How to lose 10 Kg in 3 months in China

After pollution and shitty internet connection, I think the most common complaint among the expats living in China is:

“Since I’m in China I became so fat.”

It doesn’t surprise me. Most of expats tend to settle for a diet based on Jiaozi (Chinese dumplings), Lanzhou Lamian (delicious Muslim noodles) and deep fried pork meat. Not exactly the best for losing weight.

This was my case too: when I arrived in China, on June 2010, my weight was around 68 Kg. On December I had stabilized around 74 Kg, which for a guy of 172 cm means only a thing: I was way out of shape.

So I decided that my New Year resolution was to lose at least 6-7 Kg. I was lucky enough to stumble upon a book that challenged all my beliefs on food and diet. The book is quite famous, it’s called “Four Hour Body” and was written by Tim Ferriss.

Not only I lost 10 Kg of fat in about 3 months, I also gained 5-6 Kg of muscles and I’ve been able to stay fit for the following three years (which I mostly spent in China), that is up to today.

Before and after…

How to lose 10 Kg in 3 months

The 10 February 2011 I weighed 74 Kg, the circumference of my chest was 93 cm, the one of my abdomen 87 cm and the one of my hips 93 cm. Looking at some photos on Four Hour Body I estimated my body fat percentage to about 20-25%, that is between 15 and 18.5 Kg of pure, awesome fat.

Three months after I weighed 68.5 Kg, the circumference of my chest was 87 cm, the one of my abdomen 82 cm and the one of my hips 86 cm. Always with the help of the photos on the book, I estimated my body fat percentage to be about 10%, that 6.85 Kg of fat.

Even if I only my net loss was 5.5 Kg, the change on the diet and a bit of gym – not much actually – helped me to grow about 5 Kg of muscles.

Thus I lost about 10 Kg of fat in 3 months.

Also, the total circumference I was tracking (chest + abdomen + hips) decreased from 273 to 255 cm, that is about the 8%. This data is, in my opinion, much more impressive than the weight loss because I’m basically saying that I became one tenth thinner than I was.

Today 27 January 2014 I have no idea about my weight (I don’t think weight is important because if you grow muscles your weight increases even if you lose fat; the important is to keep a low ratio fat/muscles). However I still carry around a measuring tape, so I can tell you that today the circumference of my chest is 87 cm, the one of my abdomen 77 cm and the one of my hips 83 cm, that is a total of 247 cm, 10% less than three years ago.
Source: http://www.saporedicina.com/english/how-to-lose-10-kg-in-3-months/