WEIGHT LOSS compass

Khoury had always been a big bloke who liked his fast food.

When his family bought a takeaway pizza business, it was like handing the keys to a Maserati to an impetuous P-plater. He regularly ate three pizzas a day and had a similar appetite for KFC. “I could eat three meals in one sitting, no problem at all,” he says. He could also put away the booze big time on nights out.

As time went on, his delivery- boy diet left him feeling increasingly lethargic. “I knew something was wrong when I started feeling tired during the day,” he says.

THE CHANCE

Khoury has a family history of heart disease, high cholesterol and type 2 diabetes. With that in mind, he visited the doctor, who confirmed his blood pressure was elevated. Khoury walked out of the clinic and straight to the gym, where he began by forcing out 90 minutes on the cross-trainer and walking laps of the pool.

The health scare also gave him the motivation he needed to curb his pizza and KFC binges, and he went from eating bacon and eggs for breakfast seven days a week to five. “I made small changes, as I thought they would be more likely to be long-lasting,” he says.

After a year, Khoury introduced light resistance training to his routine, before switching to high- intensity heavy lifting sessions once the weight started to come off. “I tried a lot of things, and if they didn’t work, I tinkered until I discovered what worked for me,” he says. “I found I needed weight training to burn fat.”

THE RESULT

Khoury lost 20 kilograms in the first 12 months and another 20kg the next, dropping from size 46 jeans to 34 in the process. These days, it’s salmon, poached eggs and mushrooms for breakfast, and lean protein and steamed vegies at lunch and dinner.

After changing his wardrobe once, Khoury now faces a new dilemma. With the switch to

weight training, he’s lost more than six centimetres from his waist and bulked up on top. “I’m starting to get the V-shape back and my shirts are getting tight around the arms,” he says.

Not surprisingly, he now has a can-do attitude. “When you drop a lot of weight, you approach life more head-on because you’ve come from so far back.”

THE ADVICE

You can do it. “Before I started training I couldn’t do a push-up. Now I’m doing 60.”

Look and learn. “Watch what other people are doing and what they’re eating,” says Khoury. “I’ve got a lot of tips and motivation over the years from randoms in the gym.”