Dinesh's Fat Loss Journey

From the original icanbefitter.com archive (2019), lightly edited for the new site. — Upen

The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Well, I think this quote works well in all kinds of situation, whether it is about starting a new life, or founding something big.

I started my fitness journey in the second year of college. My college friends used to mock me, my girlfriend left me, just because I was extremely overweight, around 97 Kgs. So that humiliation propelled me and I and joined a gym near my home.For the first time in my life, I met a so-called trainer who didn’t knew anything about diet, nutrition, workout , rather anything. All he knew was “you can’t make body without steroids”. I continued my gym for 1 year and lost around 13 kgs. Now my weight was around 83 kgs. I was not taking any supplements because it’s very hard for a college student to afford supplements, which costs nearly 5000 Rs/month. At that time, I had no idea about calorie intake, fats, carbs, and protein macros. I ate whatever my trainer told me. I had to  stop gymming in between because of end term examinations. I joined back after a month. After that my weight was stuck at 82 Kgs and my legendary trainer told me to avoid eating fats,to eat only two rotis and chicken in the entire day. I did that and my weight came down to 78 kgs, but it got stuck there. My trainer told me that you have to start a steroid cycle and that you can’t reach up to 10 % body fat without a steroid cycle.

So, I left the gym and joined a new one and got a new trainer. Whenever I asked him about diet and exercise, he use to say “ hire me as a personal trainer for a cost of 6000 Rs / month. Daily Food and supplements would cost extra. As I couldn’t afford that at that point of time, I started learning from YouTube and started following fitness models their diet plans. Did it for a year, but still got no result. I still had no idea about how fats and carbohydrate work? So I stopped working out and started living a casual, unhealthy life, and my weight increased to 84 kgs.People told me that the moment you stop going to gym you will gain weight so it’s better to live a normal life. Believe me, we are living in a generation where people don’t know anything but still give advices.

My life changed when I entered IIT Kanpur for my master’s studies and during a discussion with my professor he said I have a project on which you have to work so start reading research papers. Instead of studying for project I started reading research papers on how diet affects workout, how to manipulate diet for optimal hormones level etc, after that I came to know about BMR (body metabolic rate), TDEE (total daily energy expenditure), total testosterone, free testosterone, estradiol level, saturated fats, trans fat, omega 3 for healthy skin  and other essentials vitamins. After reading extensively, I made my calorie deficit diet plan with decent fats : protein : carbs split. And after 6 months my body changed drastically. Not just the body, but the skin also started glowing. Now I know how to lose fat, gain muscle maintain current weight. The fear of gaining fat as soon as I step out of the gym is now gone.I just want people to understand that, authentic knowledge regarding diet and exercise is the game changer, provided you stick with it. :)

Here's how I did it : Weight Loss !