Six pack revolution review
Posted: 7 Apr 2023, 6:06pm
Hi all, I thought I’d report back in the diet and fitness programme I followed from 15 January to 31 March. I lost a couple of stone which seemed to be fairly common for those with a chunk of weight to lose (I see some of the men lost 2.5 stone).
The diet was just very clean eating with 6 meals/snacks a day. There are lots of recipes- I found it a bit heavy on protein but you can include any fruit or veg (except white potatoes) that you like so it’s not very restrictive and the food covers meat, fish, veggie and vegan. A 3 egg omelette with veggies is a snack for instance. I found that there was a reasonable amount of planning and food prep (eg I wouldn’t have wanted to do it when I had toddlers and a full time job) but I managed to take food into work (I work across several offices) with a modest amount of prep and organisation. Please note there are no white potatoes, pasta or rice and there’s only one starchy carb a day (I didn’t always stick to the one a day and you can switch in various carbs into the plan like whole meal pittas or wraps, bulgur wheat etc). I finally learned to like sweet potato. The only food I missed was cheese as only cottage cheese didn’t really cut it for me. I found it surprisingly easy to kick my sugar habit. There is no sugar, alcohol or salt. There is no weighing yourself during the programme or calorie counting, I reckoned I was getting about 1800 calories a day unless I went to the gym when I got a protein shake too. There was a lot of food- it was more difficult to fit it all in than anything. You can substitute a shake for a meal/snack twice a day if you want to. I mostly didn’t but it was a useful back up occasionally.
I found the food a bit over organised but effective but I found the exercise hard work but very rewarding. Lots of HIIT exercises and use of battle ropes, plenty of switching in things that work for you but as a woman it was empowering- there were no easier exercises for women and there was a fair bit (for me) of upper body work. The cardio/HIIT stuff is twice a week and there are daily press-ups and so on and 3 days a week there are ab exercises. You can do the exercise at the gym or at home. The ropes cost around £40 on Amazon. Btw you can participate anywhere in the world and our programme was pretty international even though it’s based in the uk- we ranged from New Zealand to Europe and Japan to Tanzania. There are quite a lot of Americans.
There is a maintenance programme but I’m going to have to add some cheese in!
Other stuff: I found the team nice but a bit evangelical on the “stick to the programme mantra”- they’ll also give tips on technique if you upload videos of your exercises. You don’t need to participate in the teams calls though so I’d suggest seeing if it’s for you or passing. There are facebook groups each with about 120 people doing the same programme which are supportive but again you don’t need to actively participate. You do need to (confidentially) send a weekly picture of your torso in to keep you in line. Some people choose to have theirs shared publicly and you can see them on the six pack Facebook page. Most people didn’t share. It cost £139 which I found pretty reasonable for the amount of support over 12 weeks (although I also think it’s a great business plan). Obviously with any of this sort of thing you have to find a programme that works for you and that you’ve got time to participate in so if you are considering it you’ll need to commit to 11 weeks plus there’s a prep week.
There are different programmes for those who don’t need to lose weight but want to participate in the exercise at a more challenging level. The next programme starts in May and the standard programme that I did is called the signature. I did the programme to lose some weight so I could cycle more challenging routes comfortably and it’s already the case (plus the HIIT exercises helped). Assuming I can get my heart arrhythmia under control I’ll probably do it again in September.
Link to an article on it: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyl ... SApp_Other
Link to their website (have a look at their Facebook page if you want to see lots of results): https://thesixpackrevolution.com/
Photos of some savoury meals that I made (that bulghur was a double portion by accident and do bear in mind that I’m a veggie/pescatarian- there are quite a few fruit based snacks not shown here) and a cardio exercise day.
The diet was just very clean eating with 6 meals/snacks a day. There are lots of recipes- I found it a bit heavy on protein but you can include any fruit or veg (except white potatoes) that you like so it’s not very restrictive and the food covers meat, fish, veggie and vegan. A 3 egg omelette with veggies is a snack for instance. I found that there was a reasonable amount of planning and food prep (eg I wouldn’t have wanted to do it when I had toddlers and a full time job) but I managed to take food into work (I work across several offices) with a modest amount of prep and organisation. Please note there are no white potatoes, pasta or rice and there’s only one starchy carb a day (I didn’t always stick to the one a day and you can switch in various carbs into the plan like whole meal pittas or wraps, bulgur wheat etc). I finally learned to like sweet potato. The only food I missed was cheese as only cottage cheese didn’t really cut it for me. I found it surprisingly easy to kick my sugar habit. There is no sugar, alcohol or salt. There is no weighing yourself during the programme or calorie counting, I reckoned I was getting about 1800 calories a day unless I went to the gym when I got a protein shake too. There was a lot of food- it was more difficult to fit it all in than anything. You can substitute a shake for a meal/snack twice a day if you want to. I mostly didn’t but it was a useful back up occasionally.
I found the food a bit over organised but effective but I found the exercise hard work but very rewarding. Lots of HIIT exercises and use of battle ropes, plenty of switching in things that work for you but as a woman it was empowering- there were no easier exercises for women and there was a fair bit (for me) of upper body work. The cardio/HIIT stuff is twice a week and there are daily press-ups and so on and 3 days a week there are ab exercises. You can do the exercise at the gym or at home. The ropes cost around £40 on Amazon. Btw you can participate anywhere in the world and our programme was pretty international even though it’s based in the uk- we ranged from New Zealand to Europe and Japan to Tanzania. There are quite a lot of Americans.
There is a maintenance programme but I’m going to have to add some cheese in!
Other stuff: I found the team nice but a bit evangelical on the “stick to the programme mantra”- they’ll also give tips on technique if you upload videos of your exercises. You don’t need to participate in the teams calls though so I’d suggest seeing if it’s for you or passing. There are facebook groups each with about 120 people doing the same programme which are supportive but again you don’t need to actively participate. You do need to (confidentially) send a weekly picture of your torso in to keep you in line. Some people choose to have theirs shared publicly and you can see them on the six pack Facebook page. Most people didn’t share. It cost £139 which I found pretty reasonable for the amount of support over 12 weeks (although I also think it’s a great business plan). Obviously with any of this sort of thing you have to find a programme that works for you and that you’ve got time to participate in so if you are considering it you’ll need to commit to 11 weeks plus there’s a prep week.
There are different programmes for those who don’t need to lose weight but want to participate in the exercise at a more challenging level. The next programme starts in May and the standard programme that I did is called the signature. I did the programme to lose some weight so I could cycle more challenging routes comfortably and it’s already the case (plus the HIIT exercises helped). Assuming I can get my heart arrhythmia under control I’ll probably do it again in September.
Link to an article on it: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyl ... SApp_Other
Link to their website (have a look at their Facebook page if you want to see lots of results): https://thesixpackrevolution.com/
Photos of some savoury meals that I made (that bulghur was a double portion by accident and do bear in mind that I’m a veggie/pescatarian- there are quite a few fruit based snacks not shown here) and a cardio exercise day.
. I've got April to drop a stone, five months hardly able to walk, never mind cycle or gym, makes it too easy to binge. Kicking the sugar habit and shifting back onto balanced protein, carbs, fruit & veg becomes easier once it becomes routine