My Four Week Fat Loss Story – Simon Wood-Nolan

It all started in September 2010 when I was making wedding plans with my now wife Hayley.

We wanted to secure our wedding venue and date so we had a meeting at the hotel we had chosen. After our meeting at the hotel venue and the also with the mention of the 3 month leisure membership it dawned on me that I couldn’t remember that last time I’d been to the gym. Even with this in mind it took me a further 3 months to kick myself into gear and realise I’m not going to get fitter and lose weight by moping around eating rubbish and not exercising. So in January 2011 I firstly purchased some new good quality scales and a set of Accu Measures Fat Callipers. I then took up the 3 month trial at our wedding venues gym. My weight at this time was 117.5kg (18st 5lbs) and my Jackson/Pollock 3 fat test showed a figure of 38.2%. I thought to myself “oh my god”, I really couldn’t believe I had let myself go this much, I was so shocked. I spent all day driving the breadth of the country and stopping off for fast food and late night take-away’s, I hadn’t realised what stresses and damage I was putting my body through. It dawned on me at this point that the challenge in front of me was far greater than I had ever imagined.

I was so desperate to look good for my wedding day but at this particular time was more disappointed by that feeling that I had let Hayley down for not looking after myself and for letting myself go so much.

I started off in the gym with a circuit session on the cardio equipment I aimed to do 10 minutes on each of the four pieces. After the first 10 minutes on the treadmill I was suddenly wishing id set myself 5 minutes on each but being the stubborn fool I am I wouldn’t give up. It’s safe to say that by the time id finished I was ready for both a very long sleep and a body transplant. I knew it was going to be tough but seeing the picture of me at center parcs soon spurred me on again. The first 8 weeks came and went and I felt I was making slow progress. I tried to maintain my promise of no fast food burger meals in the week but made allowances for a take-away at weekends along with some beer or wine within moderation. Just making some lifestyle changes like a vegetable based curry rather than one with a thick creamy sauce and wholemeal breads instead of white can make a big difference and I felt this the next day when I was bloated by anywhere near the amount I was before. The hardest thing was the days out at the rugby which would generally consist of a five course meal with alcohol on tap and that was the start of it with more booze and food after the game. I tried to be sensible where I could and just not over eat or drink.

In March after speakingwith the trainer Luke Testar at the gym we organised a Personal Training session for Monday 14th. I arrived with my scales first thing in the morning as asked even though I had a little sneak peek at home first? I had got my weight down to 112.4kg (17st 7lb). I was really pleased I’d lost over 5kg by just making some lifestyle changes and not over eating or drinking.

After spending 8 weeks on my new fitness plan that Luke had put together for me along with some nutritional advice he used from columns written by Matt Lovell as I later found out I noticed more changes with my strength and stamina both improving and by June 2011 I’d lost another 5kg and my weight was down to 107kg. At this point I set myself a target of breaking the 100kg barrier in time for my wedding which was 17th September 2011.

The weeks were going by quick and but I kept a confident mind and trusted the new nutrition plan that Luke had linked me up to which was created by Matt Lovell.

It’s called Four Week Fat Loss and pretty much is what it says. I liked it because it was easy to follow and had 4 simple themes. They were:

1. Eat 4 Meals evenly spaced throughout the day
2. Restrict Carbohydrate by eliminating the 4 principal energy dense carbohydrates foods known as pasta, rice, potatoes & bread in the weight loss phase
3. Exercise twice a day for first 2 weeks. I did this by doing cardio in the morning and weights in the evening.
4. Use naturally occurring supplements like fish oil, coconut oil & green tea etc.

As I followed through this plan working in the 4 week cycles of two weeks high intensity and then the lower intensity or cool down and matainence stages. On the day before the wedding I tipped the scales at 98.5kg (15st 5lbs) and it was official I’d beaten my target. I knew I could do it and I had an idea I may have as the weeks leading up to this vital weigh in the lbs. had been dropping well especially in the intense phase. That wasn’t the only thing that had dropped I had to race round having my suit changed to fit due to the inches off my waist and chest and the collar sizes in my shirts. I can honestly say for the first time in a very long time I felt pretty good.People were commenting on me looking different and not recognising me at the wedding and I was so grateful that I had achieved my goals and was able to it in time for such a special day. Even the cake topper had to be altered around.

After the wedding the next 3 months flew by and I was slightly disappointed that I had come off the wagon a little more than id have liked to but with gains one week and losses on others I had managed to lose more weight and now stood at 96kg. I had plenty of turkey over Christmas but managed to watch the carbs again a little better and stay away from chocolates and sweets and maintain something close to the Four week Fat loss schedule again which showed as by February I had got my weight down to 92.5kg.

By This time I also started to introduce more supplements which included USN’s CLA 1000 and CLA Green Tea. I also was using a mixture of Kinetica Whey Protein which has some fantastic properties and flavours along with USN’s IGF-1 which has 5 blends of proteins and only 2.4g of carbs per serving which was a key point for me. I had started to change my exercise routine as well for a more endurance based cardio as I was running 96 miles for the matt Hampson foundation at the end of May. The charity was very close to my heart with the links to rugby and the amazing work they do for young people that are seriously injured through sport. They walk from Rugby to Twickenham every year the week before the premiership final to raise money and promote the foundation to people. Due to my work commitments I was only able to attend 3 days but being the fool as I’ve mentioned already I decided to run it. By the Time May came round I was 88kg and at a total loss of almost 30kg to date now so I was extremely pleased. I felt the fittest I’ve ever felt which was a good job considering what I was about to undertake. The first day was a killer carrying my backpack and fluids for over 8hrs. I was exhausted and even fell asleep at a train station whilst waiting for the train to take me down to Tring to meet all of the walkers. The next 2 days was much of the same but I managed to hook up with the walkers to walk the 24 miles on the Friday but the pain was still there. The last 2 miles on the Friday was good fun as the finish was in sight. We were also joined by some England players who made their way to Twickenham with us.

By the time August had come I had seen a further improvement in my weight dropping to 84.5kg and on top of that success my fat percentage had also dropped to 16.2%. Throughout this month I was working hard on my weight sessions and noticed some good increases on most areas and believe this was partially down to improving my calorie intake and sleep pattern. On Sept 19th I met up with Matt Lovell to discuss my progress further and update my fat percentage etc. My weights hadn’t really dropped but believe I had gained muscle more than previous months due to the increase in macro nutrients and the breakthrough of the qualities I was finding in the kinetica oatgain I was using after weight sessions.

My totals at this stage were a weight of 84.1Kg and a Fat percentage of 14.5%. I was really pleased by this as I had now lost over 30Kg in weight and more than 20% in fat from my starting total of 38%. We decided after discussion of how my body is feeling from day to day and my busy lifestyle to adapt back to the first part of his regenerate program on an Insulin Resistant body type. This involved parts of the FWFL mixed into the macro nutrient spread sheet provided to everyone who uses the regenerate program. I also followed the supplement spread sheet from the regenerate programme and even stocked up for the next phases to plan ahead.

Oct 23rd 2012 and I caught up with Matt again to see how the last few weeks had gone and see if the changes we had made were working. My weight had gone to 82.1kg and my fat was now at 13.3% I was very pleased especially how my muscle definition and size had increased. I spoke with Matt and said I am really pleased with where I am at now but I want to push myself really hard now before Christmas so I set myself the challenge of dropping my body fat below the 10% barrier. I will look at bringing cardio sessions into my workout plan first thing in the morning on weekdays with my four day split on weights set out for afternoon/evening. Rest days will be Wednesday and Sunday as Rugby will still take up Saturdays. The nutrition will be much of the same with relatively no complex carbs other than fibrous and the Kinetica Oatgain I will continue with post workout on weight sessions.