Testing Shakeology

What is Shakeology?  Shakeology is a one stop shop for nutrition.  It seriously has just about everything your body needs to survive, except enough calories.  Details can be found HERE.  The purpose of this post is not to discuss what is in Shakeology (here’s a link to the FAQ’s).  Instead, this post – and those that follow – are designed to track my progress with Shakeology as a truth test.  I’ll use empirical data to explain and interpret my results over time so you can see what it did for me.

I was introduced to Shakeology at the 2009 Beachbody Summit where we tried the product for a few days.  While I’m sure a large part of the “high” that I departed with was due to the incredible people and their unstoppable energy, I also felt phenomenal after three days of taking Shakeology.  I waited until March 26, 2009 to seriously start the program for a specific reason: I wanted to know the baseline.  March 26, 2009 was Day 2 and I have to say I had a lot of energy today (I 15 miles of hills on the bike in the morning, and P90X+ Upper & Abs/Core+ in the evening).

On March 25, 2009 I did my best Mork from Ork impression in this little contraption.  This is a “Bod Pod”.  Body fat percentage, or more precisely, Body Composition has typically been measured by using water displacement.  This device uses air displacement and is generally more accurate than the water method.  The device uses body density to measure several things, including body fat percentage, lean muscle, and resting metabolic rate, all of which I will use to track my progress with Shakeology.

A few important words about body fat percentage.  I was pretty surprised when mine came out at 20.4%.  As you can see from the pics below, I’m not ripped, but I’m certainly not fat.  20% is in the “moderately lean” category.  Orson, the owner of Body Technologies, explained to me that the Bod Pod usually shocks a lot of people because it reflects reality, which typically differs from body mass index tools or the good old caliper. I confirmed this when two different body fat calculators (one using a caliper) told me I had between 14% and 17% body fat last night.  I’m going with the Bod Pod on this one.  When we started discussing my goals, and my lean muscle index Orson recommended that 15% was a good number to shoot for.  Again, this sounds very high to me, but Orson is the expert and I’m going with his advice.

So, here are the results from the test today along with my goals for the future.  Understanding that if I was to get to 15% body fat with the same amount of lean muscle I currently have would mean I would weigh in at 157 lbs was a real eye opener for me.  I’m not 17 anymore and as  P90X’er and triathlete I just cannot cut out enough calories to possibly achieve that weight in any reasonable time.  So, we set a goal weight of 163 lbs at 15% body fat within 8 weeks.  That goal is going to require me to gain about 5 pounds of lean muscle, which presents a challenge.  Still, if I want to race faster I have to not only get lighter, but also stronger.

Now on to the photos.

Before:  I was on a hybrid P90X+ and Triathlon training program and about a month out from what was an “A Race” for me, the San Diego International Triathlon.

Now the fitness part.  I’m not planning on sitting on the couch during this period.  I’m going to be training…hard.  However, I’ve been training hard for quite some time now.  I just finished a round of P90X Classic, during which I attended Tony’s Yoga Camp in Jackson Hole and went to the Beachbody Summit.  If you don’t think I was working hard to get ready for those events, you are wrong.  My current schedule is a hybrid of P90X+, Yoga X and a wide variety of triathlon based exercises.  I’m going to do some doubles for a while as well until the schedule really kicks into high gear.  You can find more details on what I’m doing on the Triathlon page.  I have not updated that schedule to include the double workouts, because I’m just going to hit them when I can.  My primary focus is on triathlon, but anything I can do to get stronger, I’m going to do.

The changes are going to have to come from proper nutrition.  While I have done the P90X program on and off for a couple of years, I have not focused on nutrition at all.  I wasn’t eating particularly bad foods, but I did not understand caloric need, the proper distribution of carbs, protein and fat, or track my caloric intake.  I just sort of ate what I felt like.  If that meant I ate oatmeal all day, then that’s what it meant.  At the beginning of the year I decided I needed to figure it out.  I went through the P90X Nutrition Guide, made sure I understood it and put together a spreadsheet to calculate my caloric needs and track daily progress.  My nutrition has improved and I’ve seen better results as a product.  Orson recommended a higher carb intake in my diet, so I’m moving to Phase III of the P90X Nutrition Plan, with a careful eye on my daily caloric intake.  In the beginning this is going to be a pain, but after a while I’ll be able to compute the calories in my head, and I’ll be better for it.

UPDATE – MARCH 17, 2010

Here’s a pic from December 2009 after about 7 months of Shakeology, but continuing on with about the same training plan.  I go back and forth between endurance training and strength training.  This was about 3 weeks into a strength training program using Tony Horton’s One on One series.  Right after these pictures were taken I started formally training for a 1/2 Ironman triathlon that will take place on April 11, 2010.  I’ll take some pics right before the race so you can see where I’m at then.

I decided not to renew my membership to the place that does the Bod Pod testing.  One reason was that when this picture was taken I was 162 lbs and probably about 15% body fat.  My numbers started to level off and it didn’t make sense to keep the membership.  The pictures tell the story.  I’ve been on Shakeology for a year now and I simply have never felt better.  My recovery times from my workouts are shorter, I have more energy and I just feel better.  It has been an amazing ride, and I can’t wait to see what year 2 of Shakeology has in store for me.

For more information about what’s in Shakeology, check out the “Shakeology Dissected” series in our the Nutrition section of this blog.  Please also contact me at dave@thefitclubnetwork.com if you have any questions about this incredible product.