You don’t need a strict diet to lose weight

Me at the age of 15 at the beach in Weston-super-Mare. Photo: Kris Boratyn

Over three years ago, I weighed over 85kg. I’m not tall or anything, I’m of average 5’7’’ (170cm) height, maybe 175cm in heels. According to my BMI, my weight should have been anything between 69kg-74kg. Simply put, I was overweight edging towards obesity.

The problem was, and still is, I LOVE FOOD.

There’s nothing I can do about it, I’m a born foodie. But I knew that I needed to do something. I didn’t like the way I looked, and I was suffering from more and more health problems.

Since going on a diet was definitely not an option, the only way to go about losing some weight was exercise. I remember I came home one day, laid down on my bed and started lifting my legs up and down. That’s how it started.

From there, I started doing more exercises in a sequence. It was difficult at first, but there was progress. From short sequences I went to whole workouts. I distinctly remember that feeling of pride when I completed my first full 20-minute work out video.

But I knew that I could go further. At the end of the day, I was still eating whatever I wanted to. I decided that High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) was the way to go. I was doing it three times a week. 45-minute workouts with 8 rounds, 20 seconds of exercise and 10 seconds of rest. HIIT burns around 500 calories in 45 minutes and the best thing about it is that your body carries on burning calories throughout the day even when you’re not exercising.

Me at the age of 20, having lost over 20kg. Photo: Kris Boratyn

In two years, I lost over 20kg, became stronger than ever and most importantly I love the way I look now. On top of that, throughout the whole ordeal I was able to eat whatever I wanted.

Nowadays, to keep my healthy weight, I exercise five times a week. I do HIIT training three times a week and run between 5-10km twice a week. I rest on the weekends.