I Lost 32 Pounds of Fat and 10 Inches of My Waist by Cutting Sugar And These 6 Major Changes

YouTuber Alivia D'Andrea lost weight and got in the best shape of her life—but it wasn't a linear process nor an easy one. Alivia is honest about the ups and downs of her journey, including when she slipped back into old habits and persevered to get back on track. The influencer went from having an unhealthy relationship with food to figuring out a system that worked for her and helped her thrive long-term, thanks to trainer Steve Zim. Alivia lost 32 pounds of fat as a result and 10 inches off her waist—this is how she did it.

Working With a Personal Trainer

Alivia worked out with trainer Steve Zim, who designed an at-home fitness program for her during the pandemic lockdowns when gyms were closed. By following his advice and guidance and changing her mindset, she finally got the results she had been striving for.

Changing Relationship With Food

Alivia would need help with feeling bad about unhealthy meals. "If you fall off track, do not get upset. You're not a bad person," Steve says. "That's really important to understand. A lot of people are like, oh, I feel bad. Do not have that relationship with food that's horrible. Every time you have a great meal, you finish your meal, and you move on. It's terrific. You did something great; you feel good about yourself. Let's say you didn't eat a great meal; do not feel bad about yourself. That's not what this is about. Okay, next meal, I'm going to do better."

Cut Down on Sugar

Alivia cut down on sugar as per Steve's advice. "So when I'm talking sugar, I'm talking processed sugars, not sugar that you're going to find in an apple," he says. "Sugar is what causes us to gain weight. When we eat sugar, our insulin goes through the roof."

Understanding Insulin

Steve stresses how important it is to understand insulin to lose weight. "Insulin has to be down to be in the fat-burning zone," Alivia says. "Every time you eat, you spike your insulin. When your insulin is up, you cannot burn fat. When you're not eating, your insulin is down, which is why Steve places such a heavy emphasis on the timing of your meals. Not all calories are the same. Yes, a cookie is a hundred calories, and an apple is a hundred calories, but what I now know is that a cookie spikes your insulin through the roof, and an apple spikes it much lower."

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Insulin Rollercoaster

Steve explains how sugar may cause an insulin rollercoaster, which causes non-stop hunger. "So sugar starts to cause us to start to go up and down, up and down, and we call it 'roller coastering' where you just are like, I'm so hungry, I'm famished," he says. "Why? Because you went way up, and then your insulin dropped way down. We have to cut sugar out to get the body to change, and it sounds like an easy thing to do, but you find sugar in a lot of things that you eat."

Don't Obsess About the Scale

Steve encourages people to refrain from obsessing about the scale. "We all look at the scale we jump on, and we think that's the end," he says. "It's not the end all at all. It's one of three parts. So we have the scale, we have body fat and we have measurements, and what we use a scale for is to see where our starting number is. What I use the body fat for is to see what percentage of the scale is actually fat pounds, how much muscle is, how much water is, and the measurements."

Fat Takes Up More Space Than Muscle

Something else Steve said that resonated with Alivia is the difference between muscle and fat. "It's really about looking great, and it doesn't matter what that scale says," Steve explains. "I've had some great makeovers, and I loved them because the person not only came down three dress sizes in just a few weeks, but inches came off before and after. Pictures were amazing, and she gained four pounds on the scale." Steve emphasizes the three things that matter when it comes to getting into shape: read on to find out more.

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Weight Training

Weight training is vital to getting a firm, toned body. "Why do we lift weights? The reason why we lift weights is to build muscle," Steve says. "Muscle burns more calories than fat. The more lean muscle you have, the more calories your body burns every day just being yourself."

Nutrition

Nutrition is a crucially important part of weight loss. "We want to make sure that we are starving the fat and feeding the muscle," Steve says. "What's really important about nutrition is there's two sides to it. It's when you eat and what you eat. Number one is actually when you eat. If you're not eating at the right time, your body will not burn fat for energy and that's really important because when we do a workout, we want to position our body to burn fat for energy, but if we've eaten too far before or too far after, there's a time zone when you're supposed to eat."

Cardio

Cardio is the third prong of Steve's weight loss approach. "The idea of this is to put you in the zone to burn the most amount of fat in the least amount of time," he says. "When you lose weight without exercising, what happens is you're eating muscle. When you eat muscle, what happens is when you get down to whatever your goal weight is on the scale, you're going to start to gain weight again. You will never hold that number because you didn't do it right. You ate the muscle. The muscle is the engine for burning calories."

Protect Your Lean Muscle

It's very important to protect the lean muscle mass while losing weight. "The more lean muscle your body has, the more calories your body will burn just being you," Steve explains. "So if you just diet and you don't build lean muscle, you're going to epically crash, and then once you go back up to your original weight, you're actually going to be fatter than you were before. Your body fat percentage will go up. You want to hold all your work. If we're going to do this, let's do this, right? Let's own that weight."

Get Good Sleep

Sleep is a key factor in weight loss. "Sleep is so important. If you don't get enough sleep, your body will not allow you to burn fat," Steve says. "Sleeping is key. So, if you're only getting a few hours of sleep, you're actually working against yourself. So the deeper your sleep, the more your body repairs; it allows it to burn fat for energy."

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Keep Showing Up

Steve emphasizes the importance of steady progress. "Keep hitting it, keep showing up because all of a sudden what happens one day—and it happened to Alivia—one day something happens, it clicks up here, and you're like, oh my gosh, I got the workouts, I got the nutrition, I'm hitting the cardio, bang, bang, bang, and things start to change quick," he says. "But the only reason they changed quickly is the first three months, four months where you do not see the changes you want, you kept doing it, and then all of a sudden when it clicked, and it was all there, you had the unbelievable change. It would never have happened if you didn't do the first part. So don't think you're wasting your time. It's super important to understand that. So just be consistent, I promise you. If you're consistent, it will eventually all click in and happen. If it doesn't happen right away." And if you enjoyed this article, take advantage of these 15 Quick Ways to Lose Body Fat Percentage in a Week.