29-year-old Prateek Kukreja had a sweet tooth for as long as he could remember. Weighing a whopping 97 kilos, he struggled to fit into clothes and completely avoided wearing light-coloured clothing, so as to, not reveal his ‘curves’.

Name: Prateek Kukreja Occupation: Software Engineer Age: 29 years Highest weight recorded: 97 kgs Weight lost: 20 kgs Duration it took me to lose weight: 6 months The turning point: I did not get any female attention because of my excess weight. My unhealthy lifestyle made it really difficult for me to carry on with even the day-to-day activities. It was evident that I needed to change my lifestyle. My breakfast: It is usually heavy in calories. I even include something sweet in my breakfast. My lunch: 1 brown bread or chapati, some rice, a bowl of curd and vegetable curry. My dinner: 1 chapati and a single portion of protein-rich food like eggs and chicken. I indulge in: I eat everything and anything that I feel like on my cheat days. Although, I still try to include some protein in my cheat meal like a chicken wrap and burger. My workout: In the morning, I do cardio for about 30 minutes which includes brisk walking and jogging. I reserve weight training and functional training for the evening. Low-calorie recipes I swear by: I love having muesli and yoghurt as they help to satiate my cravings for something sweet. I also love to gorge on chicken-breast fry made in very little oil. Fitness secrets I unveiled: I realised that doing cardio burns calories when you are doing it but weight training burns fat, even after you are done doing it. It obviously depends on one’s metabolism as well. How do I stay motivated? A workout partner is a must! In fact, watching motivational videos on YouTube have been a great help to me. How do you ensure you don’t lose focus? When you feel like you are losing your way, remember why you started. Once, you start seeing the changes for yourself, fitness becomes addictive. What’s the most difficult part of being overweight? When I weighed a whopping 95 kilos, I could not wear any light-coloured T-shirts as I looked fat in them.

What shape do you see yourself 10 years down the line? I want to have a body like actor Tiger Shroff. Additionally, I want to enjoy the overall journey of fitness and don’t want to restrict myself from eating tasty food for a longer duration of time.

What are the lifestyle changes you made? Although I drastically reduced the number of calories that I used to have for dinner, I never shunned it completely.

What was the lowest point for you? I had hit a weight-loss plateau when I was neither losing inches nor any kilo, which was a really low point for me. That was the moment, I decided to push myself even further.

Lessons learnt from weight loss: The best part about losing weight is that I feel more confident in my skin. I feel stronger and even my clothes fit me better.

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Source: indiatimes.com