Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
‘I ditched 7,000 calories a day diet and shed 5st’
WHEN he started getting out of breath climbing the stairs, Steve Lewis knew he had to make changes to his life.
As a powerlifter eating 7,000 calories a day — nearly three times the daily allowance for men — the Kirkton man had found himself at the age of 48, weighing in at about 18 stone.
But after cutting out the carbs, Steve, now aged 51, has trimmed down so much in the last couple of years, he has wowed judges as a bodybuilder at a weekend competition and was invited to compete at the International Bodybuilding & Fitness Association’s British finals later this year.
Steve, who is an organiser for Unite, has dropped to about 13 stone after cutting down on his tuna pasta, rice and potato diet as a powerlifter.
Now he wants to inspire others to take charge of their body weight.
He said: “It came to the point where I was 48 years old and walking up a flight of stairs was getting hard.
“I thought: ‘Now’s the time to get out of the powerlifting sport.’ ”
Steve was inspired by well-known Dundee bodybuilder Bill Duthie and began his weight loss pursuit by training at Fit4Less in the Hilltown and replacing his diet with lower carb meals and lean meats.
He now eats about 3,300 calories a day, half of his previous intake.
Steve said: “The hardest part was the diet. The training side of things, I find quite therapeutic.”
Becoming a bodybuilder was far from a hobby though and after more than two years of perfecting his body, Steve was judged third at an event in Lochgelly at the weekend which qualified him for a national finals.
He said: “Bodybuilding was not the easy option for losing weight, far from it.
“It is such a hard sport and I don’t do things half-hearted so I wanted to go up on a stage and be the best I could be.
“That’s exactly what I did on Saturday by getting third place, and now I’ve been invited to the British finals.
“I was up against guys who have been doing it for more than 30 years and I’d never done it before, so it was just such a buzz.”
Despite the finals invite, Steve says he feels he may need to give his body and mind a rest from the strict regime and put back his attempt for the British finals until next year.
In the meantime, he wants to help inspire people to lose weight.
He said: “I know some people who have already been in touch saying they have been following what I’ve been doing in the gym and that’s inspired them. That’s fantastic.
“I wasn’t getting serious breathing problems, but I think when you start getting older and you start having slight breathing problems, you realise something isn’t quite right and you’ve got to take action.”