From 103kg to 75kg: The 7 Costly Mistakes I Made Losing 62lbs (So You Don’t Have To)

Whether you’re struggling with a New Year’s resolution or ready to start fresh, weight loss doesn’t have to be complicated. I reduced my weight from 103kg to 75kg (nearly 62lbs) without surgery, Ozempic, or crash diets. I did it entirely on my own without guidance, which sounds impressive but also led to countless mistakes. In this article, I’ll share the seven biggest ones so you can avoid them.

1. Treating Sleep as Optional

I used to say things like “I’ll sleep when I’m dead.” Looking back, that attitude probably sped up that eventuality. Sleep was my lowest priority - I genuinely believed I could function on five hours a night. I’d be stretching and foam rolling at 3am instead of doing the one thing that would actually help: going to bed.

Sleep deprivation is one of the most underrated saboteurs of weight loss. When you don’t get adequate sleep (7-9 hours for adults), your body produces more ghrelin (the hunger hormone) and less leptin (the fullness hormone). This makes you hungrier throughout the day and more likely to crave high-calorie foods.

Research published in the Annals of Internal Medicine by Nedeltcheva et al. found that dieters sleeping 5.5 hours per night lost 55% less body fat and 60% more lean muscle compared to those sleeping 8.5 hours, despite eating identical calories. Sleep deprivation also increases cortisol, promoting fat storage around your midsection, and reduces insulin sensitivity, making your body less effective at processing glucose.

I was actively working against myself by prioritising foam rolling at 3am over the most powerful recovery tool available: sleep itself.

2. Turning Cheat Meals Into All-Out Binges

There was a theory in bodybuilding circles that extreme cheat days boosted your metabolism and actually helped with fat loss. I embraced this enthusiastically. Every Saturday, my housemate and I would buy a dozen Krispy Kreme doughnuts to share over coffee. One week he forgot it was my turn, so we both bought them - meaning we ate 12 doughnuts each. And that was just lunch.

Dinner was large fish and chips, a jumbo sausage covered in a tin of baked beans (a meal that made most people feel sick just looking at it), followed by an entire tub of Ben & Jerry’s or Häagen-Dazs.

The problem is simple mathematics. To lose one pound of fat requires a deficit of approximately 3,500 calories. If I ate in a 500-calorie deficit six days per week (3,000 calories saved), then consumed 5,000-6,000 excess calories on Saturday, I was completely wiping out my progress and often gaining weight overall.

While planned refeeds (moderate calorie increases, particularly from carbs) can help during prolonged dieting, the metabolic boost is minimal - maybe 3-10% for a few hours, nowhere near enough to offset thousands of excess calories. A far better approach is a single cheat meal every 1-2 weeks, or simply building treats into your daily calorie allowance.

3. Drinking My Calories

Drinks are deceptively high in calories and easy to overconsume. I used to think any drink with protein was beneficial. Huel drinks seemed perfect: high protein, vitamins, minerals - what could go wrong? The problem is they contain 400 calories, and I was drinking them with lunch rather than as a meal replacement.

I also believed a glass of red wine before bed was healthy. A standard 175ml glass contains 125-160 calories, and a large 250ml glass can exceed 200 calories. While red wine contains antioxidants, alcohol actually disrupts REM sleep and reduces sleep quality. Having 1-2 glasses most nights meant an extra 250-400 calories daily with no real benefit - nearly half a pound of potential fat loss per week.

The broader issue is that for most people, liquid calories tend to be less satiating than solid food. Your brain doesn’t register them the same way, so you’re adding calories without feeling as full. Studies show people who drink their calories tend to consume more total daily calories because liquids don’t suppress appetite as effectively.

My solution: stick to water, black coffee, tea, and zero-calorie sparkling water. I discovered sparkling water was particularly helpful - it’s zero calories but feels more interesting than plain water, making hydration much easier. Save your calories for actual food that keeps you satisfied.

4. Assuming “Healthy” Automatically Means “Good for Weight Loss”

I read about the benefits of good fats and made sure my diet was high in them. Good fats (monounsaturated and polyunsaturated) are essential for hormone production including testosterone, brain function, vitamin absorption (A, D, E, K are fat-soluble), reducing inflammation, and supporting cell health.

The problem? Fat contains nine calories per gram - more than double protein or carbohydrates (four calories per gram). It’s incredibly easy to overdo fats. How easy is it to generously drizzle olive oil on your salad? Or eat a whole bag of nuts? These are healthy foods, but they won’t help your weight loss if you’re not tracking portions.

For weight loss, a good guideline is 20-30% of total calories from fat. That usually works out to around 0.3-0.4 grams of fat per pound of bodyweight for most people. For someone weighing 180 pounds trying to lose weight, that’s roughly 60-80 grams of fat per day.

It’s worth noting that dropping fat too low (below 0.3g per pound or 15-20% of calories) can compromise testosterone production. Dietary fat from egg yolks, olive oil, nuts, and fatty fish is crucial for maintaining healthy testosterone. However, higher testosterone within the natural range doesn’t automatically mean more muscle growth. What matters more is consistent training, adequate protein, sufficient calories, and proper recovery. This only applies to natural levels - anabolic steroids push testosterone to supraphysiological levels (far beyond natural), which absolutely does increase muscle growth substantially, but comes with serious health risks.

Choose quality fat sources but measure portions carefully. A tablespoon of olive oil is 120 calories, a handful of almonds easily 200+. These are healthy choices, but they need to fit within your calorie budget, not be consumed freely just because they’re “good for you.”

5. Going Massively Overboard on Protein

I believed the more protein I consumed, the more muscle I’d build, and the more calories I’d burn. At my peak, I was consuming around 350g of protein daily - double what I aim for now. The reality is there’s a ceiling to how much protein is beneficial; anything beyond that doesn’t provide additional muscle-building benefits and simply contributes extra calories, which can be stored as fat if you’re in a calorie surplus.

The NHS recommends 0.75g of protein per kg of bodyweight (about 0.34g per pound), but this guideline is designed to prevent protein deficiency and illness, not to optimise muscle retention or growth. It’s adequate for sedentary individuals but falls short for anyone training.

Most experts agree that 1g per pound of bodyweight covers you completely. Recent research by Brad Schoenfeld and others suggests muscle protein synthesis maxes out around 0.7-0.8g per pound for most people actively training (in kilograms: 1g per pound ≈ 2.2g per kg; 0.7g per pound ≈ 1.5g per kg).

For weight loss, protein recommendations by activity level:

• Sedentary: 0.5-0.6g per pound (1.1-1.3g per kg)

• Moderately active: 0.6-0.8g per pound (1.3-1.8g per kg)

• Very active/resistance training: 0.8-1.0g per pound (1.8-2.2g per kg)

Higher protein is beneficial during weight loss because it preserves muscle mass in a calorie deficit and has the highest thermic effect of all macronutrients. Your body burns 20-30% of protein calories just digesting it, compared to 5-10% for carbs and 0-3% for fats. This thermic effect of food (TEF) is well-established science, different from the largely debunked “thermogenic foods” marketing concept.

However, most studies agree that exceeding 1g per pound provides no additional benefits and makes adherence harder by leaving less room for carbs and fats in your calorie budget.

6. Doing Too Much Junk Volume at the Gym

My goal wasn’t just weight loss - I wanted to look like the guys on Men’s Health and Muscle & Fitness covers. That meant resistance training, but my approach was terrible. I found an old training plan recently: no leg day, but an entire day dedicated to arms. Doing so much work that I couldn’t brush my teeth the next morning seemed like a sign of success, but many of those sets were junk volume.

Junk volume refers to sets that don’t meaningfully contribute to muscle growth because you’ve already fully stimulated the muscle or you’re too fatigued to train effectively. Research by Brad Schoenfeld, James Krieger, and others suggests most muscle groups respond well to 10-20 sets per week, spread across 2-3 sessions. Beyond that, you’re just creating fatigue and extending recovery time.

In a single workout, most people see diminishing returns after 4-6 hard sets per muscle group. That 8th, 9th, or 10th set for biceps wasn’t building muscle - it was just unnecessarily destroying my arms.

For weight loss specifically, prioritise compound movements working multiple large muscle groups: squats, deadlifts, rows, presses. These burn more calories during the workout, create a larger metabolic response afterward (elevated calorie burn for hours), and build more overall muscle mass. Training legs, back, and chest always burns more calories than isolated arm work because you’re recruiting significantly more muscle tissue. A proper squat session can burn 2-3x more calories than an arm workout while elevating your metabolism more substantially.

7. Wasting Money on Ineffective Supplements

I read countless fitness magazines and thought I had discovered secret shortcuts through supplements. I took so many pills daily that had virtually no impact.

For weight loss, I used green tea extract, L-carnitine, and added hot sauce to meals to “speed up metabolism.” These sound great but the reality is disappointing. They might increase metabolic rate by 3-5% temporarily - burning an extra 50-100 calories daily at most. You could achieve the same effect with a 10-15 minute walk. These supplements were expensive, came with side effects (green tea extract can cause digestive issues and anxiety in high doses), and gave me false confidence that I was doing something meaningful when I should have focused on maintaining my calorie deficit consistently.

To build muscle, I believed I needed more testosterone. Not wanting to use steroids, I tried the “natural” approach with fenugreek, maca root, and ZMA. These were even more futile. While zinc and magnesium can support testosterone if you’re deficient, most people eating varied diets aren’t deficient. Multiple studies show these natural testosterone boosters either have no effect on testosterone in healthy men, or produce changes so minimal they don’t translate to measurable differences in muscle growth or fat loss. Your body regulates testosterone within a tight range, and you can’t significantly elevate it through supplements unless you’re clinically deficient or using pharmaceutical interventions.

The only supplements with solid research backing:

1.  Caffeine: Genuinely increases metabolism and fat oxidation, improves workout performance. A cup of coffee before training is actually effective.

2.  Protein powder:** Not a fat burner, but convenient for hitting protein targets, supporting muscle retention during weight loss.

3.  Creatine monohydrate:** Helps training performance and muscle fullness, indirectly supporting better workouts. However, be aware creatine causes 2-4lbs of water retention. You’re still losing fat, but the scale won’t reflect it immediately, which can be discouraging. Some people, myself included, find creatine affects sleep quality, possibly due to increased cellular energy production or interactions with adenosine receptors. If you experience sleep issues after taking creatine, try taking it earlier in the day or skip it entirely - performance benefits aren’t worth sacrificing sleep quality.

4.  Fibre supplements:** Can help with satiety and digestion if you struggle getting enough fibre from whole foods.

Everything else is mostly marketing. I could have saved hundreds of pounds focusing on the basics: calorie deficit, adequate protein, consistent training, and proper sleep.

Final Takeaway

With everything I’ve learned, if I were to lose weight whilst building muscle again, I would:

• Resistance train 3-4 times per week** - Focus on compound movements (squats, deadlifts, bench press, rows) with 10-20 sets per muscle group per week

• Reduce calories by 10-20% below maintenance level** - For most people this works out to a 300-500 calorie deficit, creating sustainable fat loss without sacrificing muscle or making you miserable. Calculate your maintenance calories using an online TDEE calculator, then subtract 10-20%. Smaller individuals might need a 200-400 calorie deficit, larger individuals closer to 500-750 calories

• Get 7-9 hours of quality sleep per night** - Non-negotiable for hormone regulation and recovery

• Consume 0.8-1.0g of protein per lb of bodyweight** - Higher end during weight loss to preserve muscle mass

That’s it! If you want to speed things up, add some cardio (2-3 sessions of 20-30 minutes weekly) and maybe benefit from a pre-workout coffee (if you train early and it won’t affect sleep), but the process is very simple. Though simple doesn’t always mean easy!

I’d use a calorie tracker like MyFitnessPal, at least for the first month, to understand what your meals should look like. Beyond that, it comes down to positive habits and discipline - but that’s a whole new article.

Good luck on your journey!