UAE expat loses 37 kilos in 10 months in remarkable weight-loss journey

The most guarded secret about being overweight is the discomfort. It’s not an abstract concept either; it can be physically painful.

Thirty-five-year-old Indian expat Ankit Singh Bhandari recalls a time he would only wear elastic belts. “Because, after every meal, I had to open my buttons, I had eaten so much.” And he would always carry antacid with him wherever he went, “because of how ugly the gastric issues were”.

The 182cm Dubai-based expat was at 135 kilos when a string of incidents caused him to pause and take stock of his life. He recalls going to a Kashmiri wedding where he indulged in wazwan – a traditional multi-course feast. “At the end, there was this huge meatball [usually shared by four]. I had the whole meatball, and then I called the server and asked for more. Everybody in the party stared at me. That evening, I ate so much, I told my friend, ‘I’ll sleep here in the dining hall’. When my friends returned with digestive medicine later, they saw me munching on Uncle Chips. They were stunned,” he says.

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He also had to contend with the unspoken accusation of laziness. “People think, ‘if this guy cannot take care of his own health, what will he do in terms of work?’”

It’s particularly ironic, he explains, because one of the reasons he put on weight was because of the demands of his sedentary day job. “When I was in college I was pretty fit. I was into boxing, but I was also a hardcore geek,” he says. As a techie, when he moved away from home to Mumbai for a project, he began to ignore his health more and more. “We worked 16 hours a day and ate what we could when we could,” he explains.

The result was a bout of sleep apnoea – a disorder, explains UK’s National Institute for Health and Care Research, that occurs when your breathing stops and restarts many times while you sleep. This can prevent your body from getting enough oxygen. He also began to suffer from varicose veins. These “are caused by increased blood pressure in the veins,” says US-based Johns Hopkins Medicine. The painful condition results in engorged and painful veins.

“I had a varicose vein in my right shoulder and I injured it,” adds Bhandari. While the doctors wanted to operate, a medical professional who was also a family friend, told him to consider a lifestyle change before surgery. “You know, I did try to lose weight before last year, but this episode made me really stick to the plan.”

It was also around this time that a friend of his – a chef, who was 160kg (with a 5’10 frame) – had a stroke and was paralysed down one side. “He had to go to rehab for six months,” recalls Bhandari. “I think that was a turning point for me,” he says.

You might have 1,000 problems now, but if you become sick, then you will have only one problem.

Realising that his work:life balance was skewed, he decided to refocus, this time on himself. “You might have 1,000 problems now, but if you become sick, then you will have only one problem,” he says.

Resolved to begin and insisting on keeping himself accountable, Bhandari decided to log each day as a milestone on his Instagram – 10 months on, the gent is 37 kilos lighter. “My T-shirt size has gone from five XL to medium-large. I feel really strong now, mentally and physically, and thought clarity has come. I’ve become far more patient, calmer,” he says.

“I’ve even begun to enjoy it – eating mindfully, working out,” he says.

He began his journey with the weight-loss drug Mounjaro. “This just worked on appetite suppression. It also drained my energy levels and reduced my muscle mass. A month on, I recalibrated my plan.”

He started the swap-it programme – switching fizzy drinks with sparkling water, eating mindfully where once he would have binged. And he began to invest in “mobility”, or the stretch. “Normally, when you are on a weight-loss journey with a such a big body, you tend to get soreness, or you tend to pull something, but with flexibility or mobility exercises – for which I still keep at least one hour every single day – you can minimise issues. It’s as simple as twisting your wrists.

“If you do mobility routines, it really helps you sustain your workout or your journey further. It also helps with body control,” he adds.

He joined the gym – and got himself a trainer. At first, he would go in for an hour-long workout but find himself tapping out at “six-seven minutes”. “I used to literally lie down,” he laughs. “I started with mobility, and when I got used to it, that’s when I ended up kick boxing. I ended up weight training. Then, I started high intensity interval training. I think you need to mix your workouts. Don’t keep it monotonous. If you mix and match, every single day becomes different, and you tend to enjoy it,” he says.

Bhandari also calls for documentation. “When you’re fat, you feel really shy to put a photograph out there. People used to laugh at it when I did. [But] it’s okay. Documenting yourself and constantly talking to yourself, looking at your form while training… keeping an eye on your progression really helps you evolve,” he says.

Growing stamina can be a slow burn and the loophole Bhandari found when working on it was splitting his exercise time. “I used to workout in two batches – one hour in the morning and one in the evening,” he says, pointing out that keeping up with your metrics through wearables also helps you keep track of your progress and can help with motivation. “I have an Apple watch, with which I keep an eye on my ‘heart zone’,” he says, talking about the optimum heart rate one must have in order to make exercise productive.

He also uses tech to work on keeping his calorie intake lower than his energy expenditure. And while he does recommend getting a dietitian, he has another personalised food planner on hand: ChatGPT. “You put in your vitals, you tell it how much you want to increase or decrease, and then you get a routine.”

No one tells you that stigma is not the main problem when you put on the pounds – it’s discomfort. And when you lose weight, there’s a different type of discomfort (which, fortunately, turns to joy with a little help): you begin your journey to find things that suit your new silhouette, that fit your personality better, that align with your new mindset. It’s the discomfort of growth, of finding yourself that comes with weight loss. But only bright things await you on the other side.

Wknd. does not endorse radical methods of weight-loss; see a health practitioner for fitness guidance