Weight gain and loss story

Weight is one of the most talked-about topics in our society. Whether it’s about losing weight, gaining weight, or keeping it in check, everyone seems to have an opinion or a goal. Weight can be a sensitive topic for a lot of people, especially for people on the extremities (either too obese or too thin) and this is because people frequently body-sham them (I have experienced it, more on that later).

Weight gain and loss are not as simple as taking in healthy food and expending energy. There are a lot of factors that influence our weight, some of which we can change and some of which we can't. An example of the one that can't be changed is genetics. Yes, some people have a higher tendency to gain or lose weight than others simply because it's hard-coded into their DNA. But it doesn't totally mean they can't do anything about it, but they will have to put in more effort than other people.

Some other factors are the food we eat (of course), age, hormones (for example, some women adding weight during or after pregnancy), stress, exercise, and a host of others. When it comes to weight gain or loss, I have actually worked on only losing weight and it happened twice. The first time was unintentional, it just happened because of the circumstance I found myself. The second time was intentional, I did some home workouts and shed off some weights.

The unintentional

As a child, I was obese and that made me the subject of a lot of fat jokes. I usually laugh also when those jokes are told just to show that they weren't getting to me but deep down, they hurt like hell. I didn't like the fact that I was fat but at the same time, I didn't want to do anything about it. I was that way up till junior secondary school and I got used to it. After my junior waec (Sort of a final exam for all junior secondary school students), I traveled to portharcourt to stay with my uncle.

My uncle's wife (Aunt-in-law or let's just say Aunt) has a supermarket but for the first two weeks, I didn't go there. I started going there later on because I was always bored at home and after a while, I practically became one of the workers. Every morning, we had to take out heavy goods such as bags of rice, crates of soft drinks, packs of bottled water, and some other things. Also at night, we took those things back into the store.

I did that for the 3 months I was there and as of then I didn't know that was a form of exercise and I was getting in shape. When I finally traveled back home to my parents, my mom exclaimed when she saw me. That was when I realized I have also gotten taller because my mom used to be taller than me before I traveled but when I stood next to her, I realized I have gotten taller than her. I guess my body converted all that fat into height 😂 Well, that was also the time I hit puberty, so I guess that helped too (growth spurts 😉).

The intentional one

This happened in 2020 during the peak of the COVID-19 lockdown. Schools were shut down and I had a lot of time on my hands which I only used to watch movies, play mobile games and browse social media (especially Twitter). I have a lot of siblings and my mom usually delegates all the chores to them, while the only thing I usually do is wash my clothes (I'm the first child and I did all of those chores when I was younger, so I was forced to retire 😅).

One day, my mom suddenly said I have started adding weight and in my head I immediately went "hell no!". I actually noticed my stomach was getting bigger and then I remembered all my childhood experiences about being a very fat kid, so I decided to work on it. At first, I was doing some simple exercises I know but then I realized that won't be enough, so I went online to look for an exercise routine I can follow, that was when I discovered home workout app.

I started using the app immediately and the first few days were easy but I always woke up the next day with very sore muscles which I heard was very normal for beginners. I didn't let that stop me and kept doing the exercise routines every day and things got a lot better. My brother also joined me after a couple of days and it became more fun. The routines kept getting more difficult every day and when I got to the advanced level, it became too difficult, so I went back to the intermediate.

Did it work?

Definitely! I consistently exercised for several months and when school finally reopened, I went back to the university with my legendary flat tummy (is it still flat now? Well, it depends on how you look at it 😅). From all these, I realized that it's not just eating that can make me (or even most people) add weight, you also need lots of rest and a stress-free environment (unless yours is genetically influenced) which was abundant for me during the COVID-19 era.

Thanks for reading

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