Jersey,I do my bfl workouts with far less. I just have a very basic slant board that I use as my bench, and then I have free weights. That's it! It can be done with alot less than all this, but no doubt, this will help you do more complex exercises and I don't think you will go wrong. I work out from the BFL-Women book, and it's all free weights and no machinery. If you are considering not wanting big equipment, you might check out that book to see how it can all be done with free weights.

Thanks, good to know. I do have the book, tucked away at home with a myriad of other diet books. If it can all be done with just free weights and a board, I'm happy. I still might go for the machine (particularly for leg work), but at least I know that I can get by on the minimum.

Hi Everyone

I'm doing the weight lifting portion of BFL but am doing my own food thing - a combo of whole foods, portion control/counting (fitday) and eating small portions 6x a day.

I just did my very first BFL cardio and I must say I feel like I've CHEATED! That was such a short amount of time. I know it must work because I've seen the before and after pix. But how in the world can that short of a cardio routine really burn fat? Not trying to question the program or any of your results, it just seems illogical to me that I will actually be able to see results with such a short amount of time into cardio every other day. Am I reading this program correctly? Is this really twenty minutes?

TIA, Beth

Hey, sorry, one more question...

How do you long BFL cadio in Fitday? It says that 20 minutes only burned 60 calories? Doesn't seem right. Should I just ignore that and use Fitday to just track my workouts but not look at their cal in/cal out progress report?

Thanks again, Beth

Beth, remember that the people in the BFL book photos didn't actually do BFL since the book hadn't been published when their photos were taken. The photos came before the book and the plan. And many of the subsequent BFL winners have written about how they did a lot more cardio (and ate differently) than BFL as written. Keep in mind that, to be a BFL champion, you only have to buy supps and officially enter ... you don't have to follow the plan. I think it's safe to say that most (if not all) of the BFL champions followed a much stricter pre-comp-type diet/exercise plan with up to two hours of cardio per day, split into perhaps two sessions. Which I am NOT recommending for you or anyone else!!

Many women who have done BFL have found that they need more cardio than the 20 minutes, 3 x week called for in the book for fat loss. Perhaps you can monitor your progress and supplement your cardio if necessary?

Oh, I didn't know that, I just assumed that they had followed his plan to the T and looked fantastic. Duh, you'd think after all the years I was in advertising I'd have become more jaded and wouldn't get fooled like that.

So low and behold I read you post and look down to the bottom where in big blue letters it says, "To sustain weight loss for previously overweight/obeses people, about 60 to 90 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity per day is recommended." Well, hummmfff! Guess I was right! That did seem waaaaay too easy. Not easy because I did the gradually increasing intensity but boy it flew by. I will go back and do some more cardio and start tracking to see what's best for me.

Thanks, Meg. BTW my sister's name is Meg. Great name!

Beth

Hey, your weightlifting and other exercise counts too ... it's not 60 - 90 minutes of cardio per day! And BFL is still a great program, even if all the winners didn't follow it to a T. All I was trying to say is that many women end up needing more cardio than the book calls for.

If you add more cardio, do a slower, more steady state cardio. 20 minutes of HIIT is enough for one day!

Where the heck is SUSANB? Don't make me go stalking you girl and pull up your profile to see where yur postin!! I KNOW how to do that, and I willllllll................

I think SusanB is on vacation. . .someplace warm and southerly.

Sorry, the beauty of not knowing where your reply will post made it sound like I just blurted that out there! I didn't realize there were any new posts until I refreshed my home page! duh!

Agree with Meg on the BFL but a real wide-eyed "REALLY???" on the competitors not having done BFL cuz it wasn't written yet. Is that misleading OR WHAT?! You think he'd have to say that in there! Maaaan.

Anyway, I do 1/2 hr cardio 6 days a week, hi intensity, sweat drippin off, and any less feels like treading water in terms of weight loss. I do my own eating too, so I guess it cannot really be said that I do BFL anymore. I do BFL lifting and that's about it.

OK, thanks Su-Bee, must have missed that somewhere.

Hi all, I forgot I'd subscribed here until just now! With the holidays and all, I lost track...

I'm trying to get back "on plan", but lots of health problems in the family taking up a lot of my free time. I really need that gym time to decompress, though, so I guess I'm here for some motivation.

Great group here! I look forward to losing some inches and pounds with you all.

When you read the BFL book, also keep in mind that Bill Philips was the CEO of EAS (supplements) at the time that he wrote the book. Notice any tie ins?

When I did BFL by the book during my first challenge in 2001, I felt enourmously cheated to discover that all those after pictures were not "by the book" challenges. However, even doing it as written I managed to drop 2 clothing sizes, drop my body fat 7% and re-acquire a binging disorder thanks to free day. Be careful of free day-- you can undo all the work you do over the course of a week body fat wise.

I'd add more cardio on upper body days- that should give you another 1.5 sessions per week. Make it a longer, steady state session. If you still feel you need more, add another ss session.

Mel

Howdy..not to disagree with anything that was said above..true enough BFL wasn't written yet but the program BodyofWork was up and running and if I'm not mistaken it just changed to BFL. The 1998 Challengers and Champions did the BodyofWork Challenge and something called a sprint challenge - I'll have to rewatch the original tape to get clarification. Myself, I believe you get out of it what you put into it. If you are giving it your all and eating properly along with the right amount of exercise any program will work. For me this is the one that I find kicks you in the butt and helps keep me motivated by challenging myself. And yep..Mel's right about the free day..why work your butt off all week and then over induldge on the free day?! Its hard for some to figure out but essentially its about eating food that you wouldn't normally eat during the rest of the week... like one free meal let's say or that ice cream you really wanted. Your mind set slowly becomes one of..if its not healthy for my body I don't want or need it. That doesn't mean you won't eat things that aren't good for you ever again, it just means you make better choices of when, where and why you are eating it.

There's my two cents..

I don't mind the link to supplements. I can get AdvantEdge and Myoplex cheap at BJs and it just makes my job easy to know what they recommend.