Abs Diet: Weight Loss Success Story- Kyle Snay  

Share your fitness success story with Men's Health and be featured in an upcoming online article. E-mail us at [email protected]

 

Name: Kyle Snay

Forum Name: Ibizan (Moderator)

Profession: Online applications manager for Minnesota State University

Hometown: Saint Peter, Minnesota

Starting weight: 227 (Aug. 6, 2004)

Midpoint weight: 193

Present Weight: 202

 

When you want to see your fitness goals take shape, a picture is worth a thousand crunches. Kyle Snay, who many of you know as Ibizan on the Men's Health Abs Diet forum, bypasses scales and body-fat calculations and instead tracks his progress using a camera.

 

Every few weeks, Snay has someone snap a picture of him. "Taking pictures is one of the best things you can do to measure progress and receive feedback," he says. "Scales are unreliable, especially once you start weight training." Muscle weighs more than fat, you know the deal.

 

And he's come a long way since he first scrutinized his "before picture," one year ago while competing in the first Men's Health Abs Diet Challenge. While Snay didn't win the contest, he landed in the top ten. We've kept our eye on him ever since. He became a convert of the Abs Diet and didn't stop after his six weeks were up. He made the Abs Diet his lifestyle and has continued to improve.

 

When Snay began his first challenge in September 2004, he weighed 227 pounds. In six weeks, he dropped 22 pounds. Even after the challenge, he continued to lose weight until he was down to 193. But Snay still wasn't satisfied by the scale's dip. He says he lost some muscle along with the fat. Since then, he's spent the last few months packing on more muscle in our Leaner by Labor Day program -- now called Fit for Valentine's Day. (You can participate too!)

 

Now he weighs in at 202 -- the same as when he finished the challenge last year -- but his overall physique has changed. The pictures speak for themselves.

 

Snay has made the Abs Diet his way of life. In addition to his day job as an online applications manager at Minnesota State University, he helps out in the Men's Health Abs Diet forum. He offers insight and advice as a normal guy who lives the program.

 

One forum member valued his advice so much, he sent him cash with a note that said, "You give better advice than my gym -- and I pay them for it." Snay sent the money back, but the gesture showed him that his advice is getting through to some people. It's certainly getting through to us.

 

Go to the next page for Snay's workout...

The Snay Way

Weekly Workout: Four-to-five sessions of lifting and two sessions of high intensity interval training (HIIT- a 25-minute cardio workout in which you alternate bouts of speed with lower-intensity levels). One day off.

 

Monday

Chest

Shoulders

Biceps

 

Tuesday

Back

Triceps

Abs

 

Wednesday 

HIIT in the morning

Legs and abs in the afternoon

 

Thursday

Chest

Shoulders

Biceps

 

Friday

Back

Triceps

Abs

 

Saturday

HIIT

 

Sunday

Rest

 

For his lifting days, Snay completes mini-circuits for each muscle group (chest, shoulders, biceps) by alternating three different exercises that work a specific area until he's completed three sets of each exercise. Then he'll move onto the next muscle group and do the same -- for a total of 10 exercises.

 

Nutrition: Snay continues to eat 6 meals a day, including foods from the Power 12 in every meal. He's a big fan of protein smoothies, and often adds spices (cinnamon, cocoa, nutmeg) or extracts (vanilla, almond) to give the flavor a kick without the calories. He drinks about two gallons of water each day.

 

Supplements: Creatine, glutamine, whey protein, flax oil and seed, fish oil capsules, green tea extract, and multivitamins

 

Go to the next page to learn more tips from Snay...

How Kyle Goes the Extra Mile

1. Make lunch time, crunch time. Snay plays desk jockey all day at his job, so when the noon lunch bell tolls, he abandons his desk and skips the lunchroom to make better use of his hour break. It takes him five minutes to eat, so Snay gets active by playing racquetball, tennis, or hitting the campus gym for an HIIT session. "You'll have time to work out, if you make it a priority," Snay says.

 

2. Change it up, every time. Snay tries to make an improvement in every workout, either by adding more weight to the barbell or squeezing out one more rep. He also includes a different exercise in his workout each time.

 

3. Bring it home. As a family guy -- married with two young children (a 1-year-old daughter and 2-year-old son) -- Snay doesn't waste any time working out that could be spent with the kids. So he wakes at 4:30 a.m. to lift weights, while everyone's still sleeping. That's where his home gym comes in, allowing him to work out when he wants to. Snay purchased the Hoist V2 as his home gym, but says free weights can do the job just as well.

 

4. Put your workout where you can see it. Every time Snay gets the next issue of Men's Health, he rips out the poster workout and 15-Minute Workout and posts them to his walls. He now has hundreds of workouts on his walls, so there's no excuse for failing to try something new.

 

Picture Perfect

After all this, Snay is happy with the way he looks. People treat him differently and look at him differently. "I'm a completely different person. Not just in terms of lifestyle, but I have an incredible amount of self-confidence," Snay says. When he first started working out, he couldn't run three blocks, but now he can run four miles without breathing heavy. "It's incredible what I can do now that I'm in shape."

1. Prev:Abs Diet: Almonds and Your Diet  
2. Next:Arm Exercises: Side Press