0 From Fat to Fit

Summer is almost here!  I realise that we all need a bit of motivation sometimes so today lets look at the amazing weight loss journey of this young girl!

Above: 197lbs Below: 124lbs Height: 5'3"

Her name is Criss, she’s 24 and a self confessed nerd.  She spent most of her life overweight and obese until one day she decided that enough was enough! She began her research into diet and exercise and decided to take the first serious steps towards losing weight and getting fitter.  She began her weight loss journey at 197 lbs on a 5’3″ frame, and after a long year of hard work and dedication she now weighs in at 124lbs.  Criss achieved this through a healthy weight loss regime in a relatively short- but reasonable- period of time.  She never starved herself, used fat-burners or other illegal substances and she never went on any fad diets.  Just goes to show you what is possible if you put the work in!
In her own words ” I feel healthier, I’m happier with myself, and most of my boundaries are gone”
Criss maintains she still has about 5ish pounds more that she would like to lose before she reaches her goal weight, but she is now more concerned about body composition (bodyfat% and muscle mass) than silly, arbitrary numbers on the scale.
Your body weight and jean sizes are meaningless if you’re skinnyfat (a term used to describe the body type where you have starved your muscle away, and are left with a skinny, yet flabby husk of a body). Her goals are now to be fit, strong, and healthy.

Here are some tips she has shared with us:

1.Educate yourself on how weight loss works. Learn the definition of BMR and how many calories you need just to live, and read up on metabolism. This is the most important thing you can learn regarding weight loss.  Check out the article on BMR HERE
2.Drink lots of water. Not only because water is calorie-free, but it’s been proven that water aids weight loss. Did you know dehydration slows down the fat-burning process? Then there’s the ol’ adage that if you drink more water during a meal, you’ll be less inclined to overeat.
3. Just naming random percentages here, so don’t quote me on this, but weight loss is 80% nutrition/calories/food and 20% exercise.  In fact, I didn’t exercise at all in the middle of my weight loss, and I was still losing weight. If you eat within the exact right range of calories your body needs per day (neither OVER or UNDER), cut out over-processed foods, drink lots of water, get lots of fiber, and eat fruits, veggies, and whole grains, you will see progress. Exercise aids weight loss and makes you look better, but you will have more power over your progress if you have power over your food first.
4.MEASURE YOUR FOOD. I can’t emphasize this enough! You may think that spoonful of peanut butter is one tablespoon, but it’s twice as high as the spoon and spilling over all the sides. You think you’re eating a certain amount of calories, except you’re over-estimating your portions. Get a food scale and some measuring cups. It’ll be the best weight loss decision you’ve ever made, I promise!-Take LOTS of pictures during your journey! If you are less motivated when you look at them, then take them and put them away in a folder on your computer. Wait until you’ve lost some weight and THEN go back and look. There were times when I didn’t feel like I had made much progress at all and wanted to quit, but when I would go back to my older pictures, I would see how much progress I had actually made. You might surprise yourself!
5.Find a partner! Losing weight was a lot easier when I had friends to do it with. Don’t have friends in person who will talk weight stuff with you? Find people online! There are loads of communities out there.
6.Food is not the enemy. Repeat with me: food is not the enemy. Food is not bad. Eating food does not make you fat. Food is fuel. Fuel gives you the energy to get through the day, and to work-out. Working out is nice. Therefore, food is nice.
7.Got off track for a day? Did it start with a single snack and end with a whole pizza? That’s okay! Hey, guess what? You’re human, and so am I. Nobody can be expected to be perfect every day. It’s okay to indulge your cravings sometimes! Enjoy the hell out of that pizza and don’t let the taste of guilt make it not worth it. Start over tomorrow and don’t let it weigh you down.

Diet

People always ask, “Oh, how did you do it? What did you eat?”
The simple truth of it is, well… Simple! I don’t really cook, so I keep my meals simple and eat a lot of the same things. I eat about 1200-1700 calories a day, depending on my activity level, and eat the following: fruits, veggies (especially of the raw variety!), nuts, lean chicken, extra lean ground turkey meat, lean turkey sausage, lean turkey burgers, whole grain wheat, seafood (of ALL types!), boiled eggs, peanut butter, granola, protein shakes. I basically eat a peanut butter and banana protein shake for breakfast, eat some form of grilled chicken (by itself, on a wrap, on a salad, etc), steamers veggies, and either more chicken or something else on that list in a single day.
I try to aim for a balanced diet. I don’t really stress much attention to macronutrients, but I DO watch my processed sugar/carb intake. Protein I get enough naturally from the types of food I eat, but I aim for 100+ grams. I try to eat as little processed food as possible, but I’m not perfect.
I do not take any weight loss pills, shakes, or supplements unless you count protein shakes.
I have decently high metabolism so this works for me. What worked for me may not work for you. There isn’t only one way to eat while losing weight. You have to find what works for YOU. Please remember this.

Exercise:

I lift 3-5 days a week, alternating between work-outs A and B.  The routine I follow is based on the Starting Strength routine, posted here.
For my cardio, I play DDR/ITG (youtube it!), although it’s more of a hobby than deliberate exercise. I much prefer weightlifting to cardio, although I mostly did cardio when I first started my journey.
I don’t take my exercise lightly, and I never take it easy. If you can carry on a conversation during exercise, you’re not working hard enough. If you can manage to read a book or browse the internet on your phone during your cardio, you aren’t working hard enough. If you aren’t consistently pushing yourself more and more every week, and you aren’t seeing progress, you aren’t working hard enough. If you are doing the same work-out everyday without any increase in difficulty, you will eventually plateau with your physical progress. Change things up and work different muscle groups. Lifting two pound dumbbells every day will not be enough to see progress. You need to do a combination of cardio and weights. Try to never work the same muscles day-to-day; you need to recover or you will injure yourself. And speaking of, you need days off! Your body needs recovery days, healthy food, water, and the right amount of sleep to repair in order to see the progress you seek.