The Journey to Losing 50kg
This last week, Peter was doing his usual check-in when he saw that he had officially reached his original goal – to lose 50kg!
We couldn’t have him reach this milestone and not have him be our member of the week could we? This is a huge achievement and we are all very proud and pleased for his incredible progress.
If you’d like to read about his journey to lose the first 25kg, then you can click here: https://www.coreresults.co.uk/peters-weight-loss-journey/
How do you lose 50kg?
With a huge amount of discipline, hard work and a great support network. To recap, Peter joined Core Results at the end of October 2017 and we got started on his nutrition on November 1st. The goal? To lose 50kg by December 2018 and to learn to adopt a consistent eating pattern that is sustainable and manageable long term.
Peter used a calorie tracking approach which worked well for him and helped him better understand the calorie content of different foods. He would check-in with me (Emily) once a week with ‘the numbers’, as well as general feedback in response to various questions I asked. He started dropping weight very rapidly in the first few weeks (actually not eating enough), and by almost mid January 2018 he’d lost 10.3kg after quickly adjusting to hitting his calorie target.
We then eventually decreased his calorie target after this to help keep the pace up with a slightly more intentional ‘aggressive’ approach, and this worked well for Peter, because by mid April 2018 he was down a total of 20.1kg (above).
Targets stayed as they were right through until the end of July when he reached the 30.1kg loss. It was in the lead up to this that he had the first week where we had a registered ‘increase on the scales’ – while it is completely normal for most people to fluctuate when dieting, this hadn’t happened yet for Peter which although to him felt like a bit of a ‘fail’, it was actually very good for him to experience. Weight fluctuates daily, and it just so happens that we picked up on one of those fluctuations on check-in day! What did we do? Nothing. Continued as normal.
December 2018
Calories stayed pretty much the same continuing forwards and by early December, Peter had lost 40.7kg! No it wasn’t the 50kg he’d aimed for by this point, but during the months leading up to this he accepted that the actual end date was becoming less important, because he was still going to keep moving forwards regardless.
It wasn’t until around mid January where Peter experienced his second (recorded) fluctuation on the scales. But once again, this is completely normal, just not ‘normal’ for Peter at the time. After this point we actually increased calories! Why? His energy was suffering, his workouts were slowing and things were just feeling not so fun anymore. We only bumped up his target by 200kcals, but we knew he’d likely still be in a deficit, just at the higher end of one. Small fluctuations started to become more normal for him, but by the last week of February Peter had lost 44.9kg.
The biggest change isn’t always physical
We won’t go into details, but after talking with Peter we made the decision to remove the scales from his house. The solution was for him to instead weigh himself on a Saturday morning before his gym session, but the difference now would be that he’d be weighing in his clothes, and he’d stick to only once a week.
A few weeks later, Peter was heading off to Bali. Although not his first trip away while dieting, this was a big deal – in a nutshell he was instructed to relax, enjoy himself, and not track – essentially it was a very short diet break. Challenge accepted. While it was an excellent trip, Peter unfortunately became unwell at the end of it so the first few weeks back were a bit of a challenge. Appetite was next to non-existent, sleep was off, which all meant energy was extremely low, which then affected training and all of this hugely affected Peter’s mood. We’d hit the first major hurdle – when life throws crap at you that you can’t control which can make you feel like you no longer have the control. Except you do, it’s just not the way you want it to be.
As awful as this all felt for Peter, I kept saying to him that this was likely a blessing in disguise, albeit not a very nice one. It was no longer smooth sailing and we needed to show him this was normal and he could manage it. When weight is coming off so rapidly, everything seems fine and dandy. You may have the odd week that isn’t great, but overall progress is being made and all is well.
Losing fat is an adjustment for most people, but losing large amounts of body fat can take a much larger toll on your mind than some may expect or be prepared for. Your body is changing rapidly before your eyes and while all the changes seem physical, a hell of a lot more is changing in your head. No one can prepare you for how you’re going to feel, and you’re literally changing your life! We realised that this ‘post holiday stumbling block’ highlighted just how much Peter had yet to come to terms with, and he still had a lot of work to do. We helped him as best we could and suggested further support if needed, and gradually things started to get a little better for him…
9thJune 2019
Peter weighed himself in the gym, with clothes on and quietly told us that ‘he had done it’. He’d lost 50kg. Well… 50.4kg!
We were (and still are) all thrilled!
Was the last 10kg a little slower? Yes. But he was on higher calories compared to the beginning, for the most part weighed himself in his clothes (so technically will have lost a fraction more), had a holiday, had an illness and also had the biggest challenge of the entire journey… Changing his mindset! We think 10kg in 6 months is excellent – it’s still almost 1lb a week, and having already lost 40kg, this was brilliant!
Now here are all the numbers that you may or may not be after:
From November 1st2017 to June 9th2019, Peter has lost…
- 4kg / 111lbs / 7st 13lbs, which equates to 0.6kg / 1.32lbs per week!
- A total of 124cm! This includes 26cm off his hips and 39cm off his waist.
Incredible.
What next?
Peter would like to continue for a little while now he’s on a bit of a roll again, and then we are definitely going to push calories back up to maintenance and try gradually to step away from the tracking for a while. It’s going to be a challenge for him to accept that he CAN maintain his weight loss, which again is a transition that is often overlooked, but we know that he can do it and has everyone at Core Results continuing to support him!
We would like to thank Peter for choosing Core Results to help him with his fat loss journey, we have loved being a part of it!
