I lost 8 pounds, 2 pant sizes…lost 6 pounds, lost 3% body fat, and gained 4 pounds of lean mass…lost over 9 lbs and gained a good bit of muscle in the process… lost 12 pounds and 2.5 inches at my waist and hips, dropped 5-6% body fat, etc.
We put together a challenge for our members: improve your life by eating right and doing CrossFit Charlottesville programming. We also wanted to dispel the popular myths that lead us to believe that fat intake directly equates to body weight, that Zone/Paleo/Primal nutrition are fads and that weight-lifting causes “body-builder arms.” Here is what we did during the 8 week challenge:
- Lifted heavy weights 4 to 5 times per week and did short intense workouts most days. Yes, even our ladies lifted heavy weights frequently. No two pound dumbbells, here. We’re talking big, barbell lifts like backsquats, deadlifts and shoulder presses.
- Gave strict, zone-based guidelines for food intake during the first several weeks (following paleo/primal nutrition recommendations).
- Let everyone eat on their own and optionally report quantities to us after that.
We didn’t yell at people for cheating, we didn’t encourage caloric restriction or people starving themselves. We wanted this experience to be educational for people; to give people a real-world, sustainable lifestyle; to demonstrate that they could eat healthy without feeling hungry and make dramatic performance and body improvements in a short period of time.
The results speak for themselves. These picture are not photoshopped and the member accounts are real. Each one of these members changed their lives for the better and learned a lot about living healthy. We are really, super proud of their accomplishments. Everyone got stronger and more fit, but also looked a lot better in the process.
Results and pictures after the break…
