David, 44, from Los Angeles, shares how a "slow and steady" approach helped him lose weight and build muscle.
I took up running for 30 minutes every day in April 2020. A full year later, however, I realized that it had done nothing to my body. My lungs had benefited, and I had got my 10-minute mile down to 8 minutes and ran a half-marathon in 2 hours, but running had zero impact on the way my body looked, and I still weighed 210 pounds. So I signed up for the transformation program at Ultimate Performance’s Los Angeles gym.
Prior to starting at UP, I was physically quite heavy, with a 38-inch waist. Mentally, I was unhappy with my abdominal area, as nothing I did changed that. Combined with the isolation brought on by the pandemic, and it wasn't a great time for me. For all intents and purposes, while I was mobile and physically active, I had been unable to engage in any strenuous abdominal activity for the last 10 years, after rupturing my appendix in 2010 and undergoing seven subsequent surgeries, including a number to repair scarring, which required lengthy, painful recovery. With this in mind, you can imagine how hard it was to get started.
I ate pretty healthily already, and I wasn't a big eater of junk food or candy: I would have a banana, Trader Joe's fiber cereal and tea for breakfast every day, a high-protein salad for lunch, and then a big dinner. But I did learn that dairy was preventing my from losing weight, and nuts were affecting my digestion. I also completely removed bread and pasta from my diet. In addition to changing my diet, I was working out with my trainer Geoff three times a week, and continued to play soccer every Sunday.
The first two weeks of dieting were brutal. I was also concerned by the logging in the diary of the UP app. Not because I didn’t want to do it, but because it was stressful to keep reporting everything I ate. It became second nature after a couple of weeks: eat, log it. From an exercise perspective, my trainer Geoff never said anything, but I would hazard a guess that he was surprised I could barely get through the split squats with no weights and couldn’t do a single pullup. That was disheartening to say the least. I was also nervous at first due to my prior health conditions, but Geoff guided me through everything at a pace I was comfortable with, then slowly began to increase the reps and weight.
I lost 30 pounds over a period of around six months, dropping from 210 to 180, and cut 16 percent of my body fat. My waist size is now 31. I can now see my biceps, which are getting more and more vascular. I am also much more energetic; I used to feel very sluggish and sleepy all the time. I can now focus at work, and everyone has noticed how much better my speed and endurance have become at soccer. From a confidence perspective, it's nice to be able to take a T-shirt off after playing soccer at the beach.
Another hugely surprising outcome is the effect this process has had on my GI issues: I used to have to take anti-acids every day. I have not taken a single one for five months now. The cycle of acid reflux, constipation, bloating, gas, then diarrhoea has been completely eliminated.
My advice to anybody who wants to lose weight is to set some specific goals: don't just go in and say you want to be leaner and fitter. Be SMART: specific, measurable, achievable, results-oriented, and time-bound. Also, as previously stated, patience is key. People want quick results with little effort. That’s not how it works. For me, it was slow and steady. Some people go quicker, some people slower. Find your pace and stick with it. At one point, I was losing 1.2 pounds per week, every week, like clockwork! Don’t give up. If you find a formula that works, stick with it. Don’t change it until you’ve reached your target. That’s when it’s time to experiment, not during.
