From Training And Eating With No Results To Losing 7kg In 12 Weeks

James, 44, Willis Re

Hey it’s Vlad! Another great transformation story to share. When I met James he wasn't new to training at all. In fact, he was very well conditioned with resting heart rate under 50. However his fitness and shape were out of sync and even though he was trying to do something about it he figured he might get a bit of help to guarantee the results and speed the whole process up.

And what a great move for him! James lost 7kg of bodyweight in 12 weeks of training!

What a great result. He was training 3 times a week before with no results and now got this amazing drop in bodyweight with the exact same 3 days per week of training but structured differently and with a bit of a change in his eating. And the fact he travelled to New York, Charlestone and Monte Carlo in the process didn't disturb anything either! Lots of lessons to learn from his body transformation, so...

Let's See How We Did It

Drawing the starting line.
It all started with James being honest about the results and progress he was not getting from the effort he was putting in by himself. Facing this has made him look for new answers and also made him open to trying something else than he was used to which in his case was resistance training being added to all his fitness training.

Setting everything up.
We've then sat down to figure out what exact results he wants, what he can do for those results and what lifestyle limitations will he be facing on the way. Having a clear idea about those then made it very easy for both of us to sync on the strategy, process, expectations and everything related.

Eating goal specific.
We've had to make a change from eating healthy (and sometimes unhealthy) to eating goal specific. Once again there were some new concepts for James to go through but he managed to stick to the plan and enjoy it all along. He's learnt to appreciate nutritious meals and also order better food when tired, stressed and back late from work. .

James was new to weight lifting so we spent reasonable amount of time going through his lifting form.

Building good lifting habits.
Every exercise we did started with learning the correct technique so it's safe, effective and engages the right muscle without other muscle kicking in to compensate for the lack of good technique or strength in the exercised muscle.

Solutions for travelling.
James had 3 trip scheduled for the first 12 weeks of training together so we planned our training around them. When abroad he would either continue lifting weights or go for a run depending on what kind of gym he had access to. Since his eating was very straightforward he never had any problems finding the right food when out either.

Client lunches and dinners.
We've also done some brainstorming on what to do when meeting clients. How to manage the drinks and food when he's out socialising. Embraced it as it was and got to the fantastic result of 7kg lost at the end of his first 12 weeks.

James’ Perspective On Things

JamesI've been doing cardio exercise for a long time and what I've found was that whilst I was quite fit I never really managed to lose the weight or change the way my body looked. I wasn't really feeling lighter or better about myself, so from there, given that I've been doing that for years, I thought that training with someone would be more productive in achieving my goals.

My goals were to lose some weight and put some muscle on, feel stronger and better about myself. I've always worked quite hard, always on the front line and after a while I just found myself too heavy and uncomfortable with my chubby look in general. I think at 86kg I was not happy with the way I looked, with the way I felt and how tight my clothes were so working with you to change my diet, lift weights and shape my body made a massive difference in how I see myself now and how I think about myself.


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So the challenge was never to get to the gym and commit to doing that. I've always managed to make time and train. I think I was just doing the wrong things. I focused a lot on swimming and running and again I was getting fitter but not changing my body shape at all. So I decided to start personal training because I needed some guidance on how I should change my eating habits and also the types of things that I would be doing when I did go to the gym.

Doing running when abroad with no access to gym or the weather was simply too good not to go for a run.

Asking James About His Experience

So knowing where you were coming from in terms of training and diet, what was the initial plan we set out on?
Really the plan was basically to think more about diet and eating more protein and measure much more closely what was going into my body and then use my time at the gym to do the thing that's going to make a difference. And now that I've gone through it, one of the many good things is my new understanding of food so I can maintain my weight as well.

What have you achieved with your training in the end?
OK so apart from the actual bodyweight drop, I am genuinely a very busy guy so not always can I be focused and there are parts of the year when I just can't get down to the gym but at the times when I'm focused I've learnt how to drop weight quite easily by following basically pretty clear and simple steps around nutrition and going to the gym. 

Do you think anyone can lose 5% body fat or 5kg bodyweight in less than 12 weeks while working in The City?
I think anyone who works in The City even with a busy life, if they focus, I think they can absolutely lose 5% body fat or 5% of their weight just by following some pretty simple steps actually. And it's really just a little bit about self discipline and then getting down to the gym doing the right things.

Explore Other Successful Body Transformations


Hadrien, 27, EY
Hadrien’s now trained with me on two separate occasions and on both of them succesfully shredded a lot of fat while building his upper body and core strength. What’s remarkable is that he’s achieved his great results along with going to some great parties during the weekends.
Hadrien’s ultimately managed to go from 22% body fat down to 7,4%.

Check Out Hadrien's Transformation Story