I'm in my last week of FL1, also on the eternal beginner program, and I can say, with reasonable certainty, that you will see gains from the FL1 workouts. I'm 32, 6'3", about 200 lbs. I'm not fat, but I've got a little more of a gut than I would like. I did some fairly serious lifting for a while back in college (I was 160 lbs when I started back then), but haven't lifted consistently for more than a few months at a time since then. I'll start up in the winter, and then when the weather warms up and I'm spending more time outside (playing golf, mowing the lawn, etc.) I start slacking. So I fit the eternal beginner model perfectly. My weight has been pretty steady since I started the NROL workouts. I haven't made any substantial dietary changes, except to add a protein shake every day, but I think of this as a recovery tool more than an actual dietary change. I have made some visible muscular gains since starting the workouts, particularly in areas where I needed it the most: shoulders, back and lower body. (My wife has noticed, too.
) Nothing dramatic, but enough to keep up the motivation. I've been pretty conservative about the weights I've tried to lift (I'd rather undershoot what I can do than overshoot and injure something), and the decreasing reps in the FL programs have helped me gradually ramp up the amount of weight I'm comfortable trying to lift. As an extension to the break in workouts, I think the FL workouts are very effective in preparing, physically and mentally, to handle the heavier weights in the hypertrophy programs. (I'll try to report back on this later.)