Yahoo Lifestyle Weight loss stories: how I lost 40 kg
NAME: BRADLEY BAKER
HOME: SYDNEY, NSW
JOB: COMMUNICATIONS TECHNICIAN
AGE: 23
HEIGHT: 184 CENTIMETRES
BEFORE: 120KG
AFTER: 83KG
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THE WEIGHT GAIN
Baker grew up with a casual attitude to food, never giving much thought to what he put in his mouth. It was nothing for him to come home from school or work and scoff a packet of Tim Tams and an iced coffee, then eat a massive dinner.
“I didn’t realise I was getting bigger,” he says. “It just kept creeping up on me.”
He had no reason to address his ballooning waistline until he decided to join the Australian Defence Force (ADF).
He lost 20 kilograms during his training to get into the ADF, but then, once in, promptly piled it all back on as he still hadn’t adjusted his eating habits.
THE DIET and LIFESTYLE CHANGE
Back in April 2009, Baker stood on the scales at work and saw the number “120” appear on the digital screen.
He freaked out.
With his superiors in the Army already threatening him with expulsion if he didn’t lose weight, the figure “flicked a switch” in Baker’s mind.
He started exercising on a cross-trainer for 20 minutes a day, building up to 45 minutes, as well as following a weights routine that hit all his major muscle groups. He also finally took aim at his eating habits, consuming smaller, more frequent meals.
THE WEIGHT LOSS RESULT
In six months, Baker dropped almost 40kg, getting his superiors off his back and putting him in a position to smash his annual physical.
“I used to stress about the tests, but now it’s about seeing how well I can do,” he says.
He went from doing 10 push-ups to 70, shaved his 2.4-kilometre run time from 14 minutes down to under 10 and from struggling to punch out the minimum requirement of 30 sit-ups to “stopping at 100 because I got bored”.
His new physique also helped him secure a deployment to the Middle East, which he believes he would not have achieved if he’d remained unfit.
THE WEIGHT LOSS ADVICE
Do your research. “I had no idea about nutrition, so I read up about what I should and shouldn’t eat,” he says.
Create a snowball. “If you start small and keep at it, the results will come and you’ll build momentum, which spurs you on to lose even more.”
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