Accountant, 24, shows off incredible weight loss after eating MORE – scoffing 3,000 calories a day
AN accountant has revealed how she lost 15kg (2st 3lbs) by eating an astonishing 3,000 calories a day.
Danica Dedic, from Syndey, Australia, wasn’t overweight before but had a body fat percentage of around 29.
Women are classed as obese if they have above 32 per cent body fat so Danica was towards the top end of healthy.
In less than a year, however, she’s dropped down to just 14 per cent body fat – the same as a professional athlete.
And she says that she feels “better than ever”.
Danica says that she was trapped in a binge-restrictive eating cycle which saw her eating extremely cleanly during the week and allowing herself “cheat meals” at the weekend.
“I tried cutting carbs, eating organic, removing dairy, meal replacement shakes, you name it – I’ve tried it,” she told Femail.
Monday to Friday, she’d have a severely restricted diet of smoothies, chicken and veg, and then would enjoy more substantial meals at the weekends – including eating Nutella by the spoon.
As well as eating very little, she used to overtrain – waking up at the crack of dawn to run before hitting the gym for a 90-minute workout.
“I believed that if I was good for the week, I could reward myself with a dine out meal regardless of the portion or contents of the meal,” she said.
How exercising too much could make you fat
We all have a set of abs, it’s just that for the vast majority of us, they’re hiding underneath a cosy layer of adipose tissue (belly fat).
You can train the muscle underneath the fat but the real game changer is losing the fat covering the muscles in the first place.
We tend to have a high storage of fat around our middles if we’re exposed to high and prolonged stress.
Stress comes in many different forms but one of those is physical stress and working out at a high intensity every day is just that.
Laurence Fountain is the founder of Salus London and specialises in body transformations by way of re-balancing stress.
“Cortisol is going to interfere with different hormonal effects,” he told us.
“Firstly, it’s going to interfere with your thyroid – meaning it’s going to be very hard to burn fat when your cortisol is high. In fact, you’re going to be more likely to burn muscle.
“Too much cortisol can also lead to an overstimulation of the brain during sleep causing an increase of ghrelin – the hunger hormone, which is going to make it impossible for you to control your appetite and stay away from simple sugars and high-fat foods.
“And when ghrelin high, leptin is going to be low so it’s going to stop you from feeling satisfied.”
If you’re smashing spin, step, cardio, weight classes every day, your body thinks that you’re in danger.
The result is that the body clings to fat (because it’s not sure if it’s about to experience a period without food) and also muscle.
That means that you’re not seeing all the gains you should be from all that hard work.
Nutrient uptake gets lower, inflammation rises and instead of seeing your abs poking through, you end up feeling tired and bloated.
Laurence explained that “being in fight or flight mode sends the blood flowing to our extremities – so that we can leap out of perceived danger at any minute”.
Be more strategic with your workouts.
Try to mix up the days you do weights, cardio, yoga – and factor in at least two rest days a week.
But her body shape never changed.
So last year, after going through a rough patch, she decided to make a change.
She said that every day, she’d look in the mirror and be unhappy with what she saw.
Then she stumbled upon body transformation exerts, Equalation’s Instagram page.
‘Their food comparisons blew my mind.
“The post that stood out to me was the Lindt chocolate bunny being 1,050 calories – and comparing that to three meals plus a snack.”
Within a week, she transformed her diet and focused on eating the protein, fats and carbs that her body needed.
She realised that her body worked best on six meals a day – breakfast, lunch, dinner, dessert and two snacks.
So today, she eats 3,000 calories a day, with a heavy focus on carbs and protein.
The typical daily requirement for women tends to be around 2,000 calories.
Danica pairs her new eating regime with daily gym sessions.
MORE ON WEIGHT LOSS
She claims that she noticed physical changes within days of changing her diet.
And those physical changes far outweigh the number on the scales.
“While in the first eight weeks I had only lost around five kilograms, I had gone from no abs to abs.”
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