Ahmed Elbahy never knew the feeling of being fit and healthy.
“I was always fat and almost my whole family was overweight," the 27-year-old engineer said.
"We all like to eat a lot; it is in our genes.
“Being fit was not our focus, I wasn’t raised to be like that.”
He weighed 150kg when he reached a turning point in his life in August 2019.
With a height of 175cm, the Abu Dhabi-born Egyptian said he was “over-obese”.
“I was suddenly fed up with the way I looked and the way people looked at me as a fat person; I couldn’t even be in a relationship,” Mr Elbahy said.
So he made “a final decision” to lose weight.
“Since August 2019 I have lost 62kg. It feels like I dropped another person from my body. Now I am 88kg.”
He started with a strict diet that was limited to liquids and chicken soup.
“I lost a lot of weight during the first month and that was a booster for me to do more,” Mr Elbahy said.
“I decided to join group exercises, so I’ll be encouraged by other people to stay fit.”
He said the group classes helped him to continue “and not get bored”.
Sharing the benefits of losing weight
Mr Elbahy not only became a regular gym-goer, he decided to become a certified instructor.
“One of the exercises that I used to love was body pump, and it made me fall in love with workout because I enjoyed doing it,” he said.
“So I decided to become a certified body-pump instructor to keep doing it and to help motivate other people like me to reach their target.”
He started the certification process with Les Mills Middle East three months ago and passed the course with the help of instructors at his local gym – Gym Nation.
“Before applying for the certification process, I tried to get to know the instructors well and to make myself known to the group classes’ management,” he said.
Fellow gym members helped Mr Elhaby record a video of him teaching a real class that was required to complete the certification process.
Since receiving his certification on May 29, Mr Elhaby has been teaching three body pump classes every week at Gym Nation.
“The number of attendance varies between 20 to 30 people.”
The aspiring coach said he was eager to share the benefits of his transformation with others.
“Losing weight helped me a lot, not only on the fitness level, but also with my personality,” he said.
“I used to be very shy and isolated and hardly communicated with the people around me.
“So it made me gain confidence and become friendly with people.”
Inspired family to become healthier
Mr Elbahy now trains up to five hours a day.
“In the beginning, I could barely endure 30 minutes or an hour a day,” he said.
“Now I train in the morning for about two hours and I come back in the evening for about the same time.
“But I have some resting days of course, the body and muscles need [time] to recover.”
Mr Elbahy said he also inspired his parents to become healthier.
“Their eating habits changed a lot," he said.
"We are using less oil to cook and less fried food. Even the type of food has changed.
“My mother cooks with less salt and sugar now.”
He said he was also persuading them to move more and “start doing some type of exercise at home, step by step”.
Mr Elbahy’s journey had some bumps as well. During quarantine he said he had a slight relapse.
“When we had the lockdown and no gyms were open, I gained a little bit more weight by sitting at home and doing less exercise,” he said.
Mr Elbahy tried to train at home to keep moving, but found it hard to maintain.
“After a while I realised that I started to gain weight again, so I started running everyday down the street, despite the hot weather.”
While Mr Elbahy said he has come a long way since he took the decision to shed the pounds, he would never say that he has reached his ideal weight and insists that his fitness mission is never over.
“One should never say I am satisfied with my weight. I consider fitness a lifestyle now, you don’t reach a certain weight and shape and stop.
“You continue working out to get better endurance and gain more muscles – I will never stop."
Ferrari 12Cilindri specs
Engine: naturally aspirated 6.5-liter V12
Power: 819hp
Torque: 678Nm at 7,250rpm
Price: From Dh1,700,000
Available: Now
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
Key findings of Jenkins report
- Founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, Hassan al Banna, "accepted the political utility of violence"
- Views of key Muslim Brotherhood ideologue, Sayyid Qutb, have “consistently been understood” as permitting “the use of extreme violence in the pursuit of the perfect Islamic society” and “never been institutionally disowned” by the movement.
- Muslim Brotherhood at all levels has repeatedly defended Hamas attacks against Israel, including the use of suicide bombers and the killing of civilians.
- Laying out the report in the House of Commons, David Cameron told MPs: "The main findings of the review support the conclusion that membership of, association with, or influence by the Muslim Brotherhood should be considered as a possible indicator of extremism."
I Feel Pretty
Dir: Abby Kohn/Mark Silverstein
Starring: Amy Schumer, Michelle Williams, Emily Ratajkowski, Rory Scovel
CREW
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDirector%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ERajesh%20A%20Krishnan%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarring%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ETabu%2C%20Kareena%20Kapoor%20Khan%2C%20Kriti%20Sanon%26nbsp%3B%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%203.5%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
How to wear a kandura
Dos
- Wear the right fabric for the right season and occasion
- Always ask for the dress code if you don’t know
- Wear a white kandura, white ghutra / shemagh (headwear) and black shoes for work
- Wear 100 per cent cotton under the kandura as most fabrics are polyester
Don’ts
- Wear hamdania for work, always wear a ghutra and agal
- Buy a kandura only based on how it feels; ask questions about the fabric and understand what you are buying
Scores
Oman 109-3 in 18.4 overs (Aqib Ilyas 45 not out, Aamir Kaleem 27) beat UAE 108-9 in 20 overs (Usman 27, Mustafa 24, Fayyaz 3-16, Bilal 3-23)
Libya's Gold
UN Panel of Experts found regime secretly sold a fifth of the country's gold reserves.
The panel’s 2017 report followed a trail to West Africa where large sums of cash and gold were hidden by Abdullah Al Senussi, Qaddafi’s former intelligence chief, in 2011.
Cases filled with cash that was said to amount to $560m in 100 dollar notes, that was kept by a group of Libyans in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.
A second stash was said to have been held in Accra, Ghana, inside boxes at the local offices of an international human rights organisation based in France.
GAC GS8 Specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4cyl turbo
Power: 248hp at 5,200rpm
Torque: 400Nm at 1,750-4,000rpm
Transmission: 8-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 9.1L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh149,900
Results
5pm: Maiden (PA) Dh80,000 (Turf) 1,000mm, Winners: Mumayaza, Fabrice Veron (jockey), Eric Lemartinel (trainer)
5.30pm: Wathba Stallions Cup Handicap (PA) Dh70,000 (T) 2,200m, Winners: Sharkh, Pat Cosgrave, Helal Al Alawi
6pm: The President’s Cup Prep - Conditions (PA) Dh100,000 (T) 2,200m, Winner: Somoud, Richard Mullen, Jean de Roualle
6.30pm: Handicap (PA) Dh90,000 (T) 1,600m, Winner: Harrab, Ryan Curatolo, Jean de Roualle
7pm: Abu Dhabi Equestrian Gold Cup - Prestige (PA) Dh125,000 (T) 1,600m, Winner: Hameem, Adrie de Vries, Abdallah Al Hammadi
7.30pm: Al Ruwais – Group 3 (PA) Dh300,000 (T) 1,200m, Winner: AF Alwajel, Tadhg O’Shea, Ernst Oertel
8pm: Maiden (TB) Dh80,000 (T) 1,400m, Winner: Nibras Passion, Bernardo Pinheiro, Ismail Mohammed
When Umm Kulthum performed in Abu Dhabi
Known as The Lady of Arabic Song, Umm Kulthum performed in Abu Dhabi on November 28, 1971, as part of celebrations for the fifth anniversary of the accession of Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan as Ruler of Abu Dhabi. A concert hall was constructed for the event on land that is now Al Nahyan Stadium, behind Al Wahda Mall. The audience were treated to many of Kulthum's most well-known songs as part of the sold-out show, including Aghadan Alqak and Enta Omri.
