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Note: There will be no dramatic testimonial of incredible fat loss in this post. What I have learned or benefited from the FBF program is my personal journey and another step towards learning how to eat for my new body. I am not expecting anyone to get excited with a testimonial of how much more “betterer”they will feel after trying a new program.

First, my fitness profile at the time of starting FBF – I just wanted to say that I was already very lean when FBF was introduced in April. Back in December 2013, I had great success with Eat stop Eat by fasting twice a week and lost about 3 and a half inch on my waist. This roughly translated to losing 10 pounds in four weeks, as my weight went down from 147 to 137. For a 5’5” person, those 10 pounds are significant enough and affected how I moved, felt and looked. I was skinny “fat”. With clothes on, everything looks okay. With shirt off, I had a belly. I started FBF at 132 and ended at 131-basically maintenance.

So why bother with another weight loss program if ESE works? As cliché as it may sound, I am indebted to ESE and the Adonis Index for helping me reverse the age clock and having an even better body than when I was in my twenties. I purchased FBF as a small token of giving back to the creators of Adonis and ESE. Also, I know I can trust Brad Pilon’s research. Upon reading the FBF material, I was not disappointed.

So what can a lean person benefit from FBF? Over the years, just like many people, I have eaten indiscriminately. I saw FBF as a way to reset my body’s digestive system (forgive the poor reference, my knowledge is practically nil on this subject), as far as how it processed food and perhaps to undo some damage. I will not pretend I know much about gut bacteria or microbiology, but I consider anything that can improve my health and keep my body in peak condition a significant bonus.

FBF Key Points:

Phase 1 – Week 1 and 2

Nutrition: What, no fiber? The first two weeks were tough not so much because of caloric deficit- I love eating foods rich in fiber, such as oat groats. Cutting down my fiber intake to less than 4 grams took a little bit of creativity. My strategy for phase 1 was limiting food choices and basically eating the same foods daily.

Calorie intake: I followed the Adonis Golden Ratio Nutrition calculator. Suggested calorie intake is 2328. I trimmed this down to 2100-2200, to account for food labeling errors, condiments, and dishes prepared from scratch with no clear measurable calorie count.

Note on calorie intake: during an Adonis coaching call, John recommended to follow the AGR nutrition calculator for calorie intake and FBF for food selection.

Workout: I followed the Adonis workout program rather than the FBF workout program.

Challenge: Even before FBF, weekends tend to be higher calorie days. I basically would either cut calories before and after the weekend to make sure I am still within my weekly calorie budget. I used Myotape (tape measure) to keep track of my waist circumference.

Phase 2 – Week 3 and 6

Nutrition: Phase 2 basically allowed for a little bit more fiber. I ate more meat in this phase. As in Phase 1, I found the warning against eating foods with saturated fat and recommended “best choice” foods with pork and sausage somewhat frustrating. I decided to simply eat these foods anyway and worried less to preserve my sanity.

Workout: Continued with Adonis workout program.

Phase 3 – Week 7 - 12 and beyond

Nutrition: Basically ate a little bit of everything that’s available while avoiding foods in the “Do Not Eat” section in the FBF manual.

Workout: Same as before.

Challenge: Listening to John and Brad P.’s Adonis podcast (paid subscription) “Addicted to Food and What Fits for Diet”, I decided to switch to the “eyeball” method of counting calories rather than being super strict with logging in every calories in MyFitnessPal. Shortly after, I “gained” (could just be water or anything other than legitimate fat) 3 pounds (measurement s taken fasted over the course if few days) I made some adjustments by cutting portions I thought I overestimated and now back to my “normal” weight. This was only a difference of half inch in waist circumference, but a difference nonetheless*.

*"True" fat gain can be roughly estimated if both weight and waist circumference increases and sustained over time. Don’t ask for science, I just know how to reduce my waist line when it crosses over the range of the Adonis Golden Ratio's (basically saying what’s expected for my height/weight) ideal.

Phase What Now?

For a lean person, FBF may not offer much. However, since I have invested so much time on the external physical aspect of conditioning my body towards health and ideal proportions, I thought why not do the same for nutrition? From my experience with Adonis workouts, the only thing I can say for sure is resistance training goes well together with nutrition.

I am taking a break from FBF, but will pick up with FBF Final Phase in perhaps a month or so, to learn more about the benefits of eating foods with polyphenols.