"Last summer I finally snapped and committed to making a change. In 12 months of Bigger Leaner Stronger, I went from 20% body fat down to 8-9%."
Josh's Progress
Before
1 Year
What has happened so far on the program?
Last summer I finally snapped and committed to making a change and I started Mike’s Bigger Leaner Stronger. In 12 months of progress I went from 20% body fat to around 8-9% body fat.
When I started the cut I weighed 207 and in my final pictures I was around 173.
I never bulked at all really. I tracked my lifts, tracked my diet, focused on heavy compound lifting and late in my cut I would start refeeding more often. I fell off the wagon here or there and life made it difficult at times but I would just get back on track and the fat would keep falling off.
Currently I am cycling carbs a bit and I have always done intermittent fasting. I really like to eat more on my training days and cut it back a bit on my off days. I just track my measurements and if I see some fat gain I just cut for a week. If I am feeling like crap and my workouts are struggling I just up my calories a bit.
I never really tracked my lifts very well before but in the last year I have made the following gains:
Incline Bench: Up 50 lbs to doing sets of 220 now.
Deadlift: Up 150 lbs to doing sets of 315 now.
Squat: Went from never doing it to sets of 275.
Standing Shoulder Press: Never really did it before to now doing sets of 130.
What, if anything, almost kept you from buying the book or starting the program?
I always thought I knew what I was doing in the weight room. I thought I was bigger and stronger and leaner than I actually was. I finally snapped and decided to just commit to something.
Tracking your diet and lifts sounds easy to do but so many people do not do it. All you have to do is track both and you will see amazing results.
What do you like most about the program?
I like the flexibility of being able to eat what I want and just controlling how much I eat. I was eating food I would never have and was still seeing results.
How does this program compare with others you’ve tried?
In the past, I would always workout hard and try and starve myself or eat super clean and it just isn’t sustainable. I would get beat up and end up getting sick almost all of the time.
Once I aligned my diet with my training goals using BLS, I was able to achieve the results I wanted.
How has what you’ve achieved with your body changed other areas of your life?
I love everything about how I feel but I still have strong goals. I have learned to enjoy the process and always work towards something but not chase it.
I remember telling myself months ago that I would just like to be at around 178 and then I got down to 172 fairly easily by just staying in the process.
I actually want to make a push for 169 or 170 before summer is over and then try and make some serious gains in the winter.
Is there anything else you’d like to add?
I’d recommend this to anyone who is tired of thinking they are strong, lean and ripped. You need to be honest with yourself and start tracking things. If you don’t want to track what you eat or what you lift then you are not serious about getting ripped.
The process doesn’t seem linear at times. You will follow it and think it’s not working and feel bad when you have a bad training day or day of eating.
You have to turn those things into positives and start telling yourself that over eating on some days is natural and then tomorrow is a new day. Before you know it you have people asking you if you have a disease because you lost so much weight hahaha.
I really love intermittent fasting because I could not stop myself from eating large suppers. I absolutely loved large suppers and for me I was not willing to give them up. IF allowed me to have massive suppers and I always left enough for a snack before bed.
It all comes down to finding what works for you and tracking what you eat!
When I was around 180 lbs I bought the Legion Pulse, Phoenix and Forge stack and it made losing weight even more effortless. I went from like 180 to 173 in no time.
Want to become a success story too? Here's how he did it
The program that made this transformation possible:
Mike Matthews is the founder of Legion as well as the author of several award-winning fitness books, including Bigger Leaner Stronger, Muscle for Life, and The Shredded Chef.
His simple and science-based approach to building muscle, losing fat, and getting healthy has sold over a million books and helped thousands of people build their best bodies ever, and his work has been featured in many popular outlets including Esquire, Men’s Health, Elle, Women’s Health, Muscle & Strength, and more, as well as on FOX and ABC.
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Free Worldwide Shipping & Returns
Many companies use shipping and handling fees to increase their profit margins, but here at Legion, we hate profits, so our shipping is free!
Okay, so we do dig on profits, but we also go in for happy customers, and free shipping works like gangbusters. So, if you live in the UK or Canada, your order ships free when it’s over $99.
Why the restriction on international orders? Unfortunately, shipping abroad is very expensive, and if we didn’t require a minimum order size, we’d lose a lot of money. But! We're also hustling to improve our international logistics and will be passing our savings along to our international customers.
Also, if you don’t absolutely love our stuff for whatever reason, we don’t request you deliver it to a PO box in the Gobi Desert by carrier pigeon.
We just . . . wait for it . . . give you your money back. No returns. No forms. No nonsense. Holy moo cows.
That means you can say “yes” now and decide later. You really have nothing to lose.
Free Worldwide Shipping & Returns
Many companies use shipping and handling fees to increase their profit margins, but here at Legion, we hate profits, so our shipping is free!
Okay, so we do dig on profits, but we also go in for happy customers, and free shipping works like gangbusters. So, if you’re outside the USA, your order ships free when it’s over $199.
Why the restriction on international orders? Unfortunately, shipping abroad is very expensive, and if we didn’t require a minimum order size, we’d lose a lot of money. But! We're also hustling to improve our international logistics and will be passing our savings along to our international customers.
Also, if you don’t absolutely love our stuff for whatever reason, we don’t request you deliver it to a PO box in the Gobi Desert by carrier pigeon.
We just . . . wait for it . . . give you your money back. No returns. No forms. No nonsense. Holy moo cows.
That means you can say “yes” now and decide later. You really have nothing to lose.
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In consideration of the services and/or products offered by Legion Athletics, Inc. (“Legion”) including, but not limited to, nutrition plans, exercise routines and coaching, and in addition to the payment of any fee or charge:
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Some popular pre-workouts are all-natural. Some contain the right mix of high-quality ingredients. Some provide clinically effective doses. But only Pulse checks each of these boxes.
Pulse doesn’t just “contain natural ingredients''—every ingredient is naturally sourced from plants and animals. Pulse contains no artificial or synthetic substances of any kind.
Every serving of Pulse contains 15.1 grams of active ingredients that have been shown to be safe and effective in peer-reviewed scientific research.
Every active ingredient in Pulse is backed by published scientific studies that show benefits in healthy humans.
Pulse contains no harsh stimulants that wind you up and burn you out. Instead, it contains a 1:1 ratio of caffeine and L-theanine, which produces a smooth energy rush and comfortable comedown.
We carefully examined 508 pages of scientific research to find out exactly what should and shouldn’t be in a pre-workout supplement.
Every bottle of Pulse is guaranteed to provide exactly what the label claims and nothing else—no heavy metals, microbes, allergens, or other contaminants.
While these types of chemicals may not be as dangerous as some people claim, studies suggest that regular consumption of them may indeed be harmful to our health. And that’s why we don’t put any of them into our products.
Before you buy a sports supplement, you should know that it's clean, safe, and transparent. And that's exactly what Labdoor's third-party testing and certification means.
It's hard to know for sure, but this probably makes Pulse the most-popular all-natural pre-workout supplement in the world.
If you don’t absolutely love this product, just let us know, and we’ll give you a full refund on the spot. No forms or return necessary.
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Analyzed for purity and potency in a state-of-the-art ISO 17025 accredited lab by Labdoor™, the gold standard of third-party lab testing.
Analyzed for purity and potency in a state-of-the-art ISO 17025 accredited lab, the gold standard of third-party lab testing.
This product doesn’t just “contain natural ingredients”—every ingredient is naturally sourced from plants and animals. This product contains no artificial or synthetic sweeteners or flavors of any kind.
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