“Believe in the cold, hard math of calorie deficits” – Simon’s story

At 97 kilograms and struggling with a decade of poor sleep and steady weight gain, Simon decided to test his limits and see if he could finally lose the unwanted weight.

Despite having some doubts, he committed to going all in for the Freeletics Transformation Challenge. And while he lost some weight, he also rediscovered a version of himself he thought was lost. Here’s his story:

“I had seen the success that other people who had done the Transformation Challenge achieved. I thought, ‘If they can do it, then I suppose I can too,’ although I wasn't entirely sure if it would be possible for me.

Fundamentally, I just decided that I was tired of being overweight. It wasn't the body that I identified with. I kind of just woke up one day and said, ‘Let me give it a go. Let me attempt it and see what happens.’

My main goal when I started the Challenge was simply to lose weight. I'm generally someone who has an okay amount of muscle mass, but the amount of body fat I carried had crept up over the years to the point where I weighed 97 kilograms when I started.”

“I had some major concerns. Because of my poor sleep, I had kind of assumed that it would be very difficult, or even impossible, for me to lose weight due to hormonal problems.

This is something we often hear in the media and read about: if you sleep very badly, you're going to have problems losing weight. So, that was a major struggle I anticipated going in.

I'm someone who generally likes to do sports. I hike in the summer and I go to the gym fairly regularly year-round. However, with the demands of my job, I found that over the last 10 years, my weight had been steadily increasing.

My diet was okay, but not optimal. I'd eat a fair amount of convenience meals because I wouldn't have the time or inclination to prepare food. My stress levels would vary depending on the demands of my job and my personal life, and my sleep was generally always quite bad.

One particularly bad habit I had was experiencing an afternoon energy crash around 3:00 or 4:00 PM. My weapon of choice for recovering from that was dark chocolate, and I'd usually eat a whole 100-gram slab of it.

Not only is that a huge calorie dump to add to your daily intake, but it obviously had a bad effect on my sleep the next night, turning into a bit of a vicious circle.”

“Being completely honest, I never actually wanted to give up. At times, it was a challenge to get through all of it, but one thing I found very motivating was that after the first week or two, I already started to see progress on the scale.

For me, seeing the progress in cold, hard numbers works better than any visualization techniques. After about two to four weeks, you also start feeling the changes on your body.

Your belt fits a bit looser, and when you touch your stomach or your love handles, you can feel that they're smaller. Seeing the weight on the scale drop was the ultimate motivator that got me through it. It helped me build a consistent fitness habit.

No matter what was happening with work or life, I always knew the one rock I had in my day was my Freeletics workout. Even if I just did a very easy workout, I was always able to make the time to do something.”

“Building that consistent habit is the most important change I've made. Also, I no longer have a mental list of outfits that I can't wear anymore because they don't fit me! Everything is just generally going better.

A lot of people couldn't believe it. Because I had been overweight for about ten years, many people only knew me as the overweight version of myself. In general, they've been incredibly receptive, welcoming of my transformation, and have praised me for it.”

“The most unexpected side effects were my sleep improvement and my energy levels.

I fully expected to lose weight because that inevitably happens when you're running a calorie deficit, but I didn't expect to just feel so much better day-to-day in an unquantifiable way. I'm sleeping better, and I have much more energy throughout the day.

By the end of the Challenge, I had dropped 16 kilograms, going from 97kg down to 81kg. That was my exact goal, and I'm very happy that I achieved it.

At first, it took some adjustment to no longer have the strict regimen of the Transformation Challenge in place. But what I love is that the Challenge gave me long-lasting habits that I've managed to keep up long after it officially ended.

Even now, I'm still getting my Freeletics workouts in four to five times a week, and I'm very happy to carry this new habit with me going forward.”

“Believe in the cold, hard math of calorie deficits. If you've got your nutrition dialed in and you're getting the calorie burning in through Freeletics workouts, the weight loss will happen.

It's the simple laws of physics; it's impossible that it doesn't happen. Obviously, it will require discipline and internal motivation to keep going, but if you can just make it over the hump of those first two weeks, you'll start seeing progress on the scale and changes in your body. That will be all the motivation you need to continue.”