A triathlete sidelined by a back injury and weight gain, had tried calorie counting before and stalled. Working with Andre, he dropped from 89.9kg to 83.5kg in eight weeks – mostly without exercise, and past the ceiling his old approach never let him cross.
I asked Craig what he was actually chasing when we started. Turned out there were two goals stacked on top of each other.
“I had a short-term goal and a longer-term goal. My short-term goal was obviously to lose weight and hopefully improve my sleep a little. I had a target weight for that. And I had a longer-term goal to kick up my training again, because I’ve been suffering from a back issue that’s caused my weight to blow out a little, and also for my training to cease. So I wanted to lose weight, get to a reasonable weight, and then kick up the training so I could get involved in triathlon later this year.”
We worked together for about eight weeks. I asked him to put a number on what came off.
“I started at 89 or 90 – I think 89.9 the first time I stood on the scales. The last weighing I did was 83.5.”
About seven kilos, in eight weeks. He was happy with it – more than happy, once he explained why.
“My goal at the start was to get to 85. I chose 85 because previously I’d let my weight blow out, gone on a diet, got to about 86, and then found it really difficult to lose much more than that. My longer-term goal was to get to 83, which I actually managed within the eight weeks. So I was pretty pleased with that.”
That’s the part worth sitting with – 86kg had been his ceiling before. This time he didn’t just hit it, he went straight through it.
I asked him what was actually different this time versus the diet that stalled him.
“First of all, the weight came off so much more quickly, and I think that’s primarily due to the very different balance of foods I was eating. Previously I’d lost weight by measuring calories in and calories out – if I had 2,000 calories, I’d go and make sure I did exercise that knocked off five or six hundred of those. A three-hour ride, a one-hour run, that sort of thing. Whereas this time, even without the exercise, the weight just came off – I was dropping a kilo a week once my body got used to the lower carb intake. All without exercise, pretty much.”
Who would have known, hey. All without exercise.
“That’s right.”
I asked if that surprised him.
“It surprised me with how quickly and easily it came off.”
We talked about where he goes from here – not a diet with an end date, but a way of eating he and his partner have already built into their life.
“I’m keen to maintain the type of eating my partner and I have been doing – leaving out the processed foods, trying to stay gluten-free. But we’ve also agreed there’ll be a day or two where we’re not going to let that get in the way of a glass of wine, or friends around for a pizza. We’re going to live our lives. We’ve seen how easy it is to eat really well, and we want to maintain that, but we don’t want it so strict that we feel like we’re not living our lives.”
He was blunt about how good the food actually was, once he stopped assuming “clean” meant bland.
“It’s been quite amazing. We get so conditioned to rewarding ourselves with takeaway pizza or fish and chips. The number of times my partner and I would want to do that, and instead did what we consider the right thing – cook a meal, sit down, and go, oh my God, this is fantastic. We really enjoy the clean eating, and some of what we created was really tasty.”
For maintenance, he’s already set his own range.
“I think I’m happy between 83 and 85, which gives me two kilos to work with – plenty. My BMI, if I go above about 87.5, slips out of the green range. So I want to maintain that green range, and 85 is probably the top marker for that.”
I asked what the biggest thing he’d take away from the whole process was.
“I’d tried low-carb diets a few times before, and I’d get to maybe a week, week and a half, not feel great, and quit. I’d assumed my body was never going to cope with a low-carb diet. Being able to get through that phase – and I did feel a bit strange that first week and a half – and get to a point where I was feeling great and eating very differently was a big learning for me.”
And his advice to anyone on the fence about giving up cereal, bread, or pasta – anyone assuming this is smoke and mirrors.
“There’s no doubt the science is there to support this type of eating. If you’re on the fence, just do it. I’d followed your content for a long time before we decided to do it. We probably should have done it a year or two earlier, frankly. You get to the end of it and go, not sure why I put it off so long. So – go ahead and do it, get to the end of the program, and feel great.”
