Geek to Freak and Occams Protocol in 2012

A reader asked the following:-

“Paul, what happened after June? Your last report was that almost all the hard-fought fat came back. What then? Any further research into what went wrong?

I want to develop a parsimonious fitness program for myself in 2012, so 4HB seemed to be a good starting point. But I can’t seem to find examples of where the various 4HB protocols have failed to work for others as they did for Tim, which makes developing a “most-likely to succeed” program quite difficult. The Internet-wide impression is that these protocols work for everybody (every body?) but it seems to me that this impression is probably just an artifact of publication bias: people who are enamored with Tim’s book believe that the failure of their own results is somehow their own fault, and shame prevents them from publishing the negative results. Or something like that.

Perhaps Tim is just special as a selenium-deficient, 30-something male who has been weight training for over a decade? In terms of figuring out what is applicable to whom, it would help to know for whom each protocol did NOT work, and his or her best guess as to why.

Anyway, it takes a lot of bravery to blog about something as personal as the appearance of your body. On behalf of all the cowards out there, thank you!”

Well it has been a while. The truth is, I dumped the Four Hour Body, Occam’s Protocol and Geek to Freak in the second half of 2011. It is true, some fat did come back when I started the muscle gain routines. Much to my dismay, instead of gradually building up my then lean physique, my skin just started expanding with sub cutaneous fat.

However, there are some important thing to point out.

1. My body shape had changed and the small amount of muscular definition did mean the return of the subcutaneous fat stil meant my body looked a lot better.

2. I didn’t eat a lot of sugars, saturated fats or carbs before The Four Hour Body. My cholesterol level is 3.5 so years of eating the right sort of foods have done me some good. After the Four Hour Body diet I resume my normal diet regime, which really meant adding back in cereals and dairy products. I still avoid white carbs and most types of processed foods.

3. In September I bought a new house with lots of flights of stairs. With lots if moving boxes and furniture, removing several walls and tons of concrete from the garden, my weight dropped again.

In fact within two months of house renovating and not focussing on food or diets at all, my weight dropped to 76k. This was the lowest measurement I achieved on the 4HB.

3. What Did I Learn form this? Answer: a lot! For me, cardio is the best way to get my body fat percentage down to single figures. For me it is six months of fussing over everything I eat and driving every one crazy in the process, versus 40 minutes on the cross trainer three times a week.

4. To put on muscle, you have to eat a hell of a lot of food. Building muscle really does start in the gym, but the traditional method of loading and cutting seems to be right. For me, I can’t load and cut at the same time with Occam’s Feeding. Loading on all of that protein with gallons of milk, means a rapid increase in body fat.

I am not that bothered about putting on body fat as I know it will drop off with cardio.

5. Keeping muscle there is the hardest part. Occams and G2F can probably pump up the major muscle groups quickly, but that is not enough. I need more routines for my shoulders and triceps. A more traditional (nut tme consuming workout) does give a mre rounded and better result.

6. Supplements
None of them seemed to do anything for me. Next time I will stick to Protein and Creatine and report back on that.

Next

I am starting Occam’s Protocol again. I have been developing an iPhone app to help this time, so I am about to give it another shot but this time, modified to what works for me.