April 6, 2012

Skinny Fat Founder Strips for Launch of New Company

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I’m the founder of Bodyhack and felt it was my duty to not just fund and build the company but to be the initial guinea pig for our fitness plans. I have to say I’m rather pleased with the results…

I wasn’t passionate about my business which made millions

I previously built up an internet business from scratch to over 500,000 visits per month, and millions in profit per year. I sold this business to Internetbrand in March 2011, if you want to hear more I did an interview for Mixergy which you can hear here: http://blip.tv/mixergy/julian-hearn-5587570. It was a highly profitable business but I wasn’t passionate about it, so decided to sell. I was dying to start work on an idea that had been stuck in my head and I couldn’t stop thinking about.

Getting fit is currently a frustrating, complicated, hit or miss affair

I was frustrated at how difficult it was to get results at the gym and found the whole fitness industry frustrating, ineffective and inefficient. It made me think there must be a better and more efficient way. There are literally thousands of combinations of exercise and meal plans online, in books, or DVDs but I couldn’t find any data which compared their effectiveness, or even any evidence that they actually work at all. So I decided to scratch my own itch and build a site which would be able to compare the effectiveness of different fitness plans, depending on the goal of the individual. The site should be pretty straightforward to build but collecting the data wasn’t, so we decided to create it ourselves. This is why I stripped, I’m the first guinea pig for Bodyhack and the data collected will be the benchmark. If a new program is created and achieves greater results, it will float to the top and become the new benchmark program we will recommend. My idea for the site is to be the go to place for fitness and diet plans, you tell the site what you current body shape is and what you fitness goal is and it queries a database of real plans and results and delivers back the most effective one. You can read more about the big idea here.

12 weeks later and my body fat dropped from 21.5% to 11.5% with 3 hours exercise per week

We knew some people might think the photos had been photoshopped, so at the beginning of the 12 weeks I entered the Reddit Body Transformation Challenge. They ensure the transformation is completed in 12 week by making you submit an image with a code, which works like a time stamp, see image below. You can see the full entry at reddit here, ( note the tick which says we passed the proof test).

Most people are pretty amazed at the results above, but those images where just taken on an iPhone, so we decided we needed some high quality photos to show off the results in the best light. My co-founder’s fiance, Anna, is a talented professional photographer. She kindly offered to take some professional photos – see below.

 

It’s not just me, Michael lost 30lbs, and 6 inches from his waistline in 12 weeks

It’s not just me that is getting great results from the Bodyhack program. Michael is the second person to complete the 12 week Bodyhack challenge. He achieved even greater results than me. In 12 weeks he lost 14kg (30lbs), dropped body fat from 35.72% to 22.80%, and his waist dropped from 39 inches to 33 inches. Amazing!

We launched Bodyhack today, so the site only has my program live, but we will be working like mad men adding new plans over the next few days. If you want to signup please do, to access my full exercise plan, meal plan, supplements, etc.

Update: You can now access Michael’s full exercise and diet plan.

If you think Bodyhack sounds interesting, you can follow us on:

Any questions? Just add them in the comments I would love to answer your questions or simply read your feedback.

Further reading: A warm welcome to Bodyhack. What’s the big idea?

Related content:

  1. The Man Behind the Results: Interview with Bodyhack’s Fitness Director – Martin Bugaj
  2. Talya Lost 21lbs and dropped from a size 14 to 10, in 12 Weeks on the Bodyhack Challenge
  3. How to Lose 50 Pounds: Interview with Carlyn Giuriceo
  4. What Layne Norton Can Teach Us About Building Muscle
  5. What Losing 280 Pounds Looks Like: An Unbelievable Before and After
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  • Alex Duggleby

    When will Michael’s plans be available? He fits my profile better and I’m up for giving it a try after easter.

    (BTW: the video voice over states dollars but the price is in UKP.)

    PS: Sign-up form doesn’t accept any e-mail addresses at the moment (it says they are all “invalid”)

    • http://twitter.com/JulianHearn Julian Hearn

      Hi Alex, 

      Thanks for the comment. Michael’s plan will be available in the next day or two. Sorry for the delay.

      Thanks for highlighting the issue with the video. The plan was to target the USA to start with but we changed our minds at the last minute, and decided to target the UK for the first week and collect some data before going for the US.

      Regards,

      Julian.

  • http://www.mailbait.info/ MailBait

    Julian:  Awesome results.  Your attitude, drive, and results are very inspiring.

  • http://www.ilikearchitecture.net/ Miguel R

    Congratulations on the initiative and results. It is pretty amazing how in 12 weeks one can get in really good shape. Thumbs up. Probably it will be equally important maintaining this physical state constant. Do keep everyone posted on any advancements.

  • http://twitter.com/MAragoncillo1 Miguel Aragoncillo

    This is great work. That is quite a large jump in body fat percentages, and to have that self-determination is amazing. I’d be interested to see where Body Hack can go in the near future.