Last month, Shashank Gangil walked through a Hong Kong hospital corridor proudly carrying a newborn in each arm. The 39-year-old real estate professional had just become a father of twins, an event that would have seemed unlikely just 18 months earlier.
In late 2024, Gangil weighed 94kg (207 pounds) and faced a worrying list of health issues: high cholesterol, signs of fatty liver disease, nagging plantar fasciitis and poor sleep.
For years, he had told himself that “this is genetics”, but that explanation no longer felt enough.
By the end of 2025, he had shed 20kg and was moving and sleeping better.
“I felt younger than a decade ago,” Gangil says. Here is how he did it.
Pandemic puts brakes on active life
Gangil had grown up playing cricket in Delhi, in India, before moving to Hong Kong in 2012 and getting married in 2019. His work life had followed a cycle familiar to many desk-bound professionals: long hours at work, little activity during the day, weekend drinking and unhealthy eating.