Healthy Fat Loss Journey
Charlotte Lost 40 Pounds of Visceral Fat After Winning the Battle Against Chronic Fatigue and Stress.
Here are five practical steps she took to achieve a healthy and sustainable weight that gave her a defined body, delighting her.
What Charlotte Did Differently
Fifty-two-year-old Charlotte, a biotechnology consultant in a private company, struggled with weight gain since her teenage years.
She initially blamed her genes, hormones, and family issue caused by losing her mum due to dementia and her dad because of a heart attack.
However, when she took personal responsibility for her health and obtained the necessary support from professionals and friends, she created her new reality and transformed herself into the desired state.
This exciting journey required Charlotte to think, focus, take corrective actions, and make a concerted effort to create meaningful connections to achieve her goal.
While making a personal effort in this exciting journey, leveraging the power of other people contributed to her sustainable success significantly.
This post introduces five practical steps Charlotte took to sustainably lose visceral fat, leading to a healthy and satisfying life.
I only highlight the key points that impacted her physical and psychological health transformation. We are all unique and have different requirements.
However, my goal is to give helpful perspectives of people who lost fat and maintained healthy weight management.
1 — Leveraged the Power of Psychotherapy
When I asked Charlotte which step made the most significant impact on her fat loss journey, she mentioned the benefits of psychotherapy.
Her entangled health issues stemmed from psychological issues that caused cumulative stress since her childhood.
Charlotte did not know how to deal with anxious thoughts and destructive emotions. She was numbing and repressing them. She started smoking and consuming alcohol to deal with her emotional pain.
After a comprehensive examination, her family physician referred Charlotte to a psychotherapist specializing in CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy).
She was fortunate as her private health insurance covered this medical expense as she was diagnosed with chronic stress and fatigue syndrome by medical specialists in a specific risk group.
The innovative plan of the psychotherapist with a medical degree resolved her chronic fatigue and emotional stress.
According to Charlotte, this one-year psychotherapy treatment included 24 months of bi-weekly sessions that addressed her psychological issues, improved her emotional profile, and helped her regulate her emotions effectively.
However, besides eliminating unhealthy addictions, the most noteworthy contributor of this therapy to her fat loss was eliminating emotional hunger, which caused her significant weight gain and put her in a metabolically disadvantaged position.
2 — Hired a Holistic Dietician
The second most effective step in Charlotte’s fat loss journal was fixing her nutritional deficiencies and removing destructive food from her diet.
Referred by her family doctor, Charlotte was happy to pay a dietician as her insurance did not cover it. However, the cost was negligible in her health budget, costing her a few hundred dollars and giving her substantial value.
After a thorough analysis of her medical history and blood tests, the dietician created a customized nutrition plan for Charlotte.
Since she loved both plant and animal-based food, it was easier for the dietician to develop an efficient diet to balance both macro-nutrients and micro-nutrients.
The dietician’s focus was to address her insulin and leptin resistance problems which were the root causes of her metabolic disorder.
Her diet plan included proteins from bio-available sources such as poultry, fish, seafood, eggs, yogurt, and red meat.
She got healthy fats from avocado, olives, nuts, fish, eggs, butter, beef tallow, and organ meats. Green leafy vegetables were the only carbohydrate source as her dietician removed grains and sugary foods from her diet.
This customized diet regulated her blood sugar, eliminating insulin resistance. She got essential minerals and vitamins from both plant and animal sources. When she consumed adequate nutrients, her hunger pangs disappeared. She learned the difference between physical and emotional hunger.
3 — Worked with a Fitness Coach
During her childhood, Charlotte loved running and jumping around. She was physically active playing with balls, swimming in the lake, and climbing trees with her friends in the summers.
However, after gaining significant fat due to emotional traumas, she lost interest in exercise and had a sedentary life for many years, causing more fat accumulation.
The more fat she gained, the higher points her stress level reached. Inadvertently, one day at a birthday party, she asked her friend Eliza how she had lost 30 pounds.
This simple question opened a new horizon for her. Eliza referred her to Adrian for a free consultation session. Interestingly, they bartered their services so fitness coaching would not cost her any expense.
Adrian developed a customized fitness plan for Charlotte.
Overall, the program included 20 minutes of fasted cardio in the mornings for the first three months, 30 minutes of whole-body resistance training every second day, and 30 minutes of a moderate-speed walk after lunch and dinner.
This regime significantly reduced her stress, improved her fitness, reduced her excessive calories, and helped her to become insulin sensitive by being fat-adapted.
4 — Slowed Down and Improved Sleep Quality
Her sedentary life, emotional traumas, chronic fatigue, and metabolic issues caused sleep deprivation for Charlotte for many years.
She struggled with insomnia trying medication and sleep supplements. They worked initially but did not resolve her problems like brain fog until she learned to slow down and perform mindfulness practices like meditation.
Chronic stress, especially emotional stress, is one of the foremost root causes of fat accumulation. Charlotte learned how emotional eating might have caused the hormonal imbalance.
One of her friends had similar issues, so she suggested Charlotte see her hypnotherapist, who helped many patients with sleep and smoking issues. She had three hypnotherapy sessions from this sleep specialist, who also provided practical tips to address her sleep.
To her surprise, after the hypnotherapy sessions, Charlotte has started sleeping normally. The tips provided by this hypnotherapist worked well for her. Interestingly, her psychotherapist’s plan aligned with the strategy of the hypnotherapist. They revolved around behavioral changes.
She learned to slow down, significantly reducing her chronic stress, fatigue, and elevated cortisol levels. Her body became more leptin and insulin sensitive. Her body started burning visceral fat and turning her white fat into brown fat, improving her mitochondria.
5 — Joined a Support and Fitness Group
When Charlotte asked Eliza what made the most significant impact in sustaining her healthy weight, apart from nutrition and exercise, Eliza said her supportive social circle encouraged her to stay on her path.
Since Eliza was a leader of a social fitness group, she invited Charlotte to join. She graciously accepted the offer.
This group included over 100 members who initially struggled with fat loss but achieved great results with a holistic approach Eliza used and shared with others.
The group has several outdoor and indoor activities such as bushwalking, sauna, gym, hydrotherapy, swimming, karaoke nights, theater, cinema, Zumba, belly dancing, laughter yoga, comedy, painting, poetry, public speaking, and meditation club.
When Charlotte joined this club, her mood significantly increased. Being part of a community raised her spirit. She felt more motivated to eat healthily and perform exercises with the group. It was great fun for her putting her to a flow state instantly.
In addition, she loved the supportive atmosphere in this social circle. Since they all had struggled with emotional and physical issues before, no one judged anyone. Instead, they had empathy and compassion for each other leading to self-love.
Conclusions and Takeaways
I introduced a list of five practical steps Charlotte followed to achieve a healthy and sustainable weight that gave her a defined body and delighted her.
Solving her psychological and physical problems helped her thrive.
These steps look simple from the outset. However, they covered numerous facets of her life, including psychology, nutrition, exercise, social connections, and spiritual development.
The critical points in her success were taking personal responsibility, making a concerted effort to correct deficiencies, slowing down, and leveraging other people’s supportive capabilities in her circles with optimism and hope.
Thank you for reading my perspectives. I wish you a healthy and happy life.
If you enjoyed this story, you might check this recent piece titled How a Single-Mum Reversed Her Obesity and Built up a Unicorn Business. I wish you a healthy and happy life. I shared similar life lessons from friends in the attached collection.
Defeat Metabolic Syndrome and Slim Down Waistline with Three Tips
Three Tips to Eliminate Insulin Resistance and Shrink Waistline
How a Single-Mum Reversed Her Obesity and Built up a Unicorn Business
How Alberto Melted His Potbelly & Doubled Testosterone in a Year
Charlotte Lost 40 Pounds of Visceral Fat After Winning the Battle Against Chronic Fatigue and Stress.
Lean, Fit, & Happy While Becoming Insulin Sensitive, Reducing the Risk of Metabolic Disorders
As a new reader, please check my holistic health and well-being stories reflecting my reviews, observations, and decades of experiments optimizing my hormones and neurotransmitters. I write about health as it matters. I believe health is all about homeostasis.
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As part of my creative non-fiction writing goals, I’d like to share a few stories that might warm our hearts with a bit of humor into weighty topics.
Sample Humorous Stories
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