15 Fitness Mistakes

Skinny-Fat Guys Make

By Oskar Faarkrog
ISSA Certified Personal Trainer

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The writing in this eBook is based on my own skinny-fat transformation
where I lost 60 pounds of fat and gained more than 40 pounds of muscle
mass and the many success stories from my online coaching program.

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 Are You Skinny-Fat?

Being skinny-fat means that you lack muscle tone while being soft around
your lower waist.

In clothes, a skinny-fat guy looks like a regular guy, but once the
clothes come off all the flab and softness is revealed.

Skinny-fat guys find it difficult to gain even small amounts of muscle tone
and we gain fat just by looking at food.

Most of us also find it extremely difficult to gain muscle mass on our

upper body, especially around the shoulders, upper chest, upper back
and arms.

In my experience coaching almost 100 men, the skinny-fat body-type is BY

FAR the hardest to transform and skinny-fat guys need a different strategy
to transform.

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Here are the characteristics of a skinny-fat guy:

Soft around the lower waist.

Narrow shoulders.
Under muscled arms.
Small wrists.
Low natural testosterone
production (testosterone is the
main muscle building hormone in
your body).
Poor nutrient partitioning (i.e. your
bodys ability to use food for muscle
gains).
Weak on bodyweight exercises,
especially the pull up.

You can learn more about transforming the skinny-fat physique on the link
below:

The 2 Phases of a Skinny-Fat Transformation

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Fitness Mistake #1: Training with heavy weights you
cant control.

Have you ever seen the classical bodybuilding movie Pumping Iron
featuring legendary bodybuilders such as Arnold Schwarzenegger and
Serge Nubret who had some of the most aesthetic physiques ever?

(Serge Nubret training during his prime)

If you look at the way they train in that movie, its basically a lot of
sets, a lot of reps, short rest time between sets and training for the
pump.

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Yes, some of them did train heavy, but heavy is relative.

If you can bench press 500 pounds, using 260 pounds for sets isnt
heavy.

So dont get fooled into thinking that you need to train with maximal
weights to develop your physique.

Training for strength and muscle mass are two different goals
which require different types of training methods.

Prior to passing away, the classical bodybuilder Serge Nubret created a

thread on forum.bodybuilding.com where people could ask him any
questions related to bodybuilding.

The thread got almost 12,000 comments(!!) and Serge provided all of us
with a wealth of knowledge. One of his main points was that he never
lifted heavy weights (heavy being a relative word here).

Serge Nubret stated that you can always make the weight harder to
lift.

This is the complete of what most people in the gym do.

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Most people use bouncing, swinging and momentum to lift the weight.

They dont think about engaging the target muscles in the movements
they are performing and on a set of 12-15 reps, they might only get in 2
or 3 quality reps.

I used to do 40-50 pound dumbbells for my sets on biceps curls. After

reading through Serge Nubrets topic that weight quickly dropped to
about 25 pounds.

Then as I met one of my mentors, Jay Campbell and became better at

engaging my biceps I dropped the weight all the way down to 20
pounds.

And now that Im rewriting this eBook, Im even down to 15 pounds.

So now, my goal is actually to use lighter weights and stimulate the

muscles rather than my ego.

The main benefit of lifting lighter weights is that you can grow the
target muscles that are underdeveloped.

For example, most people have an overdeveloped lower chest and

underdeveloped upper chest.

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So when these people do incline bench presses, they use the lower
chest to push the weight because they havent built the mind-to-muscle-
connection for the upper chest yet.

This essentially makes their training unproductive if aesthetics is the

goal.

Another example is triceps.

When most people do triceps pushdowns they use heavy weights

and roll their shoulders and upper body forwards.

When you do that, your shoulders essentially take over the movement
and your triceps dont get much quality work done. And then your triceps
dont grow.

The same goes for any other exercise that is done heavy.

When you lift heavy, you use the muscles that are already strong and
developed and this is a HUGE mistake if youre looking to grow muscles
that dont seem to respond to training.

In addition, when you train with lighter weights, you recover A LOT faster
between training sessions because they put less stress on the Central
Nervous System.

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This means you can train more often, do more sets during each
training session and use a bigger variety of exercises to train your
muscles from different angles.

These factors (how often you train, how many sets you do for each
muscle group and using a variety of angles to train your muscles)
contribute more to muscle gains than heavy weights do.

And then we have injury prevention.

Heavy weights are a recipe for injury and you can see that across all
heavy weight training forums where even beginners that are just getting
started suffer from low back pain, hip pain and shoulders injuries.

You can see a comparison I did in May 2014 where I checked the
amount of injury topics on a popular calisthenics forum called Madbarz
vs. a heavy weight training forum called Starting Strength.

Madbarz vs. the Starting Strength forum (as of 5th May 2014):

Madbarz: 93 topics are about injuries and there are 9,044 users
(1.03% of users have made an injury related topic)
Starting Strength: 1,358 topics are about injuries and there are
17,125 users (12.61% of users have made an injury related topic)

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If we assume that each user has made no more than one topic related to
injuries, and we take a sample of 1000 people, the starting strength
forum will have 126 injured people, while the Madbarz forum has just 10.

So unless you need to be able to lift heavy for a sport or competition,

skip the heavy weights.

Its not worth it to impress other guys at the gym with a heavy set of
bench presses if it comes with the risk of suffering from chronic pain for
the rest of your life.

Its only a matter of time before your form slips on a heavy deadlift or
squat and you get chronic knee pain, back pain, hip pain, neck pain,
elbow pain or wrist pain.

Unless youre built with big joints and you train very carefully on a great
training program, chances are that you will get seriously injured with
heavy weights. Its just a matter of time.

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Fitness Mistake #2: Neglecting your strength on the
pull up and push up.

Can you do 20 pull ups in a row with good form and can you squat down
so your butt touches the floor with your heels planted on the ground and
hold that position for a minute?

Most men cannot do these two essential things, yet they start their
training careers off with heavy weight training before they can even
move their own bodyweight properly through space.

Basic bodyweight training and mobility exercises such as squat holds

will let you develop your movement patterns, mobility, and basic
strength, all while gaining good amounts of muscle mass and losing fat.

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Theres no reason to skip these essential basics.

Just think about mathematics: The basics are extremely boring, but
they make it so much easier to learn the advanced stuff.

Similarly, when you build a house, you start with the foundation. Once
you build a solid foundation, everything else becomes so much easier.

An early injury can put you out of the gym for MONTHS, and sometimes
that injury will stick with you for years and thereby inhibit your true
transformation potential.

Now, some of you may think that yeah, bodyweight training sounds
reasonable, but I dont care about mobility. I just want to look good
naked.

Thats the kind of mindset I had, but its wrong.

When you have good mobility, you have better posture and you move in
a more confident way.

This makes you look MUCH better.

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It doesnt matter how much muscle you have if you have the mobility
and posture of an 84 year old man.

Furthermore, good posture is associated with higher testosterone

levels (the main muscle building hormone in your body).

Therefore, dont rush the basics. Get strong at bodyweight exercises,

improve your mobility and improve your posture.

Once youve done these things, youre ready to start weight training.

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Fitness Mistake #3: Eating too much protein.

When I started training in 2010, I read a bunch of articles on

bodybuilding.com about how the pro bodybuilders ate, and there was
one common theme:

A very high protein intake.

The reasoning goes that since protein is responsible for building and
repairing muscle mass, you need to eat a lot of it.

In most places, the recommended protein intake was a minimum of

1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight to build and maintain
muscle mass.

Anything less than that and you will supposedly waste your training
sessions and get no results.

But thats wrong and now Ill explain why.

First of all, consider a 200 pound guy who needs to eat 200 grams of
protein per day.

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200 grams of protein is the equivalent of:

500 grams chicken breast > 100 grams of protein.

200 grams tuna > 50 grams of protein.
8 whole eggs > 50 grams of protein.

So, in practice this could look something like this:

Breakfast: 4 whole eggs.

Lunch: 200 grams tuna and 4 whole eggs.
Dinner: 500 grams grams chicken breast.

Thats a lot of protein to eat on a daily basis, but thats the kind of
ridiculous advice that you find in the fitness industry.

They want a 200 pound guy to eat enough protein to feed an entire
African village.

And there are many issues with this.

The first one is digestion.

If youre skinny-fat and out of shape, your body doesnt need all that
protein.

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How is your body going to use all that protein for repairing and building
muscle mass, when you start out with a very low amount of muscle
mass and your training sessions are limited in volume, frequency and
intensity?

Thats right, it wont.

Instead, you will get constipated, bloated and feel heavy because
you dont digest all that protein.

The second issue is balance.

How are you going to eat enough starches, vegetables, fruits and
healthy fats if youre sick and tired of eating by the time youve gone
through the protein in your meal?

Theres only so much food you can eat and protein is very satiating, so
eating a lot of it will make it hard to get in other satiating foods such as
vegetables, potatoes and rice.

And then you will often try to make up for the lack of high quality
carbs by eating quick sugary carbs and other junk which is very
light on the stomach.

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The third issue is marketing.

Theres no peer reviewed and well-designed study that shows you need
that much protein.

Most of the scientific arguments for eating all that protein are
made by the marketers who sell protein supplements not by
nutrition experts.

And if theres a study supporting protein supplements and excessively

high protein intake, that study is most likely poorly designed and
sponsored by the people who are selling protein supplements.

Look, you dont need to supplement with protein powder, although I do

use it with some clients that find it convenient.

You also dont need to eat protein every 2-3 hours. (When you eat a
protein based meal you will have protein in your system for at least 6-8
hours).

You dont need to eat a huge amount of protein.

Now, this doesnt mean no one can follow a high protein diet with
results.

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People with great genetics such as professional athletes, fitness models
and pro-bodybuilders can digest a higher amount of protein without any
negative effects because:

They train at a high level so their body needs more of EVERYTHING

(not just protein) to recover from the hard training.
They have exceptional genetics and digestion which enables them
to chunk down huge protein meals and then utilize these proteins for
muscle building.

In other words, their dietary requirements are completely different from

+90% of people who train, so stop copying them.

Instead, aim for a balanced diet where you have a bit of everything, and
experiment with different types of foods to find the ones that YOU digest
best.

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Fitness Mistake #4: Following a diet plan that doesnt
match the demands of your training program.

One thing a lot of people dont know is that your training program and
diet plan are connected.

The way you eat, affects the way you train and vice versa.

Just think about your average couch potato who wakes up after a night
of crappy sleep, then goes to work a stressful job and then comes home
late at night to watch TV and eat junkfood.

A lot of the food that guy eats is likely to be stored as fat.

In contrast, think about the professional athlete who trains 4 hours

a day and sleeps 10 hours each night.

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He comes home after a long training session, and he could eat the exact
same junkfood meal as the couch potato, but he would most likely not
gain much fat (if any at all), because his body needs that food after a
rigorous training session.

The point here is that you cannot look at diet and training separately.

The more you train and the harder you train, the bigger your dietary
requirements are.

This is also why training too much can be detrimental for people
who want to lose fat.

Yes, you read that right: TRAINING TOO MUCH CAN BE BAD IF YOU
WANT TO LOSE FAT.

When you want to lose fat, you must restrict your calories however when
you train a lot, you must eat a lot of calories to support the training.

In other words, training hard and often while trying to lose fat is a BAD
idea.

The key here is to find that balance where your diet and training
match.

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Getting that balance right where your training and diet match is very
difficult and it took me years of experimentation to find my balance, but
once you get it right the effort is 100% worth it.

You will start making massive changes to your body while feeling good
throughout the process.

A good start for fat loss is to focus 100% on 4-5 short and high quality
bodyweight or weight training sessions per week.

These will help you build strength and preserve muscle mass which is
very important during fat loss because the amount of muscle mass you
have determines your metabolic rate.

So skip the cardio, because it wont do much for your fat loss anyways
(its much easier to cut out a snickers bar than it is to run for 20 min).

Training is done to increase strength and muscle mass, not to burn fat.

You burn fat through a well-designed diet plan and sculpt your
muscles with weight training.

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Fitness Mistake #5: Exercising instead of training with
a purpose.

Ive been exercising for years, but my body doesnt seem to

respond.

Exercising is going into the gym without any goal, and thats what most
people do.

There are plenty of people in the gym who keep coming back, and they
will repeat the same exercise they did last time.

They will do the exact same exercises, use the exact same weight and
stop when it starts getting a little bit uncomfortable.

This is fine if you want to maintain your current fitness level or body
composition.

In fact, thats what I do now since Im happy with my body and fitness
level.

However, most of you reading this dont want to maintain.

You want to get better and in order to do so, you must stop exercising
and start training.

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Theres a big difference between exercising and training.

Training means you follow some kind of plan based on progressive

overload.

You want to be able to do more weight more sets more reps more
exercises more difficult exercises.

So for example, if you follow my beginner bodyweight training

program, you might do 3 chin ups on a Monday and then try to do 4
chin ups on a Wednesday.

Going from 3 to 4 chin ups might not sound like a big deal, but imagine
going from 0 to 20 chin ups over 6 months.

Theres no way your body will stay the same when you make that
kind of progress.

It will have do adapt to the new stress by increasing your muscle size
and thats why you need to go into each training session with a plan.

In contrast, when you exercise, you do so without any plan or goal

and that wont lead to any results.

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Fitness Mistake #6: Having an underdeveloped back.

If youre like most people out there, your gym routine most likely consists
of a lot of work for the chest, shoulders, arms and abs.

But how about the upper back, lats and rear shoulders?

All these areas are underdeveloped in almost every lifter, and thats a
shame, because developing these muscles will give you a much more
aesthetic physique.

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When you train for back width and thickness, you will look wide on the
upper body and powerful form the back.

And when you train the back of your shoulders, you will get much more
wide looking bowling ball shoulders.

Both of these things will contribute to building that aesthetic V-

taper we all want!

When I started training my rear shoulders, my shoulders went from non-

existent to proportional within a month or so.

And most importantly, training the back muscles and rear

shoulders, prevents injuries and improves your posture.

As Im writing this, Ive been training for nearly 7 years and Im still 100%
injury free.

I believe this is largely because I trained my back as hard as anything

else from day one!

A good way to know whether youre training your back hard enough is to
check your barbell bench press to bent over barbell row ratio.

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If you can bench press more than 1.2 times as much as you can
bent-over-barbell-row, your front is too strong and youll need to
strengthen your back muscles to prevent injuries.

Therefore, if your bench press is 40 KG but your barbell row is only 30

KG, you have work to do.

Try to get them as close to each other as possible. In most cases, the
bench press will always be a bit higher than the barbell row, but you
want to strive to keep them as close as possible to prevent injuries and
muscular imbalances.

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Fitness Mistake #7: Looking for the perfect training
program.
I heard that Mark Rippetoes Starting Strength Program is the
best out there.

Theres no best program out there.

Theres the best program for YOU, for YOUR goals, at this EXACT TIME
of your training.

This best program can quickly change as you progress in your

transformation.

For example, when I started training I found that bodybuilding

programs didnt work well for me.

I lacked strength in order to benefit from these kind of programs. (You

wont benefit much from high volume training when you can barely
bench press an empty barbell).

Now, years later, high volume training is pretty much all I do and it works
really well for me.

The same goes for my online coaching clients.

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As they move from Phase 1 to Phase 2, their training demands change
and therefore their training program has to change as well.

And thats why you should follow a training program that fits your
current fitness levels and is designed for your unique body-type.

If the training program isnt designed for YOU at the right time in your
training career, it will not produce great results.

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Fitness Mistake #8: Bulking before cutting.

When you want to transform your body, there are two goals to choose
between:

1) Get lean. Also called cutting.

2) Gain muscle mass. Also called bulking.

Cutting (fat loss) requires a caloric deficit in your diet while bulking
(muscle gains) requires a caloric surplus.

I first tried to bulk with a slight caloric surplus for a few weeks at a
time, but got nowhere with that.

Then I changed to cutting and instead of losing fat it seemed like my

shoulders and arms were just getting smaller.

Eventually, I did cut off all the excess body-fat I gained in my first year of
training, and ended up looking pretty much the same as when I started.

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The progress photo below shows my 2 year progress, where I was
spinning my wheels with cutting and bulking:

Focusing on muscle gains before getting lean is a big mistake because:

When youre lean your natural testosterone production is higher

and testosterone is the main muscle building hormone in your body.
In other words, when youre lean you will be able to gain muscle
mass at a faster rate.
When youre lean you can see the muscle gains you make because
they arent hidden under fat.
Gaining muscle mass always comes with some fat gains so you want
to make sure youre lean enough to have room for some slight fat
gains.

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The progress photo below shows how I lost body-fat between April 2012
and November 2012 and later gained a lot of muscle mass from my
lean base:

As you can in the progression from November 2012 to April 2013, I

gained over 10 pounds of lean mass in just 4 months.

The reason is that I had changed the way my body works by getting
lean.

With a high natural testosterone production and better nutrient

partitioning, I was able to pack on a lot of muscle mass in a short
amount of time.

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Fitness Mistake #9: Worrying about small details
that dont matter.
When I started training at age 16, I remember one of the first things I
researched was protein supplements.

I was still at that age where I believed that a supplement can help
me gain 20 pounds of muscle mass in 12 weeks.

So I wanted to know what the best protein supplement for muscle gains
is.

At the same time, I was eating a horrible diet full of white bread, sugar
and deli meats, partying every week and sleeping 5 hours per day and
training just 2 days per week.

Now, think about this for a second: What option would give you the best
Return-On-Investment?

Option 1: Changing from protein powder A to protein powder B.

Option 2: Sleeping 2 hours extra per day, saying no to going out

drinking most weekends and training your ass off 4 days a week
instead of 2-3.

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What do you think would give you the best gains over a time period of
1-2-3 years?

Of course the answer is: THE BASICS.

You will get a lot more out of focusing on training often, eating healthy
and getting long high quality sleep, than anything else.

Therefore, take a look at your current diet, training and sleep and
start fixing the basics before you obsess about small details such
as protein powder.

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Fitness Mistake #10: Having expectations that dont
match the work youre willing to put in.

A typical reader email goes like this:

Oskar, I want get ripped in 12 weeks but Im working 16 hours a day

so I cant cook healthy meals and I can only get 5 hours of sleep per
night train.

I didnt cook healthy meals every week.

I also didnt sleep 9 hours per day during my whole transformation.

But, it also took me about 3 years to build a good body.

In contrast, one of my clients, Logan Rando is extremely motivated and

made immense progress in his 1st year of training.

Compared to me, Logan was dedicated to his diet plan.

He ate clean food every single day and rarely (if ever) cheated on
his diet plan.

In other words, he made faster progress because he outworked me.

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Heres Logans 1 year transformation on my beginner bodyweight
program and later my coaching program:

(Click Here to view Logan Randos 5 minute testimonial video)

So make sure your dedication and expectations match.

If you arent willing to follow a proper diet plan and training program, you
cant expect the same results as someone who does.

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Fitness Mistake #11: Relying on a training partner.

Have you seen those guys at the gym who make the bench press into
an assisted rowing exercise?

Maybe YOU are one of these guys.

Either way, you need to know that this kind of training is not only
dangerous, but also unproductive.

As a beginner, your joints and muscles are not ready to max out, so its a
VERY bad idea to start training with a partner who pushes you too much.

In contrast, when you train with a partner that is much weaker than you,
you will spend a lot of time talking in between sets and wasting time.

In addition, most training partners will show up for a few weeks and then
suddenly the excuses start coming in:

I feel sore today.

I have school work.
I didnt sleep much.
I have a cold.

Sometimes these things are true, but in most cases they are just
excuses.

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Its not like you cant show up at the gym just because you didnt sleep
much or because you have a cold.

These kind of training partners are the worst because they give you
an excuse to skip the gym on a regular basis.

Now, this doesnt mean that all training partners are bad.

However, it means that you should be very careful when selecting a

training partner.

And my advice is that you wait with finding a training partner until you
have at least 6 months experience on a proper training program.

Once you have more experience, you will be in a better position to know
how far you should push yourself each training session and what kind of
training partner is good for you.

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Fitness Mistake #12: Thinking of transforming as a
sprint rather than a marathon.
I want to look great naked in 6 months.
I want to lose fat now.
Please tell me some tips to get ripped fast. (While putting in as little
effort as possible.)

Theres nothing wrong with looking for solutions that will enable you to
reach your goal physique fast.

However, theres a big issue if you want to avoid hard work to get results
faster.

No matter how you put it, the only way you will build a great body is by
consistent, hard work for +1 year.

The people who look for quick fixes, easy solutions, secret diet pills are
similar to the people who sell these gimmicks: even if they do become
successful, they will miss the most important lesson of getting a good
body: the character growth that comes as a result of working hard for a
goal that you want to achieve.

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You see

I have seen a lot of steroid and hormone users at my gym, and while
they have become more muscular and more shredded than me (in a
shorter period of time), they lack the character development that
comes from years of working hard.

Most of them are big on the outside, but small on the inside.

The same goes for people who sell these diet pills and fitness
scams.

They may look successful to an outside observer, but on the inside,

theres no way they can possibly feel good about what they do.

So think twice before you decide to go for a quick fix rather than putting
in the work.

The decision can shape the way you do things in other areas of life such
as business, career and relationships.

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Fitness Mistake #13: Not being open to new
approaches.

If you asked me about bodybuilding back in 2010-2012 (where I looked

like I didn't even lift), I would have told you that you need to eat a high
protein diet and lift heavy weights, because thats what all the credible
sources say you must do to build a great physique.

Then, one day I came across a book called How Much Protein by
Brad Pilon.

This book completely challenged my beliefs about protein intake, and

recommended a much lower protein intake than the magazines (I
believe it was 70-130 grams of protein per day depending on your size).

In the beginning, I was skeptical about the advice provided in that

book, but I decided to give it a shot, because the arguments made
in the book were sound.

The book basically stated that there are no good studies supporting the
kind of protein intakes recommended by the major bodybuilding and
fitness magazines.

The book ended up changing my life in a major way.

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I stopped obsessing about hitting my daily protein target of 200 grams, a
target that I was convinced I must hit to be able to build any amount of
muscle mass.

What Im trying to say is that you should try out different things once in a
while and listen to people who have done what you want to do.

Dont be that guy who quotes pubmed abstracts to disprove whether

something working or not.

Most diet and training studies are poorly designed anyways and you can
find a study that proves pretty much anything you want it to.

Therefore, you need to actually try things out first, regardless of what
some study says.

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Fitness Mistake #14: Wanting to look like a fitness
model or actor who gets paid to look great.
One of the biggest fitness mistakes I see among skinny-fat men is
related to expectations.

I have guys email me pictures of how they want to look, and these
pictures are often of fitness models or actors that MAKE A LIVING
FROM THEIR BODY.

These guys get PAID to look a certain way.

When an actor or fitness model has 8 weeks to get ready for a role or a
photo-shoot, they cant leave it up to chance and potentially lose a lot of
money.

So they take drugs, hormones and steroids to speed up their

results.

These give them a huge advantage over those of us who train drug-free.

In this article I cover a 1996 study which shows that guys who inject
testosterone gain 2 times as much muscle mass without doing any kind of
training, compared to guys who train three times per week without injecting
testosterone.

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You read that right: A guy who injects testosterone but doesnt workout,
gains two times as much muscle mass as a guy who does regular
workouts without injecting testosterone.

So yes, steroids and hormones do work extremely well and you cant
compare your results to someone who takes them if you dont.

Below I will show you an example of a great drug-free physique:

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The photo is of famous fitness YouTuber, Scott Herman who is roughly
170 pounds at 510.

Scott has worked out for over 10 years and he has above average
genetics. (He has never been fat before).

Im 100% certain that Scott Herman is drug free because:

1. It took him over 10 years to build his physique.

2. The picture is taken in great lighting, with a muscle pump and from a
good angle. In his videos, he doesnt look that big.
3. Hes naturally a lean guy which means he has a low amount of fat
cells.1 This enables him to maintain a ripped body year around while
having a some-what full and muscular look.

Scott Herman is what I consider to be the peak of a natural

bodybuilding physique.

His physique can be achieved by those of you who are naturally lean
and willing to put in 5-10 years into building muscle mass.

1 Fat cells form during puberty. If youre fat while growing up, you will have more of them and
these will never go away. Theyre always ready to get filled up when you eat big meals, thereby
making it much harder for those of us who carried a lot of fat while going through puberty to stay
lean.

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The rest of us skinny-fat and fat guys will be able to achieve a
bigger and fuller looking physique with more body-fat and perhaps
more muscle mass, but we wont be as lean as Scott.

With that said, we will be able to cut down and get very lean for limited
periods of time, but it will be hard to maintain very low body-fat levels
long-term since its not where our bodies naturally want to be.

Also, another point I want to make is regarding photos.

Heres another photo of Scott Herman taken in less good lighting

and from a worse angle:

He looks completely different in this photo.

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The reason is because lighting, training pump and angles make all the
difference.

I could change up just the lighting and angle to take a before-after photo
of my body in the same day! Thats how much they matter.

So, what kind of look should us skinny-fat guys aim for? A good and
realistic goal for most of us is to build a V-tapered upper body with wide
shoulders, a flat waist and some ab-definition, but not necessarily 6-
pack abs.

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The photo above shows that while it can be hard to get visible abs if
youre naturally skinny-fat, its very possible to build A LOT of muscle
mass in the right places and draw attention away from the mid-section.

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Fitness Mistake #15: Using the mirror to track
progress.
When you look at yourself in the mirror, you will be the last person to see
your progress because the changes are so gradual.

In addition, you cant expect the people that you see on a daily
basis to tell you that you look better.

Most often, they will either not say anything since the changes will be so
gradual.

Or they will say something discouraging like: It looks like youre getting
skinny so you should come eat some McDonalds with me.

You see, the people around you will always say they want you to
become healthy, but what they say and do are two different things.

Therefore, the best thing you can do to stay motivated (and

consistent) with your training and diet is to track your progress.

With my clients, I have them check-in with me every Sunday in a shared

Google Sheet where they put in their key body measurements and
training stats.

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This ensures that I can monitor their progression and make adjustments
to their plan whenever needed.

Below, I will show you 2 examples of how progression tracking can look
like.

Example (1): Client who wants to get better at bodyweight

exercises:

The sheet above shows my clients 5-6 week progression where he went
from 0 to 10 pull ups (and he was only training 80 minutes per week due
to his busy work schedule).

This is amazing progress for a skinny-fat guy in his mid thirties.

Also, the sheet above look messy.

Some weeks theres progress, other weeks theres no progress or

the sheet isnt even filled out.

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Thats not unusual for my clients.

The truth is that even the most dedicated people fall of the wagon once
in a while, but the difference between the ones who make it and those
who dont is persistence.

The clients who make the biggest changes to their bodies are the
ones who relentlessly look for solutions whenever theyre travelling
or busy and who pick up where they left off as fast as possible
when they fall of the wagon.

You dont need to do everything perfectly to get results. You just need to
take the right actions most of the time.

Example (2): Client who wants to get wider shoulders:

This sheet shows my Indian client Harshit Godha who wants to build
wide shoulders.

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In 8 weeks Harshit added almost 2.5 inches (6 CM) to his shoulder
circumference while losing more than 10 pounds of fat and almost 2
inches on his waist.

This kind of progression is again, amazing for skinny-fat men.

Harshit is young and hitting the gym 6 days a week for 90 minutes and
following a diet plan to the letter, so he is pretty much an ideal scenario
when it comes to how fast a skinny-fat guy can progress.

Heres a photo showing Harshits progress:

(Harshit Godha after being on my coaching program for about 12 weeks. Click Here
to read my case study about him.)

And the photo leads me to the next point.

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In addition to tracking their progress in a spreadsheet and making
adjustments to their plan based on their weekly check-ins, I also
have my clients take monthly progression photos.

Progression photos are phenomenal because of the following reasons:

They are the only way to see your actual body progress.
When you see even small amounts of progress on your photos, you
will get a big boost of motivation to continue with your training and
diet.
Sometimes body-measurements arent enough because when you
lose fat and gain muscle mass at the same time, your measurements
might stay the same but your photos will show a big difference.

I would even go as far as saying that had I not taken progression photos
and regular body measurements, I would most likely have quit training
before I got to see any results.

Be proud but stay hungry,

Oskar Faarkrog,

Get notified when my full eBook is out

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Testimonials By Coaching
Clients
Steve Chavez, Peru

1a) Why did you hire me as your body transformation coach?

I watched your transformation pictures and video and it amazed me, I didn't
thought anyone that was skinny fat could be in that shape and I could relate
to all the problems you had been through. Also I read all your blog articles
and they all made sense to me.They were to the point and filled with your
experience, they were exempt of any motivational bullshit and completely
logical, also by reading your replies to comments I noticed that you were
honest since you never claimed to have all the answers.I never considered
online coaching at that time but by seeing all the trial and error you went
through for years, I thought of all the valuable knowledge you had to offer
me if I got you as a coach so I'm glad I found you offered that service.

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1b) Was it an easy decision?
I never did online coaching before. And I didn't thought I would ever do it
since I've always heard that it was easy to get scammed, but after reading
your honest advice and doing the application form for your coaching it was
clear to me that that risk didn't exist, so that made the decision easier for
me, it was the best decision I made for my personal health.

2) How has my coaching helped you with your body transformation?

More than just helping I'd say it was the root cause. Without your coaching
I wouldn't been able to improve my physique.

3) Did your body transformation help you overcome other issues in

life?
Many, the clothes now fit me better, I haven't just improved my physical
health but also my mental health. Also there's another perhaps not planned
consequence of the body transformation. It used to be impossible for me to
go out of my house after eating lunch or any other significant meal, I felt
bloated and overall irritable and also avoided eating on the street. This
caused me a lot of social issues. Thanks to the constant exercise and the
customized diet plan, nowadays I can go out after lunch and eat on the
street normally.

4) What kind of results have you gotten since you started following
my coaching program?

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Results have being the best I've got in my entire life. I'm in the best shape
I've been. I think the pictures say all of this. Before I followed intermitent
fasting, HIIT and a routine that was designed for me in a gym, I didn't get
any noticeable results.Yours were the best results by far.

5) How do you feel about the structure of my diet plan? Do you feel
strong and energized on it? Is it easy to prepare the meals and stick
to the diet throughout the week?
Is the best diet I've followed. Since you customized according to my needs
it was simple and easy to maintain and I never felt it was hard to follow it.
The pinneaple does magic to my stomach, I never feel bloated now and I
feel energized over the day.I'm plannig to stick with this diet for the rest of
my life.

6) How do you feel about the structure of my training program? Do

you feel your muscles get worked well in a time efficient manner?
Is the best workout I've had, I've never did a single pull up, managing to do
pull up reps was a breakthrough for me. I really like the bodyweight
exercises, I feel accomplished when I progress on them and also I feel
stronger and more agile after doing them. With weights exercises I feel I
somehow get clumsier. It's really fulfilling seen I'm getting closer to that v-
taper form.

7) What makes my training programs and diet plans better than those
you tried before?

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They take into account the skinny-fat body type, since it comes from your
own experience being skinny fat and overcoming it.

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8) How did you like the weekly progression check ins and monthly
progression photos? Did they help you stay focused and stick to your
plan?
They showed me how to train. Before the only way of tracking progress I
had was by watching myself. They made me visualize progress and served
me to be motivated and to stick with the plan.

9) During my coaching you had access to my private email address

and you could ask any questions that came up. Do you feel I gave you
timely and clear replies to your questions?
All of your replies were clear and on time.

10) How clear are the exercise and diet instructions in my

documents? Were they easy to follow?
They were simple, short and with the neccesary detail. I followed them
easily.

11) What does a typical day in your life look like?

Before it was a sedentary life. Now I workout usually first hour morning and
work on my computer until late night.If for some reason I cannot workout in
the morning I do it late at night. If I miss a workout now I feel bad and
uncomfortable, like I'm losing shape.

12) Is there anything you would like to add? If so, please do it here.

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Your program has improved my physical and and mental health. It was the
best investment I've ever made. Also a life lesson I got by reading your
blog that can be applied to accomplish other long term goals as well
wasthat one must not rely on motivation but on habit. I'm going to maintain
your training program and diet as a lifestyle.

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 Gordon Martin, US

1a) Why did you hire me as your body transformation coach?

I hired you because you struggled with your weight growing up. You know
what it feels like to struggle with body image in a world that tells men that
they are not allowed to have body image issues. Most of all, you were able
to overcome all of these obstacles and build an amazing physique! I knew
you were the real thing before I hired you!

1b) Was it an easy decision?

Yes! You were incredibly supportive from the time we first chatted on
Skype.

2) How has my coaching helped you with your body transformation?

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I have lost over 25 pounds and about 4.5 inches since we started. I still
have a long way to go, but I am so much happier with my body.

3) Did your body transformation help you overcome other issues in

life?
The combination of support, healthy food, and exercise have made me feel
less stressed out and more capable of handling daily challenges. When I
get in a bad mood, its time to work out!

4a) What kind of results have you gotten since you started following
my coaching program?
For the first time in 36 years, I am losing fat rather than gaining it! I already
look better than most of my friends who are out of shape and overweight.

4b) How do these results compare to the results you got on other
programs you followed prior to my blog advice and coaching?
The results are slow but steady. Other programs always offer a quick fix
the quick fixes sometimes work. Then you stop, and you gain everything
back again. Your coaching is more like running a marathon rather than
sprinting a short distance. I now realize that it will take another year or so
before I reach my goals, but you have given me the tools to reach them
slowly but surely. You helped me build new, healthy habits!

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5) How do you feel about the structure of my diet plan? Do you feel
strong and energized on it? Is it easy to prepare the meals and stick
to the diet throughout the week?
I have never eaten so much on a diet! There were many times I simply felt
that I couldnt stuff another bite in my mouth. I shop and cook once a week.
Right now, my fridge is stocked for the week salmon, chicken breast,
ground turkey meat, grilled vegetables, rice, sweet potatoes I have the
most delicious meals that only require 3 minutes in the microwave. No
more endless snacking on garbage that never fills me up. The food always
makes me feel full and happy and never bloated or slowed down or gassy.

6) How do you feel about the structure of my training program? Do

you feel your muscles get worked well in a time efficient manner?
I loved the customized bodyweight workouts. For those of us who travel a
lot, there are no more problems with finding a gym. Also, the workouts are
short and to the point. I like working out now, but I still want to be done in
an hour or less. Your workouts were perfectly timed and easy for an out-of-
shape beginner to follow and work on.

7) What makes my training programs and diet plans better than those
you tried before?
The personal interaction and accountability. When I first started, I often
found myself choosing healthier food options because I did not want to
have a bad weekly check-in with you. I knew that if I did bad, you would
question my commitment, and I would feel like a lazy fool.

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8) How did you like the weekly progression check ins and monthly
progression photos? Did they help you stay focused and stick to your
plan?
I will probably do weekly check ins and monthly progress photos for the
rest of my life. This is the ONLY thing that consistently works for me. Its
Monday morning, and I am already thinking about what I need to do to
have a great week and lose some more inches off of my mid-section.
Making photos of yourself is a great way to critique your physique. Its
totally different than simply looking in a mirror.

9) During my coaching you had access to my private email address

and you could ask any questions that came up. Do you feel I gave you
timely and clear replies to your questions?
You were always easy to reach and gave me thoughtful, educated answers
to my questions.

10) How clear are the exercise and diet instructions in my

documents? Were they easy to follow?
Very clear and easy to follow. I would tell future clients to turn off their
brains, listen to Oskar, and get ready to lose some weight.

11) Is there anything you would like to add? If so, please do it here.

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You are one of the few people on the Internet involved with mens health
topics that actually cares and can get results for clients. The money I spent
on your coaching services are the best money I ever spent!

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 Logan Rando, US

Hi, my name is Logan Rando and Ive been a skinnyfattransformation

reader for one year and two months.

I began my fitness transformation in December of 2014 and I stumbled

across Oskars website while reading through some fitness forums.

For several months I had been killing myself in the gym, lifting heavy
weights five days a week. My results were lacklustre and I constantly felt
lethargic and irritable.

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I was putting in very hard work at the gym yet wasnt gaining the muscle I
felt I deserved. Even worse, I felt that I was retaining fat in all the wrong
places. I still had a visible belly and very little definition. I had friends that
put in half the effort I did yet were receiving stellar results? I thought to
myself what am I doing wrong?!

When I discovered Oskars website, skinnyfattransformation.com I had a

moment of clarity.

For the first time in my life, someone was specifically addressing my build
and my genetics. The skinny-fat physique perfectly described my body
type.

When I read about Oskars personal transformation from skinny-fat to

ripped, I knew I had to try his body-weight regimen for myself. My mind
raced with excitement as I drove to the gym from work that day.

I was so eager to try out his back-to-basics routine that I drove so fast and
actually got a speeding ticket on the way over to the gym.

After 6 months of doing the beginner body weight routine I found myself 30
pounds lighter, with visible abs and a lean build.

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I took a vacation to the Dominican Republic and was constantly
complimented on my physique. Friends who hadnt seen me in months
were astonished and inspired by my transformation.

My progress inspired one of my friends, who also had a skinny-fat body

type, to join me at the gym.

I knew this program worked for more than just me when I saw him lose his
love handles and chest fat while gaining a toned masculine build in a few
months time.

After making the best progress I ever had, I felt amazing but was hungry for
more. I knew I was ready to take my fitness to the next level, so it was a
no-brainer when I made the decision to work with Oskar in the online
coaching program.

After skyping with Oskar he made note of my personal fitness goals and
designed an exercise routine and diet plan tailored to my goals and
lifestyle.

Following the fitness regimen could not have been simpler. Oskar laid out
each exercise with the prescribed rep range, number of sets, and rest
periods.

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The diet plan included nutritious foods that I like to eat and was incredibly
easy to follow.

I was never tempted to fall off the wagon because Oskar built into the plan
two cheat meals per week. I constantly looked forward to my meals, felt
satiated, and was energized for my intense workouts.

In the past, workout routines I found online had me lifting so heavy that I
was quickly drained of energy and struggled to complete the remaining
exercises. The results I received from these efforts were nonexistent! The
routine that Oskar designed challenged me to work every muscle group in
my body in a timely, effective manner. I always left the gym feeling satisfied
that I put in a hard days work while hitting each muscle groups effectively.

Simply put, the return on investment that Oskars plan yielded far exceeded
that of any workout I had previously used.

The most important part of the training process for me was the constant
line of communication I had with Oskar. On a weekly basis I input body
measurements into a google spreadsheet. With this data, Oskar could
monitor exactly how my body was changing and could adapt the plan to
minimize fat loss while maximizing muscle gains.

Within 24 hours of updating my stats, Oskar would provide valuable

feedback and adjust the plan if needed.

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Whenever I needed clarification or had a question, I could count on Oskar
getting back to me very quickly. I felt that I received a lot of value and
personal attention from the program.

After completing a 12 week coaching program with Oskar, Im pleased to

say that gained significant size to my biceps, shoulders, and back all while
maintaining a lean figure.

Oskar and I skyped at the conclusion of the program and he provided me

with the tools and knowledge to continue into the future. Im absolutely
confident that Im prepared to continue to make muscle gains on my own!

If anyone is unsure about whether or not this coaching program is for you, I
urge you to try Oskars body-weight routine, see the results you get, and
then ask yourself if you want more. Oskar is determined to help you reach
your fitness goals and will be along with you every step of the way.

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Alex Huang, Taiwan: Presenting The SKINNY-FAT
TRANSFORMATION philosophy for his class

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