Brian Johnson Body Transformation
Brain Johnson took first place in Reddit’s Body Transformation Fitness Challenge. He was able to improve his overall mood, get rid of his depression symptoms, and on top of all that he was able to transform his body to look great. He took off 25 pounds in 12 weeks, through a regimented workout routine and a carefully planned diet. Read on to see how he did it.
The Goal: Combat depression and become fit through combining a healthy lifestyle, a progressive diet, and a whole lot of determination. Brian wanted to prove that you could look good and feel great even if you work a 40-hour workweek in a sedentary job.
The Plan: Brian prepared by purchasing a food scale, reading the ACE Personal Trainer textbook from cover to cover, and creating a smart spreadsheet that tracked his nutritional information.
The Diet: Brian stuck to a paleo diet, eating between 1200-1300 calories a day. Although he allowed himself a cheat meal occaisionally, Brian maintained an “IIFYM”(If It Fits Your Macros) approach in order to supplement his workout routine and preserve a healthy lifestyle. Additionally, to supplement his workouts, Brain used creatine, protein powder, a multivitamin, and fish oil.
The Gym: Brian varied his exercise routine daily. He began by doing a full body workout one day, and cardio the next. To mix it up, Brian would weight train half his body (chest/shoulder/back) and complete half of cardio all in one day, and he would follow that with the other half of the lifting and the other half of cardio on the following day. Brian’s intentionally varied workout helped him achieve his goals efficiently and effectively. He trained fasted every time and cardio was always high intensity interval training. Brian tweaked his workouts on a daily basis to combat his injured shoulder and groin, and he advises that you do the same to fight whatever injuries you may have.
The Advice: Document everything. Brian says he over-documented. He wrote down every single piece of information. Every calorie was accounted for, every gram of fat was recognized, and each rep was noted. This allowed Brian to limit the unknowns—as he knew every piece related to his transformational puzzle, he was able to groom his body to reach his desired goals.
The Results: Brian noted that the changes in diet and lifestyle aided his depression symptoms better than any anti-depressant. Although he was never sad he felt tired and apathetic before transforming his life. As for the body transformation, they say an image is worth a thousand words, so here it is:
Brian is still working out and eating healthy, constantly experimenting with different methods and plans to become a personal trainer in the near future. If you want to join the Transformation Challenge, just head on over to the Reddit page.
