Aftab Rafiuddin

Male

25

Dhaka, Bangladesh

Student

Pan Pacific Sonargaon
Dhaka
Bangladesh

Jul, 2009

Growing up I always had issues with my weight. When I was younger and before my teens I didn’t have a weight issues. But in my teens I fell into depletion and my release at the time was food, food and more food. I had become a food-a-holic. At one time I was even coined by friends to be a ‘food processor’ of sorts. Since I kept on eating and there seemed to be no end. I tried with many diets and other things along my teen years to reduce and shed the weight but for each kilo I would drop I would gain it back later. Nothing was working. A very old and dear friend of mine came down from Texas to visit and he was shocked to see me this was back in ‘03. More than any other person he had the hand in making me see the light at the end of the tunnel. He’s a friend and a brother to me and he is also a member, here on this vey web site. His name is Sunjan Ahmed, Sunny for short. After the grueling pep talk for sunny I took up the challenge. I started to be more focused and driven. At first it was really hard looking at this body of mine and think anything was ever possible. I mean at the time I weighed in at 132kgs or 291lbs. it was devastating. I was embarrassed to even work out. At that time started dieting, cut out all no essential crabs and was basically living on lean protein and fresh veggies, and water, lots and lots of water; basically the extreme version of the Atkins diet. And I was going to the gym too at that time. Only running or what was running for me at that time covering 1 kilometer or .62 miles in a boring 20 minutes. But I trudged on. All this was showing result. I lost over 45 kilograms or over 100 pounds in 6 months. I felt great, but I had no definition or toning. I looked like the thin version of the fat me. Clothes looked and fit perfectly. My biggest accomplishment was that I went for a size 52 inch waist to a size 34 inch waist. And for the first time in my life the members of the opposite sex was checking me out. Some of them knew the old me and so didn’t recognize me and yet still hit on me in coffee places and other events. I felt like a F’N GOD!!!! Then sunny again told I that to be the best I could be I would have to pick up weights sooner or later and shape myself out or else I would go big again. So I joined at that time a gym of convenience for me (basically on my way and from my university) called South Avenue. I worked out there for 9 months with a few friends who where only interested in building mass more than toning. And I got buff in the right places and got strong too bench pressing above 150 kilos /330 pounds and giving pull ups like there was no tomorrow, lat pull down over 270 kilos/ 595 pounds. Running at a constant speed of 11.6 km/hr or 7.2 miles/hr on the tread mill for over 35 minutes. To make my sweet days even sweeter I was modeling. Which 2 years back if anyone had said to me would have happened I would have called them the biggest liars on earth. But with all good things they all come to an end. A few injuries happened to me. And I stopped going to the gym for a month or two. After my recovery. I started to go to this new gym. The name and the hype drew me there. The first gold’s gym opened in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Well true to the hype, it had all the equipment and the feel of a true gym. But 2 things went wrong for me there. No. 1 to many members, so I had to wait for more that 5 minutes to use any equipment or weights, giving rise to the most serious injury I have had in my life ( lower back, hurts like a bitch hope no one ever gets its ever in their entire weight trainer lives). And No. 2 due to the overcrowding and vast number of members, a serious hazard came over personal belongings( things would be stolen and later claimed by the thieves to be theirs, even my sixe 13 Nike shox sneakers, as far as I know I’ was the only one there who wore those sneakers and of that particular size). After leaving the gym for good; nursing the back injury and the loss of my favorite sneakers I was asked by my doctors not to work out at all. Bad mistake on my part. Thou I had stopped working out. I didn’t stop eating and slowly but surely my weight crept up from 82 kilos / 180 pounds to 100 kilo’s / 220 pounds. This was after the spring of 2007. As soon as my injury healed enough for me to go do some exercise, I did first by walking, then brisk walking then back to jogging and then running. I brought my weight back down to 85 kilos/ 187 pounds. It was decent. As I couldn’t touch weights till I was cleared by the doctors all I did was run daily 5 kilometer, or 7.5 or 10 or even on good days 15 kilometers at a go. But again injury reared its ugly head around and in the January of 2008, it happened again. I was jogging in the early morning before the sun came up around the path bordering the lake near my house. And at the end round I had a spill, and tumbled like 30 feet before I came to a stop. I had road rash all over my left leg, my tracks were all torn up. I was bleeding from both knees and it hurt to even walk. I was then again put on rest for like a few more months. After that same story, I gained mad weight, and in the spring of this year( 2009) I got married to the love of my life, and before that I did l manage to lose a few kilos, but after the wedding, and due to some personal reasons, I fell back into deep depression and I gained a lot of weight. In May, after my birthday I said to myself enough is enough I’m taking control of my life again and I started to work out again. But my weight shot up; I was in June of this year (2009) 119 kilos /262 pounds. And it’s been a month that I had joined a gym and lost 11 pounds already. So wish me luck as I try to be the best I can be.

so i can look great, have a lot of strength ; live a healthy life and i want to drive my wife crazy...

sheer determination and will power. to get back on top of my game again and again. and to never say it's impossible.

losings 45 kilos/ 100 pounds once before. and then went on to do some small time modeling. and now trying to get back to that shape or better again. wish me luck.

DARK DRAGON