“I woke up one night and I couldn’t breathe,” says Talha Majid. “I thought that was the last night of my life.”
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“This was when I was 150kg,” he recalls. The 6-foot, then 23-year-old Pakistani expat coughed through the darkness, the fear of his own mortality slowly transmuting into a fire of change.
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That morning about 14 months ago, he started on his fitness journey by computing a diet that was high in protein and low in carbohydrates. “I started with eating 3 eggs in the morning. I [ate] grilled chicken in the afternoon. Then fruit in the evening and then again grilled chicken or fish in the evening. I cut down my carbs to almost 20 per cent of what I usually had,” says Majid. At the end of seven days, he was 4kg lighter.
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Then, he began to go to the gym. “I met a lot of people and I used to asked them, ‘what do I do to lose weight quickly and efficiently and effectively?” Around this time, he also met a gym instructor who calculated that for his height and build, Majid’s optimum weight is 90kg.
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Now, all at once a 60kg drop seems impossible, but then the trainer told Majid something that would go on to become his mantra: “Why do you want to lose 60kg?…why don’t you lose 1kg at a time and do that 60 times.”
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Basically, says Majid in an interview with Gulf News, “Make smaller targets but do it multiple times,” he says.
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So he worked on making the numbers go down, one by one.
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On and on he worked at it, all though his university summer break. At the end of two months, he was down 20kg. His peers in college had begun to notice; his resolve just got a boost.
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Hitting a wall
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While the initial days were full of results, there came a time of slugishness. “The journey started becoming more difficult when time actually passed by, because at a certain point in your weight loss journey, you usually stop losing weight; it’s called weight [plateau], it’s constant for a long time. I had that issue [at the 2.5-month mark where] for the next 25 days, where I was constantly going to the gym and [eating] diet meals and I wasn’t even losing half a kilo. I was really demotivated,” he recalls.
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One day he decided to give up, it was too difficult. He went out partying with friends and indulging in things he had been avoiding, like burgers and fries. “When I came back, I was feeling guilty. Why am I cheating on myself?” he wondered.
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“The next day i went back on my diet, started my routine again and I started to see even more changes; I started to lose even more weight.
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“This went on until 11 months [later], until the day I stood up on the weighing scale and I was 90kg. I had lost 60kg in 11 months.”
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Other hiccups
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During this period, Majid also hit another plateau, when he was 105kg – but he says he was prepared this time around. Instead of waiting for the frustrating period to blow over, he concocted a new plan. “The second time it actually happened, I changed my diet to a Keto diet.” He also changed up with workouts and started focusing less on cardio and more on weight training.
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Then he began to get some battle scars from his drastic weight-loss journey. “I do have lose skin,” explains Majid. But he wears these marks with pride. “Whenever I see it, I feel really proud of myself because I’ve gone through a stage where I used to be 150kg and now I’m 90kg,” he says. (For those hoping for a similar transition without this issue, he recommends a slow and steady reduction schedule, which is more likely allow skin to retain its elasticity.)
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Status 14 months on
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Today, Majid stands fit at 94 kg – the 4kg gain he attributes to a busy schedule that pushed him to eat fast food and a bout of intense weight training.
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He is, however, keeping an eye on that scale and has a formula to fall back on when things start to slip. “How I control [the weight] is I go on a diet for 2-3 days and then eat normal food for rest of the week and go to the gym at the same time. Or if I don’t want to diet I reduce my portion sizes [to balance it all out].
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This two-day food programme is a high protein, low carb window reminiscent of his initial dieting days.
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He sums up his transition with this other mantra. “It’s not what we do once in a while to shape our body,” says Majid, “it’s what we do consistently [that matters].”
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Majid’s tips for staying in shape
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1. Small goals are key to staying motivated.
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2. When you hit a plateau, change your eating and exercise habits.
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3. Don’t starve yourself to get slim; you’ll end up losing your muscles too – the fat will come back and the muscles will be harder to rebuild.
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4. Eat healthy.
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5. Consistency will help you get to your goal.
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