How I got fit

I have always been relatively healthy but never had a "fit body." Even when I went to the gym frequently, I would get quite big, but I never had a lot of definition. My body weight fluctuated a lot. For reference, I'm 1.90m tall, and my weight could fluctuate from 92kg to 82kg in a month or two and vice versa.

Towards the end of 2021, I had a health scare (nothing major in retrospect) that made me examine my health and fitness habits in more depth. That's when I started calorie counting, which was the single change that made the biggest difference.

Starting Point

When I started, my weight was around 86kg, and I estimate my body fat percentage was between 22-24%. Due to Covid, I had already become accustomed to exercising at home and had enough equipment to do demanding workouts, including dumbbells, a pull-up bar, a bench, a kettlebell, and a barbell.

Diet

It's worth noting that I've always been interested in healthy eating, so the idea of a balanced plate was not new to me. I knew what it looked like, and the ingredients and meals I prepared before would be considered healthy by most. However, the biggest difference was that I had never done calorie and macro counting (protein, carbohydrates, fat) before. As a result, I was consuming way more calories than I needed. While I generally had balanced meals for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, the snacks I ate afterwards were the main culprit preventing me from reaching my goals.

When I was considering the idea of calorie counting, I stumbled upon the Consistent app and it completely changed my life. I had tried similar apps in the past, but this was the first time I came across a user-friendly app that actually taught me how to do calorie counting. The process of calorie counting can seem daunting because the numbers are precise and it's very easy to make mistakes. In fact, you will most likely make mistakes. However, this app taught me how to consistently track my progress and see improvement in my journey towards accurate calorie counting.

Starting at 86kg with a body fat percentage I wanted to reduce, my goal was to lose weight. To achieve this, I set a calorie deficit goal. Based on my weight and activity level, my maintenance calorie intake (the calories I need to maintain my body weight) was about 2500 kcal per day. To lose weight, you need to consistently eat fewer calories than this every day. The calorie deficit doesn't need to be huge. A very large deficit will make it harder for you to maintain the change, while a very low deficit will make it very hard to reach your goal. For me, a delta of around 200-250 kcal per day (or 10% of my maintenance calories) was good enough to start. This equated to roughly 4 eggs, which didn't seem like much at the time.

Exercise

Regarding exercise, I continued with my previous routine: weightlifting at home 3-5 times per week and walking over 10k steps per day. I split the weightlifting into chest + shoulders, back + biceps, and legs. Working out at home with equipment made it incredibly easy. The main reason I skipped working out before was that I would find an excuse not to go to the gym. However, having equipment at home made it difficult for me to come up with an excuse, and I would end up working out in no time. This helped me build a habit of working out. Later, I transitioned to gym workouts because the equipment I had at home was no longer enough. Nevertheless, having some equipment at home means that when it's hard for me to go to the gym due to a busy day, less time, more obligations, or whatever reason, I can still do a 15-30 minute home workout, challenge myself in some way, and burn some calories.

Results

Tracking progress is a key aspect of achieving a fitness goal. To stay motivated, you need to constantly see results. There are two ways in which I consistently tracked my progress: the scale and the mirror.

When I started the calorie deficit, I began weighing myself every day, first thing in the morning. Body weight fluctuates a lot by nature, so you can't rely on a single weigh-in. Instead, rely on an average of several weigh-ins (a weekly average works well). From week 1, I noticed a 0.5kg drop in weight, and this continued week after week until I reached 76kg (with an estimated 15% body fat) 10 weeks later.

One of the dangers of losing or gaining weight is that you don't necessarily know where that weight is going. The scale doesn't tell you that. The only reliable way to know if you're gaining or losing weight in the right places is by looking at the mirror. So, I took a picture of myself at the end of each week and compared it to previous weeks. The results were impressive. Week after week, I could see the fat burning and the muscles popping out.

A side effect of getting healthier was feeling more energetic. I guess my body became lighter and more efficient, making it easier to perform everyday tasks. My appetite levels also decreased, or so I thought, because I was eating more protein than before, which kept me satiated for longer. My body probably got used to eating fewer calories, and that became the new normal.

Next steps

This article mainly explains the calorie deficit process. However, in any effort to get fit, you will likely cycle through both calorie deficit and calorie surplus until you reach your desired goals. To lose weight, you need to go on a deficit by eating less and moving more. Conversely, to gain weight (muscle), you need to go on a surplus by eating more. After completing the calorie deficit, I shifted to a surplus and started exercising more heavily at the gym. This next phase of the process helped me achieve a more well-rounded physique, but I will provide further details in a future post.