I’ve tried many times to lose weight before. Let me tell you. I’d always fail. Losing weight is not easy.
I don’t think there is one perfect approach to losing weight. But I think I have found a pretty good one so I thought I could share it with everyone else.
I finally got sick of not liking pictures I took because I hated looking at myself. I decided I wanted to make a change for myself, one that would last. And I’ve learnt so much along the way. I’ve learnt things that I had already heard but didnt really believe in, and I’ve learnt things that no one had told me before. So here it goes.
I started my journey at 58 kilograms, which doesn’t seem a lot, but for a 5ft1 (156/7cm) 27 year old woman, that’s quite a lot. I wouldn’t say I was obese but let’s face it, I was fat, or chubby as people say. By the way, there is nothing wrong with the word fat, and I’m only trying to tell my story of weight loss so don’t come at me saying I’m promoting a skinny society because that is not at all the point of this article nor my point of view.
Anyways, I felt tired all the time, and bloated and couldn’t fit comfortably into my clothes anymore, only wore leggings and to be honest, didn’t feel confident about my body anymore. So I started this journey on January 2nd and boy, it’s one of the hardest things I’ve ever done.
I downloaded this app called Better Me, inputed my starting weight and my goals and started tracking my calories — eaten and burnt. A nightmare at first. I hated tracking calories and realised I was eating wayyy too many calorie dense foods every day, with no nutrient benefits and with no room left for dinner (or sometimes lunch)! By the way, I’m not saying this is the only app to use — I’m sure there’s plenty of other very similar ones out there that will be as good as this one (and maybe cheaper?).
At the same time, I had been working for a year on a DNA Test called Metabolics, which looks at your genes involved in fat metabolism, appetite regulation and other important aspects for weight loss, so of course, that was very helpful but I will develop this later…
So coming back to the calories, it took me a while to make changes that were sustainable. I learnt which foods were ‘worth it’ i.e. the high calorie-foods I thought were impossible to give up and the ones that were not. That meant I could still enjoy my bread or pain au chocolat at breakfast but stopped having huge portions of pasta or pizza. It took me a few months to realise that to satisfy my cravings I don’t need huge portions, I just need a bit of the craved food. So now, instead of having a whole peperroni pizza by myself, I just have half and believe me, that is way enough and as satisfying. I also now know which foods are high in calories but nutrient-dense such as olive oil, avocado, bananas and peanut butter, and the low-calorie foods I still love like apricots, raspberries and strawberries, and fish, chicken and ham. It’s not about the exact number. It’s more about having an idea of what you’re eating, and how much. At first, I was having lots of carbs and fats, and very low amounts of proteins — this pattern changed with time. I still have carbs and fat, don’t get me wrong, but I also have more protein and a much better idea of what I have in a day. So now I don’t work with guilt anymore if I have a big meal like a cheeseburger and fries, I just commit to trying my best to move my body and burn the calories for it.
It’s not about punishing myself after having eaten either. It’s the opposite. It’s making myself feel good about it all the time. Because I know that I consistently move every day and do what I can (see the rest of my approach), I don’t restrict myself from eating what I want (moderatly) or hate myself afterwards. It’s not that I NEVER feel that way. Of course, sometimes, I regret eating that cake or piece of bread but I try to not let it affect me too much.
Anyways, by the end of January I was at 55.65 kilograms, so 2.35 kilograms lost in a month. Not too bad. But I still couldn’t see significant changes. Let’s face it, I was still fat. I started to use my apple watch to track my movements too, and that was life-changing. I am now addicted to having it every single day, even at fancy events where an apple watch is not needed. It helped me realise you can ‘easily’ burn a couple of calories a few times a day, and at the end of the day, it can add up to a decent amount of additional calories burnt. Example: in London, the underground tube is VERY underground, so there is escalators to exit the station. I decided to stop waiting on the escalators each time, activated my apple watch indoor walk workout, and climbed the escalators ALL THE TIME, EVERY SINGLE DAY, NO MATTER WHAT. No matter if I’m travelling with someone else or if I have a suitcase or wearing heels… And guess what? Doing 2 min of that burns about 10–15 calories and I have three changes at least in my commute to work. So already, I was burning 45 more calories one way and 45 the other way. That made a difference. Not only it helped to compensate for the difficulty of complying with the low-calorie diet (as when I started the app told me I needed less than 1600kcal a day, and less with weight loss, so burning more meant I could eat more…), but with time, it also made my cardio better and helped to tone my legs.
And so by the end of February, I was at 54.35kg. At the same time, I started to use more seriously my Fit Track scale, which is a smart scale that gives your weight but also other characteristics such as your body fat percentage, your muscle rate, your BMI etc… And that was very useful to see because I started with a body fat percentage of 25% and a visceral index of 6 and could see the progress throughout time. I am now at 20% body fat and 3 for my visceral index.
I also started tracking my water intake, realising (I know I’m late to the party) that water is very important and drinking loads (about 1.7L) every day can be very helpful. And started drinking green tea, which I absolutely hated at first but due to my DNA Test, I knew it was good for me.
You see, I’m a Research Scientist at a very cool genetic testing company called Lifecode Gx. And from February 2022 to January 2023, my main project was to develop a DNA Test on Metabolism that would be the best in the field.
We know there are different systems in the body that will have an impact on our metabolism and by consequence our weight. For example, the brain plays an important role in food intake and energy expenditure. There are hunger and satiety signals sent to the brain, which are mediated by two opposing hormones called ghrelin and leptin.
Ghrelin is commonly called the 'hunger hormone' as it stimulates appetite, increases food intake and promotes fat storage. Leptin is the 'satiety hormone' which inhibits hunger after eating and stimulates metabolism. There are genes involved in this process. They code for the enzymes/hormones/proteins/peptides etc. And if you have a SNP (Single Nucleotide Polymorphism) — a genetic mutation — on one of those genes, that can lead to impaired action of whatever the gene is trying to code for. So for example, after doing my own DNA Metabolics Test, I learnt that I have a SNP on FTO (commonly called ’the Fatso gene’). This means that my FTO gene is over-expressed and sends too much hunger signals, and too few statiety signals. Research has shown that people who have this genotype like me generally prefer sweet and high-fat foods (yes, that’s totally me!), and have more risk to become fat. Good news, though, researchers have shown that green tea is an FTO inhibitor, meaning it can help to down-regulate its activity and mitigate its effects. Which is why drinking green tea was so good for me! It helped to reduce my appetite by a lot.
You can see how this genetic test has helped me shape uniquely my weight loss approach, to a very tailored and personalised way.
Another example was the mutation on my leptin receptor, LEPR. Again, leptin is the satiety signal, meaning it’s the thing that tells your brain that you’re full and need to stop eating. My leptin receptor is down-regulated due to a mutation so it takes longer for me to realise I’m full and and can therefore eat bigger portions than average. And what does help improve lepin sensitivity? Sleep and omega-3s. So I really focused on my sleep, and made sure to have 8–9 hours of sleep every night as well as started consuming omega-3s three times a week such as salmon sushi!
So you can see how a genetic test of more than 50 SNPs on metabolism in general really helped to build a personalised approach to losing weight that would be efficient for ME, and me only, as this is MY genetic code.
On March 31st, I weighed 53.2kg. Merely 1kg lost in a month but still progress. I bought new jeans that I absolutely loved and was so proud to finally fit comfortably into proper trousers. That is one of the many things that kept my motivation up during my weight loss journey — getting new pieces of clothing that made me feel pretty and comfortable. It’s very different to go out in a cute crop top that shows your belly, I was much less likely to overeat wearing that, rather than wearing a baggy sweathshirt that hides everything underneath and makes you think you can eat more because no one will see you’re bloated.
I continued my burlesque dancing (which also helped a LOT confident-wise, and was also probably one of the triggers to wanting to be healthier) and increasingly walked more every day, stopping my tube or bus journey earlier and continuing by walking to increase my calories burnt on my apple watch. At the beginning of April, I had my dance show, with a professional photographer coming to immortalise this amazing event. And when I got back the pictures, I cried. I hated myself in those pictures. The lighting was awful and I looked really fat. You could see my big arms and thighs and I was really disappointed with the results. I wowed that for the next show in beginning of July, I would look way better and finally have pictures of myself that I loved and was proud of.
So I went running three to four times a week after that, even in the early mornings. At the end of April, I was 51.8kg and bought the dress of my dreams, and felt so hot and proud of myself. My parents hadn’t seen me since January and they were shocked by the difference. It made me feel so happy and encouraged me to continue.
I have to say, support throughout this journey has been INDISPENSABLE. I’ve had invaluable encouragement from so many people that I have to mention them here. My partner, Sam, has been the prime witness of my weight loss journey, and my biggest supporter. He created healthy meals and counted calories for me, accepted my crazy workouts in the living room and in our room late at night, tolerated my moodiness and ups and downs, patiently watched me ask the calories of the dishes in restaurants on date nights, cheered on me and came to watch me run 10K and my dance shows, consoled me when I had setbacks, and always, always made me feel beautiful and loved no matter what.
My family and friends were also there for me, encouraging me, congratulating me each time I passed a milestone, and again, always being there for me when I was needed it. My parents kept pushing me and saying how important it was for me to continue and I now understand why. I feel so much more like myself.
And finally, I want to say how immensely grateful I am to my Instagram community. I set up a close friends story feature, and shared my journey EVERY DAY for 8 months including my goals, weight, measurements, events, meals, ups and downs, before and after pictures, outfits and many many other things. The response I got was the most heartwarming and encouraging feedback ever. Not only I got a huge amount of support, but I also received insightful advice, tips and comments that I would not have found out on my own. Every milestone achieved was celebrated with them and I can’t thank them enough for being with me throughout this time. I don’t think I would have been able to do this without them. It was a huge motivation to know I had all of these friends cheering on me.
Around April, that’s when I started seeing visual results but I wasn’t too sure so a few friends from Instagram suggested I should measure myself as another non-scale measurement tool. So I measured my arms, waist, hips and thighs and decided to take my measuremets every month to see if some progress had been achieved. On April 11th, my arms were 32cm, waist was 71cm, hips 96cm and thighs 56cm.
In May, I only lost about 700 grams and was at 51.15kg at the end of the month. It was a bit disappointing but still progress. I could still see my body fat % decrease on the Fit Track scale and the progress with measurements: my waist decreased to 70.5cm, hips 95cm, thighs 54cm and arms were about 31cm.
I continued my eating habits, lowering my calories allowance as my weight decreased and trying to fit as much as movement as possible every day. I also tried to do more intermittent fasting by not eating dinner too late, which sometimes proved difficult and not very nice for my social/romantic life but I always tried to compensate with other night outs.
In June, which was my birthday month, I lost 1.15kg and arrived at 50kg at the end. It was very important to me as I had my dance show in early July and wanted to look as good as possible in the pictures.
One of my struggles at some point was losing the fat in my arms. I still felt that I had ‘big arms’ and felt quite insecure about them. I just wanted them to look thinner and less fatty if that makes sense. It would be to the point that for pictures, I knew what angles worked best for my arms and the positions that made them look bigger. So I told my personal trainer I wanted to lose the fat in my arms and he taught me a few exercises to do every day. Which I did. I did arm dips and weight exercices that targetted the part of my arms I didn’t like. EVERY DAY for a month. To be honest, yes, some days I skipped them because I had already exercised quite a lot, but the rest of the time, I was extremely adamant in doing them. I also started to do a few ‘lipolysis’ massages on this part of my arms, and also on my thighs, hips and butt. That helped a lot. Suddenly, my arms ‘melted’ and I was finally much happier about the way they looked.
Finally, July was great. I went on holidays twice, ate and drank what I wanted, but also exercised a lot and made sure to keep up with the rest — such as my sleep, my water and tea, my vitamins, the quality of the food I had and continuing to weigh myself. At the end of July, I was at 49.2kg so only 800 grams lost but still okay!
Back from holidays, I lost a bit more and quickly arrived to 48.5kg. but then got stuck there for ages. I’d say August was hard month. Lots of stress, fatigue, and stagnation in terms of weight. I was constantly around 48.5kg for about 20 days. And believe me 20 days without progress is long — and depressing. I barely ran that month, but walked a LOT. I tracked my calories intake and continued to do so every day, consistently. Because that’s another thing that my weight loss journey has taught me. Consistency is key. I know, it’s very cliché, but I didn’t really believe it until doing it myself. Which brings me to also tell you that weight loss is a commitment, a state of mind.
Every day, you choose to do something towards your weight loss goal, EVERY SINGLE DAY. You choose to walk more, exercise for an additional 5 minutes, take the stairs instead of the lift, drink one more glass of water, eat the right thing, or eat less, drink one less glass of wine, count how many calories eating this doughnut would represent and choose to eat it or not. It’s about saying to your friends ‘sorry, I’m not sharing this pizza with you, I’m having something else’ or to your partner ‘I’ve already had my dinner earlier so I can digest and sleep better’. It’s about pushing yourself to walk or run even if it’s cold or hot, or raining, even when you’re sick, doing every move you can to reach your move goal of the day. It’s about the books you read, the instagram videos you watch and the stories you post. It’s about being a better version of yourself and being more confident — being firm about what you want and how you want to achieve it. It’s about organisation — prepping what you’re going to eat that week at work, taking the time to weight yourself EVERY DAY even if you don’t want to know, measuring your waist, arms and thighs every month on a certain day at a certain time, taking your vitamins consistently and going to bed at an early time so you get plenty of rest. It’s about being strong mentally and facing ups and downs, wins and losses all the time. It’s essentially changing your habits and lifestyle in a sustainable way to improve your quality of life. But it’s hard. Sometimes you feel completely disgusting and some other times you’re so proud of yourself. Sometimes you cry because you don’t see any progress or because you’ve ‘ruined’ the work done in the past few days, and some other times you celebrate milestones by buying the dress you’ve always wanted or posting that picture on Instagram.
Weight loss is hard. It takes TIME and CONSISTENCY.
But if I did it, you can do it too.
So I continued my efforts, determined not to stay at 48.5kg. I worked really hard on my calories in/out. I tried to stick as much as I could to my low calorie diet and tried to eat dinner earlier, drank lots of water and walked a lot. My goal was to finally arrive at 48kg or under. And I did! On Friday 25th of August, I weighed 48.0kg on the scale and had officially lost 10 kilograms since January. My measurements were also proof of my weight loss, since April I’d lost 5cm in the arms, 5cm in the waist, 4cm in the hips and 3cm in the thighs!
I was thrilled.
I was once 58 kilograms and always tired, insecure and not the version I wanted to be. I’m now 48 kilograms and fit, much happier, confident and a better, stronger version of myself that I could ever imagine. And I’m not going to stop. Because there is always progress on the way. There is always something you can do to help yourself, to improve who you are and that’s what weight loss taught me.
Anyways, now my goal is to get to 45kg, which again seems low, but I promise that for a young woman my height, it’s still a perfectly normal and healthy weight. I also want to focus more on my arms and thighs, and getting stronger in general. I can see my abs (wow, never thought I’d say that) but they’re not very well defined so I’m going to work on that too. Like I showed, hopefully, it’s not about restriction, it’s about thinking and planning, being aware of what you’re doing and moving as much as you can. It’s about eating all the foods you want in moderation. It’s about leading yourself to a better life and healthier future.
Hope this helps.
Lots of love,
Chloé