When I look back on my early 20s, I can see how desperately I wanted to change my body. I had gained some weight and felt uncomfortable, and I made a firm decision: I was going to get the weight off no matter what it took.







The problem was, I went about it in the worst way possible. I dove into fitness and dieting with an “all or nothing” mindset, chasing quick results with extreme restriction. And while it did make me thinner at first, over time it wrecked my metabolism, crashed my hormones, and left me feeling exhausted and broken.



























I spent seven years repeating the same mistakes before I finally understood what my body was trying to tell me. I’m not sharing this as medical advice—I’m not a doctor—but I am sharing it as someone who learned the hard way that trying to punish your body into submission will only backfire.







Here are the five biggest mistakes I made—and what I wish I had done instead.















Mistake 1: I Only Ran and Avoided All Strength Training







Back then, I was convinced that running was the fastest way to lose weight. I looked up charts that compared calories burned by different exercises, and running seemed unbeatable. So that’s what I did, day in and day out.







At first, it “worked.” I lost weight and got very skinny. But what I didn’t realize was that my metabolism was slowing down behind the scenes. Because I had no muscle to support my body, I became completely dependent on burning calories manually.







That meant I had to run every single day just to maintain my weight. And not just for a short jog—what started as 45 minutes a day crept up to 60, 70, even 80 minutes. At one point, I was running three hours a day. I had literally made myself a slave to running.







The other problem? I wasn’t supporting my running with any strength training nor with enough nutrition. Which meant that I lost muscle.















Mistake 2: Ignoring Strength Training Altogether







I thought lifting weights was a waste of time. After all, I was obsessed with calorie burn, and lifting didn’t seem to burn nearly as much as running.







What I didn’t understand is that muscle is what keeps your metabolism fast, flexible, and healthy. Every pound of muscle on your body makes you burn more calories at rest. By running constantly and avoiding weights, I wasn’t just burning calories—I was burning through my own muscle tissue.







If I had started strength training, I would have built a stronger, leaner body that naturally burned more energy all day long. Instead, I made my metabolism slower and slower until I was stuck in a cycle where cardio was the only thing keeping me afloat.







Here’s the truth I wish I’d known: you don’t lose weight first and then “tone up.” You build the base first by getting strong. That’s how you create a body that can handle fat loss without crashing.















Mistake 3: Never Taking Rest Days







For years, I worked out almost every single day. Six or seven days a week, always intense, never light. Even when I did take a rest day, I felt guilty about it.







Sometimes, I’d even make up for it by running extra hard the next day. Rest felt like failure.







But what my body desperately needed was recovery. Without it, I was constantly fatigued, sore, foggy, and weak. My sleep got worse. My mood tanked. I was running myself into the ground.







Now, I know better. I only train three or four times a week,