Weight Loss Journey: How My Skinny Husband Won Our Biggest Loser Challenge

I am the proud mother of one and within a period of one year from delivery, I gained a lot of weight. I know that a lot of women go through this where you feel like you should be losing weight because you’re running after tiny people all day but you seem to just be packing on the pounds! After trying a million different diet and workout programs, my husband found one that he thought I would enjoy and he even offered to do it with me. The funny thing is that he doesn’t actually need to lose weight, he’s a pretty active guy. He really just offered to stick with this weight loss journey as moral support (yes, he’s a keeper).

What started out as a fun “getting fit together” program turned into a lesson for me in weight loss. Realizing that the exact same program can work differently from person to person was a tough pill to swallow, but it made the rest of my weight loss journey easier.

How me and my husband start our weight loss journey

Before We Get Started with Weight Loss Journey

So, initially, we needed to change the diet and this part was easier for my husband than it was for me. He was already a pescatarian, so his diet was much healthier than mine. I was already limiting any sugar or fatty foods and we were both pretty good about avoiding processed foods, but my problem was that I am a deeply serious red meat eater. This is when I learned about calorie density. This is a measurement of calories per volume or weight of food.

The diet that we were on was one of lean protein, high veggies, fruits and carbs and a little bit of eggs, chicken and seafood. There was no red meat allowed, no processed sugars, and no dairy. The dairy was a challenge for me as well because I absolutely love cheese. My husband wasn’t lactose intolerant, but he was somewhat resistant so he didn’t eat or drink much dairy prior to the diet.

All in all, it wasn’t a huge change for him in the diet department but it was a major uphill climb for me! The workout regimen that was supposed to go with the diet was where my husband would turn out to have the challenge. As I mentioned, I had already tried a bunch of weight loss plans and they all had included heavy to moderate exercise, depending on the plan. My stamina and strength had improved but I had reached a plateau in my weight loss that I couldn’t get past.

My husband, on the other hand, was not that into heavy exercise but he did walk a lot. The plan that we were on required three days of HIIT each week and each session was supposed to be 20 minutes long. This was much less time than I had spent exercising per week in the past, but I thought that it would be fine because of the level of intensity.

Now that I have set the stage for you on what the general idea of the program was and the shape that we were in, allow me to walk you through how we handled the changes.

What Came Next

The first week was a breeze, we were working out together and my husband was loving all of the food that we were cooking and I wasn’t feeling my normal cravings for bacon and steak. I have to say, it was actually fun!

Diet plan and cooking together

By the second week, my husband was starting to feel physically wiped out. He started making excuses here and there to avoid the workout, but he had me there to give him some encouragement. The support and consistency were the best parts of doing this together, and it helped us both in different ways.

As we went into week three, the dietary fatigue started to wear on me and that was a lot harder to get past than a few attempts to skip the gym. I was dying for a piece of cheese or pork or beef, I grew up in a house that had BBQ every Sunday and I had always felt like in moderation it was fine. Of course, my husband was helpful in steering me the right way when we were together and at home but there were just too many opportunities for me to sneak a bite of what I wanted.

I started fitting all of my dietary cheating into my lunch at the office, which was supposed to be a once in a while but pretty much turned into an almost daily thing. I figured since it wasn’t in large quantities and I was still working out that I would still see a significant change in my weight.

After the fourth week of our weight loss journey, the first dreaded weigh-in day was coming. I was sure that I would have great results but I wasn’t sure that it would be as high as a result of my husband. I turned out to be right! The first weigh-in showed that I had lost 6 pounds and my husband had lost 8, which made sense given the 1-2 pound per week of weight loss rule.

The weight loss results made me feel confident in my ability to keep this trend going with the lunchtime red meat and dairy munching. The next four weeks came and went, and I was not as happy with the results of this one. I had only lost three pounds and my husband had lost another 7!

I finally decided to come clean to him about my midday snacking and he helped me with meal prep and pack lunches for the week so that I could stay prepared for those cravings. It worked really well and I was super confident about the next weigh-in a month later…unfortunately I was a little overly optimistic.
My husband was reaching a plateau so he only lost two pounds at this point, but I matched his weight loss exactly and I just couldn’t believe that! I had worked so hard and it still wasn’t doing much, so what wasn’t working?

We sat down and really thought about all of the changes that I made and we realized that my exercise levels needed to shoot way up because the regimen we were on was a step down for me. That was the only thing that I hadn’t really paid much attention to, so it seemed to be the answer to my weight loss woes.

My husband is amazing and continued the workout routine beside me for one final month, but I added two days of intense swimming for one hour each day without him. That was on top of the HIIT routines that we were doing three days a week, so my schedule for this last month was a little full.

I added a little more caution with my diet as well, I cut out bread and pasta from my diet and stuck to a stricter version of the diet that we were on. After a month of all of this work, I was sure that it was going to pan out for me!

Although my weight loss had accelerated, it still wasn’t at the rate of my husband. I was still at 6 pounds of loss after four weeks of all of this and just couldn’t seem to hit that coveted two pound per week achievement that he got to and I was really irritated at first, but the feeling passed over time.

What I’ve Learned

As I continued with my weight loss program, I continued to see the weight drop. The rate would vary and it never reached that of my husband’s but I was able to appreciate my own personal journey more as time went on. We are two different people with two different body types and lifestyles so I can’t measure my weight loss journey to his.

As my weight continued to drop, it just became clear that no two weight loss journeys are identical even if you both eat and do all of the same things. There are way too many other factors that play into how a weight loss program compliments your body and your goals. The only thing that I can do is stay laser-focused on what I need to do to get to the goal that I have for myself, and remember how lucky I am to have someone like him in my corner and going on this journey with me!