When you are overweight, it is very common to start comparing yourself to the people around you and before you know it, the battle gets even more gruesome. For Dipak Agrawal, a 21-year-old student, his weight made him the center of jokes for his classmates, so much so, that attending college became a big struggle!
However, he wanted his life to be more than just his weight problems. With absolute hard work and determination, he changed his lifestyle, fought all the weight and got healthier! Read his story to know how he did this:
Name: Dipak Agrawal
Occupation: Student
Age: 21 years
Height: 5 feet 8 inches
City: Bangalore
Highest weight recorded: 103 kilos
Weight lost: 27 kilos
Duration it took me to lose weight: 1 year
The turning point: I was the chubbiest kid in my class. It sometimes bothered me as I became the laughing stock just because of my weight. Plus, I was never confident about myself. Going to classes felt like a burden to me, mentally and physically. I couldn’t reach the class without feeling exhausted. I started feeling really conscious around people who looked good.
My self-confidence started to dwindle a lot because I started comparing myself to everyone around me. That’s when I decided that I have to get back in shape to get my self-confidence back. I wanted to be fit again so that I could focus on other things in my life and not stress about my weight.
My breakfast: I start my day with a bowl of diet cereal with skim milk, topped off with dry fruits. One hour later, I prefer to have 2 egg whites and yolk.
My lunch: For lunch, I have one chapati, bowlful of dal, curd, and cucumber. When I am not in the mood to eat Indian, I have around 4 egg whites for lunch.
My evening snacks(pre-workout): Some dry fruits and one banana/bowl of watermelon.
My Dinner: 250gms chicken breast cooked in very little oil and spices.
I prefer to eat small portions rather than eating big meals. When I do get an off day from my diet, I love to indulge my sweet tooth and have something like a doughnut. However, I do try to limit my cheat days.
My workout: Initially, during the early phases, I used to depend on just jogging. On the first day, I could run around for 1 KM without stopping. I would walk for around 2 KMs after that. After around a month, I could run 5 KMs without stopping and soon enough, I was sprinting, which I couldn’t do before!
5 months later, I started Powerlifting, i.e, working on compound movements like Deadlift, Squats and Bench Press.
I jogged on alternate days in addition to my gym routine of Powerlifting.
Low-calorie recipes I swear by: Green salad and lean protein sources like chicken breast and egg whites.
Fitness secrets I unveiled: Tracking your daily food intake is the key. Weight loss is 70% diet and 30% workout. Maintaining a healthy diet and depending on workout as a supplement is the key.
How do I stay motivated? I used to measure my weight every 10 days and tracked my progress through an app. Another way I kept my spirits up is with the help of the people around me. I used to read stories of people who had gone through the same struggles as me and whenever I felt low, my friends helped me stay on track.
How do you ensure you don’t lose focus? Writing down my weight loss journey and progress is what helped me. I wrote down my goal weight and how much time I was willing to give myself. Writing it down sort of makes it a contract between you and yourself. Also, looking at the weighing scale regularly (not too often) helped me.
What’s the most difficult part of being overweight? I looked as if I was older than my peers. The fatigue that comes with the heavyweight was so difficult to endure. Also, I couldn’t get into any clothes, especially t-shirts I liked at that time.
What shape do you see yourself 10 years down the line? I want to remain just as fit and increase my body strength.
What are the lifestyle changes you made? There were many small changes I made:
1. Eating consciously, i.e, on time and in limited portions.
2. Continuously working on the workout plan.
What was the lowest point for you? For me, my lowest point was not before my weight loss journey but somewhere in the middle of it, when I sort of hit a plateau at around 83KGs. I couldn’t bring it down anymore. I started working out more and that’s what helped me bring it down to 76KGs.
Lessons learnt from weight loss: Having a strong outlook towards weight loss really helps! Learning to say “NO” to things that might derail you from your path is difficult but it is extremely crucial to embrace the change and accept what is good for your body is key to staying fit forever.
If you too have a weight loss story to share, send it to us at toi.health1@gmail.com
read the full story about I felt so conscious about my weight, I didn’t want to go out
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