Exercise, nutrition guidance, and healthy meals, all in one intense workout package called Phatburn, located in White Plains.
There may be trainers, weights, exercise mats, and workout machines at Phatburn, but don’t call it a gym. “We’re a program or studio,” says Paul Wintergerst, CEO and cofounder of Phatburn, a fitness studio that opened in 2014 in White Plains and Stamford (a Manhattan location is in the works). “We combine structured HIIT [high-intensity interval training] workouts, nutrition coaching, and accountability to help people achieve their fitness goals.”
Your membership kicks off with a 30-minute consultation about your fitness objective, commitment level, nutrition habits, and energy levels. “This is to gauge what the member wants,” explains Wintergerst, “so realistic fitness goals can be set.”
After a body-fat assessment; thigh, waist, and chest measurements; and a review of a customized meal plan, members gain access to a workout calendar to begin registering for hour-long workouts three to five times weekly.
There’s no sugarcoating the intensity of the HIIT regimen: These are demanding classes that combine resistance, cardio, and flexibility; there are alternating short periods (35 seconds, or double that time) of intense exercise with brief recovery periods. Expect to grunt and moan your way through devious-sounding routines, such as spider steps, reverse lunges, ski-abs, bear crawls, and tricep shuffles.
Nutrition coaching is another significant element to the Phatburn philosophy. Members can choose to cook their meals at home via suggested recipes and a food list with recommended portions or purchase meals prepared twice weekly by an in-house chef. These are not shakes, powders, or bars but actual dishes, like coconut curry lentil soup and steak fajitas.
A final component is accountability, which consists of one-on-one coaching, tracking of body compositon, and monthly group meetings of three to eight members where successes and struggles are discussed. “It’s comfortable peer pressure,” Wintergerst says. There are also emails daily from Wintergerst and other coaches on varied topics, such as tips to help with soreness (and you will be sore!) to YouTube videos on the difference between long-term calories and short-term calories.
“Two of our members were so happy with their results,” says Wintergerst, “they became trainers here.” This writer, doing a 21-day “Kickstarter” membership, scored 21.5 percent body-fat initially; after three weeks, the body-fat percentage was down to 18.7, with five pounds of fat loss and a seven-pound gain of lean body mass.
A 12-month Phatburn Program membership costs $287 per month (first month is $199); a 21-Day Kickstarter Program membership is $197.
