How Sachin Went From 'Skinny-Fat' To 6 Pack Muscle!

At the start of the year, Sachin had two choices: join a generic, cookie-cutter 90 day fat loss program, or experience the power of joining a platform that creates specific, targeted fitness and nutrition plans designed with each individual’s unique needs in mind.

For a while he was leaning towards the former, until his brother in law, and now fellow RNTer, showed him the case study results of one of our success stories, Anand.

As someone who’s also a father of two young children trying to find balance between fitness, family and the demands of long working hours in the City, he decided to go all in with RNT.

Sachin’s goal was simple. He had a few big family holidays coming up and he wanted to get his ‘insides’ better while also finally achieving the 6 pack he’d been yearning for.

With time being his biggest issue, he wanted a plan that would tell him what to eat, when and what to do in the gym, and to give him the accountability, support and guidance required to reach his goal.

And so in typical RNT fashion, we’re going to break down step-by-step how Sachin went from ‘skinny-fat’ to lean and ripped!

Starting Point

Prior to starting with RNT, he was doing the following:

Training – 3 days a week full body for 35-40 minutes. While Sachin was a regular gym goer, it was all a bit random and he had no real structure. Because of long working hours and stressful deadlines, work often dictated how often and how long he’d be in the gym.

Cardio – 1-2 days a week of steady state cardio for 20 minutes, along with 90 minutes of 5 a side football once a week.

Diet – Sachin’s diet wasn’t terrible. It was just a lack of planning, preparation and structure that needed to be fixed in order to accelerate his results. A typical day may have been; breakfast: eggs on toast, lunch: chicken and veg, dinner: home cooked Indian food. On top of this though, there would be multiple meals out, especially on the weekends

Starting Bodyweight – 65kg

Starting Umbilicus – 85cm

“The reason I decided to join RNT was simple. Whilst I thought I was active and healthy, I always struggled to get that lean look. I just couldn’t understand what I was doing wrong – until now! My gym sessions had no set routine and whilst I tried to eat healthy 4 days out of 7, I really wasn’t and the weekend binging didn’t help at all!

I needed someone to tell me exactly what to do and when, for me to trust the process – and then let the results follow!”

INITIAL CHANGES

To start Sachin off, here’s what we did:

Training – To begin with, we kept the training to 3 full body workouts a week, while rotating between two workouts.

Diet –

His starting macros were as follows:

Protein: 180g

Fats: 65g

Carbs: 140g

Sachin wanted a set meal plan to begin with, which would make it easier for him to stay within his calorie limit and his macros. At the same time, he also wanted to educate himself on why he was doing what he was doing. This is the perfect blend that we like most of RNTers to start with.

We don’t want members thinking too much about different foods at the beginning, we want to educate them so that they can transition to being self-sufficient and knowledgeable about nutrition.

It’s this combination that allows you generate fast results on the onset, but maintain them for life after.

Sachin really embraced this educational aspect, and it’s no surprise that over the course of the transformation he went from being on a set meal plan, to using our RNT flexible tracker, to being able to use macro/calorie targets and build his own diet plans.

All that being said, this was how we laid it out at the start:

Meal 1: 200g Skyr, 1 Whole Eggs, 100g Blueberries

Meal 2: 40g Whey, 30g Almond Butter, 2 Rice Cakes

Meal 3: 150g Chicken Breast, 50g Rice, 1 Teaspoon E-V Olive Oil, Greens

Meal 4: 40g Whey, 30g Almond Butter, 2 Rice Cakes

Meal 5: 200g Tofu, 50g Rice, Greens

He was vegetarian at home, which meant dinner in the week and his weekends were all meat-free.

Supplements – Here’s what we used to begin with:

Whey Protein (Optimum Nutrition)
Vitamin D3 (Reflex) – 2000IU with breakfast
Creatine Monohydrate (Reflex) – 5g with any shake
Omega 3 Fish Oil (Nordic) – 2 teaspoons per day

Cardio – No traditional cardio to begin with. All Sachin had to focus on was taking 10,000 steps a day.

1 Week In – 63.5kg

A solid start to the plan, with a nice chunk of bodyweight off, with also 3.5cm off his waist measure too.

The only issue he had right now was he was full all the time! He was finding the food volume really high, and struggling to finish all the food. A good problem to have, but one which I knew he wouldn’t be complaining about in a few weeks once his metabolism kicked in, so I told him to make the most of it!

This is something many members remark on at the beginning of their journey. They ask if we’re sure about the food intake, or if they’re overeating. What’s really happening though is they’re eating less than they were before, but instead of calorie dense, low volume foods, their diets are now voluminous and nutritious, so they feel full very quickly.

No changes to training, diet, supplements and cardio.

2 Weeks In – 62.9kg

Another perfect week in the books, and despite his wife’s birthday and multiple social occasions, we built the necessary workarounds in order to stay on track.

The extreme fullness also didn’t last that long as expected, and a little hunger was beginning to kick in!

No changes to training, diet, supplements and cardio.

3 Weeks In – 62.8kg

Sachin was completely embracing himself into the process, and living the ‘RNT lifestyle’. Meals nailed to the T, steps hit daily, progressive overload with perfect form in the gym, all while also reading the articles, watching the videos, and listening to the podcasts.

We wanted to give Sachin a little push this week, so we introduced some carb cycling by reducing carbs on rest days to 100g, and dropping fats by 5g daily.

His macros were now as follows:

Protein: 160g

Fats: 60g (-5g)

Carbs: 140g or 100g (3x a week on rest days)

We also introduced some low intensity steady state (LISS) cardio three days in the week for 25 minutes, which he added into his morning routine by power walking to a different tube station!

Changes to be implemented: Carbs reduced to 100g on rest days, fats dropped by 5g daily, LISS introduced at 3×25 min per week.

No changes to training or supplementation.

4 Weeks In – 62.5kg

Loads of socials this week, and it was a tough week mentally for Sachin to stick with it all. But he knew his goal, and nothing was deterring him from it.

One issue we faced this week was he felt a tweak in his hernia area while playing football, which meant his weight training took a hit.

Only change this week was an extra LISS session and a slight increase of overall steps to 11,000, just to increase energy expenditure while intensity in the gym was lower due to the slight injury.

Changes to be implemented: Increase LISS to 4×25 min on non weights days, steps up to 11,000.

No changes to training, diet or supplementation.

5 Weeks In – 61.8kg

The question Sachin asked this week was how much weight will he need to drop to get his abs out, and will he end up looking too skinny?

This is quite a common question as most people underestimate how much body fat they carry and over estimate how much much muscle they have. To set the correct expectation we replied:

In terms of how much weight you need to be dropping, you’ve got a lot of body fat to get off, so if you want abs, still a fair amount. It’s best to not be guided by the number. Most people typically overestimate how much body fat they have. Case in point. I was 71kg on stage (at 5 foot 10), which is nothing when you think about it, but that was without pretty much any body fat. If you focus as much as possible on being progressive in the gym (once pain free again after hernia tweak), that’ll help build muscle and will make sure you don’t look skinny by the end.

At 5 foot 6 with not huge amounts of muscle mass, the scale may raise concern, which is why having an objective eye is so important. Many people place too much stock in certain scale numbers, and this becomes self limiting in the results you can achieve as you end up with the mindset of ‘I don’t want to go below X’.

This week Sachin had to train with very light weights in the 15 to 20 rep range due to the hernia issue, but it was all healing up quickly, and he was ready to push again.

I always like shifting people to four days a week training if lifestyle and recovery permits, so this week we added in an extra day, and changed the split slightly as a result.

The plan was now the following:

Day 1: Chest/Arms/Posterior Chain

Day 2: Back/Shoulders/Quads

Day 3: Rest

Day 4: Chest/Back/Shoulders

Day 5: Legs/Arms

Day 6: HIIT/Football

Day 7: Rest

Football was becoming a little irregular at this point, so we had a contingency HIIT session planned as an alternative, which was done for 20 minutes.

We pushed on all fronts this week, and also bumped LISS to 5 days a week of 25 minutes while also increasing the daily step target to 12,000 a day.

With his diet, we reduced carbs by 20g across all days, so his macros were now as follows:

Protein: 160g

Fats: 60g

Carbs: 120g (-20g) or 80g (-20g)

Changes to be implemented: Training up to 4 days a week, LISS up to 5x25min, steps up to 12,000. Carbs reduced by 20g everyday.

No changes to supplementation.

6 Weeks In – 61.8kg

Hunger was kicking in now, and so Sachin started delaying his first meal of the day in order to help manage this. By condensing meals into a smaller time frame, it’d help him feel fuller towards the back end of the day.

He was also using this extended fasting period in the morning to get his cardio done. This week we increased LISS by 5 minutes on the 5 days a week, and dropped fats by 5g everyday.

His macros were now:

Protein: 160g

Fats: 55g (-5g)

Carbs: 120g or 80g

Changes to be implemented: LISS now at 5×30 min, and fats dropped by 5g.

No changes to training.

“6 weeks in and I am loving it. Weight was flying off, I was looking that little bit leaner and a more structured gym program meant that I was making real tangible progress in the gym. At this point I felt that I had the food planning and preparing down to a T with me spending Sunday afternoon getting the week’s food ready. Meant that I didn’t need to think about food prep for the rest of the week and just had to eat – autopilot mode!

Steps were difficult to get in. Even though it was ‘only’ 12,000 steps I found it hard to get in. I started off with doing night time walks to ensure I got the steps in by the end of the day but on many occasions this ate into family time or I was pretty tired. I simply had to plan this better so morning walks to a tube station (or two!) meant that I was constantly hitting my target.”

7 Weeks In – 60.9kg

A solid week this week, and a nice chunk of body fat off. Abs were beginning to show an outline down the middle slightly, so motivation was kicking in too.

We increased LISS to 30 minutes everyday now, while pushing steps up to 13,000 a day. We also lowered fats by 5g to 50g daily now.

His macros were now:

Protein: 160g

Fats: 50g (-5g)

Carbs: 120g or 80g

Changes to be implemented: 30 min daily LISS, steps up to 13,000 a day, fats reduced by 5g everyday.

No changes to training or supplementation.

8 Weeks In – 60.0kg

A tough week for Sachin. A combination of crazy hours at work, a twisted ankle from football, and the man flu meant motivation levels were dipping and being tested.

The motivation dip is also normal for this time of the transformation, and one of the messages to him consisted of the following:

You’re going to get that motivation dip. You’re over the honeymoon period of the first 4-6 weeks where it’s all new and exciting. This is where most people give up, but those who persist, lean into the ‘dip’ and grind through are the ones who succeed and come out with abs. Trust the process! Now it’s about implementing that ruthless consistency, continuing to tick all the boxes, and taking each day as it comes.

Sachin also had a short trip to Nice as a birthday surprise from his wife. The plan was to keep steps up, try sneak a session or two in, and to reduce total meals to 3 a day with an emphasis on protein and greens.

No changes to training, diet, cardio or supplementation.

9 Weeks In – 59.4kg

Another week that went off track. Sachin was recovering from illness, his Nice trip and getting back on plan.

It ended up being a week without any weight training, but Sachin did well to stay on track with his diet, even when abroad for his birthday!

His kids wanted to take him for a traditional birthday dinner at Nando’s, so we made a few adjustments and worked it into his plan, which went down very well!

The aim now was to get completely back on track and nail a full week of ‘normality’ again.

No changes to training, diet, cardio or supplementation.

10 Weeks In – 59.9kg

Sachin was back in the game now, and despite all the temptations of his birthday treats, surprises and events, he kept his blinders up.

We decided to step on the gas now by dropping fats by 5g daily, and reducing non weight training day carbs to 60g.

His macros were now:

Protein: 160g

Fats: 45g (-5g)

Carbs: 120g or 60g (-20g)

We also increased cardio up to 35 minutes daily, with an extra and steps up to 14,000 a day.

Sachin also decided to put football on hold given the injuries he’d been picking up recently, and so we instead replaced it with HIIT every week now.

Changes to be implemented: Non weight training day carbs down to 60g, fats reduced by 5g. Cardio up to 35 min daily, steps up to 14,000 a day, and caffeine increased to 400mg pre cardio.

No changes to training.

11 Weeks In – 58.8kg

Hunger was kicking in now, but a few things were really helping Sachin at this point:

Utilising the RNT Nutrition Tracker to help make the odd swap in food choices, which stimulated a little variety and kept the meals exciting.
Listening to the RNT Fitness Radio podcast during cardio to increase his education on why he’s doing what he’s doing. Sachin’s also a big action taker, so he implemented the small nuggets sprinkled through the episodes straight away with positive effect!

No changes to training, diet, cardio or supplementation.

12 Weeks In – 59kg

Easter weekend meant loads of socials and temptations, and we had to navigate around a total of 8 meals out this weekend.

Sachin was firmly in the zone though, so while we had to make workarounds, there was no falling off track.

We decided to make a push as while we’d made a lot of progress so far, we still had a lot to go to get the 6 pack out!

On the activity front, we pushed steps up to 15,000 a day and LISS up to 40 minutes daily.

For the diet, we dropped fats to 40g a day, and carbs to 100g on weight training days, and 50g on non-weight training days.

His macros were now:

Protein: 160g

Fats: 40g (-5g)

Carbs: 100g (-20g) or 50g (-10g)

This was going to be a hard push!

Changes to be implemented: Carbs cycled between 100g on weight training days, and 50g on non weight training days, while fats were reduced by 5g. Cardio up to 40 min daily and steps up to 15,000 a day.

No changes to training or supplementation.

13 Weeks In – 58.2kg

This was one of Sachin’s best weeks. I was happy with the progress he was making, but felt he needed a little more ab work, so we added some ab circuits prior to his HIIT sessions.

Besides this, the only addition was an extra 5 minutes to his morning LISS.

Changes to be implemented: Additional ab circuits prior to HIIT, and extra 5 mins to LISS.

No changes to diet or supplementation.

14 Weeks In – 57.5kg

Another perfect week nailed, whereby Sachin was also implementing a few hunger tricks, such as:

Increasing his fasting window to 15-16 hours, in order to allow him to eat more calories in a shorter timeframe.
Adding in 10 kcal jelly. In his own words: “The jelly is a game changer by the way. Totally hits any sweet cravings and ending my day with the yoghurt, strawberry, cinnamon powder and a jelly. Brilliant meal to finish the day on.”

No changes to training, diet, cardio or supplementation.

Mid Week Feedback – The Social Stigma In Asian Culture

Halfway through week 15, Sachin dropped us a message telling us about the reaction he was receiving from his family. They were so stunned by his weight-loss that many family members said he looked ‘ill’, ‘old’ and ‘far too skinny’.

This wasn’t the odd person; he had big groups of family members come up to him worried and begging him to stop losing any more body fat.

Now, we have seen this happen with a lot of our members, especially from members who are Asian. So it was no surprise to hear about Sachin’s dilemma. He wanted to figure out a way to still reach his goal, albeit possibly in a slower manner that didn’t create as much of a ‘shock’.

He also sent a pic which was probably his best look to date:

We responded saying:

If you asked a bunch of Indians in their late 30s and 40s if they wished they looked like that and they’d all say hell YES! Let them call you ‘ill’, next time you just walk in with a shirt on, but no buttons done up, and we are sure they will all want to sign up to RNT!

Jokes aside… we discussed a plan (which we’d implement after week 15 was finished), and Sachin felt much more at ease.

This conversation though triggered the writing of the ‘Social Stigmas In Asian Culture’ article, which resonated with more people than we’d have imagined when writing it!

“Leading up to this point, I felt like I was on cloud nine. Socials weren’t being put on hold – just simply navigating around them. I was looking leaner and most importantly I was just feeling better.

This particular weekend was a bit of an eye opener for me. Stressful week at work, late nights, playing football in the heat and then off to a couple of Indian events where people hadn’t seen me in months – and boy did I get an interesting reaction from many family members! It was probably a bit of a shock for them to see me looking ‘leaner’ and that coupled with lack of understanding, meant that not only I but my mum, wife and in-laws got numerous comments about me looking ‘ill’.

Not going to lie, confidence took a knock especially as my mum/in laws started to get worried but after a conversation with the wife, and some RNTers I knew these type of comments were normal and was down to the ‘Social Stigma in Asian Cultures’ as Akash said in his article, they just needed educating.

Still a diet break was very welcomed and now after a few before/after pics, these very same people are now like WOW!

15 Weeks In – 56.9kg

The plan we’d put in place was to implement a two week ‘diet break’.

We kicked it off with a meal out with his kids, followed by 10-14 days on higher calories with these macros:

Protein: 150g (-10g)

Fats: 60g (+20g)

Carbs: 200g (+100-150g)

We also dropped activity significantly too, by dropping all HIIT, reducing steps to 10,000 a day and LISS down to 3 days a week of 30 minutes on his non weight training days.

The focus for this period was to give Sachin a little mental break/boost, increase his performance in the gym, and ‘prime’ his body for a final four week fat loss phase.

When you’ve been pushing for a while, this increase in calories can be a scary thought, but Sachin asked all the right questions, and went into this phase with the knowledge that it was only going to improve his results later down the line.

Changes to be implemented: Protein reduced by 10g, fats up by 20g, carbs up by 100 to 150g a day. All HIIT dropped, steps down to 10,000 a day, and LISS down to 3 days a week for 30 minutes.

No changes to training.

16 Weeks In – 57.1kg

A great week and Sachin was pumped up! He was loving the diet break and ready to soon flip the switch and kick in the #VaghelaGrind to complete the transformation.

He also reached out to fellow RNTer Biraj, who experienced a similar journey, and was someone Sachin could relate to during his time doing The Grind.

Sachin and Biraj spoke about their various struggles and challenges during their transformations, and this is what makes us different, the community spirit embedded within the RNT family!

No changes to training, diet, cardio or supplementation.

17 Weeks In – 56.3kg

After the diet break was over, we immediately switched gears back to fat loss, and Sachin was like a caged animal waiting to blast the remaining bits of body fat off and reveal that 6 pack.

He also sent a message this week some words that I thought I’d share:

“This mini diet break has shown me what life will be like after – eat clean, track macros and make sensible choices – all whilst balancing the socials.

The RNT journey has helped me shift my mindset for the better. Historically if I was having a bad evening, then I would just go and have a full on bad day from breakfast to night (and yes it would certainly have included a KFC or two!) – and then probably spill into the day after. Now (and going forward), I have realised that you can still have a great time with food, drink and be social but need to get the right balance during the week which I think I am slowly finding thanks to you guys! #longtermgoals I walk away from RNT with a few things (including a better body) but knowledge and mindset shift are by far the most valuable learnings.”

After the diet break, we started on these macros:

Protein: 150g

Fats: 40g (-20g)

Carbs: 150g (-50g)

We also went right back into cardio at 40 minutes daily, and pushed steps back up to 15,000 a day. With the body primed to burn body fat, now was the time to push!

Changes to be implemented: Fats dropped by 20g, carbs reduced by 50g, and LISS up to 40 minutes a day with 15,000 steps daily. Caffeine and yohimbine added back in.

No change to training.

18 Weeks In – 56.2kg

It’s easy to become a monk and excuse ourself from all social occasions when you’re going through a hard fat loss diet, but that’s not what it should be about.

When I last competed in bodybuilding in 2017, I had two goals:

Get striated, ‘cheese grater’ glutes
Maintain my social life

And when I now look back at that last prep, which was one of the hardest things I’ve done, knowing I didn’t lock myself away and knowing that I still went out with family and friends right till the end is what I’m most happy about.

All our members live busy lives trying to balance family, work and socials, it’s this ability to juggle everything while churning out a result that brings the most satisfaction.

Sachin was doing exactly this. Still meeting his friends, still taking his girls out, still showing up at family events. He wasn’t hiding away, and this was showing him that you can live a healthy lifestyle while still living life!

With the deadline fast approaching, and a little more body fat to chip away at, we pushed on with a drop in carbs. His macros were now:

Protein: 150g

Fats: 40g

Carbs: 100g (-50g)

We also increased LISS to 45 minutes a day, and pushed steps up to 16,000 a day.

Changes to be implemented: Carbs reduced by 50g, LISS up by 5 minutes, steps increased to 16,000.

19 Weeks In – 55.8kg

It was a tough week for Sachin, with motivation waving up and down. But he was looking better and better. What’s interesting, and something I’ve noticed with myself too, is after the days Sachin felt the worst, that’s when he looked the best!

It was also now that we first spoke about doing a photoshoot in the next 1-2 weeks to mark the occasion.

No changes to training, diet, cardio or supplementation.

“The famous #VaghelaGrind was tough – I mean it was never going to be easy! Getting the LISS and steps in meant early mornings (and I am not a morning person), whilst ensuring that I nailed every gym session. PB’s weren’t being set but this was to be expected and was about just maintaining form and muscle.

The lower calories were hard and meant by the end of the day I was shattered and falling asleep on the sofa. BUT with support from family and friends and with the photoshoot in sight I knew it was a couple of weeks of hard grind that I had to push through. When motivations and energy levels were high I refocused on my WHY and that my goal was in sight.”

20 Weeks In: 55.1kg

The shoot was booked in, and with 7 days to go of hard dieting, Sachin went full-steam ahead. We pushed LISS up to 50 minutes a day, and Sachin aimed for anywhere between 17-20,000 steps.

We also dropped carbs to 50g daily, so he was now on the following:

Protein: 150g

Fats: 40g

Carbs: 50g

The end was in sight!

Changes to be implemented: Steps up to 17-20,000, LISS increased by 5 minutes, carbs dropped by 50g.

No changes to training or supplementation.

Final Week: 54.6kg

Sachin was ready to roll, and with a total of 10kg bodyweight down now (arguably far more in body fat!), he was feeling like a whole new man.

All we needed to do now was fill him out a little by tapering his activity and giving him a boost in carbs.

To peak for the Wednesday, here’s what we did. As you’ll see, no tricks or secrets, just a simple plan to bring his best on shoot day!

Game Day:

7.30am (2 hours before) – 20-25g Protein, 60g Carbs, 20g Fat, Extras Salt

During shoot – 2-3 scoops HBCDs from Raging Full

Lights, Camera, Action!

Final Stats/Testimonial:

Final Bodyweight – 54.3kg

Final Umbilicus – 67cm

These were his final comparison pictures:

Next Plan?

Get strong and build muscle!

Here’s what Sachin has to say about his overall experience with RNT Fitness:

I realised that after my dad passed away unexpectedly a few years ago, I wanted to do everything I could to make sure my ‘insides’ were as healthy as I could make them. I always thought I was eating relatively healthy and doing the right things in the gym – but it wasn’t really until this year that I wanted to dedicate some time to really getting fit and looking lean for once.

I didn’t jump into RNT immediately. I researched a few options – all online trainer’s/food plans but knew RNT was the one for a few reasons:

Proven results: the case studies showed that they help real, everyday busy people get results. It also helped that I knew of people that had done this so it made it even more real!
Personalised programme: the continuous support and personalised food and gym programme was exactly what I needed. I just needed someone to take the thinking out of it and for me to just go into autopilot mode and execute!
Awesome team: a couple of interactions is all it took for me to decide that RNT was the real deal and the plan for me. Helpful, knowledgeable and all round friendly team. I was sold!

Over the months I threw myself into the process and totally trusted the process – which is what you have to do to get the most out of the programme. I ensured that I was open and transparent so that any socials or diet breaks were factored in – nothing was ever a ‘no’ Sachin you can’t do this – it was always let’s make sure we get the right food and gym balance for you.

I’ve learnt so much over the weeks – from:

Appreciating that RNT goes over and beyond and that they really do care about their members. To the point where the RNT team dropped me a note on what would have been my late fathers 65th birthday and said – “make sure you relax and totally enjoy your family time today. Don’t worry about food/gym – it’s an important day for you and the family”. It was really at this point where I knew RNT wasn’t just an online training business looking to churn out business but was a real mentoring, coaching relationship driven team.
The content and podcasts RNT put up is so simple and hits the spot – so much knowledge for people to absorb.
With the right dedication and support you can achieve your goals. It was hard work but thanks to RNT, I am now in a position where I know I can make much better choices with my diet and gym plan so I can maintain a healthier me. The most important thing for me is that I feel so much better and long may this continue….

I’ve loved my journey and anyone who is serious about choosing an online trainer should definitely consider RNT – no magic – just simple, personalised support that is guaranteed to get you results!