From 7 July 2017 with a starting weight of 100kgs to 15 May 2018, 10 months of hard work later Iʼve finally reached my goal weight of 70kgs!
Here are some photos: https://imgur.com/a/3gMGlXS
This is a long read. But I hope my story would be worth your time:
Iʼve been a fat kid my whole life but getting fit have always been one of my life goals. But never got around to do it because I was too lazy. Only became fatter in later years. That paired with severe acne started to make me really insecure about my looks from 9th grade. In 2016, after getting into a certain college (11th and 12th grade in our country) unwillingly, a wave of different personal problems slowly made me descend into clinical depression (I wasn’t aware of my condition until a year later). I was frustrated all the time. I started to hate my friends. I was always angry at my parents. I found everyone annoying. Lost interest in everything, even video games and movies which I really loved. I didnʼt study at all. Not only because I didnʼt want to but because nothing made sense in my head. I couldnʼt concentrate on or memorize anything. Also had trouble remembering things in general. I became really irresponsible. My results in college went increasingly downhill. Barely passed exams with the help of people around me. I always felt tired and yet couldnʼt sleep at night. I ate more carelessly and started to become fatter. I literally spent my days sitting in front of my pc and doing basically nothing. Just watched already-seen tv shows over and over again and Youtube. I had to lie to my friends about how I spent my days out of embarrassment. I was completely lifeless. Things went on like this for a year. By mid-2017 I was at my highest weight of 100kgs with no foreseeable improvement. My skin got worse as well. I became really insecure about my looks. One day, while catching up on my YouTube subscriptions, I stumbled upon a TED-Ed video about clinical depression. After watching it I became aware that I too was suffering from it. I understood that if I didnʼt get well things would turn worse and because of no studying I wouldnʼt be able to do well in HSC (a public exam that determines our legibility for getting into good universities), just one year apart from then. That video was my wake up call. The next few days I researched on depression and how to rid of it. In every study it was shown that exercise is a great treatment for it. Since I had no interest of seeing a therapist, I became interested in that approach and saw it also as a golden opportunity to get fit. On my birthday in June that year I set upon a goal that I would lose weight and get fit. From the next day I started running. Upon further research on fitness, I realized it would be better if I joined the gym. I started going to the gym from July. I also started eating a healthy diet and limiting caloric intake. I went to the gym as many days as I could (because of college and studies it was really hard to maintain everything). As days went on, I slowly started to lose weight and feel a lot better. I was starting to feel happier and seemed to regain my interest back in things. I started to actually study a little. I somehow passed my finals. From December last year, as college was over, I started hitting the gym six days a week and by the end of 2017 I lost 15kgs. I continued gym till February of 2018 but had to stop going for 2 months to completely focus on HSC. My mental health significantly improved and I could now concentrate on my studies a lot more. In general I started to feel happy again and gained back my interests. Life started to feel normal again. I studied and sat for HSC in April (Weʼre yet to see how that turns out). Meanwhile, I continued exercising at home during the last 2 months. And by May 15, 2018 I lost another 15kgs and reached my goal weight of 70kgs!
My journey of losing 30kgs has not only been physical but also a spiritual one. Iʼve loved every second of it. I feel like a completely new person now. My physical appearance has changed but so has my mind. I feel I now better understand the value of patience, routine, consistency but above all effort and time. This journey has made me more confident and productive, given me courage to achieve any goal, forced me to follow a routine, taught me to manage time efficiently and appreciate other people’s effort more. Iʼm now more active and can get way more things done daily. Besides, if I had not taken this path Iʼm fairly certain I couldnʼt have taken HSC well. Also researching for fitness has given me a better understanding of the human body. My skin improved a lot too. Now I cannot stress the importance of exercise and a healthy diet enough. These have improved my life so much that Iʼm now addicted to these. I strongly urge everyone to exercise and to eat healthy. But above all, DO NOT IGNORE YOUR MENTAL HEALTH. Clinical depression is something truly painful and I wish no one is consumed by it/anyone affected be cured. If you think you need help, ask for it. I think I would’ve suffered less if I had just shared more with my close ones. Do not make that mistake. And only do the things that you love in life.
Some words of advice: LEARN TO TAKE ACTION. If you have any issues, do something to solve it. Want to achieve a goal? Work hard for it. Don’t just sit around thinking and complaining about it. No one or nothing can magically take you to your goal. I was able to do this only because I took action. To other unhealthy people, whether youʼre fat like I was or too skinny or just unhappy with your shape, if you want to get healthy take steps right now. Thinking about how youʼre gonna do it and if it would affect your studies or job are just excuses and laziness. You have a lot of time at your disposal which are wasted in social media and other unproductive activities. Stop those and start exercising. You donʼt even know what youʼre capable of. Just a bit of patience and determination will help you. You will get frustrated when you see no change despite your hardest efforts. But trust me, that’s just part of the process. Get enough sleep, follow a healthy diet and maintain caloric intake. Despite exercising, without those youʼll see no results. And please DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH. The internet is at your disposal. Use it. Everyone’s body react differently to things and only research can help you understand what will work for you. CONSISTENCY AND ROUTINE IS KEY. Follow these and youʼre bound to see change. And surround yourself with people who truly want you to succeed and improve.
My diet: I consumed 1500-1600 calories a day. Used myfitnesspal for tracking. For breakfast I ate either a cup of papaya or watermelon (depending on season), one banana and one hard-boiled egg. For other meals I just ate as much protein (mostly chicken) and as little carbs as I could. I increased my intake of fruits and vegetables for fibers. I also ate half a cup of yogurt every night with a bit of salt. I quit sugar 3 months after starting this which made a huge difference. Though I sometimes consume it in small amounts because of my sweet tooth.
My exercise: Starting with some stretching, I walked for 5mins with the highest incline and ran for another 10mins with no incline on the treadmill. Cycled for 10 mins and moved onto ab workout. I always maintained those exercises every gym day. After those just did some basic strength workouts. In total, spent around 1-1.5hrs at the gym. Tried to get at least 8hrs sleep daily. Sleep is really important and even though it’s not always possible to get 8hrs, try to get as close to that as possible. I followed [Athlean-X](https://www.youtube.com/user/JDCav24) videos a lot which helped immensely. Not only did I benefit from his tips, I also gained a lot of knowledge. I advise everyone to follow that channel too.
Lurking on Reddit has helped me beyond imagination and always kept me motivated. People on subs like /r/loseit, /r/progresspics, /r/Fitness have provided incomparable knowledge and motivation. /r/depression helped a lot to overcome my condition. So thank you Reddit. Without you guys my journey would’ve hardly been possible. I’m incredibly grateful to this site.
This journey has truly been magical. Breaking through my insecurities and curing myself of depression are what drove me on this path. I think I achieved the latter fully but achieving perfection is never ending. Iʼve lost weight but fitness is now one of my top priorities. Iʼll never stop working out. Hopefully I can get in better shape. Hopefully everyone else will too. Many challenges await me in the future. But as I said before, being able to lose weight has given me the courage to achieve any goal in life. Onward to those. And never stop the grind!
PS: I deleted my other post because I later thought it would be better to post in r/progresspics first as it could work as a detailed explanation for people there.
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