I’ll be honest, I have always hated cardio. Well, not all cardio. I absolutely love it when it comes disguised as fun; a game of badminton, cricket, or even table tennis. There’s something about competing or just messing around with a racket that makes you forget you’re even exercising. But standing in one spot, doing jumping jacks, or running on a treadmill while staring at a wall? That bores me to tears.
So when I decided I needed to lose weight, I knew the traditional gym route wasn’t going to work for me. I needed something I could actually stick to. That’s when I turned to weight training at home, and it has helped me lose 10kgs.
The Dumbbells That Changed Everything
I ordered two sets of dumbbells from Amazon — a pair of 2kg and a pair of 5kg. Simple, affordable, and no gym membership required. Total investment? A fraction of what a single month at the gym would cost. But then came the obvious question: who was going to teach me how to actually use them?
Enter the most beloved Chloe Ting.
If you haven’t heard of her, Chloe Ting is a fitness YouTuber with some of the most accessible and effective home workout programs on the internet — completely free. I followed her workout videos every single day. What I loved most was that her videos had structure. She runs challenge programs that last a few weeks, so you’re not left wondering what to do each day. You just press play and follow along.
Why I Focused on My Lower Body This Time
Here’s where I made a smarter choice than I ever had before. In the past, I always focused on upper body workouts because that’s where I stored most of my fat — around the torso and belly region. Core exercises, planks, and sit-ups were my default. Looking back, I think that was my biggest mistake.
The problem with spot-targeting is that it doesn’t really work the way we hope. You can’t choose where your body burns fat from. But you can choose exercises that burn more calories overall, and that’s where the lower body comes in.
This time, I shifted my focus almost entirely to lower body weight training. Squats, lunges, glute bridges, and deadlifts with my dumbbells. And the results were far better than anything I had achieved before. Here’s the thing, people don’t always realise — lower body exercises don’t just tone your legs and glutes. They also engage the waist and core, and because they recruit the largest muscle groups in your body, they burn significantly more calories than upper body isolation exercises.
Your quads, hamstrings, and glutes are enormous muscles. Working them hard means your body has to work harder — and that shows up on the scale. Weight training, unlike cardio, also builds lean muscle that keeps your metabolism elevated even after the workout is done. So you’re essentially burning calories around the clock.
It turned out to be the single most impactful change I made in my entire fitness journey.
Why Working Out at Home Might Be Perfect for You Too
If you’re too shy to join a gym, or simply can’t afford one right now, here’s what I want you to know: you don’t need it.
All you need is:
- A yoga mat
- A pair of dumbbells (start light — even 2kg is enough to begin)
- Whatever space you have available — a bedroom, a balcony, a living room corner
And the benefits go beyond just saving money. Think about everything the gym actually costs you — not just the subscription fee, but the time spent commuting there and back, the mental energy spent deciding what to wear so you don’t feel out of place, and the low-key anxiety of working out surrounded by strangers who all seem to know exactly what they’re doing.
When you work out at home, all of that disappears. You can roll out of bed and start in your pyjamas if you want. You can pause mid-workout to grab water without feeling awkward. You can replay a section of the video if you didn’t catch the move. There’s no performance pressure, no waiting for equipment to free up, and no commute eating into your day.
That’s what worked for me, and honestly? I wouldn’t have it any other way. Ten kilos down, and I never set foot in a gym once.