners Challenge… and LOVED it… the best part was having a PLAN to follow every day… videos that showed me the step by step way to perform each exercise correctly which enabled me to increase my max. weight on my barbells and ez curl bar each week. Oh my gosh.. I was deadlifting 75#.. how kewl is that~! It was for me. I am a 51 year old mother of 4.. (4 cesections in fact) and I did not drop a ton of weight.. in fact..i will be curious in the morning to weigh as the 2 lbs i did lose in the beginning actually came back… but I have gotten so much STRONGER..people are commenting on how much stronger and leaner and toner I look.. hahaha.. Hell YEAH i say.. not bad .. not bad at all for 51 and still going strong. I am looking forward to my NEXT 31 day challenge…I think I’m going for the muscle building program next..I am loving LIFTING the big barbell.. you have no idea how giddy that makes ME> A BIG THANK YOU VIC… thank YOU~… would love to “drink a cold beer with you”…hahaha.. buttttt.. my challenge isn’t over yet..and I’m NOT STOPPING NOW… some of us have to remember.. we have already dropped our massive amount of weight previously on our own ( I personally have lost over 75 lbs myself) so it is NOT always about the NUMBERS on the scale.. it’s what you see in PICTURES.. that tell the true story.. I will be posting mine tomorrow!!!
Lisa

Atlanta, GA
medical transcriptionist/aerobics/spin instructor.. overall FITNESS FANATIC..and LOVING IT~~~
hooray for GYM JUNKIES and VIC

Hey Vic / Other 31DC’ers. I’m Ben, a 26 y/o computer person.

For the month of May, I have consumed no beer, eaten no junk, no chocolate and no cheese, and i love cheese.

In 4 weeks i have lost 12lb’s.

7lb in week 1, 2lb in week 2, 1lb in week 2, and 2lb in week 4.

I have gone from being able to do 5 pressups, to 32 at last attempt. Have increased my chest press from 40kg to 55kg, and my squat from 50kg to about 70kg. I’m deadlifting about 70kg also but had to ease off a bit due to some back pain.

The beer gut is slowly going down. Slowly being the key word.

I’m going to continue with the healthy eating, so hopefully I will continue to see results.

Looking forward to my victory beer on Monday evening… After i’ve been to the gym.

Cheers Guys

It has been an AMAZING 31 DAYS.

To give myself some extra credit, I must say I was already ‘practicing’ the 2 weeks prior to the challenge with a better diet and more intense workouts…but didnt weigh in until May 1. Every ounce was a BATTLE!

Total weight lost- 14 lbs
Definition increase.
Strength Increase.
Awareness Increase.
Mental Toughness Increase.

For more details, I am going to post in the Fat Loss for Advanced Trainees- Gym Section in a while. I am hoping to just do a fast 3 minute Youtube clip to upload.

Thanks for everyones support.

PS- I am not a big drinker, ANYMORE, so im going to get me a nice diet Pepsi. A 6pack a day wasnt out of the question before…and i havent had one in 30 days now!

-Mike

This was a fantastic experience. I did the “Fat Loss for Advanced Trainees With No Equipment” and lost 7.2 pounds while simultaneously training for an informal Marine Corps Physical Fitness test. For that, I ended up scoring 247 out of 300 possible points, far exceeding my goal of 225 points. Going forward, I plan on following the nutrition guidelines (giving myself two cheat meals, one cheat snack, and one alcoholic drink per week, no rollovers) and have already built workouts inspired by Workouts A-G3 into the workouts I do with my training buddies.

The toughest thing about the program was the nutrition. I now realize how much crap I was eating and how addicting all that bad food really is. I also learned just how tasty good foods can be in their unprocessed forms and actually get a kick out of counting the number of almonds that I eat. During the challenge, I was introduced to Tabasco Chipotle pepper sauce and found it to be awesome with hard-boiled eggs and avocados. I also acquainted myself with all the different varieties of apples that are available to us and discovered just how satisfying a whole cucumber can be when you’re hungry and thirsty. What foods did everyone discover during the challenge?

Thanks again, Vic, for putting together a program that will continue to change my life!

-Michael

Hey everyone. It was a great 31 day challenge!! I have been following along on a daily basis and it really was an exciting month. I did something similar to this a few months back, so I was not super strict on the diet this time around. I lost a lot of weight before and was more interested in maintaining my previous weight loss. This being considered, I followed the diet minus some cheating on the booze front and was still able to loose 3 or 4 pounds. The real amazing thing for me was my increase in strength and endurance. My cardio improved drastically. I did the advanced fat loss as prescribed and then picked workouts from the other sections for my days off. In all I worked out 6 days a week and am feeling great. The biggest change for me was in the burpee/deadlift workout. It took me roughly 16 minutes to complete the first time around and now im between 12 and 13!!

Although I haven’t posted to many things, I have been watching the site and it was great to see other people working out and going through the same things as I was. Sometimes it is hard to get motivated when I am just sitting by myself at home, so it was nice to have something to turn to. Thanks to everyone who was posting all the time because you helped motivate me and keep me on track!

I want to post my two cent results as well.
Before giving you my numbers, I must say that I had loads of more cheat meals than I should have had, and the fact that I IF three days a week saved my ass! For some reason (maybe the kind of material I was reading on the subject), I was more into clean eating than low carb eating. I had far more carbs than I used to have in the last few weeks. But usually around 150 grams a day (blame the mangoes!) to around 200 on my non-IF days. I did not follow your workout program, and was doing strength training (with three days of conditioning) till last week, and then I took to barbell complexes only (the sprint sessions continue as before).
I lost 7.5 lbs.
My squat has increased from 60 kgs to 80 kgs.
My Benchpress has increased from 50 kgs to 60 kgs.
My Deadlift has not increased in terms of 1 RM (120 kgs), but my 5 RM has increased from 80 to 100.
The best results have come in my pullups. I could not do a SINGLE full-form pullup (from a dead hang), but I can do SIX (yes, six!) in slow-mo. Feeling great about that, and I must say the Grease The Groove articles by Pavel have helped enormously.
My endurance and running have also improved, and I give the 16 and 20 year old rowers in my sprint group fair run for their money!

Thanks so much, Vic, and I am continuing this through to June as well.
No six packs yet, but I can see them coming!

BTW, the thing about you I admire the most is not merely for contributing to fitness, but for making each movie you post a minor work of art. You have a deft touch that I find is professional.

I had some definite surprises during the challenge. First, I was eating much more junk than I thought I was. Second, Diet Coke is NOT the nectar of the Gods. Third, I LIKE eating like this and plan to continue to do so. I did the strength training challenge so the diet was very moderate compared to the weight loss challengers but I realize that my carb portions(mostly rice)were ridiculously large. The fourth surprise was that I didn’t get sore muscles the way I thought I would from heavy lifting….sometimes I get more sore from Monster! The fifth surprise is that I lost 5-6 lbs!!
I love lifting. I’m going to continue it for sure and make some new goals. I am excited to get back to monster though as well.
My results:
My max 1 rep squat went from 130 lbs to 160 lbs (with imperfect form) and my deadlift went from about 140lbs to 160lbs.
I definitely have to use the alternating grip on the dead lifts because I’m not strong enough to grip the bar the regular when it’s this heavy.
Good job every body! Thanks so much Vic! I can’t wait to see everybody’s pics!!

Hi, Vic!

I got results from this challenge that i would never have reached in six months!!! The ne eating habits gave me more energy and i felt so much better after i cut the carbs from my meals. And i never looked back.. The few times i ate something with sugar in it, i felt physically bad after a while and got even more turned off by sodas and cakes. And the workout plan gave me a new love for workouts in general, after have done the same repetetive workouts á la gerbil style on the treadmills/ellipticals!

i lost 6-8 pounds. incredible. Thanks for the help, man!

/Luana

Way to go gym junkies…. great results! I had a great time with the 31 day challenge. 18 lbs. down in 31 days!!!!!

I will definately keep this going!

Thanks Vic for all the input and training.

I’m with John, great results everyone!!

I too enjoyed doing the challenge and I have lost weight. At the end of week 2 I had lost 5 lbs but unfortunately I haven’t had access to a scale for the rest of the challenge so I don’t know what my current weight is. I did modify the workout for the last week as I had skipped quite a few workouts in week 3 due to my moving cities and I finished with a 7 in 7(the 7 workouts for the no gym beginer fat loss in 7 days) for wk 4. Will definitely be mainly resting this week but will probably include a few short workouts. Can’t wait to hear who are the winners!

Hey Vic I found your site a couple months ago and found it very interesting. The strength training vs. bodybuilding styles were completely foreign to me. I had just started working out at the YMCA near me and was doing a mishmash of different stuff like bicep curls, leg presses, treadmill, and dumbbell exercises. Needless to say I was getting nowhere fast.

I then decided to try this 5×5 thing I was reading about and see how it goes. Well that was 7 weeks ago, I am now starting my 8th week and I am extremely happy with the results so far.

I had not planned on entering your contest because 1. I didn’t take pictures, and 2. I am not following the diet you made, and 3. I don’t do the workouts of the challenge but I wanted to let you know your site has helped me immensely.

So far as diet does, my wife likes a program whose initials are WW, and I am sticking to that with her to help support her, and I like it too because I can just eat food and not have to buy anything special, I have eggs bacon and toast for breakfast on workout days which makes me happy.

Here is my workout journal that has tracked my progress, I have definitely seen results and have punched three holes in my belt (literally).

http://www.slack-fu.com/workout-journal.html

Previously posting as just “Andy”.

I did the Fat Loss No Equipment – Beginner. I was going to wait until June to do this challenge – but I am so glad I didn’t.

I have lost 10+ pounds, 3.5 inches off my waist. Which is really almost all of the weight I needed to lose. I eat much, much healthier(though I modified the diet with more carbs than allowed).

I just bought a 300lb Olympic weight set and bench/squat rack and today I started the 12 week strength training program listed on this site (”How to Get Stronger” link). And I will be playing basketball twice a week.

This site is amazing and I have recommended it to just about everyone I know. Thanks Vic!

Thanks for the challenge. Just wanted to give you my results. Over the past month I lost 11 lbs; 4 after week 1, 4 after week 2, 0 after week 3 and 3 after week 4. In the last week and a half I haven’t been able to work out as much as I needed to due to working 12-18 hour days even on weekends, but when I knew I couldn’t workout I tried not to eat any carbs for that day. I ended up reducing my carb intake from like 150g+ per day down to like 25g (50g on days when I ate pasta) per day.

As far as my workouts go I cheated in the fact that I tried to work out every day with workouts A-F instead of doing the OYO assignments so I would stay more focused.

I’m going to stay on this type of diet as far as limiting my carbs go and will still use workouts A-F but I may switch them around to make sure my muscles don’t get used to the exercises. Thanks for a great challenge Vic!

Vic,

I wanted to once again thank you for doing this challenge. I lost a total of 9 pounds for the month and feel great.
During the month I was able to kick my habit of diet soda and energy drinks. After completeing this month I have no desire to have either of these drinks. I am now drinking water or tea and my body feels so much better.
My challenge is not yet over as I am hoping to lose another 15 pounds in the next couple months.

Thanks
Eric

Hi Vic & all the Challengers,

I did the Fat Loss for Beginners workouts faithfully throughout the month. I didn’t follow the diet because I am on the Tortoise Plan (i.e. slow and steady, for as long as it takes). I wasn’t looking for a quick weight loss, but for strength gains and a way to change up my weekly workouts. I’ve doubled the weight I can bench press and tripled the weight I can squat, because I doubted my own strength. Not anymore!

P.S.- Even though it’s June 1st, I still got up at 5:30 this morning to do deadlifts and burpees. Because they are awesome.

Vic,

So enjoyed the challenge. Ended up losing 8 lbs, which was great. But for me, the best part of your challenge was that it really made me focus on the mental side/discipline of sticking to a program. In the beginning, doing some of the workouts (Beg/fatloss/gym)at the speed you required was tough, but I realized my body could do way more than my head was allowing. Once I got out of my own way, everything really clicked and while it’s not an easy program, I know I can finish each workout and look to improve in the future. Thanks so much for all your encouragement and no b.s.

Sue

A copy of the email I just sent Vic:

Workout Program: Advanced Fat Loss Gym

Starting Weight: 158.0
Ending Weight: 146.2, [about a pound gained back after being sidelined for the last 3 days, low point was 145.0 on Thursday morning, the fateful day of my collarbone's demise]

Vic,

Thanks a lot for being so selfless and putting this challenge out there for the tons of people who wanted to participate. I know you’ve said in the past that this kind of stuff wouldn’t be possible if we ourselves didn’t have the drive and determination to take control, but it also wouldn’t have been possible if there weren’t people like you who genuinely care and want to give back. Even for someone like me, who knows a fair amount about fitness and health, the challenge gave me the kind of commitment and accountability I needed to reach my goals. For others out there, it was even more valuable due to maybe a lack of information or knowledge or just the know-how to be able to put it all together into an effective program. The satisfaction and results I’ve gotten from your 1 month challenge have driven me to participate in another 1 month challenge. I know I’m not going to be able to do much over the next couple months physically due to my injury, but now I’m taking part in Artofmanliness.com’s 30 Days to a Better Man Challenge during the month of June. Injuries and hurdles may slow us down, but there is no rest in the quest for personal improvement. Keep on doin’ what you do Vic, you’re a great guy.

Yash

To all the Junkies:
Pat yourselves on the back guys, everyone did a great job! The simple fact that you cared enough to take part in this challenge already puts you leagues ahead of most other people, regardless of the results you got, and I have no doubt that everyone saw some pretty awesome results. Have a few days of fun and rest to reward yourself, and then get back on the healthy wagon to try and maintain yourself for summer. Or if you’re crazy, you can go at it again and lose more fat/gain more muscle/get stronger. Good luck in all your future endeavors guys!

Also, if anyone loved the 1 month self-improvement challenge format so much that they want to do another one in a slightly different aspect of their lives, Art of Manliness is having a 30 Days to a Better Man Project, to “to encourage men to be better men in all areas of their lives”. Give it a shot if you feel up to the challenge.

Thanks Vic!
Your 31 day challenge was just what I needed to “kick my butt” into gear for this summer and in life! I took part in the strength building program and I followed your diet for healthy eating. However, a funny thing happened, the harder I worked out the more body weight I lost and the more strength I gained. In all I lost 27 pounds and gained 100 pounds on my squats and dead lifts. This program not only works but it is realistic for everyday folks like myself. I’m going to continue this program and with hard work I will lose even more weight and increase strength. This program not only helped me to get into great shape it also helped remind me how great being in shape is to the mind,body and spirit and all the possibilities life has to offer us.

Thanks again Vic and God Bless,
Bob Curran

Vic,
I was very surprised at the end of the challenge when you look back from where you started to where it ended. All in all I was mostly looking to gain some friggin weight and I did. I went from 130 at the beggining to 137 at the end of the challenge and man was I stoked to see that scale go up. Also in the month time frame I passed my firefighter physical agility test and will start the academy in August and I also got a job as a paramedic for a private ambulance company so the weightlifting will definately benefit me and I thank you very much for the help along the way. I still have a long way to go to reach my goals but I am going to keep on keeping on! Thanks Vic!!

Hey Vic,

OK – so my goals on this challenge were to lose about 4kg (8.8lbs) in weight, lose about 2.5 inches (6.25cm) off the abs and drop some body fat %.

My results on the advanced fat loss workouts no equipment was:

LOST: 4.5kg (9.9lbs) in weight
LOST: 3.2 inches (8cm) off the abs
DROPPED: 4% bodyfat (according to 3 site test)

AND this was all while still travelling extensively for work and a bunch of entertaining commitments. The new workouts were exactly what I needed to drag me over the line of my goals!

So since last Sept have lost a total of 38kgs (about 84lbs). Now I am where I want to be and on to doing the next challenge to build some muscle and strength.

Just wanted to say there have been a bunch of inspirational people on this challenge including Lyndsey, John and Arvin – thanks guys for letting us all see your journey on this challenge. And thanks hands down needs to go to you Vic for putting in the time and effort to help everyone who got involved. I’m over in the States a couple of times a little later this year and am planning on stopping by and shaking your hand (and shouting you a beer too!).

Sincerely appreciated!

Jason

Hi everyone, I’m afraid that I don’t have access to a scale at the moment so no weight loss figures… but I just wanted to chime in before any more time passed. I followed the Beginner’s Weight Loss (gym) and now I am wearing jeans that I haven’t been able to fit into forever – best of all my husband totally notices a change – big smile! I’ve gotton stronger – I started of barely able to lift the barbell to deadlifting 50 lbs. I can truly say that I accomplshed feats that I never thought I could. And, I am now definitely convinced that short, intense workouts can get the job done. I am continuing this program for June. My next goal is my first pull-up. Best of all was having the support – I read all of the blogs, not just for my program. For sharing their workouts, I am so grateful to John, Arvin and especailly Lyndsey (quite motivating having a fellow girl in the mix). The videos rock. Thank you… thank you… thank you Vic.

Name: Ben

Age: 24

Height: 5′9

Starting Weight: 185

Ending Weight: 172

Body Fat %: Unknown—back to having a 6 pack. it feels awesome.

Location: Brookline, MA USA

Growing up doing wrestling, judo and boxing I am no stranger to tough workouts. the workouts here felt alot like the workouts i did through middle school and high school and college.

i worked out hard through college. I graduated 2 years ago and have been off and on with working out. I’ve always been really dense as my back has alot of muscle on it from surfing almost everyday as a kid. I grew up surfing in hawaii, im lucky i know. anyway, this 31 day challenge pushed me to clean up my diet and get ripped. i dont have a bodyfat caliper but my body fat has deacreased dramatically and i now have a 6 pack again.

it just goes to show that if you put your mind to something you can achieve it. just have a little dedication in your life and not losing sight of your goals. i love this site. its great and i think it does a good job of bridging people who are just learning about high intensity workouts and lower rep scheme weight lifting.

i would also encourage people out there to learn olympic lifts and related lifts. power cleans, hang cleans, clean and jerk, snatches, etc will do a great job of increasing actual muscle strength and definition. maybe even make you stronger without causing weight gain. its worked for me as a wrestler. maybe vic can do a post about olympic lifts and their benefits.

keep working out hard!

I started at 221 pounds 05/01 and as of 06/01 i weighed in at 203. . my goal was 200. . so im a little let down but damn i am close.

I DID consume some beers (bud select) but stuck to the plan religiously (a few deaths and an ugly break up. . hey im human)

I couldnt get to internet access until today so i guess i am out. but thats ok im actually going to continue on as long as i have to. im shooting for 165-175.

GREAT CHALLENGE VIC! THIS WAS THE KICK IN THE ASS I NEEDED!

I’m 17, and due to exams and a really stressful early May I stared the program last week. I’ve really been dieting extremely (one egg for breakfast, small chicken salad for lunch, piece of lean meat for dinner) and been doing the no equipment advanced workouts, as well as a fasted run every morning at 5 am. Getting shit done.

I’ve been doing it with my buddy, who has lost 6 pounds, and I have lost 10 pounds in the last week, so I am down to 161, at 5″11.

Aiming to be 150 by the end, in 3 weeks. It will be done.