21Day Fix

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kmercer4416
kmercer4416 Posts: 12 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
have anyone done the 21 day fix program? how did you find it?how much weight have you lost?

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  • bgoodsmile
    bgoodsmile Posts: 68 Member
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    I am currently doing the 21-Day-Fix... but not their "diet." I am restricting my calories, logging my food in MFP, etc. I am just using the workout DVDs - and in the order they recommend - which I LOVE. They are challenging, but not over the top. When I feel like I have mastered them, I will probably purchase the 21-Day-Fix Extreme, because I love the instructor & the modifier & the way the workouts are structured. Good luck!
  • Abbie918
    Abbie918 Posts: 120 Member
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    I wanted to like it so badly, but I couldn't. After 3 days, the diet was killing me (tracking "4 greens" and "3 yellows" was much more difficult for me than counting calories on here). Then my DVDs stopped working. I took it as a sign to quit. But I've had friends who lost 10-20 pounds on it (heavier to start) and love it!
  • kmercer4416
    kmercer4416 Posts: 12 Member
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    awesome thanks!
  • 6502programmer
    6502programmer Posts: 515 Member
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    Haven't tried, and have no interest.. I can see the draw, as it provides portion control, but it paints nutrition in very broad strokes. I'd rather track nutrition closely to make sure I can fit treats in with my overall diet plan, maintaining calories and macros.

    It's all about making sustainable changes, and for me, portion control is not how to do it. I'd feel deprived and stray, undermining the endeavor.
  • emmycantbemeeko
    emmycantbemeeko Posts: 303 Member
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    I've done it in the past and I think the nutrition portion is okay for someone who is very large and overweight and completely overwhelmed by approaching a calorie-counting diet, or who doesn't understand macros/nutrition at all.

    If you're small, it's easy to wind up unintentionally going over your calorie allotment using their method. It's also not easy to cook using their plan, so you'd better enjoy eating servings of single ingredients, especially at first.

    I was pretty close to my goal weight and did not lose a significant amount of weight on the plan, although I enjoyed the workout DVDs, which are very challenging if you haven't been in the habit of exercising lately. I didn't gain, and I felt pretty good at the end of the 21 days, but I don't think the results were worth the amount of effort the plan requires in terms of food prep.

    Overall, I'd say it's okay, but you can't do it forever (I mean, I guess theoretically you could, it's not a nutritionally dangerous plan, but you'd go crazy carrying around little cups and only eating fistfuls of single ingredients for years on end), so you're going to have to learn about CICO on your own eventually to maintain anyway, so why not start right away? If you already know about CICO and have successfully tracked a reasonably balanced diet for a while, the 21 Day Fix plan won't give you anything new except some awkward restrictions on what you can eat.

  • kommodevaran
    kommodevaran Posts: 17,890 Member
    edited February 2016
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    6502programmer wrote: »
    Haven't tried, and have no interest.. I can see the draw, as it provides portion control, but it paints nutrition in very broad strokes. I'd rather track nutrition closely to make sure I can fit treats in with my overall diet plan, maintaining calories and macros.

    It's all about making sustainable changes, and for me, portion control is not how to do it. I'd feel deprived and stray, undermining the endeavor.

    You are still executing portion control, but on a higher level of abstraction. Just like 21 Day Fix is about calorie control, without focusing on the calories. The process is universal, the preferred method is personal. Both tools will work if you use them correctly, both will fail if you cheat. I like both, am using something inbetween. What I don't get is why the proponenets crop up here on MFP, where one of the cores is a food diary based on calorie counting.
  • 6502programmer
    6502programmer Posts: 515 Member
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    kommodevaran wrote: »
    You are still executing portion control, but on a higher level of abstraction. Just like 21 Day Fix is about calorie control, without focusing on the calories. The process is universal, the preferred method is personal. Both tools will work if you use them correctly, both will fail if you cheat. I like both, am using something inbetween. What I don't get is why the proponenets crop up here on MFP, where one of the cores is a food diary based on calorie counting.

    I totally understand that there are similarities. The thing I don't get is that if you're just limiting portions, and you feel "cheated" on those portions, why not try the calorie counting approach? They're both about creating the needed deficit to sustain weight loss. If one doesn't work for you, find a new one that does. As long as you're not going VLCD, or trying to make an untenable solution like shakes-as-meal-replacements work in the long term, or sprinkling magic powder on your 800 calorie per day food allotment, it's all good.
  • kommodevaran
    kommodevaran Posts: 17,890 Member
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    6502programmer wrote: »
    kommodevaran wrote: »
    You are still executing portion control, but on a higher level of abstraction. Just like 21 Day Fix is about calorie control, without focusing on the calories. The process is universal, the preferred method is personal. Both tools will work if you use them correctly, both will fail if you cheat. I like both, am using something inbetween. What I don't get is why the proponenets crop up here on MFP, where one of the cores is a food diary based on calorie counting.

    I totally understand that there are similarities. The thing I don't get is that if you're just limiting portions, and you feel "cheated" on those portions, why not try the calorie counting approach? They're both about creating the needed deficit to sustain weight loss. If one doesn't work for you, find a new one that does. As long as you're not going VLCD, or trying to make an untenable solution like shakes-as-meal-replacements work in the long term, or sprinkling magic powder on your 800 calorie per day food allotment, it's all good.

    My impression from what I've read about the "fix" is that people usually are happy with the program and don't feel cheated, but I can't understand the yay'ing about the "allowance" ("I never felt hungry!") and the food options the program gives them. If you count calories, YOU will decide what to eat, YOU will find the best way to eat that satisfies you, and you can eat ANYTHING YOU WANT inside the calorie allowance that is EXACTLY tailored to YOUR needs.

    Lol, I get a little carried away :D I love the freedom of MFP, and it was exactly that freedom that gave me a deeper insight into nutrition and even my own preferances, more than any container program could have done - so much so that I now just use a "virtual boxes" meal plan.

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