This Guy Got Ripped in 15 Weeks with a Plan that Fit His Life

Graeme Thomas Sanders, 46, had transformed his body in the past, but now wanted a program that would stick. In his own words, here’s how the actor and teaching assistant in London and Sussex found a whole new approach and got ripped.

I had good results from previous body transformations in the past; one when I was a 21-year-old student and the other when I was in my early thirties. Both experiences were when I had plenty of time with no work commitments. On both occasions, I gained great results but couldn’t maintain the extreme diets I was on and soon lost my results.

Several things combined to open the door to my transformation in 2022. I hadn’t trained for many months because my life felt too hectic. At the start of September 2022, I had Covid, which was followed by a demanding schedule balancing full-time work as a Teaching Assistant and rehearsing for a number of plays that had been delayed by lockdown. I was also helping my mom care for my dad who, for the past 17 years, has been bravely battling a series of ongoing mental health conditions. This left me too exhausted to train. However, my dad was finally offered a place in full-time residential care, which was a huge change for my parents and me. After a lot of adjustment, we all began to build new lives with more settled backdrops.

Although I was still busy, I found myself with more time than I’d had in a very long while. I knew that although I was in my 40s and somewhat out of shape, my body was still young enough to respond if I took things seriously. I knew I needed expertise to help me transform my physique and teach me how to maintain it.

Ultimate Performance

The “lightbulb moment” came when I started to search for personal trainers that also offered nutritional advice. I came across an online article from Men’s Health featuring an amazing transformation. I couldn’t believe the results this person had achieved. The article clearly credited Ultimate Performance as the gym providing the expertise. I found there was a branch only 5 minutes walk from my work.

Ultimate Performance (U.P.) designed my training plan around my life, not the other way around. My trainer taught me how to change my body and, crucially, how to maintain that transformation in the real world of my everyday life. As a result, I am in the best shape of my life.

I gave myself a 15-week window. My trainer at U.P. gave me all the structure I could need to reach and maintain my body transformation goals. As I have early starts and early finishes, my sessions were booked late afternoon/early evening. I trained three to four times a week. The exercises were basic push/pull for upper and lower body. I’d spend just under an hour for each session.

I always prefer upper body training. Because of that, I found leg days psychologically tougher. So my trainer included an element of upper body work on leg days so I could work legs while still having some of the “reward” of upper body work.

My trainer helped me learn 4 major things during my transformation:

It’s not about how much weight you move–it’s about how you move the weight.

Correct technique makes a huge difference to how your muscles work, and I understood early on how you can instantly feel the muscle working harder when you perform the exercise properly. Over time it will make a massive difference to your gains.

Walking is the most efficient cardio.

It doesn’t tax the body nearly as much as running, for example. In the short term, you may burn more calories from vigorous cardio done for the same amount of time, but you will create an energy deficit which needs to be filled by consuming more calories. That’s fine if you’re conditioning for a specific event, but unhelpful for body transformation. Also, walking is not exhausting, so it allows you to conserve energy for training.

Weigh yourself daily, but measure your progress weekly.

Weighing yourself daily at the same time and wearing the same amount of clothes is key. It may seem obsessive, but it is vital to tracking your progress, monitoring the effects of your food intake, and keeping your motivation. Even while sticking to your macro/calorie budget, your body weight might fluctuate even though you’re doing everything “right,” It’s perfectly normal for your body to hold on to weight for a couple of days and even increase at certain points during the week, but it will drop consistently over time.

Keep the mealtime, change the meals.

Likewise, my meals were structured in accordance to what worked best for me: I don’t usually have breakfast and don’t eat until around 11 or 12. So although my nutrition was overhauled, the mealtimes were kept in place. I was given plenty of meal plan ideas and with a little bit of tweaking. I quickly found a favorite couple of meals I could prepare quickly.

U.P. also has a holistic training app where I could track calorie intake (broken down into macro goals), daily step count, weight, lean body mass and body fat percentage. This app became my bible and was vital for me to track my daily progress and to analyze what did and didn’t work. I could also message my trainer with any questions.

My nutrition was overhauled. Before, I would skip breakfast and have whatever snack was at hand at work at about 11am. I would inevitably go for something sugary to give me an energy boost. Lunchtime would be a big meal heavy in carbs often followed by a dessert (rarely fruit). On the weekends, I might have a lighter lunch, but would eat a lot in the evenings fueled by the fact that I’d inevitably drink plenty of wine on Friday and Saturday nights.

During my transformation, I was given a calorie budget based on my body size, starting condition, end goal and the time frame I had given myself to achieve these goals. I’d still skip breakfast and still only have 3 meals a day. The difference was in their content and the portion sizes.

A typical day would be: a mid-morning snack of plain porridge oats with a protein shake, lunch would be 4 boiled eggs (eventually reduced to 2 over the weeks) with a small portion of carbs with a lot of salad or veg. Evening meals would be what I call a “healthy bolognese”—lean ground beef (draining excess fat), tomatoes, onion, garlic and a mountain of fresh salad to add bulk. I’d also put a teaspoon of soy sauce and a teaspoon of hot pepper sauce to add flavor.

Throughout the day, I would drink 3 lean protein shakes and take some basic supplements with my evening meal. During my transformation, I cut out alcohol completely–except for a couple of special occasions.

I didn’t think this kind of change was possible.

I went from 172 pounds to 138 pounds. In the process, I maintained my lean mass while dropping my body fat from 30.5 percent to 12.2 percent. This was in line with the target my trainer set me at the end of my initial session. At the time, I didn’t think this was possible. But 15 weeks later, I was delighted to be proved wrong!

I feel more confident about my body and my fitness levels have hugely improved. My mental alertness also improved during the transformation, and my energy levels have remained higher. I’m more alert and efficient day-to-day post-transformation. Although I sleep about the same amount, the quality of sleep has also improved, and I’m now more likely to wake up alert and refreshed.

If you’re looking to start your own transformation, my advice to you is to have a clear goal and timeframe, keep committed, stay disciplined and be patient. If you already have the know-how, then just get back out there and make that start. If, like me, you need guidance from professionals then do some research and find a good trainer and nutritionist (ideally the same person)—it’s one of the best investments you’ll ever make. Get the right expertise to help you on your journey. Once you have this, stay focused, disciplined, patient and believe in the process because the results will come.

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Emily Shiffer is a freelance health and wellness writer living in Pennsylvania. 

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