“I never thought I could lose 15kg in 5 months!” - Kashmira

Kashmira had always struggled with her weight. She’d tried everything over the years to lose the excess body fat, but nothing had ever worked.

In January 2018 she decided she’d had enough of the cookie cutter plans, the quick fixes, and the never ending yo-yoing that wasn’t producing the life-long, sustainable results she wanted.

After seeing the great results of a friend of hers, Gita, she decided to find out more about what we offered at RNT.

The rest is history. She jumped in with two feet, and managed to persuade her husband Sanket to join in too (who also achieved fantastic results!)

Kashmira’s goal was simple. She wanted to break the yo-yo dieting cycle, embark on a structured training and nutrition plan, and most importantly, get results!

As with many of our members her biggest issue was time. She works for a US company that requires her to work in the US time zone, as well as frequent trips back and forth.

With her long working hours and busy social life, planning and preparation was essential for her to break out of the rut and achieve results. In this case study, we’re going to dive deeper into Kashmira’s transformation, understand her struggles and see how she found the solutions to get into the shape of her life!

Starting Point

Prior to starting with RNT, she was doing the following:

Training & Cardio– Kashmira was much more confident with cardio, and typically stayed away from heavy, progressive strength training. A gym workout may include 25-30 minutes on the treadmill followed by super light weights and very high reps!

Diet – Kashmira was starting to make some healthier choices in her diet which had triggered a little fat loss prior to starting with us, but there was still too little structure to match the goals she’d set herself.

A typical day may have been; breakfast: corn cakes and peanut butter, lunch: chicken salad or sushi, dinner: meat/fish with grilled veggies. For snacks, she is a self-proclaimed ‘nut fanatic’, so this would be eaten throughout the day.

On paper, all this doesn’t look too bad. But the issue here was dinner at home would only be 3-4 nights a week. The other half of the week would be eating out in restaurants, which is likely what threw her diet out of whack.

Starting Bodyweight ­– 72.6kg

“I have always been overweight with a belly and have always strived to have a flat stomach, lean arms and look good in a bikini. I had already managed to lose about 5-6kg to reach just under 73kg, but I really wanted to look and feel confident in a bikini, and I knew I needed to lose a lot more weight. I also had a lot of fat under my shoulders which I hate. I have even been asked if I was pregnant when I wasn’t! This is where my real drive came from.”

Initial Changes

To start Kashmira off, here’s what we did:

Training – To begin with, we kept the training to 3 full body workouts. The aim here was to build her confidence with weights, and flip the weights:ratio. To build the toned bikini body she was after, we knew we needed progressive resistance training as the focus.

Diet – Her starting macros were as follows:

Protein: 140g

Fats: 45g

Carbs: 80g

Kashmira wanted a set meal plan for the most part with built in opportunities to add a little flexibility. This is where a combination of the RNT nutrition tracker and apps such as MyFitnessPal became particularly useful. The benefit of this approach is the ability to educate yourself on food choices so when you’re stuck in difficult situations, or at social events, you can plan accordingly. It also helps build habits and practices that you can carry with you for life.

Supplements – Here’s what we used to begin with:

• Whey Protein – as per meal plan
• EAAs – 5-10g during workout
• Creatine Monohydrate – 5g with any shake
• Omega 3 Fish Oil 3 x 4g per day

Cardio – No traditional cardio to begin with. All Kashmira had to focus on was taking 10,000 steps a day.

Working Around Socials

Kashmira’s required her to travel abroad frequently, and her role also meant many of her nights were spent eating out and socialising.

For many, this is often a deterrent for getting in shape. We’ll often hear people say ‘the next month is going to be a write off’, because the overwhelming number of events in the calendar may cause deviations from the set plan.

As the saying goes, there’s no time like the present. And one key factor in Kashmira’s success was her ability to embrace the events in her diary and find ways to work around them, so that she could continue to build on her forward momentum.

Power Of Accountability

When we look at some of the key factors as to why Kashmira got the results she did, there are four:

1. Working alongside her husband

The more accountability you can create in your life, no matter what goal you’re chasing, the better your results are going to be.

When it comes to transforming your body, doing it as a couple is always more powerful. You’ll provide each other with support, make food together and keep each other on track when it gets tough.

We see it all the time when couples embark on this journey together. Having accountability like this and your own deadline just takes the intensity up another notch.

2. Length of the diet

When Kashmira had previously tried to lose weight, it was always using a quick fix. No diet ever taught her sustainable lifestyle habits, and so this time a real differentiating factor was the length of the diet.

Instead of trying to lose 15kg in 8 weeks, she took her time and instead lost it in 5 months. Still a very impressive rate of fat loss. But a rate that would create a very slim chance of putting it all back on. Why? Habit formation. Taking your time allows you to build the habits and behaviours that’ll subconsciously enable you to maintain results for life.

3. Adhering to basic principles

You’ll notice that there’s no tricks, accelerators or strategies listed in this case study. This result underpins what we do at RNT, which is to focus on building plans for clients that allow them to adhere as close as possible to the basic principles: a calorie deficit, consistency and time.

We know this is the secret sauce for results. Not a specific rep scheme or exercise. Not a trendy new diet fad. Not an unknown supplement.

It’s about being able to create an environment around you that allows you to be in the best possible position to tick the necessary boxes on a daily basis.

Key Lessons To Learn

No one is perfect. While we’re all for chasing perfection, sometimes this chase can be our downfall. Especially when it comes to body transformation, where trying to make big steps can set yourself up for failure.

Instead, when you focus on small wins, small steps and ‘imperfect progress’ consistently over time, you’ll be surprised how much you’ll transform your body.

Kashmira knew this very well. She had mini set-backs, weight fluctuations and some adherence issues with her various trips. This will happen. But the real difference maker is always the ability to get back on plan after a slip, focus on the consistency, and to really immerse yourself into the process.

Final Stats

Final Bodyweight – 58.9kg

These were her final comparison pictures:

Riding the Wave to Fitness

After a successful Process Phase where Kashmira had nailed out her 3Ss she successfully reached her transformation checkpoint. The next step was to make sure that she could continue her journey and stay on the path and avoid the rebound that most people face after reaching a goal. This is why at RNT we don’t think of it in terms of goals but more in terms of growth, and growth is a continuous process.

In this next phase, Kashmira started to build up her calories while reducing activity, but still maintaining her fitness.

This can often be a tricky part of the transformation, but it can be even more important than the fat loss itself! After all, a poorly conducted plan in this Consolidation Phase will only lead to you regressing to your previous self. structure and a way forward so she can stay in shape for life.

Sustainable Results For Life!

At RNT, we really want to ensure that all our members find their unique winning formula to fitness. While each plan is tailored to suit an individual’s lifestyle and responsibilities the key components remain the same. The 3Ss bring in consistency, which is the trusted way to get results. Kashmira resolutely stuck to her 3Ss and she got into the shape of her life, for life!

Testimonial

Here’s what Kashmira has to say about his overall experience with RNT Fitness:

I have struggled with my weight since a very young age and tried all sorts of things to be in better shape and to really shift the excess weight. But I was never completely successful or satisfied. I came across RNT through Facebook. A friend of mine was training with RNT and her results looked amazing. Then it was a case of convincing my husband to join too.

We both embarked on the RNT journey on 29th Jan 2018. It gave me a regimented approach that worked. The nutrition plan showed me the importance of prepping on a Sunday for the week ahead. I realised by cooking my chicken at home for lunch, I could control what I put in and it was way better than buying a ‘healthy’ chicken salad. I started to see the importance of macros and not just focusing on calories.

I was always of the mindset that carbs were my enemy and RNT definitely changed that.

Until Jan, I was almost scared of weights. Unaware of how to use them, I would happily stick to cardio for my workouts but obviously never really saw much difference. When I started the full body workouts structured by RNT, I started weight training and was elated to see the difference. I am not yet at the bikini body stage but I have come so far; I can’t believe it myself.

I think what worked with RNT is that I never felt hungry or deprived. Seeing results week to week motivated me further to keep going and the accountability made me work really hard.

It was tough breaking away from old habits but it was all worth it in the long run. I never thought I could lose 15kg in 5 months. I am not near my end goal but this is definitely a perfect start to my journey.

Thanks to the team at RNT for being so supportive throughout!