Chasing Amy-Lou

Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

Now not all of you will have heard of this revolutionary new fitness craze that seems to be sweeping across every nation right now. But some of you will. So for those of you who haven’t, here’s the lowdown – F45 stands for Functional 45 – a fitness class that lasts for, you guessed it, 45 minutes (gasp, really?) and consists of high intensity interval training, adopting a ratio of 40-45 seconds on with a 15-20 second rest. Or variations of that.

Not unlike tabata, circuits or crossfit, F45 aims to push the heart rate up and see the user complete exercises to a maximum standard for a minimum amount of time in order to burn fat and increase fitness. It has proven results and claims to be “life changing”.

Now I know three weeks isn’t a long time, and generally speaking I would need at least 6-8 weeks before I saw any drastic change in my waistline, and I wasn’t expecting miracles when I signed up for this (ok maybe I was, but we can all dream, right?). And I know that had I eaten a completely clean diet for the entire three weeks I probably would’ve dropped some weight. But here’s the deal – after attending classes over a 21 day period, each of which I did in a fasted state, i.e., first thing in the morning before I ate, I noticed zero results. I didn’t lose one single kilo and I definitely didn’t reduce my waist, arm or thigh size by even a centimetre, let alone the three inches/stone in weight I need to lose. And also, I didn’t feel any more energised or any fitter.

I attempted to maintain a relatively healthy diet for those three weeks (for those that know me, I don’t eat junk food or takeaways anyway so this wouldn’t be too difficult, but I am prone to snacking); I cut out bread for two weeks, stopped eating chocolate throughout the last week – not that I eat a lot normally…though that all depends on what you class as ‘a lot’ – tried to eat three square meals a day with fruit and nuts as snacks in between, although working shifts in a busy restaurant meant timing my meals right was hard work; kept my alcohol drinking to the weekend and walked absolutely everywhere. So what went wrong? Why had I not seen any results? Why had this shake up in my exercise not seen any significant change?

In all honesty I couldn’t possibly give a definitive answer. I’ve been trying to regain my fitness and drop 6kgs since November (that’s four months), and considering nothing else has worked so far, I saw F45 as a prime opportunity to kickstart this campaign. During the classes I felt fit. I felt strong and I felt more than able. And I expected to see at least a surge in my energy and a slight return to previous form. Any weight loss would’ve been a welcomed bonus.

However, jumping on the scales two days after completing my three week experiment, not only had I not lost anything, I think I’d actually gained weight. And before you start chipping in with your, “but it doesn’t matter about weight, muscle weighs more than fat, it’s inches and the way your clothes fit, blah blah blah”, none of my clothes were any less tight either. And as far as fitness was concerned, that was a tragic disappointment too. I embarked on my first 5km run in three weeks and was praying it would be easy. I was hoping to beat my usual time and I was hoping I’d feel a rush of adrenaline, the run a welcomed pleasure as opposed to a resistant chore. Instead, I felt sluggish and slow, and no better than I had almost a month earlier. There was zero improvement.

So does this mean that F45 is futile? A waste of time and money? Does this mean the revolutionary fitness craze doesn’t work? I think not. I think in pursuing anything for only three weeks and expecting dramatic results is a little over zealous. It takes time to improve fitness and lose weight and it would probably need at least another three weeks of the same regime before a change was noticed.

In saying this though, I’ve concluded something I perhaps knew all along: weight loss cannot be achieved through exercise alone; it’s primarily diet that will give the best results. And a clean diet at that. So while I’m not knocking F45 (I actually loved attending the classes and would’ve continued to go had the cost not been a major drawback – $55 a week, erm, no thanks), I am knocking my eating habits. Intermittent snacking and a lack of regularity and routine in my meal preparation is probably where I’ve been going wrong. And alcohol consumption. And chocolate. Always chocolate.

Having constantly battled with my weight since the age of 16 though (half my goddamn life), and having tried stupid diet after stupid diet, I’m not about to completely give up the things I like again, I’m done with that. I’m sick of having to punish myself with gruelling exercise regimes and restrict my alcohol consumption or give up chocolate in order to achieve my perfect body. But I am willing to cut down and I am willing to eat sensibly. It’s going to take time. I know it will. And it’s going to take a lot of willpower too, and although I won’t be continuing with F45 any more, I’m determined that through following a healthy diet, running regularly and sticking to what I know, I’ll finally get back to the size I want to be, the size that I’m most happiest at.