Nessa Sphere, 40, from Germany shares photos of her figure at 38 and now, aged 40. Photo / Instagram
A fitness influencer from Germany has shared before and after pics that show her impressive body transformation.
And the best thing? According to News.com.au, she actually increased her daily calorie intake to achieve the results.
Nessa Sphere, 40, from Germany weighed 62kg three years ago. Now she weighs 65kg but her body is impressively toned and she has lost five centimetres from her waist.
"Food is your friend not your enemy," she wrote in a recent post.
"I believe that if there is anything that people completely overlook, it is the nutrition aspect of living a healthy lifestyle."
She says she now eats between 2,000 to 2,200 calories a day, in the form of five to six balanced meals a day. She believes this has helped her to slim down compared to when she was eating irregularly (note that she is also exercising five times a week, doing a mix of weight and cardio).
"Most of us, when it comes to eating healthy, think about a bowl of salad with grilled chicken. But is it enough to reach your goals? Definitely not.
"Unknown to most people, one of the biggest reasons they don't get results they aim for, is simply NOT eating enough," she wrote.
"When people start their fitness journey, they add a lot of cardio to their daily routine and cut calories way too low to get results faster. But that is actually working against them," she explained.
"When you're not eating enough, [your body] sort of panics and you can send it into a starvation mode," Sphere wrote.
"Your metabolism slows down because it doesn't know when and where its next round of calories is coming from."
At this point the body stops burning fat, and upon recognising that progress has plateaued, many people cut calories even more.
"There are many physical actions your body takes when you're not eating enough calories but there are also mental ones," Sphere said.
"Eating less usually means feeling frustrated, you're hungry, you lose your motivation and simply give up."
She decided to focus on her health and fitness after four years in the finance industry, where she did long hours and didn't prioritise a healthy lifestyle.
"I was focused on my [work] and not on my body," she told Cosmopolitan. "I was making poor food choices, and I constantly felt stressed and tired."
She noticed she had started to gain weight and decided to document her transformation journey on Instagram. In the process she attracted 358,000 followers.
She also pointed out that beginning to exercise five times a week switched on her metabolism.
"I turned on my metabolism, I constantly progress, I look leaner although I gained weight, I am stronger and I feel great," she wrote.
"My body knows it gets healthy food every three hours and does not need to conserve energy.
"Building muscle, weight loss or body recomposition is a patience game. It takes time and consistency to make it work. Don't skip meals, make food your friend not your enemy and remember, eating more is the key to losing more and looking better."
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