How I Lost 30 Pounds Of The Weight I Gained During COVID
I was obsessed with exercise in 2019. I went bouldering 2-3 times a week, attended yoga classes 3 times a week, lifted weights twice a week, and worked on handstands and other skills sporadically in between. When the pandemic hit in 2020, I panicked at the thought of not being able to work out, and focused on building a home gym that would get me through the lockdown. I did virtual yoga just about every morning, followed up by a virtual CrossFit session, and virtual handstand classes in the evenings. On top of that, I tried to get in at least 10,000 steps every day. Unfortunately, all of that did nothing to prevent me from gaining almost 50 pounds over 3 months halfway into 2020.
I was aware that I had been gaining weight, but wasn’t too worried until I noticed that my clothes weren’t fitting and exercise was becoming extremely laborious. When I finally stepped on a scale, I was shocked to see that I was up 46 pounds from when I had weighed myself three months ago. I wanted to lose the weight immediately, but didn’t know where to start. Should I cut my calories? Exercise even more than I already was? Go on a special diet? I tried a number of things to help get my weight back to a comfortable zone, and was eventually able to shed 30 pounds. I’d like to share what worked (and didn’t work) for me in the hopes that it might help you, too.
6 THINGS THAT HELPED ME LOSE 30 POUNDS
1. Seeing A Doctor
Weight gain can be health-related, and isn’t always caused by just one thing, so a doctor’s visit can be quite beneficial. Putting on so much weight in such a short time was a red flag for me, so I met with my doctor and did all the necessary tests. It turns out that several factors were at play in my weight gain.
First of all, I had developed insulin resistance due to all the strain I had put on my nervous system through overexercising. Insulin resistance is when your body stops responding to insulin, and as a result, sugar is stored in your blood instead of in your cells for energy. Basically, my body had stopped burning carbs for fuel, which is why all that exercise was doing nothing to lower my weight. Secondly, I had PCOS (Polycystic Ovary Syndrome), a condition that can cause hormone imbalances which lead to increased hunger and carb cravings. Finally, my Vitamin D and Iron levels were low, both of which have been linked to increased body fat. My doctor ended up giving me some supplements to take, which helped me to fix my vitamin deficiencies, balance my hormones, and start losing weight.
2. Using A Meal Delivery Service
My diet had gone off the rails due to my increased carb and sugar cravings from PCOS, so I knew I needed to change what I was eating if I wanted to lower my blood sugar and hopefully lose weight. However, not only am I a terrible cook, but I also rarely have the time to prepare healthy meals, and usually end up ordering delivery for dinner. Because of this, I decided to go with a meal delivery service to alleviate some of the stress of meal planning and prep.
I researched and tried a few meal companies, but the one I ended up going with was Nutrition for Longevity. Their ready-made meals are based on the Longevity Diet, which is mostly plant-based with an emphasis on healthy fats and limited processed food. I’m not going to lie; while the food is absolutely delicious, this service is expensive. Their 10-meal plan starts at $145 per week, which ends up being $580 a month. If you happen to be good in the kitchen and don’t want to spend money on a delivery service, then prepping your meals ahead of time is a great alternative. The Longevity Diet book also includes a sample 2-week meal plan that you can try out.
3. Tracking Macros
Along with improving my diet, one of the biggest things that helped me lose weight was tracking my macros, or my protein, fats, and carbs. To do this, I used MacroFactor, an app that makes tracking extremely intuitive and fun.
MacroFactor works by calculating the number of calories you need based on your energy expenditure. You enter your weight every day and it does the math for your daily macro intake using the highly customizable parameters of your weight goal. This app was essential for me to ensure my protein and fats were on the high end, and that I didn’t go overboard with carbs. I especially like that it estimates your weight as a “trend,” which balances out normal weight fluctuations and gives you a more accurate idea of where you are in relation to your goal. It’s relatively inexpensive at $71.99 per year, or $5.99 a month, so I highly recommend it if you find tracking tedious.
4. Buying A Smart Scale
I don’t really like to weigh myself, but because MacroFactor required a daily weight in order to calculate my macros, I decided to invest in a smart scale. Most smart scales work by sending a weak electric current through you to measure your body composition. They are definitely not 100% accurate, but do give you a decent baseline by which you can measure your progress.
I decided on the INEVIFIT Smart Scale, which included all the basics that I wanted to track. In addition to weight, this scale measures BMI, body fat, bone density, water retention, visceral fat, and muscle mass. Using this scale every day really helped me to get a better idea of where I was in relation to my goal. If I gained a few pounds, but my body fat percentage went down and my muscle mass went up, I knew I was still on the right track.
5. (Re)discovering An Activity I Was Passionate About
Although my climbing gym had solid cleaning protocols in place during Covid, I chose to stop bouldering for a while just in case. But after about a year, I started to miss it, so I decided to return.
I find climbing to be immensely fun and mentally stimulating, so it was relatively easy to motivate myself to go. Once I started bouldering regularly again, the weight started falling off. Exercising doesn’t have to be boring or feel like hard work. If you find yourself dreading the gym, try picking up climbing, or hiking, or dancing, or any type of movement that brings you joy.
6. Having Patience
Losing weight in a healthy way takes time. A lot of time. For me, losing 30 pounds took a year and six months. Of course, I could have gone at a faster pace, but I wanted my weight loss to be sustainable. When you lose weight too quickly, you can damage your metabolism, disrupt your hormones, and lose muscle. Rapid weight loss is also difficult to maintain, which is why crash diets don’t really work. Allowing your body to adapt to a new diet or a lower weight over time is really the best way to go. I’ll admit, it was frustrating for me at times when the number on the scale would barely move at all, but reminding myself that I was playing the long game helped me to be patient with the process.
Things That Didn’t Work For Me
There were a few things I tried in my weight loss journey that didn’t work for me at all. However, I still wanted to share them in case they either help you, or save you time by showing you what to avoid.
Lowering My Calories Too Much
I was probably eating around 2000-2200 calories a day during my weight gain, and decided to cut to 1400. Which, looking back, was a huge mistake.
Giving yourself too much of a calorie deficit can be detrimental to your health and can actually slow down your metabolism and your weight loss progress. After a month or so of eating only 1400 calories, I had to throw in the towel. I brought my calories back up to 1800 instead, which was a much more reasonable calorie deficit for me. I was able to lose weight by eating less than I was burning while still fueling my body enough for workouts.
Lowering My Carbs Too Much
One of the things my doctor suggested was to drop my carbs to around 50 grams a day. Going low carb or no carb can actually be very helpful in reducing blood sugar and reversing the effects of insulin resistance. However, this did not work well for me. I was training 3 times a week and climbing 2 times a week at this point, and cutting my carbs so low reduced my energy levels and increased my soreness the day after workouts. Plus, I felt like complete crap all the time. What ended up working instead was eating slightly under 100 grams for a couple of months, then slowly adding back 10 grams a week. In addition, I also made sure to replace carb-heavy foods such as pasta and bread with foods that contained healthier, more complex carbs like fruits and vegetables.
Trying A Fasting Mimicking Diet
Another thing my doctor recommended was 3 rounds of ProLon, a 5-day fasting mimicking diet. A fasting mimicking diet is a short-term reduction in calories that mimics the effects of fasting while still providing nutrients. It supposedly causes cellular regeneration, boosts your metabolism, and improves insulin sensitivity. In all honesty, I absolutely hated this diet. I barely made it through the first round, quit the second, and decided not to do the third. I ended up gaining back all the weight I had lost from it within a month. Maybe I would have had better results if I’d completed all the rounds, but I don’t believe dieting should be torture. Instead of the fasting mimicking diet, I should have stuck with intermittent fasting, which has helped me lose weight in the past.
High Intensity Exercise
Because my weight gain was partly caused by stress, putting more stress on my body with intense exercise was not the way to go. In fact, I’m sure I put on more weight due to the vigorous virtual CrossFit sessions I was doing.
Intense exercise isn’t necessarily bad for you. In fact, it can be extremely beneficial for your cardiovascular health, and increase your endurance as well as help you burn fat. However, in my case, exercising with less intensity and focusing on one activity (bouldering) was better for me. It allowed my body to de-stress and slowly let go of a lot of the weight I had gained.
Currently, I’ve gained back around 5 of the 30 pounds I lost, and my weight fluctuates 5 pounds up and down from that. I am planning to complete a second round using most of the tools that helped me with the first round, but this time I’m going to try to turn the remaining 15 pounds from fat into muscle. At the moment, however, I’m ok with maintaining my current weight. There is rarely one catch-all solution when it comes to weight loss, so if you are in the process of losing weight yourself, I encourage you to experiment and find out what works for you.