This article is about my brother (Matthias Vidic), who went from 120 kg (265 lbs) to 60 kg (130 lbs) in only 6 months. Yes, this is possible, and all you need is discipline, discipline, and more discipline. Most people give up on their diets after a few days because they start too aggressively. You can lose a lot of weight if you simply stop eating for a few days, but you can also lose 4 kg by sweating for a few hours without drinking anything. Not drinking enough water can be very dangerous, and if you stop eating for a few days, you will become ravenous, and the Yo-Yo effect will make you fatter than ever. What you really need to do is change your lifestyle. Dieting alone is not enough to get in shape. Without exercise, you won’t progress very fast, and even if you manage to lose a few pounds, you will not look the way you want to, because your entire body will be flabby, you will feel weak, and the fat will feel even softer. The first thing you lose from dieting without exercising is muscle mass. For more sports nutrition topics, go back to the nutrition main page. For weight training topics, check out the weight training main page.
First of all, you should start with a real goal. Don’t just try to look good for your next summer vacation. If you seriously want a change, you have to change your lifestyle and not just your nutrition for a few days or weeks. My brother wanted to be the best soccer player in his village, but when he started, he was over 120 kg — far from his goal.
I offered my help and told him that after 6 months he could run further than any of his friends. He was 15 and overweight, so it was time for a good diet and an exercise program before his next growth spurt. After 6 months, he should only weigh half as much.
His school holidays just started, and I had just finished my military service, so I had time for him and his soccer plans. We started the next day. We got up at 6 o’clock and worked out for 20 minutes in our garden. He exercised at a pulse of approximately 130 to 150, and after 20 minutes we had breakfast — usually cornflakes, milk, yogurt, bread, low-fat cheese, etc. In the afternoon, he usually played soccer or went on a bicycle tour.
We removed chocolate bars, chips, and sweets from his menu and replaced them with cottage cheese, vegetables, and fruits. Telling somebody what to eat and what not to eat can be a waste of time. Once you leave your students alone, they think that three 1000 kcal ice creams in the afternoon are no big deal, and if they work out 10 minutes after school, everything is okay. You have to learn how to calculate calories, and if you don’t know that 1 g of fat has more than twice as many calories as 1 g of protein or carbohydrates, you will probably never understand why you don’t lose weight. Whenever he wanted to eat something, he had to look up the protein and kcal content on a nutritional table.
The next problem was his constantly returning munchies. To avoid ravenous hunger, I told him to eat 6 times per day instead of 3. You become ravenous when your blood sugar level is too low, so a little fruit or yogurt snack every 3 hours can help. A lot of people make the mistake of eating only one or two meals per day when dieting. The larger the time span between meals, the higher the chance you become ravenous, lose control, and swallow sweets, chocolate, and chips like a black hole.
So he kept training and counted calories every time he prepared a meal. After 3 months, he could easily run for 2 hours without rest and even tried a half marathon during a vacation in France.
But that was just the beginning.
We kept training and his goals came closer and closer. After 6 months, none of his friends recognized him when he visited his old school (he had changed schools that summer). He was fitter than ever, and his soccer team allowed him to be a midfield player instead of a goalkeeper.
Now he has put some weight back on, but this time it’s not fat.
