So the big ‘xtreme’ diet is over, and the first thing that will be asked is: Did the damn thing work? Did all the fasting, pills, protein powders and working out help?
Well, overall, I feel better, and some of my ‘dimensions’ have improved: my waist has gone down by almost 1.5 inches (bringing my Waist-to-Height Ratio down quite a bit, from 60.5 to 58.7, very close to the merely ‘overweight’ range) and my bicep measurement has gone up almost one and a half inches. My weight has stayed about the same, but I’ve put on more muscle (evidenced by my arm measurement), which weighs more than fat, so overall I’m fitter. I sit up straighter in my chair at work, like I usually do when I’m exercising regularly, and of course I’m more conscious of things such as the starchy carb content in my meals, calories in my drinks, etc. I’m not nutty about it (I think – but if I mention this to anyone they’re like ‘HURF HURF you’re all mentalist crazy dieter now!’) but I’m aware of these things.
So – did I get the results promised in the ‘Xtreme Fat Loss Diet‘? Well, the diet promises that you can lose up to 20-25 pounds – like I said above I didn’t lose any, but I wasn’t expecting to drop below 200 lbs doing this diet. I was hoping to lose 10-15 pounds, which I didn’t, but I have added muscle while losing a little weight, which means I have lost fat, which is good.
I suppose the next question would be what went ‘wrong’, why didn’t I lose loads of weight? There’s actually a few things here and there. The first thing is that the diet wasn’t a failure – I’m well on the road to regular, consistent exercise and eating healthily, kind of like a 4-week health bootcamp. But there were hiccups, for sure. On at least a couple of the Moderate Carb days, I had a fast food meal (leaving out the fries) and for one of those meals I had a full-fat Coke due to an ordering mix-up (not mine). I also went on a weekend holiday, so had to improvise on food due to eating out and camping, plus I missed a couple of workouts that weekend. Then the following weekend I went on a heaving drinking night, (for a friend’s bachelor party) and didn’t do anything the following day.
To top it off, I was using a cheap, crappy body fat measuring thing to figure out my body fat percentage (I was getting regular readings of just over 30% every time) and I forgot my digital scale at my girlfriend’s a couple of weeks ago, so I haven’t been able to get scale readings when I should. I am able to hop on the shipping scale at work, but if I do that it’s not at a consistent time (I like to weigh myself after waking, after the toilet and before the shower, consistently) and I’m wearing clothes so I have to fudge off some imagined weight for my clothes. I just today received a good body monitor scale (Tanita brand, recommended by pro trainers) and the body fat measurement came to 22.4% – and there’s no way I could have lost 8% body fat from yesterday (when I measured with the cheap handheld thing) to today. No way in hell. So – forgetfulness and equipment failures prevent me from providing a full and accurate way to track my progress, and for now I have to rely on guesstimates from the measurements I can get.
Will I try the Xtreme Fat Loss Diet again? Not sure yet, but I might. I believe in the science of it, with the carb-loading on cheat days, the fasting and shake days, plus the targeted workouts depending on what day of the cycle you’re on. If you try to explain it to anyone you sound like a raving crazy person, but people expect that of me anyway 🙂
Now for the money question, literally: Will I ask for a refund of my $67? To be honest, I’m not sure yet. I could, the program allows a 60-day no-questions-asked returns policy, but I don’t know yet. I didn’t see the weight drop off like I thought I would could, but then again I wasn’t able to follow the program to a ‘T’. I’ll have to think about it.
Let me be frank! 