Diet or exercise? I tried both for a year, and here’s the result

My name is Irene, I’m 38 years old and I weigh 102 kg. This number seems very high, if one thing is not taken into account: a year ago I weighed 121 kg. I can’t say that it complicated my life too much, but once a friend’s 5-year-old son approached me and asked me: “Irene, why do you have such a big belly?” And then I realized that things couldn’t go on like this anymore. I had to lose weight.

Especially for the awesome.clubI wrote my weight loss story, and although I still have a long way to go, what I see in my before and after photos is stopping me from abandoning that path.

I think my body story is the same as that of all overweight people: a sedentary lifestyle and junk food. Due to my work (I’m a freelancer) and the tendency to use food to overcome negative emotions, at the age of 37 I reached 120 kg. I don’t have a family, and in recent years, I haven’t left the house very often. Then the opinion of others could not affect me. Although, as it turned out later, it was not quite like that.

At the end of 2017, I found an ad, an offer on a gym with an 80% discount, and I decided to sign up. That’s how my first story started.

Already after the first workout, which was done with a personal “included” for the first 10 days, I threw the cigarettes in the trash can, as 20 years of smoking couldn’t help but affect my breathing. So I gave up the habit of drinking beer on Fridays and Saturdays. By the way, I still don’t smoke and drink alcohol no more than once every six months.

The exercises with the personal were difficult, although they didn’t have very heavy loads. But after an hour and a half of training I was so exhausted I could rip my shirt off, and my legs and arms refused to respond. — the sedentary lifestyle and lack of physical activity were visible. In my youth I used to wrestle and ski, but then I gave up, and for almost 20 years the sport was not part of my life.

Before and after training I ate reasonably calorie dishes, like homemade pizza or lasagna with something salty, or even empanadas. It seemed to me that I could afford it, because I lost a lot of calories during training.

And that was my mistake: the calorie loss was much less than what I had during eating. My muscles became stronger (I gained muscle mass quickly by nature), my breathing improved, but the weight did not go down and the volume did not change. ANDn a nutshell, muscle was added to fat, which, of course, didn’t make me thinner. As a result, after training for six months three times a week for an hour and a half, I lost only 3.5 kg, and my weight stopped at 116.5 kg.

Six months later, the gym discount expired and I decided not to extend it, not so much because it was too expensive without the discount, but because I hadn’t achieved a visible effect. The coolest perk of the experience was the fact that I was breathing easier now, and the confidence in myself, which had deteriorated over the last few years, soared. Try going a few times to a place where any abdomen can withstand the direct hit of a missile and you’ll see what I mean.

In the summer of 2018 I bought a bike, but I couldn’t ride it. The excessive weight held me back, which also caused problems with my knees, and as a result, for most of the summer, the bike sat in a corner.

My food when counting calories.

The words of a 5 year old boy are what made me lose weight again. I spent a lot of time thinking about which path to choose and decided to stop counting calories. I downloaded a program that, using a special formula, calculated that my basic metabolism was 1800 kcal per day. To lose weight without exercising, I had to eat 1785 kcal (I reduced it to 1700). With this program, I also counted the number of calories consumed.

The start date was October 10th. The only thing I completely excluded from my diet was sausages and other processed meats.🇧🇷 And not because I was afraid of carcinogens and other things, but because a sandwich could “cost me” 200 kcal, and they are equal to almost 200 g of boiled chicken breast, which I also love (and I still haven’t gotten sick of it).

And despite all my common sense, I didn’t exclude bread, cereals and sugar, but I did the following trick: I started buying pasta and whole grain breads, reduced the portions, reduced the consumption of sweets and limited them to dark chocolate and teddy bears. gum. I didn’t exercise, all winter I skated on the ice about 10 times.

I only saw the first result in a month: instead of 121 kg, the scale showed 117 kg, which ideally fits the standard recommended by doctors. All this month I did not feel hungry, because I ate small portions every 3 hours, without exceeding 1700 kcal. Sometimes I bought (and still do) dumplings with a filling based on dulce de leche and divided them into 2 parts: in total they amounted to 135 kcal, and the desire to eat sweets disappeared. I spent another 2 months following this regimen.

On January 10, 2019, the scale showed 108 kg. I decided to try a new scheme: eating in a limited period of time, from 3 pm to 11 pm, and only 1,500 kcal. To some this will feel wrong, but with my routine it’s perfect. It turned out to be great: the stomach no longer asked me for a large amount of food.

The basis of my diet is meat, either boiled or roasted. I eat pasta, rice and other cereals separately, sometimes with a cucumber and tomato salad. In short, I didn’t stop eating anything that caused me to experience the “withdrawal syndrome”, so I continued to follow the diet for a long time🇧🇷 My daily meals are approximately like this:

15:00 — A piece of boiled or baked chicken / meat / fish breast, a thin roll with cream cheese, tea, half a piece of pie. In total, about 400 kcal. 17 — Bread with cheese or vegetable caviar, tea with gummy bears. No more than 150 kcal. 7 pm — Pasta / baked potatoes / beans (beans, rice) (150 g total) with butter, with a serving of cucumber and tomato salad (optional). In total, no more than 200 or 250 kcal. 21:00 Tea and half an empanada. 70 kcal. 11 pm — A piece of boiled or baked chicken breast or meat/fish (about 150 g), tea, an apple. In total, about 400 kcal.

My face before and after weight loss. It was certainly the one that lost the most weight.

At the end of February 2019, my weight is 102 kg. My goal is to reach 80 kg and only then go back to the gym to gain muscle mass doing strength training. The same as before, although it is generally difficult to reach 1,500 kcal and average consumption of 1,200 to 1,300 per day.

What has changed since I started losing weight by counting calories? I can wear jeans, which before didn’t close even lying down, and when I go up the stairs I don’t have to rest after each step. Now I can even take pictures of myself, which I previously avoided in every possible way. By the way, I found out I had cheekbones!

Of course, there are also unpleasant moments.🇧🇷 For example, now I feel cold all the time and my digestion works worse. But I know that when the body gets used to the new weight, this too will disappear. As for spending on food, it even decreased, because meat is cheaper than sausages and processed foods. And even the freshest cabbage costs no more than 1.5 dollars.

It seems that 19 kg is not so much when it comes to a weight of more than 100 kg. But in reality it is, to put it mildly, a lot, especially for a person who does not have a lot of willpower. 80 kg, the goal I set myself, is still a long way off, but I’m absolutely sure I’ll reach it. Because? Just look at the before and after photos and the answer will be obvious.

Someone will say that my weight loss progresses slowly and that I should definitely add exercise. But with my current meal regimen, I’m at virtually no risk of going off the diet and regaining weight, and my doctor is on my side. Although exercise adds, of course: in the summer, when, according to my calculations, my weight drops to at least 90 kg, I plan to use the bike again. All in good time.

Do you also have any interesting weight loss background?