Keto/Intermittent Fasting/21 Day Fix/Beachbody/ BBG Comparison & a Linkup

This week’s theme is my yearly travel series, and for today’s post I’m talking about the diet I’ve been doing so that I can eat whatever I want without feeling guilty starting this Saturday!

So, I was checking my analytics the other day for my blog, and my most popular post was this one about my 21DF Beachbody and BBG comparison.  Now, since this post was written, I’ve done the Keto diet (which was my second most popular post here), and now I’m doing the Keto diet and Intermittent Fasting combined.  If you have been following my blog for a while, you know that I’m constantly on a diet.  The 21 Day Fix was good for a lifestyle diet and I did enjoy this program a lot, but at the same time, it was a process to lose the weight.  Any diet requires dedication and self control, but my problem is I’ll go on a diet, then binge for a few months, gain a few pounds, and go back on a diet for a month or so.  The first time I did the Keto diet, wasn’t for weight purposes, it was an experiment to see if it really did improve the effects I have with my epilepsy.  I will say my brain was amazing!  However, I am someone who LOVES (I mean reallllllly loves) food.  I enjoy eating food and unfortunately my metabolism just isn’t that great.  I took a health test several months ago and come to find out, genetically my metabolism works extremely slow where it’s almost concerning, and my age and getting older is not helping the situation.  Which is why once I notice that my clothes are getting a little snug, I’ll go on a diet.  What I love about the keto diet from a weight perspective, is unlike the 21DF, you lose weight FAST, but it’s hard to maintain and from what I’ve read, unless your doctor says ok this isn’t really the ideal lifestyle diet like the 21DF.  While I did Keto and then combined Keto with Intermittent Fasting I wasn’t working out at all, so my results won’t be as intense as when I was on a diet and working out.

I’m going to split this post into different groups just like I did last time.  I’ll talk about each diet/workout, my experience, my results, food examples, in addition to the pros and cons.  Let’s get started, shall we?

Keto and IF 1 Month Progress

KETOGENIC + INTERMITTENT FASTING (IF)

Obviously, the keto part of this is the same as the below, but I ended up adding intermittent fasting to it as well.  Now, from what I’ve read, you shouldn’t just jump into doing both of these together, you should do keto first and once your body adjusts do IF.  I, however, am a rebel and decided to do both at the same time.  I felt pretty crappy and the keto flu was worse than last time, BUT I was on a time crunch because of my vacation at the end of August.  There are different types of ways you can fast, but the most common is the 16/8 which is, you fast for 16 hours and eat for 8.  If you’re a person who skips breakfast, this is easy for you.  I fasted during my sleep because it’s easy to fast while you’re sleeping.   I would fast from 8pm to 12pm the next day.  Then my eating window was 12pm-8pm.  This is when you eat your intake for the day.  I know that IF sounds really hard, but to be completely honest, after about 2 days I was thinking how much easier it was than I thought.  So some of these pros and cons are just going to be copied and pasted from the regular keto portion of this post.

Weight Loss:  I didn’t record it this time around because I wanted my pictures and clothes to speak for themselves.  However, I weighed myself and I currently weigh 147 and before I even started Keto and IF I know I weighed 155.

Keto and IF 1 Month Progress

Pros

My stomach always hurt in the morning after breakfast, and IF helped my stomach not be upset and uncomfortable.  However, my tummy did start to rumble around 10ish, and then I could hold out until 12pm.  This is why I would eat a bigger dinner before my 8pm because it was easier to fast until 12pm the following day, since I had so much food in my system.

IF was way easier than I thought, and for those who want to do a different style of IF, you can do fasting every few days, or a few times a month.  It was easier for me because since breakfast was upsetting my stomach it was nice to be able to go to work without having to sit in pain.

I get to eat some of my favorite foods

Lose weight fast

Once in ketosis, you feel amazing: more alert, brain seems to function the best it’s ever functioned in it’s life, and you just feel amazing in general.

Cons

Hard to fit all of my intake within the 8 hours because my appetite decreased from fasting.

Since there is a time window, if I had to do something after work and I got home late, it was hard for me to eat, and one time I skipped dinner.  I didn’t want to mess up my fasting schedule.  I know that one time wouldn’t have hurt me, but once I’m on a diet, I need to follow it strictly because one little slip up, and that’s it, the diet is out the window.

Even though skipping breakfast was good for my stomach pains, I did get hungry around 10ish, but I couldn’t eat any snacks.  Eventually the hunger would go away and I would be ok until 12pm.

Keto Flu-you feel worse before you feel better, it’s not an instant “yes, I feel so healthy!” type of a diet.

Extremely hard to maintain

Lots of calculating

Cheat meals/days are killer, you legit want to die afterwards lol

KETOGENIC DIET

1 Month Keto Progress

My keto progress blog post (here) was also one of my most popular blog posts which I posted a few months ago.  My before and after photos weren’t too drastic, but I also only did keto for one month.  I wasn’t working out, because I was one of the many people who went through the keto flu for about two weeks.  It was a struggle bus for sure.  The keto diet is high fat and high protein with low to almost no carbs and no sugar.  I wasn’t even eating fruits while I was doing this diet.  I also wanted to say that I wasn’t taking any supplements besides fish oil.  I know a lot of people who do the ketone thing, but I was able to get into ketosis without it, so I didn’t use them

Weight Lost: 13 LBs in one month

Keto Progress

Pros

I get to eat some of my favorite foods.  I’m not a huge chicken fan, and I love that I can eat beef, liver, and some fatty meats.  I also love that I can eat cheese and avocados!

Easier to find keto friendly foods while eating out, from my experience at least.  While, I don’t eat out that often when I’m on a diet, keto has been the easiest for me.  All I do is order a steak or something of that nature and I’m good to go.

Lose weight fast

Once in ketosis, you feel amazing: more alert, brain seems to function the best it’s ever functioned in it’s life, and you just feel amazing in general.

Since it’s so popular right now, there are recipes everywhere!  A lot of them also have all of the nutrition facts, so when you go to calculate all of your daily grams of each thing, it’s all there.

Keto Progress

Cons

Keto Flu-you feel worse before you feel better, it’s not an instant “yes, I feel so healthy!” type of a diet.  You will actually feel as though you have the flu, but it’s just your body adjusting.

Extremely hard to maintain.  You have to weigh your food, and you are limited to some things.  For examples when it comes to vegetables, you should only stick to veggies that grow above ground.

Lots of calculating.  You have to weigh everything and calculate your grams of fat, protein, carbs, and calories.  So for example, even though cheese is a healthy fat, you have to watch your intake because of the calories in dairy.

Cheat meals/days are killer.  I’ve tried to do the cheat day thing while on keto, and you feel terrible.  Getting back into ketosis also depends on everyone’s body, but that process is terrible.

People keep trying to sell me ketones.  Now, I understand people are just trying to make a living, or sell things on the side, but I’ve said it a few times on the blog, you can get into ketosis without ketone supplements (at least from the research I’ve done).

Since it is popular, it’s hard for people to take you seriously because it’s a trending diet.  A lot of people are doing keto right now, like A LOT.  That’s all I see.  If you post anywhere about keto, someone always has something to say.  I knew about this diet when I was first diagnosed with epilepsy back in 2005.  Now, the issue is, a lot of people follow the commercialized version of the keto diet, not the actual diet.

MY KETO MEALS

These are just some examples of the keto meals that I’ve eaten over the last few weeks.  Some of them taste a lot better than they look.  I have my favorites of course, but I’ve been a fan of all of these.  I’ve also started cooking for dinner instead of lunch and my fiancé eats with me too.  He doesn’t do diets, but he is loving the dinners I’m making.

21 DAY FIX + BEACHBODY

For this section I’m going to copy and paste from my previous post because my feelings towards it haven’t changed, and I have a few new followers who haven’t seen that post and this might be helpful for them.

I know the last thing you want to hear about this holiday season is a workout program, or watching your diet, BUT I’ve been wanting to write this post for a while and if your New Year’s resolution is to loose weight maybe this can help you decide.  The only problem is, it took me a little longer to finish my BBG program.  Due to vacation for 2 weeks (then trying to get back to working out was rough), and then being sick for 3 weeks, it took a toll on my diet and exercise.  Basically it was non existent.  I have gained a few pounds, some in muscle and some in fat.  I would like to say this disclaimer that my BBG results were not what they should have been and no where near comparison to the 21 Day Fix, but that’s because I didn’t watch my diet as carefully as I did during the 21 day fix.  I had a few more cheat days, and I also didn’t work out for about a total of 6 weeks since I started BBG.  Once the holidays are up I’m going to take BBG more seriously and show my true results then.  I say that because I know for dang sure I will be eating this holiday season.  I wanted to split this post up with talking about each program on it’s own.  I will point out the pros and cons of each program as well.

21 Day Fix/Beachbody Results

I started the 21DF in June of 2016 and by October I had lost a total of 41 pounds, and lots of inches all around (10 inches around my waist!).  I ended up becoming a Beachbody coach for a few months and once I stopped coaching I decided to switch from Beachbody to a different program.    There was no reason why I stopped Beachbody besides just wanting to try something different because I get bored easily.  While doing Beachbody I also tested out Brazilian Butt Lift, Country Heat, and 21 Day Fix Extreme.  The 21DF definitely helped me lose weight, learn how to eat, and I shed inches.  I unfortunately didn’t tone up as much as I wanted to though.  I think that’s one reason why I was looking for another program because I lost a lot, but I couldn’t find a program that helped me achieve having a butt again.  If anything, it just kept getting smaller which is a good thing, but not when you are trying to get booty gains haha.  I loved the team setting where you had someone and a whole group of people to hold you accountable.  I opened up in those groups, more than I ever had before.  When I took that before picture I was mortified at what I saw.  How could I possibly get this big?  Once I saw someone post about the 21 Day Fix on Facebook I thought, “this is my only hope.”  I tried it and did so well with it.  The 21DF is a 21 day program, with a week prior as preseason.  You learn portion control, and you eat 5-6 times a day but in small increments.  You also work out 30 minutes a day, 7 days a week.

21 Day Fix/Beachbody Results

Pros

Comes with a meal plan/support group/coach

Support Group/Coach get your ass in gear

Modifications to workouts are shown right away

Can become a coach yourself if you like MLM.  As much as I don’t like MLM’s, this is the best one I was a part of.

Beachbody as a whole offers a lot of programs (P90X, 21DF, Brazilian Butt Lift, Country Heat, etc.)

Workouts are only 30 minutes each

Can do the workouts in the comfort of your own home

Workouts are somewhat easy (meaning not complicated to follow)

Working multiple muscle groups at the same time

Easy Portion Control Containers

21 Day Fix/Beachbody Results

Cons

Need WiFi/DVD Player that’s compatible with the DVD’s

Really expensive (Program up front, and the Shakeology).  I know that the marketing technique is to say that it’s only a few bucks for a meal, but you can find protein powder that is the same or slightly better than the Beachbody one.  However, I know a lot of coaches wouldn’t allow you to be in the group if you didn’t purchase the shakes.

Same Workouts over and over again

Gets monotonous

Sometimes coaches are typical MLM sales people.

7 Days a Week-No rest day

If you don’t have Beachbody on Demand (which is yearly membership) you have to purchase programs separately.

MY 21DF MEALS

21 Day Fix Approved Turkey Burger // 21 Day Fix Approved Chicken Parm // 21 Day Fix Approved Zucchini Pizza Bites // 21 Day Fix Approved Cauliflower Casserole // 21 Day Fix Approved Tofu Cauliflower Rice // 21 Day Fix Approved Stuffed Peppers

21 Day Fix Approved Fudge Brownies // 21 Day Fix Approved Quinoa Cookies // 21 Day Fix Approved Chocolate Chip Cookies // 21 Day Fix Approved Granola Energy Bar

BBG

For this section I’m going to copy and paste from my previous post because my feelings towards it haven’t changed, and I have a few new followers who haven’t seen that post and this might be helpful for them.

BBG Results

BBG is definitely an intense 12 week program instead of 21 days like the 21 Day Fix.  However, it’s worth the $30 for the ebook.  It’s 3 days hard/strength training and 3 days HIIT/LISS.  Now, I wouldn’t recommend this program if you aren’t good with self discipline, if you don’t know how to eat right, and if you haven’t done cardio in a while.  I also wouldn’t recommend it to someone who knows nothing about working out because you can get easily discouraged by this.  This program is high intensity and lots of cardio.  It helped me get my booty back!  I also toned up more than I ever did on the 21 Day Fix.  My only complaint was that I felt like my legs got bigger as well, which I personally don’t like because I’m bottom heavy as it is.  I will say that these results aren’t 100% accurate.  The reason being is because I wasn’t as strict with my diet, and it also took me longer to finish the 12 week program due to vacation and getting extremely sick at one point which caused me to be out of commission for a full 4 weeks (it was AWFUL).  I would like to try BBG again when I can be fully committed and not half ass it.  However, for not eating the way I should’ve I was happy with my results regardless.

BBG Results

Pros

Can take anywhere

Only $30

Different workout every week

Circuit Training

Only 3 really hard days, 2 cardio, and 1 light day

Really sore-but in a good way

Only 6 days (but I did 5)

28 minutes for one workout

Can do at home or in the gym

Targeting Certain Muscle Groups

BBG Results

Cons

Creator is from Australia so if you bought the BBG meal plan a few things in there you can’t get in the U.S.

A LOT (those caps are an understatement) of jumping and burpees

Meal plan comes separate

A lot of equipment, and have to pay for app for modifications

Have to figure out your own HIIT and LISS

Beginner Week is really hard, so you can get easily discouraged

1st 21DF // 2nd 21DF // 3rd BBG

Final thoughts of 21DF VS BBG

Overall I can’t really pick which program is better because they are completely different, everyone has different strengths and weaknesses so they will need to decide which program works for them, everyone’s lifestyle is different, and it all comes down to commitment.  I feel as though it was easier to commit to the 21DF because it was a group/team setting, you put a lot of money into it, and if you purchase the entire package you get everything that you need.  The 21DF taught me the fundamentals of how to eat, and that there are no excuses, working out just 30 minutes a day is definitely doable.  I’m going to be honest, I really have to want something to commit and since I saw my before picture committing to the 21DF was a piece of cake for me.  I honestly don’t think if I would’ve started with BBG, that I would’ve been successful.  I mean even after learning how to eat properly with the 21DF I still had one too many cheat meals and didn’t commit 100%.  I would’ve had 6 pack abs if I would’ve committed because the work outs were intense!

***

At the end of the day, diets, workouts, etc. is all personal preference, and depends on your health.  What works for one person doesn’t work for another.  If you have a health condition like diabetes, cholesterol, blood pressure issues, etc. one or maybe even all of these diets may not be recommended by your doctor, and can even be dangerous to your health.  I have epilepsy so the keto diet (the true keto diet, not the commercialized one) has actually been used as treatment for some patients (mostly children though).  I will say that when I am on the keto diet, my brain feels amazing.  I didn’t know it was possible for the brain to “feel healthy” but apparently it is.  Keto makes me feel the best that I have since before my diagnosis.  I did love the other programs, and the 21DF is a really easy diet to stick to and make a lifestyle diet.  BBG was intense, but I toned up so much.  I felt so sore after my workouts, and the two days after leg day were killer (I really couldn’t walk), but that meant I was doing it right.  It was a little too intense on my knee because of my knee issues though.

If you’ve read all the up to here, thank you.  I hope this helps someone out there looking for real results and opinions.  I know that you can read all you want on the internet about scientific research and what not, but until you see someone who has actually done it and shown their results, it’s hard to take that research seriously.  As I said before, not every single diet is for everyone.  It’s all personal preference.  If you’ve tried any of these programs, or you have other programs you’ve tried, I’d love to hear about it in the comments!  The more opinions, the better!

**PLEASE NOTE:  I AM NOT A LICENSED TRAINER, NUTRITIONIST, PHYSICIAN, ETC.  I’M BASING THESE HEALTH AND FITNESS ROUTINES OFF OF MY OWN EXPERIENCES AND RESEARCH.  PLEASE CONSULT WITH YOUR DOCTOR PRIOR TO STARTING ANY OF THESE PROGRAMS.

xoxo Monica

Follow along on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter

Style Elixir // The Fashion Canvas // Walking in Memphis in High Heels // I do deClaire //The Pleated Poppy // Pumps and Pushups // Elegantly Dressed & Stylish // Elegance and Mommyhood // Posh Classy Mom // Lady in Violet // Glass of Glam// Shelbee on the Edge // Foxy Domestic Side // Style Assisted // This Main Life // Cappuccino and Fashion  // Threads for Thomas

Shop here!