How I lost 7.3% body fat in 3 weeks (whilst eating chinese take away's!)

One of my goals this year is to get to 20% body fat by the end of the year, with a smaller goal built in to help me achieve that (get to 25% body fat by March).

I knew this would take a big lifestyle change. I've always been sporty but because of the types of jobs I've had and my back condition, I've only ever worked out 3 - 4 times a week (and nothing too hardcore either!).

To achieve my goal, I knew I had to up the exercise and become very strict with my diet. To help keep my focus, I decided to weigh myself every 2 -3 weeks and keep a fitness.

​I thought I would share my first weigh in and fitness journal with you all. Not only does it make me more accountable but hopefully it will inspire others to get fit and healthy.

​So here goes...

After deciding my fitness goals (which you can read here), I thought it would be best to create a fitness journal where I can track what I eat, when I exercise and how I feel.

There were a couple of fitness journals on Amazon but I found they all covered different things and didn't quite tick off all the boxes of what I wanted, so I created my own.

The point of the journal was to make me conscious about what I was eating and how often I was exercising. For example, I'd say no thanks to cake in the office because I knew I had to write it down. Simple but effective.

I carry out intermittent fasting, I don't eat anything until 2:00 pm every day (except for drink day), unlike a true fast, I do have water and tea before then.

I also upped my exercise game, in terms of the amount I was doing - I decided to focus on HIIT sessions that I could do at home and I also signed up to a local Football club. Any other free time I had, I would go to the gym and focus on upper body strength

In three weeks, I managed to lose 7.3% body fat and gained 3.2kg in muscle!

And here's how I did it...

As you can see, I was no angel with my food but what I think really helped was the cutting out of carbs, fasting until 2pm and drinking a lot of water.

The drinking part has been the most difficult part to sustain. I work in an office and it's easy to just drink tea and coffee all day. Drinking a minimum of 1.5l a day is still a conscious effort for me.

Here's what I did for exercise:

As you can see, towards the end of the three week cycle, my pilates stretches dipped. I think this was because I was getting in late from different sessions and feeling that I didn't have the time to do them. This is something I need to address.

I did circa 15 hours of exercise over 3 weeks - by the end, I was tired but I could see and feel that I had lost a lot of body fat and felt stronger.

Doing 5 - 6 sessions a week is hard to maintain but I will try my best to keep doing it as I am really starting to see the results.

Here's a couple of pictures to show you the difference of the three weeks (I'm the one in blue in both pictures)...

Since this weigh in, I injured my elbow/neck and wasn't allowed to exercise at all for a week and I've only been allowed to go 70% at it since. 

This has been a major disruption in my fitness and food. 

I now need to pick up where I left off and keep going forward. Fitness is a marathon, not a sprint.

​I'll keep you posted with how I progress.

PS - I also keep a track of my fitness journey on instagram, my username is @fitnessandavocado_