CrossFit vs. Body For Life

The first Body for Life Challenge was held in 1996, and shook up the health and fitness world with its grand prize of 1 million dollars for the person who could make the greatest physical transformation in 12 weeks.

Since then, according to their own publicity 2 million people have transformed their bodies using the BFL and EAS supplements. I myself read the book and watched the movie and was genuinely impressed with the progress that some of these people had made.

Chances are you have tried the challenge yourself, or know someone who has. What were the results? In my experience, everyone I've talked to that has done the challenge tell me that it works really well.........yet they all gained most if not all of their weight back afterwards!!

If a type of exercise or a diet plan is not sustainable long term, then you can't call it successful!
I thought I'd do a little informal comparison between BFL and CFNZ (CrossFit NZ) to see how they stack up.

• Body for Lifers exercise 6 times per week, alternating upper body weight training, lower body and aerobic exercise over and over.
• CrossFitters train up to 6 times a week, varying their routines constantly to keep motivation, intensity and more importantly progress at high levels.

• BFL encourages 6 meals per day, 3 of which are powdered meal replacement shakes.
• CrossFit sticks to real food - meat and veggies, fruit, nuts and seeds, little starch and no sugar. The occasional supplement for convenience but no reliance on them.

• BFL meals are made up of a portion of protein, a portion of starchy carbs and a portion of veggies.
• At CrossFit we make sure you eat your fat! Healthy fat is what humans evolved to utilise for energy, it's the starchy carbs you should be cutting down on. Eat eggs, salmon, avocado, nuts, seeds and olive oil, minimise your intake of grains and cereals, bump up the veggie intake even more and you'll feel great.
  

• BFL is a 12 week program.
• CrossFit is for life. The sooner people understand that fitness is not a quick fix, the better. If you can only stick with a good eating and exercise plan for 12 weeks, then you'll never get the body and health that you want. Blindly following a meal plan does not let you understand why you should be eating certain foods and thus enable you to continue eating well afterwards.

It is worth noting that I think the general idea of the 12 week challenge is sound. There are people who completed the BFL and maintained their results. Muscle gain and fat loss is hard! So a short, period of concentrated effort can be a little easier to get your head around in the beginning. But just be sure you put a plan in place for week 13; don't let it all fall to pieces after such a big effort. Educate yourself on how to maintain and even exceed the progress you've already made.