I was 104 kg and avoided mirrors for five years. Then I found something that actually stuck

Patrik, 41, after 12 weeks with Core Pulse Trainer.

I’m not going to lie to you. I’m not going to say I was "always fit but just got a little out of shape." That would be bullshit.

I weighed 104 kilos. I avoided taking off my shirt at the beach. I changed with my back to the locker room. And I stopped looking in mirrors sometime around 2021, because I didn’t recognize the man staring back.

The worst part wasn’t even how I looked. It was how tired I was. Out of breath after one flight of stairs. Back pain after a day at my desk. And that feeling every morning when I buttoned my pants: "how did I end up here?"

The gym membership I paid 499 kr a month for? Used 6 times in a year. The 5:2 diet? Lasted three weeks. The runs? My knees said no after the fourth time.

The problem was never that I didn’t want to. The problem was that everything required me to become a completely different person. Someone who had the energy to go to the gym after work. Someone who liked salad. Someone with discipline I had never had.

This is the story of what actually worked. Not a miracle. Not "some weird trick doctors hate." Just something that was simple enough that I wouldn’t give up.

Why the stomach is the last thing to disappear (and the first to come back)

The first thing I learned: your stomach isn’t your fault in the way you think.

Belly fat is the fat the body loses last. You can lose weight in your face, arms, and legs, and still have a stomach. That’s why so many people give up. They see no difference where it matters most to them.

And the core muscles under the fat? They’re hard to train. Regular sit-ups barely do anything. You need to activate the deep abdominal muscles, the ones that actually hold your stomach in and provide stability. And as a beginner, you almost never reach them with regular exercise.

A friend tipped me off. I laughed at first.

A colleague who’d lost a lot of weight said he used an "EMS belt" at home. Electrical impulses that make the abdominal muscles contract over and over while you sit still.

My first reaction: "those abs belts from 90s TV shopping? Are you kidding me?"

But he showed me his pictures. And he wasn’t a fitness influencer. He was a regular guy, like me, who had actually lost weight. So I did some research. And it turned out that EMS isn’t some TV shopping scam. It has been used in healthcare and rehabilitation for decades. The difference from the 90s gadgets is that the technology has actually gotten good.

All I had to do was put it on

Here’s why it worked for me when nothing else had: it required nothing from me.

I didn’t need to go anywhere. Didn’t need to change clothes. Didn’t need to be sweaty and defeated in front of a bunch of fit people. I strapped the belt around my waist, turned it on, and sat on the couch with a series. 20 minutes. Done.

The first time felt strange, a pulsing kneading, like someone pressing on my stomach in rhythm. Not uncomfortable. Just unfamiliar. Afterward, I felt my abdominal muscles in a way I hadn’t for years. Not sore. Just awake.

My journey, week by week

I kept notes. Not because I’m disciplined, but because I was sure this would be yet another failure I could laugh about later. It wasn’t.

⚡ REAL RESULTS

12-week difference

No retouched ad photos. My own journey, documented with a phone camera.

Let me be honest about what it ISN’T

This isn’t magic. I still ate, but I thought a little more about what. I still moved around, a walk here and there. Core Pulse Trainer didn’t do all the work for me.

But it did something more important: it gave me a win I could feel, early enough not to give up. And once you see something working, you start wanting to do more. The walk got longer. The junk food got less. Not because I forced myself, but because I finally had momentum.

That’s what no diet or gym membership ever gave me. The first win.