Ditching Cardio for Powerlifting Helped This Woman Lose 37 Pounds

Ditching Cardio for Powerlifting Helped This Woman Lose 37 Pounds

For Alice Fields, cardio always seemed like the answer to losing weight. But after years of logging miles, she struggled to get the body she wanted — until she switched to powerlifting.

"I was getting up before sunrise and was running 5Ks every morning," the 24-year-old told PEOPLE in an interview. "It was torture. It wasn't something I enjoyed at all. But I thought it was what I had to do to lose weight."

On top of running, Fields maintained a fairly restrictive diet and still wasn't seeing results.

"I'd run until I couldn't run anymore, and I'd barely eat a thing," she said. "Yes, I might have lost 5 kilos in 2 weeks. But once I consumed a normal amount of food again, I'd put 7 kilos back on. It was the classic yoyo effect. There was no consistency."

After starting to feel trapped in her own body, Fields decided it was time to try something new. A year-and-half ago, a friend introduced her to powerlifting, and she instantly fell in love.

"I started noticing changes with my body within about a month," she says. "Not only had my strength increased dramatically, but my whole body composition changed. My bum was perkier than ever and my clothes were getting looser."

Fast forward to today and Fields has lost about 37 pounds, something she was never able to do while doing cardio. Not only that but rather than focusing on the scale, Fields is paying more attention to the inches lost and muscle gained.

"I'm always noticing my body change in positive ways, even if the scales stay the same, because I'm losing weight in some places and gaining muscle in others," she says. "I definitely thought doing only weights would just make me heavier, but I quickly realized, the more muscle I had, the faster my body burnt fat. Not just that, but having more muscle gives you that 'toned look' a lot of women want."

While she hasn't reached her goals just yet, Fields has learned to practice self-love and feels better about herself and her body more than ever.

"I still have goals that I'm working towards, but I've never felt more confident in my skin," she says. "I look at myself in the mirror and see the things I love, not the things I hate."

Follow Alice Fields's inspirational weight-loss journey on Instagram.

Original article and pictures take www.fitnessmagazine.com site