Hey guys, fully prepared for this to get lost in the ether of r/loseit but wanted to share my story anyway. Disclaimer: I know that my weight loss story is not particularly dramatic in terms of kgs lost and that my journey has been nowhere near as traumatic, difficult or (hopefully) rewarding as those of many of the fine men and women on here. Just want to tell my tale and let you know what worked for me.
I'm 5'10" and growing up I was never massive. I played rugby at school and struggled to persuade my coaches that my performance was more important than my size when it came to team selection. Like a lot of people I then started to pile it on at university. Stopped working out properly except for the odd rugby match and seriously upped my intake of alcohol and crap food. By the time I was 23 I was on the chubby side for sure. I then spent six years in the Army which got me and kept me in shape but after I left in 2014 I started piling it back on again, finally hitting 95kg (210lbs, BMI 31 - obese) in January this year.
I'd joined my local F45 gym in the summer and although I liked the workouts and went to sessions 3-4 times a week, I wasn't losing any weight. My diet and alcohol intake was not only cancelling out my gym sessions, it was adding more on top. I finally took action and signed up for one of their 8-week challenges. I committed to 6 gym sessions a week (Mon-Sat), no alcohol and a carefully controlled meal plan. Tomorrow is the last day of my 8 weeks and I've gone from 95kg to just under 85kg (210lbs to 186lbs). It hasn't been easy and I genuinely can't wait for a frosty beer tomorrow afternoon but it has been worth every turned-down trip to the pub and every early morning gym session.
Some tips from what worked for me.
First, find a form of exercise that you don't hate. I found (and find) it difficult to motivate myself when I'm actually in the gym so having an F45 instructor take over really helps me. There's no debating with myself on what I need to do or whether I've done enough. I just turn up and do whatever they tell me to.
Second, there is no doubt that meal planning is a good thing to do but for me it was nowhere near as important as simply maintaining a calorie-deficit. In an ideal world, yes, my weight-loss diet would have followed the F45 meal plan to the letter (which was complex and expensive!). However, in the real world I shopped normally, packed my lunches instead of getting sandwiches at the office canteen and cut my portion sizes by a third. I knew roughly how many calories I was burning a day and roughly how many I was eating and 6 days a week I made sure I had a daily calorie deficit of 1000. Turns out that this is much easier when you remove alcohol and weekend takeaways from the equation...
Third, I only weighed myself once a week. This was the right balance as it gave me short-term motivation, something to work toward but weigh-ins were far enough apart for me to see tangible results every Sunday. If I lost less than 1kg over a given week I knew I had to adjust my diet a bit or maybe go walking for a couple of hours on the day I worked from home.
Finally, be patient. I've seen it said so many times on this sub and it's true. It took me four weeks of hard work before anyone but I could see any difference. In the four weeks since then I've been getting pretty much daily (positive) comments on my weight loss from friends, family and co-workers. Until quarantine kicked in that is!
Thanks for reading - if you're on your own journey then keep going and give 'em hell. I promise it is worth it and so are you. I promise you that you're strong enough to see it through. Never give up and always love yourself.
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