Facing health issues, especially those brought on by carrying around excess weight, can sink your quality of life. Factor in some extra baggage – like the long-term effects of Covid – and it can all start to feel debilitating.
That was Faizel Patel’s situation. Seemingly straightforward undertakings, like taking a short stroll, had become gargantuan challenges. And the 53-year-old reached a point where he knew he’d have to lose weight – he weighed in at 123kg – to get his health back on track and his life back under control.
Here’s how the journalist engineered his incredible 49kg weight loss in just a few months:
“I don’t want to be a burden to everybody.”
Faizel Patel’s weight-loss journey starts with a hill in Paris. The award-winning journalist was abroad on a press trip, and the organisers had booked dinner at a swanky restaurant near his hotel.
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While the distance was minimal, the incline was steep. The journalist had been struggling on his feet in recent years. Battling with the aftereffects of Covid – he carried an inhaler with him wherever he went – and a litany of health issues due to his weight (high blood pressure among them), he was dreading the short stroll.
Still, he soldiered on. “I had to stop every 100 metres to catch my breath,” recalls Patel. By the time he made it to the restaurant, he was “sweating profusely”. When he got back to his room, he called his wife and “told her I can’t handle this anymore… I don’t want to be a burden to everybody,” he shares. It was time to make the change.
“You’re not thinking about the burgers or the chocolates anymore.”
When he got back home, his friend – a former Proteas and now Kaizer Chiefs doc – booked him into hospital to undergo a barrage of tests. The prognosis was grim: he was on a one-way ride to dire health issues.
The solution? Drop the weight ASAP. Initially, he tried the weight-loss drug Wegovy, but after a week-long trial run that left him desperately ill and calculating the med’s impossible price tag (doses can run upwards of R6 000), he knew it wasn’t the miracle cure.
Instead, he bought a walking pad and started squeezing in short walks at home. He worked up to 200m, then 300m. Before long, he was logging 2km on his feet and the monotony of standing in place was starting to take a toll. So he traded walkabouts on the pad for outdoor capers and kept adding distance.
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Meanwhile, his diet of takeaways and chocolates had been undergoing a serious overhaul. He cut out the sweets, greasy fare and its ilk and, instead, started dining on lean proteins and vegetables. (To this day, he still buys an entire salmon every month to whip up his fat-burning menu.)
He was counting calories, too, using an app to log every meal to make sure he wasn’t overindulging. Was it tough? Maybe, but he was too focused on his goals to worry about the lifestyle he had left behind.
“When you get used to eating a particular way, you’re not thinking about the burgers or the chocolates anymore,” he says.
“I didn’t do it for anybody else, I did it for my health.”
In the space of just a few months, Patel had achieved the seemingly impossible: he’d dropped 49kg. Those same peers who had helped him up the hill in Paris admitted they barely recognised him when they reunited after his dramatic transformation. That’s a mark of pride for the journo.
While he’s not about to wave away the perks of his aesthetic 180, the most meaningful part of his transformation is his newfound lease on life. His doctor has cut his blood pressure meds dosage in half.
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He walks after work every day – without fail. And he’s routinely racking up 5km. Not shabby for someone who just last year was out of breath after 100m. Whenever he’s not feeling motivated, he just thinks back to that painful night in Paris and he’s back on track.
“I didn’t do it for anybody else, I did it for my health,” shares Patel. His hope? That he can inspire others struggling with their health to turn their lives around.
