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My body transformation journey from 24% —to — 14% body fat

15 min readMay 24, 2020

It’s probably not as easy as you think but it’s definitely not as hard as you think too.😉

I am writing this to clear out a lot of misinformation out in the market than proper information. In this 10 minute read you will know about my journey, how I learnt, what I learnt, what to do and what not to do, what to eat and another important stuff for weight loss.

This is not any other article for getting clicks or to sell something. If you like it, please do apply it. I hope I keep you interested.

It took me around 9 months in total in which the first three months were really lame to consider as I was trying to lose weight by just going to the gym and hitting something.👎 After that, for three months I did a good amount of regular gym and followed my old custom exercise chart but without paying attention to food and diet. 🤙 At least, I was regular ( 4–5 times a week). But. I got the point quickly that I was doing something wrong and I started learning about nutrition.

I educated📚 myself as much as I could before it started repeating the same knowledge everywhere. I fact-checked and created a nutrition plan with eating habit that could fit in my working day. I did 3 months hardcore training with a strict diet and it paid off.

Before you start, let’s jump into some basic math.

Some Basic Body Math 🧮

Our body is NOT made for readymade pasta and pizza. It is made for raw fruits, meat and vegetables. It’s been millions of years our body has evolved from a prehistoric man but the basic nature of the body is still the same. In ancient times man used to live in caves and ate only those things he got by hunting🍗. He had no storage, no fire, nothing. So his body was made to store food. That storage is inside the body, called FAT cells. Of course in winters he used to get fewer preys.

When we eat, the food is primarily broken into glucose for energy. After body accumulates enough glucose it saves the rest into glycogen and once that standby storage is full then the body starts converting it into FAT cells. In winters, our pre-historic man used to get less food. So, the body starved and burnt the stored glycogen first and fat cells subsequently to generate energy. Till now fat is good boy as it saves us in bad times, in case we fall ill and can’t eat, the body will survive burning stored fat.

Now coming back to 2020, our body works on the same logic. We evolved and built farms, processed food and easy to eat junk food. You get plenty of dishes and that is not raw, it’s ready-made frozen that can be digested easily. Bread and Dough items are easy to digest because they are full of carbs which is easy to break down into glucose. These foods are an easy source of energy. But wait, you actually eat more than what you need. So now, your body’s basic metabolism starts storing all pizzas into glycogen up to the certain limit and ultimately into fat.

On the other hand, protein is slow to digest for the body. The body has to work hard to break down protein to get energy out of it. Protein releases small instalments of energy and that lasts for a long time. That is one of the reasons you won’t feel bloated after eating protein-rich food. On the other side, carbs rich food releases energy suddenly so you feel bloated and heavy sometimes after lunch. It’s called Carb Crash and you feel lazy and sleepy.

so, sticking to the basic mathematics you need X amount of calories to run your daily body operations. It’s called BMR-Basal Metabolic Rate. If you are already fat, that means you are eating more than your BMR. Now if you are eating more than that your BMR, you need to intake less so your body will use stored fat.

You can break food into 6 times and that works. I will talk about it in a later section. 😴

So math is, eat calories that you need.

Intake more than BMR → get fat.
Intake less than BMR → get ripped.

Some Logical Arguments

It will sound like a conspiracy theory but it’s true. The food and drug industry works because you eat unhealthily. If everyone is healthy then how do they make money? Please understand that there are cheap and a variety of foods that are made out of sugar and flour. They are really tempting and easy to get + eat. You will have a hard time finding something really protein-rich in supermarket or subway station. Our habits are wrong, and that makes a handful of people rich. Generally, they are big Pharma company owners.
The logic behind eating WHEY protein is that you can’t get that much amount of protein in a single scoop of any natural thing. Your goal is to get protein and not get fats and carbs. Beans, meat and pulses have high protein but they bring unwanted carbs and fats with them too. You can’t separate all these things from it. where can you get only protein then? — Egg White (Natural) and WHEY protein (made out of Milk) in the factory. Whey proteins are organic, vegetarian and easy for your body to digest. No protein (even eggs) can be absorbed in your body as fast as WHEY protein.
If you are vegetarian and don’t eat egg → there are less options left in veg that contains that high protein macro. You can shred being veg, but it will take longer time. It’s your test of patience too. Eggs are your true friends here, seeing their availability, unadulterated production, price and cooking time.

My Exercise Chart

I did 6 days per week two body parts a day workout which was custom made by me. I did it for 3–4 months before trying the Muscular 8 workout. I followed the program for 3 months. It was the most productive for me.

Here is my workout chart. You should change the workout every 2 to 3 months. Your body gets comfortable in whatever you do for a long time. Keep it in your mobile.

Prefer to take protein immediately after a workout. It’s the most efficient way.

Surviving Plateau 😑

Your body will hit a plateau after following the same workout regularly for 8 weeks. It will stop showing results even if you follow the diet. This happens because your body has adjusted to a new normal. The human body is so amazing that it adjusts to whatever you do for a long time. Once you start caloric deficit diet your body will burn additional fats stored but eventually, it will adjust itself in the number of calories you give. So now you have to cut your calories further so it can adjust again. Do these process until you hit your results.

My Failures 😓💪

I tried 2 scoops of WHEY thinking it is good for me. Never take more than one scoop because your body can’t digest that much amount unless you are into bodybuilding professionally.
I didn’t change my workout for many months and I followed my old chart of 2017 which was made in India back then. My gym in Berlin has different and more equipments and most of them I never used because there were no exercised assigned to them. I should have changed my charts.

My diet 🌾

If there is a person in this world who can make a diet chart for you, it is none other than you. Hiring a dietician or nutritionist can be satisfying for your self because you get a sense of getting responsibility off your head as you have paid but it seldom works.

Educate yourself, create a caloric deficit diet from the items you can purchase easily from your grocery store. Also, try to change habits ( Read the book “The Power of Habit”).

The following is the diet that I followed and worked for me but probably won’t work for you. why? Because you are not me.

8 am — Milk + cereal. 🥣 Mostly, muesli + Banana + Little protein powder ( not everyone needs it)
11 am — apple 🍎 with peanut butter
1 pm approx. — Salad → 6 egg 🥚 white boiled + beans + salt paper ( not much)
4 pm — a fruit or cappuccino ☕
7 pm — 4egg whites omelet 🍳 + tortilla roll + salt+ pepper + ketchup
9 pm — gym 🏋️
10:30 pm — after gym shake 🍼 and sleep 💤

1 beer 🍺on the weekend is fine.

Have a treat day to yourself once in full-moon because your body needs to get imbalanced to get into balance.

What to do? ✔

Learn how Carbohydrate, Protein, Exercise, Fats work on the body. Learn the difference between trans fat and saturated/unsaturated fats. How your food should be balanced? Some nutrition terminologies and all. Every time you pick something to eat, start reading the nutrition table behind it.
Calculate your BMR and intake the calories that are less than your requirement. It’s called a caloric deficit diet. Download an app that gives you nutritional values of all your food. Don’t eat something you can’t count. Not as easy as it said but not impossible. I did it, you can too.
Self Discipline and patience is a must. Make sure you never gonna give urself a tiny reason to not hit the gym. It will be more and more discouraging when you will start doing it you won’t get the result and that would be the most vulnerable time for you. You will doubt yourself that are u doing it wrong ? why it is not giving you results? but generally, your body will start showing results after 1 or 1.5 months. Same way, if you stop going gym your body doesn’t become fat the immediate next day.
Sleep well for around 8 hours: You should sleep well to give your muscles recovery time. If you don’t sleep well then it will be exhausting for you. I used to drop myself on the bed and the next thing I remember is alarm buzzing in the morning. I miss those good sleep now.
Eat carbs or drink black coffee before 45 mins — 1 hour of workout: You will burn a lot of energy during the workout. If you load it before, you won’t feel exhausted and your body will give you fuel during the workout. Since black coffee has carbs, people suggest to drink it. Black coffee means only water + bitter coffee. No 1 spoon milk no 1 drop milk no sugar or sugar-free even.

Myths that you should not believe 💩

You need a lot of money and it’s costly to lose weight. I actually don’t agree with it. You might eat a lot of junk for less money → to get unhealthy → to suffer and pay to the doctor. I believe in eating quality food → getting healthy → sorry doctors, not this time. It costs little extra ( maybe 10 %) but in the long run, you were gonna spend that same amount(maybe more) in one shot later + Sufferings.
Power bars, energy drinks are healthy: I want to believe it too but there are no such bars that are truly protein-rich without combining sugar and other fats.
Protein Powder is dangerous: No it’s not. The whey protein powder is extracted from milk. Buy a good quality powder and it’s completely healthy. You have to take it because you can’t get that much amount of digestible protein from any other source ( not even chicken ). Non-veg food contains that protein but it brings a lot of fat with it too. The only dangerous thing will happen to you is, you will fart 💨very stinky. Protein farts stink due to high nitrogen.
Beer makes you fat: Beer is pure carbohydrate. It has no Fat. Beers and other munching items are empty calories. They don’t give you nutritions like green veggies 🥦. So avoid munching in between your meals. If you think you want to drink a hard drink, then you should not take one peg per week and it’s best to take it before the rest day which is generally on weekends. Alcohol stays in the blood for long and it slows your recovery. It delays your muscle recovery/building 48 hours so that is the reason you should refrain from alcohol.
Btw, German beers are the best in the world and you can’t deny one when you are getting it for free at community events at your co-working space. 😬 “Self Control”

What not to do? ✖

Suddenly stopping all foods and following one protein-rich salad. If you do this, here is the idiot of the year award 🏆 for you. As I said earlier, suddenly stopping the food will send your body a wrong signal. It will think you are in danger and starving, the bad days have come ( like a prehistoric man) so instead of losing fat, it will start using less and less and will store whatever it can. Your goal is exactly the opposite. So, do change one meal per day for a week and then gradually change habits.
Stay away from protein bars, they are a scam too. Compare the nutrition table behind every energy bar and you will see they are sugar-rich and have very less protein.
Online training courses are a scam and so the Instagram trainers. Those “Loose weight by working out 20 mins at home every day” is a scam. You can remain fit if you are in good shape, you can’t shred fat and get ripped. You need the proper equipment to adjust the load and angle for your muscles. The home workouts are normal stretching or maximum HIIT ( I doubt though). They can include yoga but you know it’s not gonna close the deal.
Don’t buy home gym equipments or fat loss belts: There is no shortcut for losing weight. The formula is stretch the muscle, burn them, break them and feed them protein to rebuild them. If you expect to put some belt on and let it burn your calories, then the first thing you want to do is go thought your brain checkup. Because it’s not gonna work anytime.
Eat six meals and still eating more than necessary in each: See, the idea of breaking is providing your body with a small amount of food so your metabolism never shuts down. If you eat full meals 2 times a day then surely your system has more than it can digest at once. when you eat, the digestive enzymes are released in the stomach to digest and your glands can release a limited amount of them at a time. You are never gonna digest the entire turkey in one shot.
Don’t do cardio only. You have to do weight lifting too. cardio burns calories during the workout not after. You get off the treadmill after 20 mins and drink 1 Weight lifting burns calories even after the gym, in fact, 24 hours.
Don’t Eat empty calories: People munch a lot. But they don’t count that mostly munching contains trans fat (chips) and empty calories. If you feel the urge for eating, eat peanuts 🥜. They contain ample amount of unsaturated fat (a healthy one), protein, moderate carbs.
Banned ⛔ Foods: Chips, chocolates, anything that contains added sugar, already used oil, rice, fried Indian veggies (sabzi)
Losing your muscle instead of fat: This is a classic mistake one can do. Here is another idiot of the year award 🎖️ for those who show 5kg loss in one week. You can do that, not losing fat but muscles. If you understood how body stores fat in the earlier section, you may know how much our body does just to save fat. Do you think your body is gonna giveaway that fat in one week? Body’s primary function is to save it, the moment you notice you have lost a lot of weight and look skinny in one or two weeks, it is because you have lost your muscle. That is the worst outcome to have. Apparently, you can build muscle and lose fat both at the same time. I did the same.
Never fry anything, no tadka in Indian food at all while you are on fat loss. When you boil an oil ( doesn’t matter even if it is olive oil), it converts into trans fat. The human body can’t digest trans fat well. Oil is only good to eat raw, it is worst when you boil it. I know, Indian cooking starts with tadka and it’s wrong. Sorry to say that your whole life was a lie, but this is true. That is why India has the highest number of heart attacks because our food habits are so bad, it clogs arteries with cholesterol.
Doing the right exercises wrong way: I see a lot of guys using equipments in the gym completely wrong. Just because they want to show off how much can they lift and complete their set of 50 reps, they go the wrong way. It’s not important how much you can lift, the purpose of the exercise is to stretch and tense your muscle so they stretch, break and in recovery mode rebuild using protein. I think youtube can help you a lot. I used to search for videos of the company that manufactured our gym equipments because every company has free tutorials.

My Food Hacks that won’t work for everyone 💡

I can’t live without Indian tea and that contains a lot of sugar. It can’t be drunk without sugar so I replaced sugar with sugar-free liquid from REWE. I calculated the calories of it too.
I created my own protein roll which is one tortilla and an omelette of 4 egg whites. I didn’t find anything that cheap and healthy in my budget. Nothing is cheaper than egg and egg is the purest form of protein. Every other protein product’s quality is ranked with respect to the egg.

Protein-rich egg white roll with tortilla

I used to take lunch in a Vietnamese restaurant every day near my workplace. I asked them for a strange dish and then it became a regular menu for me there. Here is the dish.

How to keep motivated? 😤

You need motivational music to run on the treadmill and finish your 20min sprint. I used to listen to Theatrical/epic music and imagine myself in a stadium participating in a race tournament where I am representing my country and thousands of eyes are watching me.
Some times I used to imagine myself in a virtual game with powers vested in me and I have to win. Sometimes think of your ex and it works too.

some other favourite tracks:

How long will it take to get six-pack abs? ⏱

Once your body fat is closer to single-digit then you start showing abs. An optimum body need is 15% of body fat if you are near to 11 to 12 percentage, there will be clearly visible abs. it is rare and not advisable to keep body fat percentage in single digit and technically you cannot so you cannot have abs all the time.

I tracked my weight every other day in an app.

My weight track from 21 July to 13 August

I also measured my fat percentage. You can measure your body fat with a simple measurement calliper too.

How to get rid of face fat? 🙄

You simply can’t. It’s not your choice where the fat will be stored on your body. Generally, our body stores fat in Belly then on the chest then on thighs then buttocks, neck, face. The face is the last place your body stores fat. If your body stores fat on your face that means it has run out of capacity from every other place in your body. Your body will remove the fat in the same order. It will never happen that you can remove the fat only from your face, the body keeps it in harmony.

Take away 🚀

I think it was a proper amalgamation of motivation, time, need and guidance for me to do it. I started when I measured I had around 24% body fat and ended up with around 12–13% body fat. I am definitely not living with my clearly visible abs now, but I know how to get there again.

Be Curious! Cheers✌️😊

Feel free to reach out to me on Instagram: @tejassuthar.de