How I cut sugar to get fighting fit

Adrian cut sugar to lose weight, help his body recover from gruelling surgeries - and get back to the martial arts he loves. 

I am 5’9 in height and normally my weight has always sat around 78-80 kg. But last year, after two hip arthroscopies and surgery to repair my femoral nerve, I started eating the most unhealthy foods I had ever eaten. By Christmas, I had reached 90 kg, the heaviest I have ever been. 

I was not completely unfit. I love martial arts and was used to being fit from that. But once I hit 90kg, I just couldn’t handle the weight gain anymore. It made me feel awful. 

I comfort ate, and sugar was a major feature.

I have never smoked, drunk alcohol or done drugs. But I believe my cravings for sugar and fatty food would be as powerful as any of these. The craving can be so bad – if you even think about the food you can taste it in your mouth.

Once I started drinking soft drink, I found water no longer cut it. If I had fast food with cola for lunch, a normal meal wouldn’t cut it for dinner. It’s like I needed cola with my pizza.

So I decided to radically lower my consumption of sugar and junk food.

Within the first month, I had noticed weight loss. So far, it has worked out at 1kg per week. I felt lighter, my skin started to clear and my digestion started to work better.

What was really interesting was that after 6 weeks of eating chicken, veg, salad, rice and only drinking water, I ate a pizza with soft drink. It hit me straight away: stomach aches and pains, diarrhoea within the space of an hour. My body simply rejected this food.

Discipline is the hardest thing. I was highly committed to losing the weight. If I went to the cinema, for example, it was hard to go past popcorn or fizzy drinks, but I just asked myself: What do I want? The food or to lose the weight and be healthy? That was the only question I asked myself at mealtimes and it was powerful enough to keep me motivated.

I’m delighted to have lost the weight and be back doing the things I love. Cutting sugar has also helped reduce inflammation, helping my recovery from surgery.

Quitting sugary food and junk food made a huge difference for me in a pretty short period of time. I would recommend it to anyone struggling with their weight or who has had a major operation like I did.

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