Accidentally ripped!

Helder Barroso
Oct 1, 2016
6 min read

If you are reading this I’m guessing you’re interested in improving your fitness, health or your lifestyle, am I right?

Let’s get straight into it. A very odd title. What do I mean by that exactly?

Well, its simple really, I have managed to achieve my goals without knowing it, or thinking about it every minute, and most importantly without disrupting my life too much. I think you may know what I’m getting at.

A bit of History

I sit here remembering the food I used to eat back in 2011, when I first really started to think about getting into shape. My dream was being 6-7% body fat and possibly competing in a natural bodybuilding show.

Well this was all achieved but with a huge sacrifice! The sacrifice was I stopped doing all the things I liked because I started to believe that in order to achieve my goals I had to stop everything. I mean the food was repetitive, Chicken and broccoli every 2.5 hours, minimum carbs were only consumed around training, no holidays with my friends or family, carrying food around with me every day if I went out etc etc.

In fact, if I’m honest with myself, I probably developed an obsession and neglected all the finer things in life around me. Why did I do this? Why did I choose to adopt this hardcore approach? An approach which I believe now is not sustainable and more focused to elite sportsman earning hundreds of thousands a year.

More importantly I developed an un-healthy relationship with food. Sounds odd, how can a guy who is ripped have a bad relationship with food? Simple, I was scared of eating everyday foods, I was afraid of carbs!

After I would finish competing, I would gain weight quickly, I was scared of carbs, and I would do lots and lots of Cardio in order to lose body fat. I mean 12-16 weeks of walking on a treadmill every day! You can imagine this was not much fun. I would generally get up to 12st pretty quickly on a modest amount of calories and carbs, (150-170g of carbs). This meant I had to lose over a stone to look lean and around 1.5 stones to consider competing. Again lots of cardio required and back to the boring diet for 16-20 weeks of the year and pretty much low carbs which just makes you feel low on energy.

I just did not know what I was doing. I chose to follow the masses and failed to realize that “One does not fit all”. I needed a plan tailored to my needs, but firstly I needed to repair my relationship with food.

The ironic thing is I actually love food. I could eat for England! My mates are always joking that I should enter an eating competition.

So why are things different now?

With Helder’s help especially over the last 2 years, we have managed to find a way to include all the foods I like in my diet by not adding too much body fat whilst increasing my calories.

Don’t get me wrong, it was a process where I had to be patient, but the main thing was I trusted my coach.

After a Bodybuilding show in September 2014, we did a reverse diet, (I’m sure Helder has explained what this is in his daily emails) you increase your calories very slowly over a period of time to allow your body to adjust and absorb the increased calories. This is a perfect time to add different foods and increase your carbs.

It wasn’t a difficult process because it’s actually opposite to dieting. You’re not reducing your food, your increasing it!

So let me explain what I did this year from March 2016. I was approximately 11st 8lbs, eating well and I wanted to lose some body fat. Helder came round to my house for a training session and sat down with me and worked a few things out. It turned out he actually reduced my calories by only 100. So I started eating around 2300 calories and he told me to go about my day normally. I was on 230g of carbs, which is very high for me, considering my relationship with carbs between 2011-2014.

We also added 3 sessions of cardio a week at 20 mins. I went about my normal life, working as a financial adviser, which means I drive a lot. The one thing I wanted to change was not to worry about carrying any food around with me everywhere I went!

I was able to pop into the service station and get whatever I fancied, as long it fits in with my daily macros and calories. This was the first new addition. It felt normal.

There is something I need to confess at this stage and I don’t think Helder will like it, but some weeks I didn’t even do my cardio. I remember at least 3 weeks in April I missed cardio. We were into May now, I could tell I was getting leaner. I also refrained from looking in the mirror. I just ignored what I was doing and concentrated on my work and my normal life with no apparent goal which in turn removed any pressure.

In June my fat loss stopped a little, so we dropped carbs to 220g from 230g and I can’t recall doing any more than 3 lots of cardio for a few more weeks before stopping again because of a back injury which made it painful to walk but luckily I could still train.

July passed and I was still losing body fat and I think I was around 10st 6lbs now and I could see my abs and looked good. I kept doing what I was doing, the diet remained the same.

At the beginning of August I went away to Stockholm on a friends stag for a few days and needles to go into detail here, you know it gets messy. The diet was all over the place but again I felt comfortable doing this for once and not worrying about it.

When I returned i got back on to track with my diet and continued my cardio which was now 30 mins 3 times a week. I started getting lean and Helder thought I may be able to jump into a bodybuilding show which was on the 11th September 2016. It was the Mike Williams show, a show I had previously won in 2012, but dedicated my whole year just to step on that stage. This time round I had no ambition to do so, but realized that I had got into near competition shape without realizing. No one even knew I was contemplating to compete. Three weeks left for the show and I upped my cardio to 30 minutes every day and then 40 mins every day until the show. The Carbs reduced from 220 to 200g. The highest I have ever been on three weeks before a show! The last 5 days of the show I was actually on 400g of carbs a day! Never have I felt stronger at this stage before a show.

Anyway show day arrived and I got 2nd place in a very good line up and an invitation to the finals. (Which I decided not to do) what a result considering I had no intention to compete.

Conclusion

With the right help and advice, nothing needs to be difficult. You can achieve your goals sometimes without knowing it. Helder has helped me achieve this with his patience and his personal touch. I am no longer worrying about eating a Jaffa cake or ice cream, I feel comfortable with the knowledge that I can live a normal life and look how I want. I am lucky to have found what works for me with Helders help and I cannot see why you can’t achieve the same.

My thinking before Helders help

My thinking with Helders help