The Fat Guy Project: Guide to Starting Your Weightloss Journey
February 11, 2020
I have started my weight-loss journey on March of this 2019. From 120kg I am now down to 75kg. That’s a total loss of 45kg or approximately 90lbs. I’m not going to lie, it’s a small progress, but still progress (I’m a 6ft flat btw so context), and I’m still working on it. But like the most of us trying to get healthier or fitter, we just don’t know where to start, so let me share to you, the mistakes, the lessons, and what I got right through this journey
Before we get into it, let me first show you my results.
June of 2019 v Feb of 2020
It took me a while to get to where I am currently, because I really want to do it right and I experimented on a lot of things, I even hit a plateau during July-December 2019, I've had many mistakes, lessons, and a ton of researches after I was finally able to do it right. and now I'm sharing everything that I know
It is my ever so often top tip in everything we do in life, and the reason is simple, KNOWLEDGE IS POWER. Going through a very scientific process such as weight-loss, without the proper knowledge will not only make things harder but might also be detrimental to your health.
It’s all about understanding how things work and why certain things does not, so that you can adjust accordingly. I’ve changed my workout regimen about three times already because I now understand how my body works. Truth of the matter is certain people has certain needs that are not applicable to other people, some regimens might work on others, some may not, there's no uniform exercise for everybody.
Even if you have the means to hire a professional, (firstly make sure he/she really knows his/her stuff and not just some bored hottie) it pays to research still for you to have a grasp of what they are talking about, that way it wouldn't be so hard for them to explain what it is that you need to do.
Doing prior research can help you understand what your body needs and how to get to your target weight. Like I always say “If you’re going to do anything that involves the consummation of time and effort, for a great end goal, might as well do it RIGHT"
Let me introduce you to the concept of Expectation Bias, it is when you believe something is true because it caters to what you actually want. Expectation Bias can really hurt you in the long run, not only will you be wasting time, effort, and sometimes money, you’d end up disheartened and discouraged because what you believed to be true turns out to be false.
There are TONS of articles and YouTube videos out there claiming that it's possible to lose “30lbs in One Week” if you actually did your research, you’d know this simply is not possible.
There are also a lot of weight-loss fads that are out there with promises of grandeur that they cannot deliver themselves, and you build this expectation bias maybe because, the marketing was so great, everyone's been talking about it, or you just expect your body to look like that of the model or instructor telling you that it works, truth be told, most of these does not, they only aim to capitalize on your gullibility.
The worst offender of Expectation Bias is the so called “Weightloss pills” I used to be that guy, where I use supplements, drinks those "slimming" tea, thinking “oh I can eat anything because I have XXXX in my bag swag” no darling no! No amount of pills can help you digest that Lechon within seconds people.
It is important that goals are set, whether you want to get thinner, bulkier, muscular, or reach a certain weight. Goal setting is important for you to understand what you actually need, (I will touch on those one article at a time, but for now let’s focus on weight-loss) and to have a sort of inspiration and a sense of accomplishment when you have met your goal. It's basically like "knowing where you are heading"
My target weight was 80kgs since according to my research that would be the healthy weight for my height, since I have already reached that I’m currently at 75kgs.
Face-Wise March of 2019 vs February of 2020 with my regular jogs with my doggo
Im recalibrating my goal, to maybe either going lower (maybe 70kgs) or go muscular, I’m still unsure of what I want for myself, the only thing I’m sure of is that I want to fit in most clothing standards available in the market because I am a style guy, I love fashion, it’s been my motivating factor all throughout. Before all of these I was 2XL-3XL now I’m at S-M so I’m sort of good in that area, although I want to continue pushing myself to do better.
I cannot stress this enough, losing weight involves a lifestyle change, to some maybe drastic, to some not so much. It is a commitment that you have to undertake for longer periods of time. The first lifestyle change that you have to do, and the hardest, is fixing your diet. Look for a diet that works for you, your goals and your current lifestyle. Don’t just immediately jump on the latest trend. Hot tip is to find substitutes for your guilty pleasures, until you start to forget about them. I for one loves to snack on salty chips, I now substitute it with this healthier alternative
This is Salted Egg with Fresh Tomatoes and Sesame Seeds, it has that crunch and saltiness that I like from junkfood, only healthier.
Next is your daily activity, you really need to increase your Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis (I’ll explain this on a separate article) in summary it can be done by substituting daily technological conveniences with manual proactivity, such as; taking the stairs instead of the elevator, walking instead of hailing a trike, or standing up while reading a book or doing work instead of siting on your desk all day long, the options are limitless.
Third is your workout, you need to atleast have a workable schedule of workout at least an hour a day, when I first started I had to juggle work, and law school with it, so I was only able to do an hour per day, 4 days a week, now, I’m doing it 6days a week. Don’t feel bad if your schedule or physical capability will only allow you to do less than that, as we go on with this series, you’ll learn that everything happens in progression.
Lastly is to be disciplined, you have to see it through no matter what, I’ve met a lot of people who started out their journey and then cut it out halfway in, some even lasted for just a week to a month. With fitness, consistency is key, you really have to push yourself into doing what you need to do, or risk wasting your past efforts and sometimes finances, just because you got discouraged, or lazy, or that triple chocolate ice cream looks so delish.
Listen, weight-loss takes time, period. You cannot have a rocking hot bod done in a healthy way in just days, or weeks, it’ll take months or even years to get to your goal. People might be saying, oh how about celebrities, they’d do it in a week even days. Context please, these celebrities rely on having healthy bodies to look good and earn them a living, they have to mandatorily allot a certain time of day to exercise, not to mention they have the coins to afford healthy foods and actual trainers. Us regular people need to juggle our 8-5 job, our family life, as well as our social life, along with gym time.
Weight-loss is not magic, it's complicated science, you can’t expect drastic results with just two or three gym sessions. I’ve met a lot of people who have given up with their weight-loss journey because they did not see drastic results in just 2 weeks of intermittent exercise. Again it takes time, when I started out I got frustrated that I’m not losing as much as I believe I should, but I’m glad I continued on, cuz now the results are more apparent.
This may be the most discouraging thing, but there is simply no shortcut to a healthy weightloss, fat that has been lost quickly, can be gained just as quickly even quicker.
This is one of the reasons why weightloss takes a longer time to take effect during the first few weeks, because your body is still adjusting to your new lifestyle. Specially if you have been physically inactive for a long time, it’ll take time before your body actually adjusts to your proactivity and diet regimen.
One must respect the adjusting period, don’t just jump into a new fitness plan or diet just because something did not work at first try, chances are your body is still adjusting to it. Do gradual changes to help your body adjust. I’m on an intermittent diet, I did it little by little and now I don’t feel random hunger and my body have adjusted well to it. In the beginning I did an 10hr eating window to 8hrs to 6hrs and now 4hrs.
Even for your exercise, I used to do casual 1 hr walks with jogging in between, to 1hr jogging with running in between, to 1hr running with rest periods. I have a lot of people (relative beginners) joined me through my running period without having their bodies adjusted, (I warned them btw) and they got light headed easily because their body is not used to exert that much effort. Progression is key, always start small and progress your way to something bigger.
It makes sense right? the key to weightloss is caloric deficit, so why not just take it out of the equation, like what’s the worst that could happen? WRONG. Yes starvation does make you lose weight, I tried it, I suffered it, but there are actual disadvantages to it, you lose brain power, you lose energy quicker, you get sickly, and it’s just not healthy. Not to mention it’s just a temporary remedy to your actual problem. I gotta keep it a 100, when I did this it was the best thing ever, I got into the most skinniest I’ve ever been, but I got fat just as quick.
When you starve yourself, your body goes into survival mode, which consumes your fat for energy (that’s why you lose weight) BUT once you have consumed even the tiniest calorie, your body, that’s currently on survival mode, quickly turns that calorie into fat to compensate for the loss. It might be the quickest way to lose weight but it’s the quickest way to get fat as well.
The Goal of this series is not to make everyone skinnier but to make everyone healthier, starving yourself is highly discouraged.
This is the most important part of weightloss, the major cause of obesity and an unhealthy body is a weak metabolism. I for one has an extremely weak metabolism before I started and it was the one I tried to fix first and is continuously doing so. It’s not easy I tell you, but it’s so worth it. It can be done by increasing your daily activities, eating food that are high in thermogenic effect, or sleeping at the proper amount. I will have an article on this very soon to go further into details with this one as this deserves an article of its own.
Disclaimer: All of the points laid down in this article are backed by actual scientific studies that I’ve came across at one point in my weightloss journey, and my personal experience in the matter as well as discussions with actual experts, I do not nor will I ever claim to be an expert on the matter, I’m just here sharing what I know and have learned over the past 4 years.
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