I can’t believe how much weight I’ve lost!

A weight-loss diary

This is an article about how much weight I’ve been able to lose in a very short period of time. On the 29th March I started my weight loss plan at a weight of 79kg. Today is the 20th April and I weigh 72kg. When I weighed myself this morning I was shocked. I stepped off of the scale, checked that it was set to zero, then stepped on again. Still 72kg.

“Oh my God. I’ve lost 7kg in less than a month” I said to myself. Then I took a photograph of the scale and sent it to some of my friends and my family. The replies came quickly. ‘How? Then write it on Medium’ my friend Alan responded. ‘That’s not normal is it?’ my sister typed. I replied to her with ‘Nope. Most people do well to lose a pound a week, but I’m not most people.’ Losing weight this rapidly has made me feel really good about myself.

Exercise or diet?

I’ve actually reduced the amount of exercise I do. In the last four weeks I’ve been to the gym twice, for about thirty five minutes each time. I don’t do any cardio, I just lift weights. As muscular contractions requite glycogen and not stored fat for energy, we know that lifting weights for seventy minutes is not the cause of my fat loss.

The 7kg I’ve been able to lose so far is due entirely to my diet. It’s not a special diet, it’s not a complicated diet, it doesn’t require any fasting, and it doesn’t require any expensive groceries or supplements. I didn’t come up with the diet, I got it from a book written by a Medical Doctor and Professor (Professor Roy Walker) who has specialised in the treatment of diabetes for decades. I’ve not followed Professor Walker’s diet strictly or continuously and I’ve still been amazed by my results.

Starting out.

The 29th March was a Tuesday. I’d read that some of Professor Walker’s patients lost up to 3.5kg in the first week, and the average weight loss was about 15kg in two months. Those number are absolutely amazing. “I’d be happy to lose 15kg in a year” I thought to myself. But I settled on the idea of losing 10kg in two months, confident that doing so would get me the flat stomach and the body I’ve wanted for over a decade. Losing 10kg in two months I resolved, would be an incredible achievement. Initially, I really wanted to lose 3.5kg in the first week.

Falling off the wagon.

I didn’t last a week. The diet was easy to follow and by the second day I wasn’t even hungry any more. I lasted four days and then attended a birthday barbeque where I estimate I consumed approximately 3000 calories. Four burgers with cheese and sauce, olives, cheese, crisps, a very generous portion of home made vanilla cheese cake and about 1200 calories of drinks. The next day I visited my mother, who cooks the best food in the world if you ask me. After having a large plate of chicken curry with freshly made chapatis, I also ate a bar of chocolate, some walnuts, some pistachios, some cashew nuts, and some yoghurt. To do even more damage, I had a glass of fresh orange juice. We’ve all been led to believe that fruit juice is good for us, but for those looking to lose weight it’s a disaster. Swallowing a glass of fruit juice is practically the same as pouring a cup of sugar down your throat. Having gone that far I decided to have another plate of chicken curry, and a plate of lentils. Then I ate what my wife and two daughters had left over. Conservatively I estimate I ate at least another 3000 calories that day. So that was 6000 calories on the weekend, after four days of dieting. Had I blown it? No.

On Friday night I’d weighed myself and been ecstatic. I was down to 75kg. I’d lost 4kg in four days. After the weekend I feared that I might have undone a lot of the progress I’d made in those first four days. When I stepped back on the scales seven days after starting out, my weight was 76kg. I felt fantastic. Even though I’d eaten like a gourmand for two days I was still 3kg lighter than where I’d started. With a grand sense of celebration I stepped off of the scale and realised I was actually doing something I’d wanted to do for more than a decade. Significant weight loss was a goal I’d been setting every year since I got married in 2010. With bolstered confidence, I carried on with the diet.

Taking a break

On Sunday 10th April I took a break. I flew to Switzerland for a week long holiday where I had an enormous breakfast every morning and paid little attention to my caloric intake. In case you’re wondering, the ice cream and the chocolate in Switzerland are delicious, so it the fresh butter spread on bread rolls. Generally I only ate twice a day and I walked for several hours each day. A lot of that walking was on hilly and mountainous terrain. My wife commented that I looked very attractive in photographs and asked if I’d had a facelift. I hadn’t, but losing weight had already tightened up my jawline.

My daughter took a photograph of me standing next to a carved wooden bear. I look slimmer in that photograph that I’ve looked in many years.

Back in the saddle

I flew back to the UK on the 15th April, and got home at 1am on the 16th. I didn’t weight myself, but resumed the diet. On the 17th April I had Easter lunch with my parents in law. Turkey, stuffing, gravy, cranberry sauce, roast vegetables, chocolate cake, ice cream, fresh cream, berry strudel, cream pastries, and onion soup. I had all of that, but took care to keep the portion sizes small. When I weighed myself the next evening, I was back down to 75kg. The next morning I sent a WhatsApp my family; ‘I’m 75kg. Watch me get to 70.’ Having hovered at around 80kg for more than 10 years, it felt great to send that message.

I got straight back to my version of Professor Walker’ diet. Less than 48 hours later I was down to 72kg. This is the lightest I’ve been in nearly twenty years!

What’s the secret?

There is no secret. All I’ve done is reduced my calorie intake. This is not the place to debate different diets or opinions so I will simply state a fact; the only way to lose weight is to consume less calories than you require for your daily activities. Reducing the energy you consume by eating less is exponentially more effective than trying to increase the amount of energy you burn by exercising more.

Professor Walker’s diet provides about 700 calories a day in the form of three nutritionally complete meal replacement shakes (200 calories each) and a large salad (which provides roughage so you don’t get constipated). My version of the diet probably provides closer to 1000 calories a day. I have two meal replacement drinks, as much coffee and water as I want ( I don’t take sugar), a piece of grilled meat with salad, or meat stir fried with vegetables, or a three egg omelette with vegetables. But the diet still works because even a thousand calories each day is much less than I used to eat (2000–3000). If I had stuck to the diet more strictly, I’d have lost even more weight by now.

What was I expecting?

When I started this diet I thought I’d take two months to lose 10kg, and at that point I’d have a completely flat stomach, and a bodyfat percentage of around 10%. I was mistaken on both counts. I’m fairly certain I can lose another 3kg in the next nine days, which means I will have lost 10kg in only one month. Losing 10kg isn’t going to give me the completely flat stomach I hanker after. I underestimated just how fat I am. It seems like I’ll have lost about 15kg by the time I have a completely flat stomach.

I was worried that losing more than 10kg would cost me a lost of muscle mass. In the two workouts I’ve had whilst dieting, I have continued to gain strength on every single exercise except chin ups. That may simply be down to the fact that I do them at the end of my workout, and on a reduced calorie intake, I am exhausted by that stage. Nonetheless, losing 7kg has not turned me into a spindly weakling.

Hunger pangs and food cravings were also something I thought I’d experience. I haven’t. The knowledge that people can go on hunger strikes for weeks without killing themselves has helped me realise that I don’t actually need to eat any more than the meal replacement shakes and my evening meal. I feel hungry occasionally, but it’s a far less frequent occurrence than I thought it would be and it’s very easy to deal with. Usually I can forget about it by drinking a glass of water.

What have I learned?

Losing weight is really, really easy. Its easier than I ever thought it could be, and it’s quicker than I ever thought it could be.

There are not secrets, you simply need to cut your calories. Drastic calorie reduction leads to rapid weight loss.

Hunger is not really an issue if you are eating regularly. When I started out I would have shake at 7am, a shake at 12 noon, some meat at 5pm, and a salad at 10pm. Now I usually don’t even have my first shake until 10am, or 11am, four or five hours after I wake up. I’ll have my second shake at 3pm and I usually have my meal at around 7pm. Because I’ve lost weight already, my body requires less to maintain itself and I don’t need as much food to ward off hunger.

I can still get stronger whilst drastically reducing calories. There is no doubt that some of the weight I’ve lost will be muscle, but I have not lost enough to make myself weaker. I’ve actually gotten stronger on everything except chin ups.

Falling off of the wagon doesn’t have to derail you. You can have an occasional binge, go out for a meal or enjoy a treat here and there. Just get back on the diet afterwards and you will continue to lose weight.

Where now?

I’ll continue to lose weight. I might write about it again. My stated target now is 70kg, but I’m already thinking about 65kg. That’s less than what I weighed at college, a quarter of a century ago. I’m not worried about losing muscle, because building muscle is easy, it just takes time. Slightly less muscle with a very low bodyfat is always going to look much better, and be much healthier than having lots of muscle covered by a big layer of fat.

My belt is much loser, my face is less flabby, and I have better muscular definition. I’ll carry on until I am satisfied with how I look. At that point I’ll probably be in the best shape of my life.

If you’ve enjoyed reading this article and you’re not a Medium member, you might notice you can only read 3 articles per month. If you create an account, you can read 5 articles a month without charge. But if you become a member ( only $5/month or $50/year) you can read as many articles as you want, ad-free. You can become a member here and if you use my link I retain a small portion of your fee. Thanks for your support!