What’s up, fellow Obsessives?

The first domino in my plan to feature the voices of more OTF Obsessives falls this morning. I think you’ll like the piece that Spencer — a 31-year-old who travels a lot for work and is getting married this fall — wrote for us about her weight loss.

If you have a story you’d love to share in a future issue, hit me up at [email protected]!

Also, get me those recent milestones and PRs. You’ve been quiet lately!

— Kevin

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By Spencer

I’ve recently hit a milestone that I have been working towards for a very long time.

I lost 30 pounds!

After years of starting and stopping random diet trends, I finally accomplished my goal in just under five months. And while Orangetheory has been a huge part of my journey, I have to admit something I already knew but needed to learn the hard way … OTF alone wasn’t enough to combat my poor diet.

I know how weight loss works. I knew I ultimately needed to be in a calorie deficit. There was never any secret formula I was missing. The problem was that I would start, make minimal progress, get frustrated when the scale didn’t move quickly enough, and eventually fall off the healthy eating habit wagon. Then I would try to convince myself that my workouts would be enough to undo the extra calories.

So again, I knew what to do. I just wasn’t consistently doing it long enough to see the benefits.

This time, I decided to stop looking for the next strategy and instead give the basics a real chance. This meant prioritizing my diet and sticking with a calorie deficit long enough to actually see results. It also meant changing the way I looked at the overall goal itself. Thirty pounds sounded monumental. So instead of constantly staring at the number 30, I focused on smaller, meaningful milestones.

Five pounds. Then another 5. Then another.

Every milestone gave me something to celebrate without making the long term goal feel so unattainable.

And this is where OTF came in. I love Orangetheory. I love the feeling of finishing a hard class, seeing my progress, hitting a new PR, and knowing that I’m becoming stronger and fitter. But I had to stop treating my workout as a way to cancel out everything else I was doing.

For me, OTF became the primary supplement within my daily habits, not the solution to poor dietary choices.

I finally got it through my head that I couldn’t go to class, burn a bunch of calories, and then think that meant I could eat whatever I wanted for the rest of the day and still expect the scale to move. It’s honestly an easy trap to fall into when you love working out. You feel like you’ve earned a treat because you worked so hard.

“Treat yourself!” … Right?

Wrong. My biggest realization was that the workout and the diet don’t have to compete. Instead, they work together. Looking back on all the years I’ve been taking classes, OTF has helped me build skills that already revolve around consistency, strength, endurance, and confidence. It wasn’t until I realized that I could apply those same exact skills to my dietary habits that I actually started making progress on my weight.

So, what exactly worked for me?

The biggest change was honestly pretty unglamorous and a no-brainer: I cut out the junk. I hate to admit it but fast food, frequent restaurant outings, and sugary iced coffees had become staples in my diet, so I started replacing them with meals I made at home consisting of lean protein, leafy greens, vegetables, and balanced portion sizes that actually fit within my calorie goal.

As for the calorie deficit, I typically burn somewhere around 400–500 calories each OTF class, and my daily intake goal was around 1,700 calories. Pairing my workouts with more balanced meals at home resulted in roughly 1.5-2 pounds of weight loss per week in the beginning of my journey.

Admittedly, like with any change, the first few days were uncomfortable because I was used to eating well beyond my hunger and fullness cues. But after about three days, my body adjusted and was basically able to reset, and this was the exact encouragement I needed to feel like I could continue on this path! I felt less sluggish and fatigued and had more energy heading into my early morning workouts.

Eventually, I was drinking my own morning coffee because I genuinely enjoyed the flavor, and not because I needed it to function throughout the day.

So, fellow Obsessives, I’m curious: Did you ever feel like OTF was probably doing enough on its own to the point where you didn’t feel like you had to make any other lifestyle modifications?

Have you ever walked out of a great class thinking, “I worked so hard today which means I can eat whatever I want,” only to wonder why the scale wasn’t cooperating?

For me, the answer wasn’t adding another workout, another diet trend, or a more complicated plan. It was simply sticking with the fundamentals long enough to finally see where they could take me.

Thanks to Spencer for sharing her OTF weight loss story!

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