{"id":575529,"date":"2026-07-30T13:55:34","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T13:55:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/575529\/"},"modified":"2026-07-30T13:55:34","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T13:55:34","slug":"man-who-lost-insane-amount-of-weight-in-four-week-chinese-fat-camp-exposes-gruelling-schedule","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/575529\/","title":{"rendered":"Man who lost insane amount of weight in four week \u2018Chinese fat camp\u2019 exposes gruelling schedule"},"content":{"rendered":"

Earlier this summer, Andr\u00e9 Helgesen began his travels around Asia in a rather unique way \u2013 by going to a \u2018fat camp\u2019.<\/p>\n

The Swedish 29-year-old had been on a weight loss journey already (dropping from over 21 stone to roughly 13). And so, he spent four weeks at Jianfeidaren in Shenzhen, China<\/a>, to help him shift the rest he wanted to lose, going viral with his story.<\/a><\/p>\n

But it was no easy feat, having a gruelling schedule to complete with fasting hours, multiple workouts a day and even mandatory TikTok<\/a> sessions.<\/p>\n

Having struggled somewhat<\/a> with the sleeping arrangements and \u2018strict\u2019 rules, Helgesen spoke to LADbible about the experience which he describes as \u2018truly amazing\u2019.<\/p>\n

And while he says it was somewhat like he expected, the camp \u2018surprised\u2019 him in many ways \u2013 \u201cIt was definitely harder than I expected.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"HeHe had to do three workouts a day, six days a week. (Andr\u00e9 Helgesen)<\/p>\n

Helgesen explains he was pretty surprised by how much of a \u2018personal\u2019 task it was.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow it was up to me to finish the workouts,\u201d he says. \u201cI thought someone would like hold my hand or something like that. So, everything being up to myself kind of surprised me.\u201d<\/p>\n

But it was the \u2018very hard schedule\u2019 of exercise that surprised the Swede the most as he had to do three workouts a day, six times a week.<\/p>\n

While Sunday was a rest day, he says there was a bit of an expectation to \u2018work out in between the classes\u2019.<\/p>\n

Those classes differed from morning to afternoon also.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe morning classes were mostly focused on cardio activities like aerobics, running or even swimming,\u201d Helgesen explains.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut in the afternoons, there were more weight training activities like we had some plates or even big bars that we lifted, doing many repetitions.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"HeHe had to fast between 5pm and 8am. (Andr\u00e9 Helgesen)<\/p>\n

So, with mornings focused on cardio and afternoons on weight training, the late class was always aerobics class with a live stream show to their TikTok\u2019.<\/p>\n

Helgesen claims the participants weren\u2019t the \u2018focus\u2019 for this as much as the live stream.<\/p>\n

All of this exercise with the strict meals \u2018gets to you\u2019, the lad explains.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was happy in the beginning, I thought it was easy, but in the second week, oh, it’s hard,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then we have the food on top of that. We were fasting between five o’clock until eight in the morning. So being expected to work out so hard and not to eat anything was, the combination was very hard.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"HisHis overall weight loss. (TikTok\/@imhelgis)<\/p>\n

Helgesen was limited to roughly 1,300 calories a day as part of the deficit. And for reference, the NHS<\/a> recommends an average man consumes 2,500 calories a day to maintain a healthy weight or 1,900 calories a day if aiming to safely lose weight.<\/p>\n

After the 28 days at the camp in China, he lost half a stone, taking his total weight loss to eight stone.<\/p>\n

It isn\u2019t totally a surprise that Helgesen hasn\u2019t kept up the \u2018strict schedule\u2019 after the camp, having had a \u2018wow, it\u2019s finally over\u2019 feeling once he reached the end.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut that said, I haven’t gone that crazy and got up all the weight,\u201d he adds. \u201cI’d say I’ve been stable and haven’t gone down.\u201d<\/p>\n

And even though it \u2018was really intense\u2019 and \u2018very tough\u2019, Helgesen says the camp felt like \u2018a safe environment\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were stretches in between every workout and we have plenty of rest time during the day as well,\u201d he explains. \u201cSo I felt like everything was planned out.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf someone said they were feeling kind of sick or for example, hurt their knee, they would always take a rest day.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Earlier this summer, Andr\u00e9 Helgesen began his travels around Asia in a rather unique way \u2013 by going…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":575530,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[114,499,103,61,60,166],"class_list":["post-575529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fitness","tag-china","tag-fitness","tag-health","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-lifestyle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575529","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=575529"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575529\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/575530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=575529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=575529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=575529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}