Fred Chevry is a 34-year-old personal trainer from Miami, Florida who now lives in Las Vegas, Nevada. After moving to a new country, two serious illnesses and work stress, he put on more weight than he would have liked. Here’s how he got back in shape.
Getting out of shape was essentially a string of rough conditions. Immigrating from Canada to the US was really demanding; to work multiple jobs while I had to rebuild my personal training client base took a toll on my physique. Then my wife and I traveled to Thailand in the winter of 2019 and were both hospitalized because they got Dengue fever. A few days after I was discharged, I became ill again with another tropical fever.
When we returned to Miami, Covid restrictions occurred. The inactivity of “stay at home” orders was the last nail in the coffin. It felt like a great time to take a “before” photo. People who know me were more shocked about the before photo than the after!
I felt terribly unhealthy. It was not so much that I gained so much weight on the scale, but my body fat gradually increased as I lost muscle. Because of the pandemic I was glad I was not alone in my body struggle, but as a personal trainer I felt it was somewhat my responsibility to set an example. I felt guilty, like, “Here I am with knowledge that can help others, and I do nothing about it.”
I knew I needed to recover lost muscle mass before I lost weight, so I started and started to expand on a strength and muscle building program I created. I started by using a TRX suspension at home as a temporary solution, but the day the gyms reopened, I was right back. I knew there was no way I could have done this transformation at home unless I bought serious weight lifting equipment.
My diet was not so strict at first, as long as there was enough protein. I kept an equal balance of proteins, fats and carbohydrates. I ate about 3000 calories a day from clean, healthy foods including chicken, salmon, rice and vegetables are my to go options.
At the gym, I exercised five days a week in a mix of strength and muscle building, ending with 30 minutes of stair climbing or basketball daily. It really helped me stay lean.
After picking up 10 pounds to reach 180 pounds, I started cutting, doing straight keto, eating lots of green vegetables, fish, chicken, nuts, whey protein and eggs with the occasional keto-friendly dairy product to lust bird. And can not forget bacon.
During this cut, I lost about 20 pounds on the scale, but there was some muscle mass in the process. I thought losing a pound a week was a good speed to lose weight without sacrificing hard-earned muscle. I stopped keto and went into reverse diet mode by progressively re-introducing carbohydrates the following week until my metabolism was back to normal.
I have seen changes everywhere after dropping body fat, but having visible abs again is definitely the best part.
At 161 pounds, it’s not so much about what I eat, but how much I eat. I still hit my daily macros, but calorie intake was really my main focus. Now my meals are a good balance of protein, carbohydrates and healthy fats. I meanwhile have not gained weight since I completed that weight loss, so I guess it worked!
The main difference is portion size and snacks. I would now eat an avocado or handful of almonds instead of chocolate brownies for a snack.
Personal training is what I do for a living, but I would never have been where I am today if it were not for the appointment of a personal trainer almost 10 years ago. My old coach, Johnny, taught me everything I know and I would never have been able to do it now if I had not worked with him at the time. Being accountable to someone is also a massive incentive to push through when it becomes challenging.
I believe that fitness is a condition that needs to be maintained, and it cannot be taken for granted. It’s a good reminder that I’m not special, just a regular guy putting in the work, so I doubt I’ll ever be “done” with fitness. It has always been more like a moving target. My current focus is not as much progress-oriented as before, but more aimed at staying lean in the long run and making small improvements on key body parts.
My best advice to those who want to start their fitness journey is to get help. While doing it alone, I would never have figured it out without having my own coach in the past. You can find tons of resources online, but having some kind of mentor is what I deeply believe in.
I have never met anyone who said something like “I’m sure sorry I’m fit” unless they did it in a short-sighted or reckless way. I think the hardest part was restructuring my lifestyle around healthier habits, but it gets surprisingly easy over time.
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