How to lose weight naturally: exercise, intermittent fasting, diet tweaks help teacher shed 14kg in 11 months
- Charmaine Rangel was spurred to lose weight after being too heavy to sign up for horse riding, whipping herself into shape from 73kg to 59kg in under a year
- She credits cycling, weight training, intermittent fasting, diet tweaks, a health app and quality sleep for her success, which has also boosted her self-esteem
Nearly four years after she first tried horse riding in 2019 and fell in love with it, Charmaine Rangel was keen to start learning the sport at a Hong Kong equestrian centre. That plan was dashed when she saw the weight limit for riders: 70kg (154lb).
“That was the tipping point,” says Rangel, 45, who weighed 73kg at the time, in January 2023.
It spurred the banker-turned-kindergarten-teacher to embark on a fitness journey that led her to shed 14kg – to 59kg – and see a 14.7 per cent drop in body fat, from 35.9 per cent to 21.2 per cent, by the end of that year.
She had developed unhealthy eating habits, “snacking on chips, Nutella and ice cream while binge-watching Netflix with my husband,” she says.
“I didn’t like looking in the mirror and seeing fat on my stomach and thighs. My self-esteem had fallen.”
She also had concerns about her 14-year-old son, Mikhail, who she says had developed unhealthy eating habits watching her.
This was not the first time Rangel had attempted to lose weight. She weighed 80kg at her heaviest in 2014 and lost 15kg within six months, by skipping meals, cutting carbohydrates – and hiking.
Despite the lifestyle changes, her weight crept up to 73kg by the end of 2019, where it stayed until early 2023.
“My weight loss was not sustainable as I went off foods that I craved, but did not follow a healthy diet and then went back to consuming unhealthy foods again,” she says.
“It strengthened my body. I felt more active, more flexible and could do exercises that I hadn’t done before,” she says.
Growing up in Mumbai, in India, Rangel had spent her childhood cycling on her neighbourhood streets. She decided to take to two wheels again, and tried cycling on Caine Road, where she lived in 2022.
“I was overweight and found it hard to ride uphill,” she says, adding she was also scared of the heavy traffic on the road. That changed when she moved from Hong Kong Island to Lohas Park, in Tseung Kwan O, in mid-2023.
In January, she did a 100km ride. After turning 45 in April, she did another long ride, more than 100km, setting a new personal best. A fan of professional road racing cyclist Mark Cavendish, she would someday like to cycle the Tour de France mountain stages.
And even though she now meets the weight requirements of the equestrian centre at which she looked to sign up before, she has decided she would rather concentrate on cycling.
A game-changing tool for Rangel has been the MyFitnessPal health and fitness tracking app, which helps her keep her food intake in check.
“I put in my target weight of 65kg and based on the data, the app told me I needed to consume 1,750 calories a day for three months,” she says.
She hit her goal weight by May 2023, and then reduced her calorie count further, to 1,640 calories a day, reaching 59kg by the end of the year. She now consumes about 1,500 calories a day.
Dinner could be a popular Parsee dish of mutton or goat meat with lentils and vegetables, or rice with vegetables and chicken or salmon.
“I have realised that I can eat whatever I want as long I reduce the quantities. In the process I have learned to make better choices and eat healthier food. I feel full now with my meals and don’t crave or feel like eating unhealthy food,” she says.
Standing on the scales every day has helped Rangel stay accountable. Her weight-loss journey has inspired her family to get fit, too. By eating more healthily, husband Nigel has lost 9kg over the past year, and son Mikhail has lost 6kg over the past eight months.
“I am thrilled to see their journey towards fitness,” she says, adding Mikhail has also installed a pull-up bar in his room.
People are complimenting her on her new physique, too.
“Friends tell me that my face is glowing, I look more toned and my stomach looks flatter than before,” she says.
“I want to look good for myself. It is the best gift that I can give myself.”
