| Age | 34 | Gender | Male |
Before |
After |
||
| Weight | 98 Kg | 83 Kg | |
| Height | 5′ 11″ | Transformation period | 3 months |
When and why did you choose to transform
What was your Lifestyle prior to your transformation?
I developed an injury in my right shoulder and I couldn’t lift it or move it left or right. I spent a year in rehab before I could be normal and my shoulder was mobile. During that period of time, I got into depression and I started eating more than required. When one is depressed he/she usually starts over-eating. I gained a lot of weight fluctuating from 88-90-100. Lack of exercise made me unfit and overweight. I was too slow to move around.
What was your turning point?
My injury made me realize that I have to do something as I started to feel obese. And I decided to workout to get a dream body. And that is when I formulated a program. I visualized myself being fitter and stronger. I come from a power-lifting and athletic background so my body can take up the amount of workout needed. And hence, the things just went on their way. If you don’t visualize yourself into a scenario you want for yourself you cannot pursue it. One has to visualize the things they want to achieve and only then can they get those.
Were there any unique challenges or difficulties you faced?
It was a challenge to stick to a particular diet for straight 90 days and also to go and every day give your best for the workout, giving your 100%. When you start, in the beginning, you are all pumped up and are ready to go to that extra limit and as your body starts to take a toll on you, you get a little lazy and you need some time off. It is when you have to push your mental boundaries to go and do it again. Initially, the first two weeks were difficult but then the body adjusted automatically. There were thoughts like can you take a break? Can you skip today? But apart from all these distractions, you have to tell yourself that you got to do it anyhow. It wasn’t about diet or red meat or giving up a lazy schedule, it was always about being a regular at what you do i.e going to the gym everyday and workout every day.
Were there any circumstances when you had to face failures?
I had already faced failures for a year during my injury and this all was to overcome that and there was no looking back.
What was your motivation when you had faced a failure?
Yes, my experiences were my motivation. I take motivation from very little things. So, I work in a gym. I see people who are overweight and they keep pushing themselves and seeing them I get motivated. If they can do it I can do it and similar is what tell others that if I can do it then you can too. Motivation is something which is all over the place and you just don’t see it.
Transformation Timeline
Training Approach
How much did you workout in a day, how many days a week?
I start my power and strength training in the morning and just before my lunch I do my conditioning workout with a little bit of weight done at a high intensity and later in evening I do active recovery, say about, 30-45 minutes of cardio and core exercises. This was my routine for 90 days starting from Monday to Sunday, 7 days of a week.
Split between cardio, weight training and other workouts like swimming yoga that you do?
I haven’t done yoga or swimming. I do power-lifting, strength training, and cardio endurance at the different part of a day. I do high-intensity workout that involves a lot of heavy weightlifting. When you hit 30, the testosterone level drops down drastically and to boost the levels naturally you start to work on your deadlift, squats. These are the foundation for boosting the testosterone levels naturally and I stuck to those.I took out certain things from the bodybuilding training of the nineteenth-century bodybuilders as well. Early morning is the best time for me to workout and it is the best time for anybody to workout because your body is all fresh and pumped up, charged up and you are all ready to go and give it your best shot. I work from 5:30 to 6:45 in morning and then from 7:30 to 12:30 and then I take about an hour for lunch. I then do my workout of 10-15 minutes which involves a little bit of power and little of conditioning for example burpees for 10 min. I then start at 2:30 which goes till about 6:30 in the evening and then I wind up and come back home and I sit on a cross trainer for 45 minutes. And then I go for planks etc. It gave me a better understanding of my body and I could know how much my body could take. There is one thing that people often tend to ignore which is sleep and I never compromised on that. Sleep was essential for me, it still is. If you don’t get a good amount of sleep your entire routine would flush down. People don’t understand this, they think they can sleep for 4 hours and come back and start working out again. It is fine for a short duration but for a longer duration it will completely screw up your system.
If you have faced any challenge or injuries while working out?
Not really, I already had an injured shoulder and a torn bicep on my left arm as a result of lifting heavy weights, hence, I kinda learned how to fix my injuries that one year I suffered. So, when I went back into my transformation I made sure that I have enough time for my body to recover and focus on rehab and strength at the same time to avoid injuries.
Diet and Supplement Plan
I kept my diet very simple. I didn’t want people to go on a crazy diet for those who follow me at Instagram and come to my gym know this because they look up to me to transform their lives and if you can’t transform your own life then how will do any good to others who follow you. It is an extremely affordable diet and anybody can follow it. My diet consists of a little bit of chicken and fish as I am a South Indian. I work from 5:30 in morning to 8:30 in the night so cooking is not an option for me so I had to order out my food. My breakfast used to be at my home, early in the morning that included scrambled eggs with one toast and a cup of black coffee. In my snacks, I had peanut butter or almond butter or just a handful of walnuts or almonds. My lunch has proteins, little kebab, tandoori chicken and malai kebab and the kind I have for my dinner. The diet continued for 90 days. I didn’t order anything extraordinary. What I completely avoided in these 90 days was sugar, alcohol, rice and unwanted stuff like maida which would add weight. And I could see the difference by day 21 in my body.
How many meals in a day?
I have 7 meals a day. I have 2-3 hours between each meal usually.I start my first meal at 4:30 in the morning, subsequently I take a post workout shake at 7 am as soon as I finish my workout. Next would be around 9-9:30 which will be a scoop of peanut butter or a handful of almonds or black coffee. Then it would be lunch around 11:30-12 and then again at 2:30, then at 5:00 another meal. I have a pre-workout shake in the evening, followed by dinner. Before I go to bed, just 30 min or 45 minutes before I would have a cup of greek yogurt.
And my diet is very easy for anyone to follow. It is very Indian consisting of roti, dal, chicken, egg whites. My protein content is fulfilled by fish, chicken and egg white. Right now I am doing a 30 days vegetarian diet challenge on my Instagram account with no eggs and not even protein supplements. It has been 5 days since.
Did you have any cheat meals in a week/ Month and it’s impact?
No, I didn’t have any for 90 days. And after that, I took a trip to Goa to have my favorite dessert. For those 90 days, I didn’t have any sugar or any dessert.
Supplements if taken, please list it
I take my regular whey proteins. I also use BCW to help my body recover from all the heavy weight lifting. Multivitamin – I use to take a lot of fish oil capsules.
Advice for others
What someone should not be doing and should be doing to achieve their goals.
Firstly, one has to decide what their goal is and they got to visualize it because without visualizing where they want to be they cannot plan their way to achieve their goal. Second, when anyone sets a goal they need to know how to go about it. This also includes setting up small milestones. Have a program to work out. If someone tells you that they can bring you from point A to point B then don’t just blindly believe them but ask them to show what the program is and what changes will it bring into their lives. A lot of people have zero ideas of the program. Many people come and say to me that I am paying a hefty amount but I don’t see a change. It is important that personal trainers must realize how the body of any particular person molds or works.
Importance of trainer/ mentor or dietitian in transformation.
As long as the trainer knows what they are talking about because there are a lot of fake people out there. Please do a proper background check before you plan to join any gym as one wrong move can get you paralyzed. Always be aware of what you are doing and always have a documented program that you have to follow so that you are not completely dependent on a person for anything.
Importance and side effects of diet and supplements which you had?
Supplements are something that suffices the left out protein or vitamin requirements that your diet is unable to fulfill. I am always standing from morning to evening and that is why I need the supplements to nourish my muscles. The supplements I take don’t have any amount of drugs in it. These can be taken by a person of age 70 or a 15-16 year person too.so, the side-effect part is not prevalent as of now.
My diet is the same every Indian follows and haven’t done anything extra so everything is normal. There is nothing so extraordinary about it. It is not similar to the diet of bodybuilder where they overload you with proteins.
