330 -> 195, my seven year journey
I used to be a skinny kid when I was very young. My parents called me a monkey - because I'd constantly be climbing things, from the trees in my garden to the outside of an airport escalator! (don't ask, long story)
At ten years old I moved from Dubai to Scotland. It was a massive lifestyle shift for my parents, and they got fat. Being fed by them, naturally, I got fat too. Throughout primary and secondary school there was no connection to me between food and weight. I was just fat because that's who I was.
After I left home and gained control over my diet and life, I started to lose weight.
Starting at 330lb, which must have been in 2012, my first foray into losing weight was keto. I lost about 20lb in a couple of months, but the diet was too expensive for me - as a student, I couldn't afford to eat expensive meats like bacon and steak and other things. For a few weeks, I transitioned into a student diet which consisted solely of McCoys salt and vinegar crisps and bread, which, while effective for losing weight, was definitely not healthy!
Six months later I tried again. This time I convinced my parents to fund me a couple of months on the Diet Chef food plan. This was also pretty effective, knocking off 30lb more, though this was mostly because I hated the dinners and would only eat breakfast and lunch, eating about 600 calories a day for six to eight weeks. This was the start of the crash diet / binge cycle of weight loss that plagued me for a long time.
Over the next five years, I lost some weight and gained some back, going through a cycle of eating very low calorie diets (800/day) for about a month and a half then binging for two weeks before transitioning to eating slightly above my maintenance for another three months. It wasn't healthy at all and it's one of the things I regret. Eventually, I hit about 190lb which I was able to (more or less) maintain before stressful times hit at work and I gained 30lb back. I quit that job, moved half a country away, got a new job, and decided to try a different approach.
Instead of losing weight through a very low calorie diet with no exercise, I decided to eat at 1800 calories each day, keep my protein at 160g, and hire a personal trainer with whom I weight train twice a week (and do an additional three days of HIIT cardio each week on the cross trainer). Rather than completely depriving myself of delicious food, every Sunday I eat 500 calories, usually from protein shakes, and in exchange, Monday and Friday gets 650 calories extra which I spend on something tasty.
In the five months since starting this new routine - which is over triple the length I've been able to maintain a routine before, e.g. it's a lifestyle change, not a crash diet - I've lost 35lb and gained significant strength. I feel better, stronger, and more confident than ever. I attribute the weight loss to the diet, but the confidence comes from the exercise. And I don't crave food like I used to because I still allow myself to eat delicious things. I still have about 20lb of body fat to lose and I'd like to gain 30lb of muscle. I have a long journey ahead, but the hardest part is over now; I've established a new lifestyle that can last.
If there's one thing you should take away from my story, it's this: if you want to succeed, you need to change your fundamental approach to eating, not just what you eat, and you should turn hitting the gym into a habit.
Here are some things I've learned along the way:
- You don't need to exercise to lose weight, but you SHOULD exercise. I lost over 100lb from diet alone, but nothing beats what exercise can do for your health and your confidence.
- If you value your strength and sanity, don't fix your weight via very low calorie diets, and make sure to keep your protein intake high. A very low calorie carb-based diet works. I did it - over 100lb lost that way! But I lost a lot of muscle, too, which I have to fight hard to gain back. I have big, strong legs, but my upper body strength is weaker than it ought to be because I neglected my protein intake and ate far too much of a calorie deficit. Don't be me.
- Maintaining a healthy weight is much easier than losing your weight if you change your outlook towards food. Sticking to 1800 calories a day for a year seems impossible to someone who is overweight and regularly eats 4000, but after that year, when you're at your goal weight, you can up your intake to maintenance (2500~ for me), casually exercise, and stay there forever.
- Losing weight = look ten years younger. I'm cursed with baby face now!
- Doing my hair takes way too long in the morning now that I actually bother. :(
tl;dr: Exercise, lots of protein, calorie counting, and keep eating tasty things in moderation.
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