Read how this entrepreneur levelled up his life with RNT

Transforming your body will always generate results that transcend far beyond the physical. It positively impacts all areas of your life. Your mental health, your relationships, and even your wealth and finances will all benefit from the habits, discipline and structure a physical transformation embodies.

There’s many examples I can give here that represent the holistic improvements that one experiences, but a particular stand out for this case study is Shiv Haria.

Shiv came to RNT at the tail end of 2017 with the goal of finally achieving his physique goals. He’d been training with a personal trainer in the gym 5 to 6 days a week, but wasn’t achieving the results that reflected the efforts he was putting in.

He wanted a six pack, and he wanted the ‘Hollywood’ physique (in particular, Zac Efron from Baywatch!) that would allow him to confidently walk around with his top on or off, regardless of where he was.

Whilst we achieved Shiv’s physique goals, he’s most happy about the results that he’s experienced in the other areas of his life that have come as a result of his transformation.

His business has blown up.

His self-image and confidence has skyrocketed.

His relationships across all areas of his life have improved.

He’s making more money than ever before.

In this case study, we’re going to uncover how Shiv went from ‘skinny fat’ to six pack, while at the same time 10x’ing his life all over.

Starting Point

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

Training – Shiv was training with a personal trainer 5 to 6 days a week, although without the structure required to allow progressive overload to take place.

Cardio – This formed part of his personal training sessions, as some days were more cardio focused than others. But again, no real structure was built here.

Diet – Shiv’s diet before starting wasn’t actually that bad. His big challenge was knowing how much to eat, and when to eat what foods. As an example of his diet was as follows:

Breakfast: 2 poached eggs, rice, veg sausages, ½ avocado, tomatoes

Lunch: Noodles and mix veg stir fry with tofu

Dinner: ½ Burrito with sweet potato fries and ½ halloumi burger

Starting Bodyweight ­– 71kg

“Initially, I got started because my business partner said it would be something ‘fun’ to do together outside of growing the business. Eventually though, I realised that I’ve never really been 100% comfortable in my own skin – something I suppose we all strive for. I used to be fat as a kid and then before I went to university I lost all the fat and became ‘we can see your ribs’ skinny. Although this was a dramatic change, looking like a model was never high on my list of priorities because frankly, I never thought I could attain it!

I knew that the first stage was to get comfortable with my own body. Whenever we were on holiday I would never take my t-shirt off in public and was quite self-conscious, especially around the swimming pool.

At the start of the programme, I remember thinking that although it’d be nice to have a beach body, it was probably something that was outside of my reach. In hindsight I don’t know why I believed that, but either way, I thought I would put Akash and RNT Fitness to the test.

Besides, we were working quite hard in the business and I thought this would be a good balance against that – something to relieve stress and tension, and something outside of work to go hard at.”

Initial Changes

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

Training – We really needed some structure here, so we went from random program hopping to a split and routine that was conducive to getting stronger and building muscle.

Day 1: Chest/Back/Shoulders Lower Reps

Day 2: Legs/Arms Lower Reps

Day 3: HIIT

Day 4: Chest/Back/Shoulders Higher Reps

Day 5: Legs/Arms Higher Reps

Day 6: Rest

Day 7: Rest

Diet –

His starting macros were as follows:

Protein: 185g

Fats: 65g

Carbs: 120g

While Shiv’s diet wasn’t too bad beforehand, we needed to optimise the variables to make sure he was in a calorie deficit throughout the week, and that his protein needs were being met everyday.

This is how we set the diet up:

M1: 3 Large Whole Eggs, Greens

M2: 50g Whey Isolate, 40g Oats, 10g Peanut Butter

M3: 110g Light Halloumi/chicken breast , 40g Rice, Greens

M4: 50g Whey Isolate, 40g Oats, 10g Peanut Butter

M5: 200g Tofu, 40g Rice, Greens or 200g salmon, 40g rice, greens

This evolved during the process, but served as a good benchmark to begin with.

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

• Whey Protein – to help protein intake where necessary
• Vitamin D3 – 2000 IU per day
• Creatine Monohydrate – 5g with any shake

Cardio – As Shiv was in the habit of training regularly, and enjoyed the structure of having a workout in his diary from Monday to Friday, we included one HIIT session on Wednesday for 20 to 30 minutes. Besides this, the initial goal was to take 10,000 steps per day.

For this case study, we’ll be diving into how transforming Shiv’s body has impacted the multiple different facets in his life.

Mental Health

As I spoke about in the article ‘It’s Never About The Physical’, one of the most profound effects of a body transformation is the positive impact on mental health.

This is an area that’s receiving more and more publicity, as the connection between the mind and body grows stronger through new research constantly emerging.

I asked Shiv how he’s improved mentally over the course of working with RNT:

“The biggest improvement has been in my self image. I’m more confident, more grounded and far happier in myself. For example, I would never have just worn a T-shirt normally, and definitely not when going out and meeting people. I felt self conscious about how I looked. Now though, I feel I have a level of confidence that makes me walk and talk differently.”

Facilitating physical change is one thing. Building confidence, charisma and how one carries themselves is another, and far more fulfilling. The impact it can have on other facets of your life such as your relationships and business can be compounding.

Relationships

In the time I’ve known Shiv, this might be the area that I’ve noticed the biggest change in judging from his feedback.

On a broader scale, Shiv’s mentioned that in social settings now, it’s not all about the eating and drinking anymore. Instead, he now appreciates the people, the conversations and being present with one another over everything else.

As a society, almost everything we do is centred around food and drink. When you’re dieting for a six pack, you start to think outside the box with your social activities, and start to take the focus off food. This can be liberating and powerful for your relationship building, as you begin to focus on being ‘with’ people, as opposed to just eating out.

When discussing this with Shiv on a deeper level, he spoke about how his family relationships in particular have completely changed:

“Since I started getting leaner and having more energy, my family have been inspired and followed suit. They’re now healthier and as a result, we’re able to do things we wouldn’t have previously thought of. My parents in particular feel younger, and far more vibrant. Last year, I remember my mum had to cancel our annual family holiday because of medical conditions. At the time, she couldn’t walk through the house without getting breathless. Last week, we went zip lining! We’re now choosing more adventurous activities that require more stamina and physical health, and it’s amazing. Since feeling better in ourselves, we’re now nicer to each other, more patient, and our relationships within the family are the best they’ve ever been.”

We speak often about how a transformation always starts with one person, but that our aim is to create as much of a domino effect in that person’s life so that as many people within their close circles can experience the life changing differences a real transformation can have.

Shiv is the perfect example of this. Within a few months of starting, his father, uncles and brother all joined, and are now on their way to their own transformations too.

Photoshoots…

Having a high level of accountability is a big part in achieving a transformation. Shiv created this by not only inspiring his family to join, but by booking in two photoshoots.

The first was with his better half, Jaina, and the second was with his business partner, Akash.

By creating accountability within his closest circles in life, Shiv set himself up for guaranteed success.

He was also able to nurture these relationships by going through this journey alongside them, while at the same time having people to push against, support and encourage.

Entrepreneurship

It’s no secret that improving your physical health will increase your productivity, focus and drive at work.

Since starting his training at RNT, Shiv has said he’s now able to push far harder in business. He’s more physically and mentally resilient, and he hasn’t been sick at all.

When discussing further on the impact of physical transformation on business, Shiv mentioned:

“I don’t know if it’s related, but with everything else improving my wealth and finances have also been on the up. Once you achieve your physical goals, you realise you have it within you to set and achieve goals in other areas of life. Putting all of this into practice has been a game changer.”

I’ve always thought that the process of getting into shape teaches you many lessons that you can carry over into the other domains in your life. Business is no different, and is arguably the biggest beneficiary from a transformation.

Autonomy

At RNT we place a large emphasis on educating our clients so they know why they’re doing what they’re doing. Shiv’s no exception, and in going through the process, he’s now able to share what he’s learnt with those close to him, while dispelling a few old wives’ tales we know are so common within Asian communities in particular!

Becoming knowledgeable in the human body has always been a big goal for Shiv, and his ability to now ‘zig- zag’ his macro / calorie intake while learning to ‘eye ball’ according to what he has going on in his life has been life changing.

Skinny Fat To Six Pack – Lessons To Learn

Throughout this case study, we haven’t spent much time on what the physical transformation itself entailed. In reality, it’s not too different from the initial set up. Instead, I wanted to take a different approach with Shiv, and highlight the benefits the physical transformation can have in the various domains in your life.

Shiv successfully went from skinny fat to six pack, but the real lessons and results gained are much deeper, and more meaningful than purely aesthetics.

Final Stats/Testimonial:

Final Bodyweight – 63kg

These were his final comparison pictures:

Next Plan?

Shiv’s goal now is to be able to maintain his level of condition while eating more calories in a flexible manner and slowly building some more muscle onto his frame!

Here’s what Shiv has to say about his overall experience of working with RNT Fitness:

“When I was introduced to RNT, I had no real drive to get a beach body other than it would be a ‘nice to have’. I had been training with a PT for about a year before then, but to be completely honest, although I felt stronger, I still looked very similar to when I started. I was massively sceptical but wanted to give RNT a try, thinking ‘we’ll see how it goes’.

However, within the first month, I started seeing a change in my body composition. It was insane how quick the changes were to appear as I dropped body fat and increased muscle simultaneously – something that I had previously heard and believed was impossible.

The weekly check-ins kept me accountable and made sure that I didn’t deviate. Especially when I would try to sneak in little bits of chocolate!

Two photoshoots later and now sporting a physique I had only previously dreamed of, I thought to myself, ‘I’m done now – I don’t need RNT anymore’. However, the period after the initial transformation has actually been the most beneficial. RNT has been instrumental in helping me maintain and improve my physique. Having helped me to achieve the body I had only previously dreamed of, the trick was how to keep it going forwards without having to weigh out all my food, and live life.

For less than £200pm, RNT provided me with a life changing physical transformation which has been the start of a whole life transformation. Is it worth it? Without a doubt!

Listen to Shiv’s testimonial here.