One woman overhauled her life by losing around four stone in a healthy and sustainable way. Ekam Grewal started her fitness journey back in 2016 after years of leading a typical life of a student; “drinking every night and eating takeaways”. Having felt incredibly unhappy about the way she looked and felt, Ekam took up exercise and now, is a fully qualified personal trainer who also competes in bodybuilding competitions. She told Express.co.uk how she did it.
Before losing weight, Ekam was a dress size 14/16 and weighed 11.4 stone (73kg).
Speaking about how she felt at the time, Ekam said: “I felt self-conscious and knew that my self-esteem was low.
“I got to my heaviest weight during my time in university and got to my lowest point mentally too.
“I wanted to lose weight because of how unhappy I felt in myself.
“My self-esteem was so low that even when going out with friends and drinking alcohol, it only made me feel worse.
“I got a point that I was so unhappy that I knew something needed to change,” she continued.
As for how she started, Ekam revealed: “I began my journey by joining a gym, exercising three to four times a week and I was using MyFitnessPal to track my food.
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“Of course, I plateaued very quickly as it was all trial and error and I had no one to be accountable to or to help me.
“Eventually, I worked with various online coaches, some who were great and some who were not.
“Again, this helped me learn about nutrition and training even more, but it also helped me understand what I want and do not want from a coach as a client, and what it takes to be a good coach too.”
In terms of what exercises Ekam did to lose weight, she explained: “I began with HIIT (high intensity interval training) style training to drop initial body fat.
“Once I had done that, I focused on more weight training and building up my strength as I found this massively helped to shape my body and tone it up.
“I always keep some form of cardio in to help with my stamina, but it tends to be more LISS (low intensity steady state) training as that helps to preserve muscle whilst I continue dropping body fat.”
As a result, Ekam dropped to a size six to eight and weighs around 7.5 stone.
Ekam also said “discipline is key” and “motivation is just a feeling so that will always come and go”.
And to have consistent results, she explained you need to “build discipline and have a good routine”.
But, Ekam’s social life hasn’t suffered: “I still enjoy life and go out with family and friends.
“I have off plan meals and enjoy various foods but it’s all about the 80/20 approach.
“If most of the time you are consistent and on plan, then that 20 percent to enjoy is always possible.
“Results can still be made like this and even if the results are slower, the process is so much more enjoyable.”
Finally Ekam said: “Remember that you need to enjoy the journey and not just the results.”
Ekam’s weight loss story has been supplied by Lo-Dough, the category-disrupting food-tech company.