From 72kg to 49kg: Fitness trainer reveals 8 habits she ditched to change her body

Weight-loss advice is everywhere. Eat this, avoid that, try a new workout, follow a new diet plan. But fitness trainer Shikha Surana says her transformation from 72 kg to 49 kg had less to do with adding new things and more to do with letting go of habits that were quietly working against her.

Shikha recently shared eight habits she ditched along the way, while reflecting on her 23-kg weight-loss journey. “There were no crash diets, no detox teas, no drastic shortcuts,” she said. Instead, the progress was in making changes that were sustainable and maintaining them over time.

“72kg to 49kg,” she wrote in an Instagram post. No diet fads. No detox tea. No starvation. Just stopped doing the bad stuff. Here are the 8 habits I quietly ditched and never looked back.

8 habits she quit to lose 23 kg

One of the first habits Shikha ditched was skipping breakfast. She said skipping breakfast usually made her starving later in the day.

“I would starve myself, my metabolism would slow down and then I would eat everything at night. No more ducking. Started eating an hour after waking up.

Another difference was what she was drinking. Chai with two spoons of sugar and cold coffee, juice, had quietly become a regular source of extra calories.

These drinks looked so harmless that they could be easily missed. Instead, over the years she switched to water, black coffee and plain chai.

Shikha also learned healthy foods can be an issue when you forget about portion sizes.

Her daily diet consisted of foods like makhana, dry fruits and peanut butter but she was eating way more than she intended. The message was simple: healthy food still contains calories, and those calories can add up quickly.

For a long time cardio had been the king of her fitness regime.

Hours I used to spend on the treadmill. It wasn’t until I started lifting weights that my body really started to change,” she said.

Lack of sleep was another bad habit she was trying to break.

Shikha said that late nights often resulted in increased stress, more cortisol and more cravings. Eventually she made sure to get a non-negotiable seven to eight hours of sleep, part of her routine.

She also became more conscious about restaurant meals.

Eating out in moderation often seemed not to make much difference, but she eventually realised it was hard to know exactly what was in a lot of meals. It made her start cooking at home most of the time.

I also had to get away from the idea that one indulgence could ruin an entire day,” Shikha said.

She learned to focus on consistency, rather than looking at a slice of pizza as failure. “I think you make progress by doing things most of the time, not by being perfect every day,” she said.

The last habit she broke was waiting for motivation to appear out of nowhere.

Instead of waiting for the ‘right’ Monday or the perfect time to get started, she focused on discipline and showing up consistently, whether she wanted to or not.

What her weight-loss journey taught her

Looking back, Shikha says that her change was not due to drastic measures or short-term fixes. Instead it was about finding those regular habits that were getting in the way and slowly replacing them with more sustainable ones.

Her story is a reminder that lasting weight loss is less about doing something extraordinary and more about making mindful choices, day after day.