PhysiqueTransformation.com Review

Since this post turned out to be so long I’ll give you the Quick-Read version first.

The weight loss program from PhysiqueTransformation.com didn’t work for me.

If you want to know the details, read on.

I need to lose some weight. Actually I need to lose quite a bit of weight. It’s been that way for a while, since I had 2 babies in 2 years over age 40—yep, that is my excuse. The problem is that my baby is getting too big and I am getting so tired of that baby weight anyway. It needs to come off.

So, I looked around. Here and there, on the Internet, magazines, blogs, whatever. There is a ton of information about dieting everywhere. Too much to even comprehend actually.

But last fall I picked up a copy of one of those magazines that you find at the checkout stands, and there was an article that caught my eye. It was about carb cycling and there were some books that they recommended and some websites.

One of the websites was www.physiquetransformation.com. I was intrigued. It was a former bodybuilder—or still a bodybuilder—I don’t really know—named Ric Rooney who owned the site. He claimed that his program was so good and that almost everyone succeeded at losing weight on the program. He was so sure of the program that he even offered a “7x your money back guarantee”. There was also an ebook “Secrets of a Professional Dieter” that he offered before you joined the program to inform you of how the program worked.

I read the book. I considered the program. And finally on October 18, 2009 I decided to go ahead and give it a try.

The program is broken down into 4 parts, an analysis that lasts for approximately 3 to 7 days, a conditioning program where you eat a substantial amount of calories and avoid cardio in order to “prime” your metabolism, a fat-burning mode where you cycle your calories and carbs from low to high and then at the end a maintenance mode.

During the analysis portion you input everything you eat. Good or bad, a lot or a little, just be honest. I was honest. Some days I ate fairly healthy, some days I ate next to nothing, some days I ate all the wrong things. I suppose that is fairly typical of your average overweight 48-year-old woman.

During conditioning you eat a steady amount of calories that is typically much more than you may be used to eating. I ate 2499 calories a day for approximately 5 weeks.

As you are inputting your food, you get a score based upon how appropriate your food choices are for weight loss and health as determined by their program. You are then given a grade from F to A and anything over 97.5 is considered an A+ and the top score is a 103. During conditioning I quickly learned exactly what to do to get that elusive 103 score. I also ended up losing 12 lbs during the conditioning phase so I thought that I was doing well.

The first week in December I went into fat burning. My calories adjusted from 1499 on Monday to 2299 on Thursday. Friday was again a low-cal day at 1499, Saturday 1699 and Sunday, a day off but with a recommendation to get at least a B for the day.

During December and January my weight fluctuated up—yes, UP, as in the wrong direction–between 3 to 7 lbs. I didn’t lose any weight on the scale but January 1, my measurements had gone down. So maybe I was losing fat. I continued throughout January and planned to take measurements again on February 1. The scale continued the bounce but I never did get lower than the original 12 lbs lost during conditioning.

February 1, 2010 I took measurements. They hadn’t really budged. In fact I had to suck in my gut to even get close to the last reading. I was demoralized but justified it by thinking that perhaps I had retained water, perhaps it was not a good time of the month to measure, perhaps I should just ignore this and keep going. So I did.

I did increase cardio though. Oh, I forgot to mention that it was recommended that you only do cardio on the low-cal days, Monday and Friday. And I continued the planning, the endless planning of every meal, every calorie, every fat gram, and sodium, potassium, sugar and more. I kept getting that 103 score. Every day. Almost. 103.

On March 1, my measurements had definitely gone up. The scale was still bouncing and I hadn’t gained back the 12 lbs (only between 3 and 7 of them, depending on the day) but I hadn’t lost any either. And the measurements confirmed that I hadn’t lost fat either.

I was demoralized, discouraged. It didn’t work for me.

I reached out to the only real support there was on the program, a Yahoo group, and rather than post to the entire group I sent a private message to the Yahoo group leader, or at least the only one who ever really answered questions. She was great. She thought that maybe I had been too lax on Sundays. Maybe I had—but couldn’t I have just lost a pound or two anyway?—I mean I wasn’t that bad! So, I went back to the program but relaxed the 103 score a bit, just to fit in a little fruit or a sweet potato. With a 103 score you have to keep sugar, even naturally occurring sugar in very healthy foods, at below 50%, so that means no apples, no blueberries, no sweet potatoes…no fun…

So another week, this time I did 3 hour long cardio sessions and 1 shorter HIIT cardio session. And at the end of the week…no weight loss, none, nada, zilch.

So it’s over. I quit. 5 months of no weight loss with all of that effort doesn’t work for me. No more endless planning, no more regimented eating schedules, no more huge fluctuations in my weight.

I’ve made some changes. The weight is slowly coming off, it’s not fluctuating anymore but slowly inching down. Still too much but it does seem to be headed in the right direction now.