When participating in her first bodybuilding competition, Hoang Kim Ngoc, 26 years old, left because she felt self-conscious when she saw the other girls’ perfect bodies.
“When I entered the exam waiting room, I was shocked by so many beautiful bodybuilders. That made me unbearable and I left immediately,” Ngoc recalled in 2022, when participating in the bodybuilding competition. first picture.
The female athlete has 6 years of experience, but standing in front of professional contestants, seeing every little detail on her body meticulously “sharpened” makes her feel faint and weak.
“I wondered: Why don’t I have muscles like them? Is it because my efforts are not enough?”, Ngoc said.
That’s when she forgot the advice she gave herself: “Don’t compare yourself to others, just be better than yesterday’s version”, what the female athlete always tells herself every day when practicing.
Starting as a student studying abroad in Canada with a height of 1.65 meters, weight of 56 kg, and a lot of belly fat, Ngoc researched documents in English to find the optimal diet and exercise program. pros. Despite her knowledge, for a while she still forced herself on a harsh diet. For three months, she supplemented very few calories, only eating boiled food, causing her body to have disorders, and losing her period for 8 months, which the doctor diagnosed as due to an irregular diet.
Daily image of female athlete Hoang Kim Ngoc with a naturally toned body. Image: Character provided
Eating too few calories, fasting, and skipping meals to lose weight are used by many people, but this is a way that harms the body, according to doctor Nguyen Trong Hung, National Institute of Nutrition. Eating too little does not ensure energy for basic metabolism including heart beating, breathing lungs, digestive and endocrine organs, and maintaining life in the body. At this time, people can suffer from hypoglycemia, fainting, dizziness, and in the long term cause nutrient, vitamin, and mineral deficiencies, causing disruption of body functions and making it difficult to work.
Regretting, Ngoc started to change, adding good fats, diverse nutrition and eating in the most natural way, including rice, pho, vermicelli, vermicelli, combined with hard exercise to be both healthy and strong. Can be applied long term. This is also what nutrition experts recommend, a balanced diet must include 4 groups of carbohydrates, protein, fat, vitamins and minerals. People who want to change their body shape need to persevere in diet and exercise for at least 6 months.
The girl worked hard to study and was certified as a PT (personal trainer), then created her own designed program. A week, Ngoc practices 5 sessions, including 3 upper body sessions and 2 lower body sessions. The female athlete focuses on exercises to “sharpen” every small detail on her body. In addition, she walks 15,000 steps a day, avoiding heavy and excessive exercise that increases appetite.
Loving sports, Ngoc also participates in a variety of competitions for the upper body such as pull-ups and push-ups. Many boys looked at Ngoc playing and said “wow”, because there are quite a few girls participating in these sports, which made Ngoc even more motivated to conquer the challenges she set for herself.
Over time, her back and arm muscles developed significantly, and the girl realized: “If I have a passion for sports in general, fitness will come by itself.” Therefore, she does not place much emphasis on appearance, “do everything for passion, the results will come unexpectedly”.
Seeing her body change every day, the female athlete becomes more and more passionate, making exercise a lifestyle. Looking at herself in the mirror, Ngoc feels more in love with life and more confident. Even though she knows that Asian beauty tends to be gentle and feminine, she does not follow the role model but always tells herself: “You need to be better than yourself.” yesterday was fine”.
For Ngoc, the biggest difficulty is not exercise but nutrition and choosing balanced food. There are many menus with different regimes online, but “too boring”, she researched and understood the mechanism “Calories in, calories out” – the total amount of calories consumed in the body during the day is lower than the amount of energy burned. Fire during activities and sports. Therefore, she eats freely and exercises hard.
Ngoc in a bodybuilding competition. Image: Character provided
After leaving because of low self-esteem in her first bodybuilding competition, the female athlete was determined to practice and go deep into herself, stabilize her spirit, and always remind herself of the life motto “Stop comparing and don’t let yourself in a negative state”.
Ngoc gradually regained her spirit, continued to participate in sports and bodybuilding competitions and achieved many achievements, including the female first prize in the Street Lifting competition in July 2024 (Street Sports) in the Weighted Pul category. Up (pull-up with dumbbells) with the highest weight of 15 kg and Weighted Dips (Dips with dumbbells) with the highest weight of 17.5 kg. She also won 3rd prize in the all-around bodybuilding competition organized by the Vietnam Weightlifting and Bodybuilding Federation in Bien Hoa in August 2024, female category up to 1.65 meters.
On October 20, she won two first prizes in two categories at the ICN Vietnam Natural Championships competition (a bodybuilding competition for natural bodybuilders present in 105 countries).
“Each person is a flower in itself, there will be times when they shine in their own way, keep trying, success will definitely come one day,” Ngoc said.