I’ve started a fairly consistent running routine, and I’m continuing my three gym sessions per week as well, assuming neither I nor my car happens to be sick. It’s not going badly, but I’m not really progressing either. Of course, two weeks isn’t a long time, but it’s long enough to decide that something needs to change. I dove a bit deeper into the topic, reviewed my own data, and I’m trying to turn it into something that might be valuable for others too.

My highest weight ever was 127 kg, sometime in the mid-2000s. The picture on the left was taken in 2009; I’m the guy in the blue t-shirt. The photo on the right is of me in the summer of 2023. Of course, I tried a lot of things, but my weight yo-yoed up and down until in 2018, I got to the point where it became relevant to take a blood pressure medication regularly.

Unfortunately, I can’t do it without counting calories every day. I can maintain my weight by avoiding high carbohydrate intake and the calorie count I’ve experimented with. If I “go off track” because of a holiday, I don’t worry anymore because I know that as soon as I get back into the swing of things, I’ll pick up the pace again and adjust my weight again. Is this sustainable? I wonder if everyone wants to take the time.

Buy a heart rate monitor, a gym membership or a treadmill or an indoor bike and start moving slowly in your fat-burning range. Focus on getting your body to handle the load first, and get yourself to a point where you can move slowly for an hour: walking or cycling. If you have muscle soreness, you’ve overdone it. Take it easy. Be patient with yourself; just as the pounds didn’t come on overnight, they won’t come off overnight.