Real Life Weight Loss Story (Photos: Eshaan Chowkse)
Weight loss stories often come with dramatic before-and-after photos, a motivational quote, and a message of winning. But 22-year-old Eshaan Chowkse tells us that it was not smooth sailing for him. “This was not a glow-up,” he says. “It was a war.”
At 172 kg, Eshaan did not just feel the weight physically. “Every mirror felt like a personal insult,” he recalls. His joints were in pain, he struggled to walk even short distances, and mentally, he was in a fog. But buried under the shame and discomfort was a tiny voice, stubborn and persistent, whispering you were not born to live like this.
One step at a time
That whisper became a battle cry. Slowly, painfully, Eshaan began to turn things around. “Walking turned into lifting. Confusion turned into research. Excuses turned into discipline.” Over the next two years, the numbers on the scale began to drop. Not quickly but consistently. Today, he weighs 87 kg, and he is not stopping until he hits 72 kg. “That is a full 100 kg loss. A whole person. A person I had to kill, piece by piece, to become the version of me that I respect today.”
His motivation
Pain. The kind that stings long after the moment passes—when strangers laugh, when clothes do not fit, when invisibility turns into ridicule. “At some point, that pain flipped. It became fuel,” Eshaan says. “I did not want revenge on the world. I wanted redemption for myself.”
But let us get one thing straight. It was not a sleek Instagram transformation fuelled by detox teas and good lighting. “It was a war of attrition. Slow, painful, and relentless.” There were setbacks like injuries, burnout, and emotional upheavals, but Eshaan kept showing up.
“Even when the scale did not move. Even when my mindset broke. I told myself, ‘One day, this will all make sense.’ And now it does.”
“Motivation is trash. It fades. Discipline is what saved me.”
Forget motivation. Eshaan does not buy into it. He built habits. He journaled, tracked his progress, and took photos, even on the days he hated what he saw. “Every time I wanted to quit, I imagined facing the old me in the mirror. And I refused to go back.”
His diet and fitness plan
"70% effort every day beats 100% effort once a week."
Less magic, more method. “At first, I just knew I had to stop eating like every meal was my last,” he jokes. Gradually, he embraced calorie tracking, high-protein meals, and homegrown basics like eggs, soy, besan, and peanuts. Exercise began with walks and now includes six-day hypertrophy training routines.
“People think you need to suffer 24/7. No, you just need to be consistent. 70 percent effort every day beats 100 percent effort once a week."
Beyond weight loss
Big changes go far beyond the mirror. “I have energy like never before. My posture changed. My skin cleared up. But the biggest glow-up is mental.” Eshaan is sharper, more focused, and more confident. “I command respect not because of how I look, but because of what I have proven to myself.”
His advice for anyone at the beginning
“Start messy. Do not wait for the perfect moment; it is a trap. Move. Track. Sleep. Hydrate. And do not let the scale bully you.” Progress, he insists, is found in patterns, not in panic. And to the version of himself who once felt invisible, who once gave up on mirrors altogether, Eshaan has this to say: “That guy would be proud. And honestly, that is the only approval I ever needed.”
