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12 people who have lost more than 20 kg share their best weight loss advice
Everyone knows that losing weight isn't the easiest of tasks, but everyone also knows that anyone who needs and/or wants to achieve this goal has to start somewhere. How about starting the journey by taking inspiration from other people who have gone through the same process and succeeded?
Today we bring you some general weight loss tips from 12 people who have managed to lose a considerable amount of weight. Check them out and take advantage of everything you can use for your own fitness journey:
1. Make one healthy change at a time
“I started by walking from home to work - a walk of almost 5 km. I did this for six months and then started eating healthily: I cut out sugar and all processed foods and after a year of walking home from work three to five times a week, I hired a personal trainer. I started lifting weights, doing circuit and interval training,” says Signe Heffernan, who lost 57 kg in about two years.
Signe's advice is to start slowly at first, doing things that suit your routine. Like her, you could start walking to work, college or anywhere that isn't too far away and that you're used to using the car, bike or bus to get to, on certain days of the week.
Once this becomes a habit in your life, you should take the next step, which could be joining a gym or trying to eat more healthily. The key is to keep changing and adding new challenges to your daily life.
2. Pay attention to recommendations, but still follow your instincts
For 28-year-old Hunter Montgomery, who lost around 47.5 kg in a year, it's important to research and try different types of training and diet, but it's also crucial to be careful with the amount of food you eat. experts in good health that exist on the internet.
“What I've discovered is that each person is different, and we all react and benefit from certain things in different ways. That said, bear in mind that no one knows your body better than you do and that not everyone out there is an expert,” he advised.
Another piece of advice from Hunter is to find what works best for you and take ownership of it.
3. If you don't like aerobic exercise, find something you love to do
When she started working out, Olivia Sullivan, who is now 28 years old, weighed approximately 127.5 kg and didn't like aerobic exercise at all. Fortunately, she came into contact with strength training and found an activity that really made her feel good.
“A friend introduced me to it and I fell in love. It was feasible at my weight and I realized that I was a bit strong. I did aerobic exercise a few times a week, but it was weightlifting that kept me coming back to the gym. Then, in October, I found boxing. I had built up enough strength and endurance and it was a lot of fun. I box three times a week and strength train the other three... Aerobic exercise is much easier now at around 79.5 kg and I'm hoping to run my first 5 km race this year!”
Olivia lost around 46 kg over the course of a year.
5. You can cry in the middle of a workout. Just know that the next time will be easier
It's normal for anyone starting a training program, especially if they've never been very active, to experience difficulties in the first few days of working out. But the important thing is not to give in to the temptation to give up, and do as Jackie Kankam did, who even after an embarrassing moment at the gym, kept going and managed to lose almost 32 kg in two years.
“I'll never forget my first training session. I cried! I'd like to say it was just a few tears, but I cried a lot. It happened in my work gym, my colleagues were looking at me and trying to avoid eye contact. At one point during the exercise I sat down and thought: ‘I can give up now... Or I can hang in there because the next time I do this workout, it won't be so hard. So I stuck it out and decided that giving up was too easy,’ she said.
“My favorite quote is: ‘The difference between falling and failing is whether or not you decide to get back up. I realized that no matter how hard everything was, if I just kept getting back up it would be easier every day,’ she added.
After this, there's not much we can say except: if there's even the slightest chance that it will work out next time, don't give up!
6. Don't go on a diet. Go on a journey to change your lifestyle
In three years, Gurinder Pabla has lost almost 32 kg. To achieve these gains, he stressed that he had to undergo a challenging lifestyle overhaul.
“It's not a diet, it's not exercise and it's definitely not medication. It's a total lifestyle change. So many times I've wished that I could go back, sit on my sofa and eat a whole pizza or a bucket of (chicken) wings. But I didn't go back because I know I'm working forward and I don't want to go back to the person I was,” he revealed.
From Gurinder's account, we can see that it's not easy to change your lifestyle. But at the same time, it's a way of losing weight healthily and ensuring that the weight loss is long-lasting and that the lost kilos don't come back a few months later, as can happen with a diet or the use of medication, for example.
7. Find a group of people who will support you and cheer you on
During his weight loss process, Zachary Rieger had a lot of support from the people close to him. His girlfriend at the time, who is now his wife, was with him every step of the way. As well as running with him, she went to watch him in his races.
Zachary's parents also helped him. They kept an eye on every stage of their son's progress and cheered him on when he completed his first marathon. Others who were part of this support network throughout the process were his best friends. One of them even tried to accompany him in his training for a month.
Allied to all this was the encouragement of people who already had experience in running, a discipline that was part of his journey: “It provides a great environment. You don't have to be a marathon runner to run with them. They accept any level. I made great friends with the guys who ran with me,” he said.
Over the course of a year, Zachary lost 23.5 kg.
8. Identify your unhealthy habits and educate yourself to change them
Food, especially sugar, was like a kind of drug in Timothy Reed's life, so in order to lose weight he had to go through a process of re-education and change his habits.
“I started to educate myself about nutrition, especially calories. The temptation of food, especially sugar, was the hardest part of my journey. You overcome this by not leaving food lying around the house and not going out to eat so much. I prepare all my meals in advance and buy only nutritious food. It took me a year and a half to lose 45 kg, but the journey continues to this day. The struggle continues,” she said.
9. Find out which psychological blocks stand between you and your life change
Going through a weight transformation is not just something that involves the physical, but also the emotional, in relation to issues such as self-esteem, fear of failure and confidence. Proof of this is Vanessa Nelson, who lost approximately 32 kg in just five months and says that having professional help to deal with her fear of failure was important to her weight loss process.
“I started going to counseling because of my generalized anxiety disorder. And once I went, a lot of my fears about losing weight started to disappear. It sounds strange to say that losing weight scared me, but it's true. The thought of possible failure scared the hell out of me. But pushing all that away and dealing with my anxiety day by day made a big difference,” she said.
10. Sign up for a race with friends
When she weighed around 108 kg, Jenn Flores was always tired, so she decided she wanted to get her body back. She set herself the goal of taking part in a 5km race, but two months before the race, she was still sedentary. It was then that, after telling a colleague at work that she was going to compete and that colleague also deciding that she would take part in the event with Jenn, her mind was made up and she finally started exercising. Jenn started running around the beach with her coworker after work.
“For the first two weeks I couldn't run for more than a minute at a time. Little by little I started to be able to run whole stretches. She motivated me not only to push myself, but also to relax a bit. That run was the turning point. I think I saw a glimpse of what could be,” he said.
And what could be - and indeed was - in Jenn's life was the loss of excess kilos. She lost 27 kg in one year and four months.
11. Celebrate every victory - no matter how small - and reward yourself
Athina Garza lost approximately 84 kg in two and a half years and one of the secrets of her transformation was to keep her spirits up even when progress wasn't coming so quickly.
“When I started my journey, I was losing 2 to 4.5 kg a week! This started to decrease and in some weeks I was losing 450 to 900g. Many weeks only 450 g. I still felt excited at every weigh-in, because I was making progress. From the beginning I thought about how I would reward myself when I reached certain milestones. Every time I achieved a goal, I would buy a new outfit or shoes,” she revealed.
12. Know that life can interfere with your weight loss; keep going even with setbacks
Kelly Geistler lost around 55.5 kg in about a year, but her journey wasn't easy, as she had to deal with a health problem that slowed down the process. But she didn't give up, and after overcoming the problem, she fought the scales again and won!
“During law school, I continued to struggle with my weight and succeed, until a viral infection forced me to use steroids because of incredibly debilitating joint pain and swelling. I gained almost 32 kg in a few months during my third year of college. It took around six months for the virus to go away, but I stopped the steroids and started dealing with my weight again... I lost around 32 kg, then another 22 and now I've lost 55.5 in total,” she said.
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