I’ve been trying to lose weight for the past six months. I go to the gym at least three times a week, average more than 10,000 steps per day, and eat most of my meals at home. Despite all this effort, I wasn’t able to lose any weight during the first few months. It was very disappointing to put in so much work and see no progress.
Although it’s been frustrating, I’ve learned along the way and have slowly started to lose weight. Here’s what I changed:
Fast walks instead of runs: I bought a heart rate monitor chest strap (Polar H10). I realized I had been running at around 90% of my maximum heart rate. While this improves performance and burns more calories, it left me feeling exhausted and gave me headaches — probably due to low blood sugar.
More exercise isn’t enough: Initially, I tried to brute force weight loss by increasing exercise: going to the gym more frequently during the week, even twice a day on some occasions. This didn’t work. I learned that it’s very easy to consume calories through food, but much harder to burn them through exercise. I simply couldn’t compensate for extra calories by exercising more.
Calorie counting: After months of no progress, I realized I needed to start counting calories. Since I wasn’t losing weight, I clearly wasn’t in a calorie deficit, even though I was eating “clean”. I started using MyFitnessPal to scan food barcodes and build awareness of how many calories different meals and snacks contain, as well as how to portion my meals properly.
No nuts: One important realization was how calorie-dense nuts are due to their high fat content. I used to think they were harmless because they’re small and contain no sugar. I was wrong. I stopped eating pistachios, hazelnuts, and walnuts as nighttime snacks.
No starchy carbs: I increased my protein and fat intake because they keep me feeling full for longer, and I reduced carbohydrates. I stopped eating starchy carbohydrates like potatoes and switched from baldo rice to basmati rice to reduce glucose spikes. If I still had cravings after dinner, I drank a protein shake with almond milk instead.
Fixing indigestion: I also realized that my nighttime cravings weren’t caused by hunger, but by indigestion. With my doctor’s recommendation, I started taking digestive enzymes with dinner.
So far, I’ve only managed to reduce my weight from 83.3 kg to 80.8 kg. My goal is to get back to 78 kg. While my progress has been embarrasingly slow, it’s exciting to see things finally moving in the right direction.
