It’s August 2009 and I’m sitting, out of breath, on the stairs of the 4th floor of my apartment block in Park West, Dublin. I live on the 7th floor and the lift is broken. I’m having heart palpitations and genuinely worried about whether I am going to collapse.
At 25 years young, I am around 140kg /22 Stone. I’m pre-diabetic with constant numbness in the ends of my fingers. I’m into the official morbidly obese category with a BMI of 41. My body fat is at least 50%.
Everyday simple things like getting in and out of my car have become a chore. I am eating all the time, but always tired and sluggish.
6 Months Progress – Down over 100lbs
How did I get there? As a result of a combination of factors. Many years of eating the wrong foods at the wrong times, living a sedentary lifestyle and numerous failed attempts at weight loss due to poor advice from fitness instructors and my doctor, to name a few.
Being unable to climb a few flights of stairs at 25 years of age without having chest pains was too much. I decided instantly I would change this, no matter what it took. So what did I do? Well, the same thing I had done previously: went to my doctor. He cleared me for exercise after some tests and handed me the nonsensical food pyramid, and off I went.
Back to eating whole grain toast for breakfast and peeling the skins off the chicken breast for my chicken salad at lunchtime. I had decided to re-join my local commercial gym so I could do my hour of cardio each day again. After all, this would have to work if I could just stick to it right?
Luckily this time, before setting out on another futile attempt, I happened to be sitting around wasting time on Facebook, when a familiar face popped up in the ads on the side. “Bryan Kavanagh: Personal Training Dublin” I hadn’t spoken to Bryan in a few years and didn’t realise he had opened a Personal Training studio in Dublin. I decided to give him a call about this before handing over my hard earned money to the local gym.
I immediately knew from our first conversation that if I followed everything he told me to do I would reach my goals, without question. Within 7 months of training 3 times a week and eating properly, I had lost 100lbs. Results that, to most people, don’t even seem at all realistic. In mid-July 2010, I had gone from 140kg/308lbs at 50% body fat to 89kg/196lbs at 15% body fat. I’m sure this is beyond a lot of obese people’s wildest dreams and starting out it was for me too. But I wasn’t finished.
We then decided it was time to start packing on muscle mass, as I looked somewhat scrawny at this weight. Bryan changed the training programming to suit this goal and we tweaked the nutrition to help with it too. By April 2011 I was back to 101kg/221lbs and just over 16% body fat, which was a significant gain in muscle mass.
What I have achieved to this point is something that, for years, I certainly never believed was possible. Failed attempts at weight loss had left me accepting that I would always be obese. If that lift hadn’t broken down or if I hadn’t seen Bryan’s advert, who knows what situation I would be in. I would almost certainly have contracted Type 2 diabetes and be currently injecting insulin. It could have even been worse.
I have now finished my training course and I want to go and help other people who are currently in the same situation as I was. I know there are thousands of people in a similar situation in this country. I see them every single day as I’m sure you do too. I want to show them that there is a way out, and it’s not even as hard they imagine. I’ve been there, I’ve done it and I’ve experienced all the pitfalls and know what it takes to get over them.
That is why I write regular blogs about fat loss; to share my story and to help you start and finish your own. To achieve what you always dreamed of but never thought possible. The sooner you start the sooner you will get to that goal. I guarantee you that if you follow my training and stick to my nutritional advice, nothing will stop you from achieving what you want.
Why calorie counting is shit for beginners <—– clear up the confusion.