They were challenged to gain muscle or lose weight in 40 days –

I wonder what’s easier: losing a few pounds or gaining lean mass? These were the motivations that led Tabita Alves, 31, and Beatriz Zacarias, 41, to face the QDesafio. The program is part of the Les Cinq Gym, in São Paulo, and promotes a proposal to change the body in just 40 days. Tabita focused on increasing her muscles and managed to reduce her body fat percentage from 25.6% to 23.4%, while Beatriz, who was looking for slimming, said goodbye to 8 kilos. And of course we went to ask them about the process:

Tabita Alves, 31 years old. Fat percentage: from 25.6% to 23.4%

– (Les Cinq Gym/Personal collection)

The stylist is from Goiás, but has been living in São Paulo for a year to accompany her husband, who is a doctor and works at a hospital in the state capital. Since before arriving in the city, Tabita tries to keep the healthy lifestyle, attending the gym every day of the week. In its menu, balanced meals were always present, which included the complex carbohydrates (such as sweet potatoes, cassava and brown rice), egg proteins, fish and chicken, and many fruits and vegetables.

Tabita’s workouts are set up and monitored by physical educator Gustavo de Moraes, personal trainer at Les Cinq. He says that, before the challenge, the girl’s routine was aimed more at weight loss than at gaining lean body mass. For this, they called metabolic training. “The series valued caloric expenditure. The exercises had more volume (repetitions) and less load. In addition to being more global, that is, activating several muscles in a single movement”, explains the personal.

How, then, to enhance the results of an assiduous workout student? “When a person is sedentary, it becomes much easier to evolve in a short period of time, which was not the case with Tabita”, says Gustavo. The solution was to improve physical activities, which became more complex and intense, and diet, which became a little more restrictive.

to promote the muscle growth, the muscles needed specific stimuli. Gustavo changed series like the squat with development, which activates different regions of the body, through more individualized exercises, with much more load and less repetitions. This allowed every muscle in Tabitha’s body to be worked harder.

“I also began to follow the principles of ketogenic diet”, says the stylist. She cut most of the carbohydrates from her dishes, consuming them only in fruits and vegetables. Breads, rice, pasta and roots like cassava and sweet potatoes were forbidden. “The focus was on proteins and good fats, like avocados. From time to time, she even ate bacon ”. The effort soon began to take effect: their body fat rates dropped and, after just 40 days, the differences are visible.

Now, your goal is to keep evolving. “We will increase the complexity of the exercises”, explains the physical educator. And Tabitha looks excited. “I faced the challenge because I wanted to set a goal for myself. Seeing that I was able to achieve it gave me more motivation to keep going.”

Beatriz Zacarias, 41 years old. Weight: from 69.8 kg to 61.7 kg

– (Les Cinq Gym/Personal collection)

The story of psychologist Beatriz Zacarias, from São Paulo, is quite different. She wasn’t a sports fan (with the exception of ballet fitnesswhich he always loved), but signed up for the gym two years ago, looking to lose the 6 kilos he gained after a health treatment.

Before the change, Beatriz made up any excuse to get away from the weights and machines. For her, the classes that really mattered were those that promoted the aerobic exercises, such as dancing and biking. And that was when he showed up at the gym. “I confess that I didn’t have a good frequency. And to make matters worse, he didn’t take care of his food, ”she says.

One day with pizza, the other with hamburgers, cheese bread at the end of the afternoon and happy hour with beer at night… She continued her carefree routine until the beginning of the year, when she realized that she had gained another 4 kilos. In total, she needed to eliminate 10! She then turned to physical educator Eliane Araújo Oliveira Santos, who is also a personal trainer at Les Cinq. “Beatriz came to me with a request: she wanted to lose weight, but not become flaccid”.

When we go through a weight loss process, it is normal for the elimination of body fat to leave tissues and skin looser, and consequently, more flaccid. Not allowing that to happen then became the psychologist’s challenge. “We had to focus on bodybuilding. With it, the weight loss process works as an exchange: at the same time that you lose fat, you strengthen your muscles, thus ensuring greater rigidity”, explains Eliane.

To tackle an activity that wasn’t really her thing, Beatriz does weight training three times a week, for a maximum of 30 minutes each, and then goes to the classes she enjoys so much. In this way, aerobic practices guarantee the burning of calories, while weight lifting leaves everything in place. “Is metabolic session, with many repetitions and less load. I tried to include multi-joint movements in the worksheet, which manage to cover several different musculatures. The bench press instead of the crucifix, for example”, says the personal. They also decreased the rest time between sets — this increases the heart rate and accelerates to Fat Burning.

Another aspect of Beatriz’s life that completely changed was her diet. In the first 30 days of the challenge, she opted for low carb diet, in which he cut bread, rice and pasta. For the remaining 10 days, he did like Tabitha and went keto. Then, all the other sources of carbohydrates he was still consuming (such as bananas and sweet potato), were completely cut. It was not an easy task for her. “I think I understood, for the first time, the healthy lifestyle. You can’t eat fried foods every day,” she says. When the urge hits, she still allows herself to opt for a sweetie and pasta, but they are now exceptions in her daily routine.

It didn’t take Beatriz long to see the positive effects of all the changes she made. In 40 days, in addition to losing 8 kilos (from 69.8 kilos to 61.7 kilos), his percentage of fat in the body decreased from 35.7% to 31.2%, all without becoming flaccid! “When you look in the mirror and see that your body is getting the shape you want, you start to fall in love with yourself. The challenge, for me, is a life-changing challenge”.