From 103 kg to 73 in nine months without stepping into a gym
There is a figure that disorients anyone who has tried to lose weight: 30 kg in nine months. The starting point was 103 kg for a height of 175 cm. The endpoint was 73.1 kg, with an intermediate stop at 70 which a doctor advised against lowering further. And all this, according to the account of the person involved, without going hungry, without giving up alcohol, and without setting foot in a gym. The method, summarized in one sentence: diet and exercise, cutting out flour and capping daily intake at 1,500 calories.
The detail that breaks the usual script is not the weight loss itself. It is the list of side effects that no one puts on the label. Stamina, he says, has multiplied by a hundred. Mental clarity has improved —"it's as if fat clouds your reasoning"—. And he has become visible again to the opposite sens. He summarizes it with a mix of humor and bluntness: he looks like a chad except for his arms, which remain, in his words, "girly."
The method: 1,500 calories, zero flour, and never going hungry
The recipe derived from the story has nothing revolutionary about it. Avoiding flour, not eating at irregular hours, and not exceeding 1,500 calories a day. For hunger pangs between meals: fruit (apples or bananas), Greek or skim yogurts with blueberries, water, and herbal teas. The warning is stark: never go hungry, because not eating is not the way.
The nuance that separates this case from miracle diets is controlled permissiveness. You don't have to give anything up for life. You can eat pizza, you can drink alcohol. What matters, he argues, are portion sizes and daily exercise. However, the first months require a clean diet; later, with weight already decreasing, hypercaloric rewards can be introduced without derailing the process.
For him, the exercise was walking. A lot of walking. No gym, no weights, no machines. That is precisely the weak point he himself points out: his arms have lagged behind. Muscle mass isn't built by walking, and that's where the process fell short. The priority now is different: start lifting weights to fix what diet alone couldn't.
Why do some people not lose weight even when they eat little?
This question hovers over the entire conversation. Some argue that those who don't lose weight simply don't want to or don't know how. The argument is simple: removing flour and sugar does 70% of the work. Losing 30 kg in a few months isn't that difficult, they say, and what is truly hard is the opposite: gaining 20 kg of muscle while being skinny.
On the other side is the experience of someone who has been stuck at 80 kg for years without success. They don't eat bread, barely have pastries twice a week, occasionally have a sugar-free soda, fast in the mornings, and eat fruit for dinner. And nothing happens. The explanation they give themselves points to sedentary lifestyle and age: approaching 50 penalizes metabolism in a way that wasn't noticeable at 20.
The factor almost no one mentions, which can be decisive, is stress. Controlling it, it is argued, already provides a considerable advantage when losing weight. The comparison with animals that hibernate without stress serves to illustrate the point: cortisol and anxiety don't cause weight gain on their own, but they sabotage any caloric deficit.
Loose skin and rebound: the two warnings
When someone loses 30 kg, the first question that arises is what happens to the excess skin. The protagonist's answer is direct: not a single stretch mark. He adds that stretch marks are, in his opinion, a cheap excuse for not moving. This statement generates immediate skepticism among those who have seen cases of rapid weight loss and evident folds. The comparison with a wrinkled breed dog appears in the conversation.
The second warning is the rebound. The comparison with alcoholics is explicit: a fat person remains so forever, even if they lose weight. Touching flour, sodas, or ultra-processed foods after dropping weight is opening the door to regaining it all. Discipline doesn't end when the scale hits the target.
The protagonist himself acknowledges that his abdomen isn't completely flat. Two kilos remain to be lost, although the doctor says 67 would be dangerous. And here appears the doubt many share: a man weighing 66 kg looks too thin, with a cyclist's physique. Not everyone likes it. The decision, he concludes, belongs to whoever has to live in that body.
The psychological effect no one tells you about
Beyond weight, there is a change the protagonist describes as the most valuable of all. It isn't physical. It's mental. He thinks more clearly. The sensation, he says, is that fat clouded his reasoning. There is a phrase that sums it all up: there is no money in the world that pays for this.
The comparison with sugar is recurrent. Sugar owns the mind, he argues. You aren't yourself; it's the flour that controls you. The euphoria you feel when you're overweight isn't happiness, it's blood chemistry deceiving you. That is the trap that prevents timely reaction.
The personal conclusion is both bitter and liberating: what was I thinking all that time? The answer he gives is that he wasn't thinking. He was possessed by sugar. And now that he has come out of it, he doesn't understand how he could have lived like that for so long.
The question left hanging doesn't have an easy answer: if the method is so simple—fewer calories, less flour, more movement—why do some people stay stuck at the same weight for years without succeeding? Metabolism, age, stress, genetics, or simple lack of consistency. Each case has its alibi. And none fully explains why some succeed and others don't.
Summary of a discussion on Burbuja.info - Foro de economía, actualidad y política., translated from Spanish and reviewed before publication.
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