Focus T25 questions - trying to get leaner

adammo2121

Hi all,

I used to be in much better shape and had decent muscle tone. Over the past little while i've gained about 30 lbs over where I want to be. Mostly diet related which I am changing up, but am trying to figure out the best way for me to kick start things and get back to my goal weight.

My goal is to get leaner. I'm not concerned with building new muscle yet, but want my current muscles to show more and lose some inches around the waist.

I have been looking into Focus T25 as it seems to fit my lifestyle well. I know the workouts are hard but having 2 kids and the only time to workout is after 8PM at night, I feel this is a reasonable solution. Will Focus T25 help me get leaner when combined with my diet? I've read quite a bit that just doing weights might be able to help me as well so am not sure if I should do a combination each week, or just focus on T25 for the 60-days and see where I am at.

Any feedback is appreciated. If you need more info on my goals, where I am at now, etc let me know.

Thanks!

gunrock1970

Ok, so I'm well qualified to talk about this, I think. I have been doing Focus T25 for about a year, multiple rounds of Alpha and multiple rounds of the Beta phase (since mid-October 2014). I've had a few breaks (around Christmas when we all got ill - wife, me and the three kids) and for a couple of weeks in June when my father died, but even without those breaks I can tell you that without your diet in-check you're not going to see much fat or weight loss.

I have been pushing hard on these workouts but until the last six or seven weeks I have not been controlling my diet consistently. Consequently, I have put on and lost the same 10-14 lbs over and over in the last year. However, I have benefitted from a better resting heart rate and obviously my improvements in fitness are measurable, for a start, I can do T25 better (i.e less modification) and more speed whilst maintaining good form.

The old adage "you can't outrun/outwork a bad diet" is always true and now that I have been tracking consistently and applying the brakes on my consumption consistently, I've lost 11lbs in the last 9 weeks. This is all the forward momentum I need to keep me motivated.

T25 as a programme is a good one and I particularly love the Beta phase because of the strength training aspect, but the nutrition is key to reach your goals. The recent weight loss has enabled me to hit the workouts harder and my calorie burn (as accurate as that is - Polar WM42 with chest strap) has increased to all-time highs for me recently. Last week I managed 780 calories in 50 minutes on doubles day (Week 4 beta, Speed 2.0 and Upper Focus). We've even started subbing in Alpha's Total Body Death Cardio to replace a week's repeated workout and we have been getting better at that - possibly the hardest workout in T25.

We're going on to Gamma after our holiday this month (primarily because it needs weights for almost all the workouts and I won't have them on holiday) and I'm hoping that with my diet in check and good luck (i.e no silly injuries) to ramp up the progress.

Good luck!

JamieDeck1975

Following an 1800 cal diet and finishing all three rounds of T25, I was able to drop over 40 lbs. I am now re-doing Gamma Hybrid as like the Focus on strength training and endurance. I have also started throwing in a few 5-8k runs a week .

When I finished Gamma the first time I borrowed P90X3 but could not get past how slow it felt. Tony did not help either!

Good luck. keep at it!

adammo2121

Thanks to you both. I guess it won't hurt for me to give this a shot. It sounds like there is some strength aspects to the program (Was thinking it was pure cardio).

So I have my TDEE and BMR numbers. Now that I am starting this program do I need to increase them since I am doing harder exercise?

Lastly if I have my TDEE figure, I assume that if I want to lose weight that I should go with TDEE - 20%?

Thanks again!

gunrock1970

Hi Adam,

I'm using MFP which has recommended that I drop below my BMR (of around 2400) by 300 calories to only eat 2100 calories as my goal is to drop 2lbs a week. I have sometimes found it hard to stick to 2100, so I eat some of my exercise calories back. My weightloss has slowed to just over 1lb a week accordingly.

Hope this helps.

kailyw05

I completed 3 rounds of T25 (Alpha, Beta, and Gamma) in the spring and lost 13.5 lbs in 14 weeks. I ate an average deficit of 500 calories per day to achieve 1 lb a week weight loss (except my birthday week when I ate to maintenance). I believe it was my diet that directly caused the weight loss. However, my muscle tone and cardio abilities really improved over the course of the program and I love it. I still turn back to my favorites from Beta and Gamma once in a while, but I try to mix up my workouts a bit more now.

You really don't burn a whole lot of calories using the videos (I have a Fitbit Charge HR to track calories burned) which I think is why you have to be so careful with your diet. If you track your calories using MFP and follow the workout program I think you will still get great results.

gunrock1970

kailyw05 wrote: »

You really don't burn a whole lot of calories using the videos (I have a Fitbit Charge HR to track calories burned) which I think is why you have to be so careful with your diet. If you track your calories using MFP and follow the workout program I think you will still get great results.

Really? I think it might depend on how heavy you are and how hard you go at the workouts. Today (doubles day), with Upper Focus and Speed 2.0 I burned a combined 740 calories in 50 mins (plus the cooldown at the end of Speed 2.0) according to my Polar HRM. That's pretty good, right? Comparable with other cardio based activities of that length of time, I think.

DR2501

I found T25 to be poor compared to Insanity - too much dancing clapping rosemary connelly type stuff not enough hardcore calorie burning. Insanity max 30 is better in a similar timeframe per workout.

thomnate0531

I've done T25 quite a lot over the last year. If you're not in the best of shape it's a good option compared to say, Insanity, which I am doing now. I did T25 combined with logging my food on this app. That was a winning combination as I hit all my goals. An additional benefit for me is that I had lingering knee pain for years after doing a lot of running - to the point that I could not run anymore.
T25 strengthened my legs and I found I was able to do some running again with very little pain. I finished a 10k in July having done about 90% of the training on T25 - rather than the road.