It was Sharif Deen’s polite and positive personality that made him a favourite on this year’s Biggest Loser Couples show, where he lost 72.5kg. Five months on, the newly-married Queenslander reveals how his dramatic weight loss has helped him take the next important steps in his life.
New body, new career
Sharif’s transformation has opened up new opportunities, including a new career with his own business specialising in personal training and group fitness (http://www.sharifit.com). “It’s great to train and exercise with people I used to work alongside in the office. Another new aspect of my life has been motivational speaking and I really enjoy sharing my experiences with people and perhaps offering people a bit of hope.”
Since finishing the show, Sharif has also contemplated a return to university to study exercise physiology. “I want to specialise in rehabilitation after weight loss, as I think that people who have been very overweight or heavy for a long time need a fair amount of rehab afterwards. Individuals might need some help to ‘retrain’ for simple actions like standing and walking properly, to develop better joint mobility, build muscle and train the muscles to work more effectively.”
Having been heavy since he was a boy and after losing so much weight, Sharif has first-hand knowledge of the need for rehabilitation. He has required specialist help to learn how to walk properly for his new size and is still having treatment to improve his hip mobility.
Shape up
While The Biggest Loser contestants trained for an intensive four or five hours a day for the show, Sharif stresses that this amount of exercise is unrealistic and unnecessary for people to achieve weight loss and maintain their new shape. “Now I train for one hour, five days a week and I’ve still managed to gain muscle mass, proof that you don’t have to train for hours and hours every day. I am wearing size 36 jeans and a medium shirt. Also, my latest and brilliant news is that I just had my body fat percentage calculated and it’s a fantastic 7.9 percent!”
Know your calorie content
Sharif’s Biggest Loser experience has taught him many life-changing lessons. He says, “Having used The Biggest Loser Club online diary, I don’t need to track every meal now, because I know about the best choices wherever I am regarding food and drinks. For example, you wouldn’t believe the number of hidden calories that add up in four flat whites a day, and a large coffee can have the same amount of calories as a small meal – that’s scary!”
New-found freedom
Sharif is emphatic that the greatest thing his experience on the show has given him is freedom. At his heaviest he weighed in at 178kg, restricting what he could do. He found it difficult to fly on a plane and buying clothes from specialist shops was very costly. “I can’t overstate it, the freedom is wonderful. My wife Fleur and I recently went to a rock festival and it felt great to buy a festival T-shirt in a standard size. Last year I had to make do with a cap because there was no hope that anything else would fit!”
Any regrets?
Sharif had only been married a few months when he left for Camp Biggest Loser and one of the reasons he was so keen to take part in the show was because he wanted to be healthy and enjoy life with Fleur. Looking back, the only regret Sharif has is that he didn’t act sooner, “I really feel that I have found the person I actually am now and who I am is who I want to be.”
If you missed last week’s catch-up with Biggest Loser winner and runner-up, Bob and Tiffany Herdsman, then here’s another chance to find out how life has changed for them since the show and if they’ve managed to maintain their drastic weight loss.