‘I lost 4 stone in a year but still eat takeaways by changing just two things’

Losing weight is hard but there are a few easy things you can do to shed the pounds – and now I’ve completely changed my health

As soon as I turned 30, I thought my life would now be in decline. The energy of my twenties faded into a distant memory – walking up the stairs felt like an Olympic challenge, going to the shops required the same amount of mental preparation as London marathon runner (I imagine) and, worst of all, I felt the lust for life slipping out of my hands.

I weighed 115kg (18 stone, 1lb) exactly one year ago. Compounding the physical difficulties of being medically overweight, my mental health started a sharp decline. Where I would normally walk into a room and be able to talk to anyone, I felt myself hiding in the corners.

My patience declined with my loved ones and felt myself snapping at them more, as exhaustion and self-hatred began to squeeze the air out of everything I loved. Clothes clung to my stomach and everywhere I went, I pulled my top away in hopes people wouldn’t see. But, exactly one year ago, I had enough of feeling like I wasn’t enough. The time for change came – with the assistance of an app. And I lost four stone in that one year, so I now weigh 89.3kg (14 stone).

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Through all the research, I finally turned my attention to what I assumed was the diet advice flavour of the month: intermittent fasting. The process involves having an ‘eating window’, typically 16 hours of fasting for eight hours of not fasting, but can be altered to sort the lifestyle, from 14:10 to 12:12. Some people – including the late Dr Michael Moseley – also suggest the 5:2 method of restricting calories to 500 calories for two non-consecutive days.

Now, as someone who lives to eat like the parents in Spirited Away, committing to fasting sounds like I might as well chop out my own tongue. But there are several ways to help – one of those is the Simple app, which I have tested out fully here.

The app, with the help of the AI Avo, sends notifications to remind you of the fasting window, as well as providing tips and tricks for how to fast, nutrition and more. This is particularly useful for me, a man with a colander where his brain should be.

I also made sure I was eating in a deficit – now, this isn’t a crazy deficit, nor should it be for anyone planning their own weight loss journey. According to the NHS, the recommended daily calorie intake (for the average person) is 2,500 calories for men and 2,000 for women. Humans need to eat in a deficit to lose weight, so the body uses its fat stores instead of the energy straight from the food.

To work out what the deficit should be, you need to look at what your ‘Basal Metabolic Rate’ is, which can be done via calculators like this from Diabetes.co.uk. While a technical term, it just means the amount of calories you need for your body to function without including exercise. If you’re active, you then need to add a few hundred extra calories. That’s where something like a smartwatch helps as it tracks your energy expenditure – I use the FitBit Versa 4.

However, Simple guides users through this process and works out how much you need to eat through their quiz. Mine worked out to be 2,400 calories a day to lose 1-2lbs a week.

Then, you need to track your calorie intake per day. This was the first of my two major changes that helped me lose four stone in a year at a healthy rate. I know, I know, who can be bothered? This is exactly what I thought, especially as I was using a manual tracker like MyFitnessPal. The app, while free, doesn’t have a complete database of food, but I will say the barcode scanner saves a lot of frustration.

Simple does have a solution in its capabilities as well – with a photo, Avo can analyse a photo of your food, pull out the ingredients and provide you with a nutrition score. I would love to sit here and tell you that you can eat whatever you want as long as you fast, but if you want the health bonus alongside the aesthetic changes, you’re going to have to get the right nutrition.

Avo does sometimes mix up the sizes or products in the photo – AI’s, a human invention, are fallible like us too – but you can make corrections really easily. To make my life easier, I bulk buy chicken breasts for the week and absolutely drench those bad boys in seasoning. Then by the time I pop one in the air fryer, it’s been marinating for long enough to be absolutely delicious. (Aldi pre-mixed seasoning is 89p per pot, you’re welcome). I also bulk cook things like Bolognese or chilli so I’ve always got something ready.

But this is where the fun bit comes in: I still ate takeaways every week. I still ate pizza, I still bought myself treats. I limited myself to one big treat a week but the secret is, as long as you are under calories, you can eat whatever you want and still lose weight. I couldn’t believe it either. For me, it was making sure I was consistent all week, rather than perfect. If you eat too much one day, don’t worry, just pick yourself up the next day instead – don’t feel bad, we are all human beings and food is delicious.

The next big change I made was getting at least 10,000 steps a day. I do go to the gym four times a week and swim twice a week now, but last year I was going three days and not getting my steps. It’s difficult to overstate how much getting my steps in has changed my life – the energy bonus came from this, not going to gym, and it also meant I had the energy to start swimming every week. It’s now my favourite activity of the week.

For those looking for exercise inspiration, users can try couch to 5k programmes on apps from both BBC Sounds for free and Nike Run Club. Nike Run Club has 4.8 stars out of five on the Apple App Store.

One year later, I am healthy and I am much happier. Nothing feels like too much effort – I feel like I can benchpress the sun some days. Not every day will be perfect as no one is. Whenever you get knocked down, pick yourself back up and start again, it’s the only way to get towards the healthier and happier life. I still go out drinking once a week (I’m from Essex so trust me when I say… I go out drinking), I still get a kebab or Wingstop. But the rest of the week I am committed. That’s how you lose weight and keep it off. I hope you smash it too.