How effective is the Bowflex 6 week plan?

[tornadog]

I acquired a bowflex blaze early november and have been doing their 30 minute workout routine every alternate day. I have noticed an increase in muscles but no decrease in fat. Since December 29th I decided to also apply their diet, which is about 1500 calories each day. Since I am Asian, I think 1500 may be more than my requirement, so I am keeping to 1000 calories. What kind of results can I expect in 6 weeks or 12 weeks.

Also when eating out on the rare occasions, what would be certain options for me, so my wife does not get offended on our date nights, etc!

 

[TheStu]

1000cal is super low.

Go here, and see what it spits out for your actual daily calories.

 

[tornadog]

well according to that calculator the TDEE is supposed to be 1900 calories, so maybe increase to 1500???

Right now my diet for the last 1 week has been

breakfast: cup of honey bunch of oats with almondswith skimmed milk/tall glass of fruit smoothie with protein powder
lunch: a lean cuisine/smartchoice meal with 1-2 toast and low fat butter
snacks: 1 pringle chip or 2-4 almonds and low fat flavored greek yogurt(yoplait)
dinner: same as lunch or soup(campbell single serve can)
6-8 glasses of water

 

[z1ggy]

well according to that calculator the TDEE is supposed to be 1900 calories, so maybe increase to 1500???

Right now my diet for the last 1 week has been

breakfast: cup of honey bunch of oats with almondswith skimmed milk/tall glass of fruit smoothie with protein powder
lunch: a lean cuisine/smartchoice meal with 1-2 toast and low fat butter
snacks: 1 pringle chip or 2-4 almonds and low fat flavored greek yogurt(yoplait)
dinner: same as lunch or soup(campbell single serve can)
6-8 glasses of water

1900 seems low, unless you are a very small person. For reference, I have been wearing a fitness tracker (MS Band2) for almost 2 months now. My TDEE is ~2600 calories, which includes lifting 3x a week and 1 hockey game per week. I weigh about 200lb currently.

For my fat loss phase coming up soon, I plan to eat 2200 calories. That should land be 1lb/week of weight loss.

Edit: And technically speaking, unless you are a total novice to weight lifting, you should not be getting muscle gains during caloric deficit. How do you know you are gaining more muscle?

 

[tornadog]

1900 seems low, unless you are a very small person. For reference, I have been wearing a fitness tracker (MS Band2) for almost 2 months now. My TDEE is ~2600 calories, which includes lifting 3x a week and 1 hockey game per week. I weigh about 200lb currently.

For my fat loss phase coming up soon, I plan to eat 2200 calories. That should land be 1lb/week of weight loss.

Edit: And technically speaking, unless you are a total novice to weight lifting, you should not be getting muscle gains during caloric deficit. How do you know you are gaining more muscle?

I am just going by that calculator. I am 210lbs, 6'0". I work a desk job(programmer). I exercise 4 times a week, 30 minutes at medium intensity and that's what it spit out as TDEE

This is my exercise schedule;

http://build-muscle-101.com/20-minute-workout-bowflex-routines/

I put 60lbs resistance on each side.

 

[z1ggy]

Well, with out an accurate fitness band that can measure your heart rate to try and estimate cals burned, using that calc is pretty much just a guess. I'd start at like 2100-2200 cals and see how much weight you lose. If you aren't loosing then cut a little lower.

 

[Kaido]

well according to that calculator the TDEE is supposed to be 1900 calories, so maybe increase to 1500???

Right now my diet for the last 1 week has been

breakfast: cup of honey bunch of oats with almondswith skimmed milk/tall glass of fruit smoothie with protein powder
lunch: a lean cuisine/smartchoice meal with 1-2 toast and low fat butter
snacks: 1 pringle chip or 2-4 almonds and low fat flavored greek yogurt(yoplait)
dinner: same as lunch or soup(campbell single serve can)
6-8 glasses of water

For starters, you are definitely not consuming enough protein, not by a long shot. If you are struggling with growing but are serious about it, use the IIFYM calculator and start tracking your calories & macros. That will give you a good set of guidelines to start with. Think of them as directions: your job is to fit foods into what the calculator says for your body & goals. And think of food as fertilizer: exercise all you want, but if you don't feed your muscles, they're not going to grow very much. Keep in mind that fat is not bad. Calories are not bad things either.

The most successful people I've seen & met are ultra-disciplined about their diet. That doesn't mean eating plain chicken & broccoli all day long, that means paying attention to their daily caloric intake and their protein, fat, and carb macros for the day. There are a lot of ways to eat to grow; I happen to like IIFYM because it gives you rules to follow, which makes it easy to program your diet for. You have to allow yourself to be open to the idea that eating a lot of food means growth because it's kind of counter-intuitive, but again...fertilizer.

 

[tornadog]

Just a quick update at the end of six weeks;

Starting weight: 211 lbs
Current weight: 195.5lbs

Planning to continue for 6 more weeks and see if I can get to < 180lbs

 

[Kaido]

Just a quick update at the end of six weeks;

Starting weight: 211 lbs
Current weight: 195.5lbs

Planning to continue for 6 more weeks and see if I can get to < 180lbs

Nice congrats, keep it up! :thumbsup:

 

[tornadog]

Another update on my progress after my second phase of 6 weeks;

Current Weight: 183.2lbs

I didnt get to my goal of < 180 so I am going to go on for a third phase; goal is to get to 174lbs.

I have made some changes over the last week or so. I am now doing the 20 minute routine every day instead of every other day, and also introduced dried golden berries into my diet.

 

[SlitheryDee]

Just goes to show you that if you stick to anything it will net you some results. I wouldn't expect any bowflex plan to be all that optimal. Most people's problems have nothing to do with the relative efficiency of one plan vs another though. It's just consistently doing the work over the necessary time frame. Congratulations dude.

 

[Kaido]

Another update on my progress after my second phase of 6 weeks;

Current Weight: 183.2lbs

I didnt get to my goal of < 180 so I am going to go on for a third phase; goal is to get to 174lbs.

I have made some changes over the last week or so. I am now doing the 20 minute routine every day instead of every other day, and also introduced dried golden berries into my diet.

Nice, nearly 30 pounds down, congrats!

 

[deadlyapp]

Congrats on the weight loss - but I'd be very careful of pushing yourself more. At 6 feet tall, 170 would put you into a difficult state to maintain, especially if you were originally settled around 210.

At 188#, 6' tall, I was around 16.5% body fat and looked fairly lean. If I was at 178# and considering constant muscle mass, I would have been down around 11% which is elite athlete territory.