Eighteen-year-old Hannah Maclean reveals how she shed the pounds in time for her school prom.

Hannah Maclean, 18:
Lost 20 kg in 20 weeks through healthy eating and regular exercise

I never used to be overweight, but once I entered my teens, I started gaining more weight than I should have. I did not have a healthy diet; I would skip breakfast and rarely have lunch, and instead, I would snack throughout the day. For dinner, I would binge and eat to my heart’s content. To make matters worse, I would also turn to food for comfort and would eat if I was upset or down about something.

I hit my all-time high at 105 kilograms. At 168 centimetres in height, that meant that my Body Mass Index (BMI) was 37.2, falling into the obese category.

At one point, I thought that I was going to be overweight forever. I felt there was nothing I could do to change it.
Like every other teenager, I enjoy books, music and the occasional night out with friends. However, I have always felt like the odd one out whenever I was around my friends because I was the large one in the group – they were all petite and slim.

Nobody passed nasty remarks about my weight, but I did feel like everyone was just being kind to me because of my larger size. I became even more self-conscious when I felt that people around me were avoiding the topic of my weight. For example, they would always say that I have a nice face, but would never say that I looked nice in general. That made me upset, and the more upset I became, the more I would eat.

Over the years, I went on several diets but my attempts only lasted a few weeks at most. I would get bored and give up because these diets were too difficult or complicated to follow. On some diets, I was constantly hungry (which I did not enjoy) and most involved a complex tallying of what I ate, such as a point system. Adding the numbers made dieting difficult!

It was not until the start of 2008 that I really made up my mind to make a real and lasting change. I wanted a healthier lifestyle because I knew deep down that I was unhealthy – I was short of breath just going up a few flights of stairs! Furthermore, I did not like the way I looked.

My ‘wake up moment’ happened after I saw a photograph of myself taken at a New Year’s Eve party in the United Kingdom. I was in the UK to meet up with old friends and I was shocked when I saw how I looked in the photo. In all aspects, I felt I looked horrible!

I made a New Year resolution to lose weight, which I put into action in February. It was also around this time that it dawned on me that my school prom was fast approaching. I really wanted to have a beautiful dress for the prom and for a change, to look and feel good in it.

The first (and most important) thing I did was switch to a healthier daily diet. With the help of Dee Sidhu (a dietician who is also a family friend), we worked out a realistic and acceptable diet plan that essentially did not involve me eating less, but allowed me to eat the same amount of food I was used to, but with healthier variations instead. I found that enlisting the help of a dietician was very helpful in educating me on how to eat properly.

My diet change involved cutting down on carbohydrates and sugary food, so I gradually stopped eating food with high carbohydrate content like rice, bread and pasta, as well as sweet snacks. Instead, I filled up on fruits and vegetables. I also began cutting down on red meat because of its high cholesterol and saturated fat content. Alternatively, I opted for a healthier meat choice – chicken. I also stopped my caffeine habit after I learned that it elevates the levels of stress hormones, which leads to the deposition of excess fat in the abdomen.

I also started to exercise. Unlike the sedentary lifestyle I had before, I started going to the gym everyday (except Sunday as this was my rest day). I would go after school and try to do an hour of cardiovascular exercise to burn calories and increase my metabolism, and perform an additional hour of weight training to tone up my muscles. I would weight train every other day to give my muscles some rest between days.

To be honest, it was initially difficult to make the healthy change, because it was a whole new lifestyle for me. I didn’t snack (except on fruits), and had to eat regular meals at fixed times. However, unlike other diets, I wasn’t constantly hungry throughout the day as I was able to eat my regular amounts, but the difference being that my food choices were now healthier. I also found it more enjoyable to exercise at the gym as my fitness level increased (though initially I dreaded each visit!).

It took a month before I saw any physical changes. I began to see how my body was slowly changing in certain areas. Each week I could see a subtle difference, and this was a huge motivational factor to keep me going on my mission. Even my family members noticed, and would pass comments on how wonderful they felt I looked. This made me very happy.

The other thing that kept me going was the thought that my perfect prom dress was out there waiting for me – after all, which girl does not dream of the perfect dress and looking absolutely beautiful (and confident) in it?

Of course, there were days where I just felt like being lazy with my weight loss plan. But I started a point system to keep me going. I set targets for myself and gave myself a treat for every five kilograms I lost. These treats were not food, but stuff I enjoyed like jewellery or music CDs.

My advice for other overweight individuals who find a weight loss program too difficult to stick to is to not go on extreme diets, which can be torture. It is better to make changes in your diet instead – start by gradually cutting out certain foods, but not by going cold turkey and giving it all up at once. It also helps to reward yourself for motivation, but of course, these rewards cannot be in the form of your favourite (and most likely, unhealthy) food! Lastly, find an exercise routine that you enjoy. This way, you get to exercise and have fun as well.

I now weigh 85 kilograms. I lost 20 kilograms in body weight and a total of 37 inches off my body in 20 weeks. To me, this is a real feat and I’m delighted that I’ve managed to pull it off. I am not getting complacent though. I still have a rather long way to go to reach my goal weight of 70 kilograms but I know I can do it.

The best part about this whole journey is that I’ve learnt how to eat better and include healthier activities in my lifestyle. Now, I just can’t wait for my prom so that I can show off my leaner body and dream dress!

Diet Tip

Try putting grapes into the freezer until they are frozen. They become extra sweet and taste almost like a sorbet. A very tasty alternative
to ice cream!

My Daily Diet Plan:

• Breakfast: Cereal with skimmed milk and a piece of fruit
• Lunch: Grilled meat such as chicken, with grilled vegetables or a salad (no potatoes though!)
• Dinner: Stir fried beef or chicken, with plenty of different vegetables
• Snack: Frozen grapes
• Supplements: One tablet of multivitamin and mineral supplement, and one tablet of calcium supplement.

My Exercise Regimen:

Gym sessions six days a week which involved:
• One hour of cardiovascular exercise to burn calories and increase my metabolism.
• Every second day, I would do an additional hour of weight training to tone up my muscles.