Fat to Fit – My Fitness Journey

Twelve years back, I was a foodie weighing 90+ kilos, married to my job, blissfully ignorant of the concept of health and fitness. I couldn\’t run a kilometer to save myself. I loved sugary stuff and junk food. This was me 12 years back.

Then some time in 2012, I started getting occasional chest pains (turned out to be just gas pains) which was my wakeup call. With news about people in 30\’s dying of heart attacks, I used to spend sleepless nights worrying about family. Then one fine day I decided this is not the way to live and I need to get fit and healthy for myself and my family. And thus began my fitness journey.

Like any journey, my fitness journey the past 10 years had several ups and downs. I made mistakes, learnt from these mistakes, learnt new concepts on the way, and still learning every day.

In this blog post, I would like to share my journey so far.

Heartfelt Thanks:

Before I begin, I would like to thank several friends who have made a big impact in my fitness journey

1. My wife who not only supported me but also joined me in all my diet experiments
2. Adhitya Muthuswamy whose reference to the book \”Why we get fat\” was a turning point in my life.
3. Manoj Vijayakumar who inspired me to take up Paleo and then Intermittent Fasting
4. Deepak Samual, who has been an inspiration and guidance in my cycling activities
5. My Triathlon buddies Chakkravarthy Birur, Dr. Gautham, Suresh, Dr. Rajkumar, Ashwin Balasubramaniam, Saravanan Manickam, Arun Rajendran and Balachander who have inspired and motivated me in my Triathlon pursuits.
6. My close friend and training buddy Shemmozhi Pandian

Phase – 1, 2012 to 2013 Calorie Counting, Low Fat, Insanity and P90x

I came across some online ads on a couple of fitness programs called \”Insanity\” by coach Shaun T and \”P90x\” by coach Tony Horton. Decided to start my weight loss journey with these programs. Insanity was an 8 week program and P90x a 12 week program. The programs also provided nutrition advice with target calories, calorie deficit, and general diet guidelines. The high level guideline was avoid sugar, keep fat low and maintain a calorie deficit of 500 calories a day. I got a Polar heart rate monitor to accurately track my workouts and calories expended, logged my food consumption in MyFitnessPal and strictly followed the workout schedules. This was the result I achieved from this phase.

Then by end of 2012 was stuck by a double tragedy (lost both my parents within 6 months) in the family, and by early 2014, gained back all the lost weight.

Phase – 2, 2014 to early 2016, Cycling Running and Triathlons

By end of 2014, I decided to get back to weight loss journey and took up cycling. In two years, did more than 6000 kilometers of cycling which included regular 100 kilometer rides and a couple of 200 kilometer brevets.

By 2016, I had added running and swimming to my fitness activities and had started participating in half marathons and amateur triathlon events. Finished my first half marathon in October 2015 and my first sprint distance triathlon (750 meters swim, 20km bike, 5km run) at Thonnur in September 2016.

But even with all this activities, my weight remained in the high 80\’s. A few pictures from this phase in my life. I would say I was Fit, but Fat.

This was a very important lesson to me. Physical activity, how much ever you do is not enough for weight loss.

Phase – 3, Late 2016 to 2018, Low Carb and Triathlons

In the second half of 2016, I got an introduction to the Low Carb dieting concept. Adhitya Muthuswamy, a friend from the cycling group had shared about a book called \”Why We Get Fat\” by author Gary Taubes. This book was a turning point in my life. That book opened my eyes to concepts like insulin resistance, how carbs get stored as fat, how exercising does not result in burning fat especially once you develop insulin resistance. At that time I also happened to see an FB group on Paleo diet started by Neander Selvan and also learn about this from another friend Manoj Vijayakumar from Thirupur who was actively practicing low carb diet. So, I switched to Paleo diet and totally cut all sugars and grains (rice and wheat) from my diet.

I was also training for my Olympic distance triathlon. With the low carb diet and the high level of fitness activities, my weight reduced from 86 kilos to 76 kilos. Below is a picture of me at the end of the Olympic distance triathlon (1.5km swim, 40k bike, 10k run) in Goa.

Phase – 4, Late 2018 to Early 2019, Half Ironman and back to carbs

In the 2nd half of 2018, I started my training for the Half Ironman (1.9km swim, 90km bike, 21km run). I trained under coach Kaustubh Radkar who is the only Indian to have completed 25 Full Ironman Events. The training was very hard and a typical training week used to have 6km of swim, 150km of cycling and 30km of running. With this high training load came the race nutrition of using sugary gels and sports drinks and carb loaded meals. So even with that high training load, my weight increased from 75 kilos to 80 kilos. This was another phase where I learnt the hard way that high level of physical activity does not guarantee weight loss. Below is the picture of me after finishing the Half Ironman event, weighing in at 80 kilos.

Phase – 5, 2019 to 2020, Intermittent Fasting, Keto, Strength Training

In mid 2018, I came across another important concept called Intermittent Fasting or IF. In this method, you reduce the eating window to 8 hours, or 6 hours or 4 hours or even one hour in a day. This has many advantages. Due to the extended fasting hours, the time our body stays free of insulin increases and this aids fat burn. Fasting also triggers a process called autophagy where our body recycles dead cells which makes one look and feel younger. I could not try this method during my training for the Half Ironman event. But immediately after the Half Ironman event, I started practicing IF and also continued to train. This was the time I also read many books about using fat as fuel for endurance athletes. My goal was to be able to complete my next Half Ironman event without relying on carbs and gels.

But then in the mid 2019, I got a heel injury due to which I had to suspend all Triathlon training. I am yet to get back to Triathlon training. My life time goal is to complete a Full Ironman event (4km swim, 180km bike, 42km run). I will definitely get back to training once I fully recover from my injury.

I decided to use this down time wisely. Along with IF, I also did 4 months of strict Keto, where I restricted carbs to less than 50 grams a day. By February 2020, my weight was down from 80 kilos to 68 kilos. After this 4 months of strict keto, I switched to a moderate carb diet where I included very small portions of millets and continued with IF as a lifestyle. I made 16:8 IF as standard, with a couple of days of 20+ hours of fasting in a week. Also, once a month, I did extended fasting like 36, 48 or 72 hours.

As I had stopped Triathlon training, I started incorporating strength training into my schedule. With IF integrated into my life, as I write this blog, I have made significant progress in strength as well (I am now able to do 7 unassisted pull-ups in a stretch) and my weight is stable around 69 to 70 kilos.

This is something I could not have even dreamed of doing a few years back.

Below are a few compare pictures from 10 years back to now (Click on a picture to open the gallery).

Lessons learnt

In the past 10 years, I have learnt many lessons in Health and Fitness.

1. Health and Fitness is a journey, not a goal. It is a journey that continues till the last breath.
2. Weight loss is 90% diet, 10% workouts
3. Calorie In, Calore Out method does not always work
4. Being fit does not mean you are healthy
5. Intermittent fasting combined with moderate/low carb is the most sustainable way to stay lean and healthy

I will share my learning on various subjects like intermittent fasting, Keto, low carb, strength training etc. in future blog posts.