How Richard Lost 12kg of Fat and the Back Pain He Lived With Every Day
Written by
Lachlan Rowston
When Richard walked into Lockeroom, he was already training. But every good week was being undone on the weekend.
Richard Wakefield, Chief Engineer at Westpac, wasn’t new to the gym.
He’d been training before he joined. The problem was what happened between Friday night and Monday morning.
“I undid all the good behaviours with bad ones at the weekend,” he says.
The weight kept creeping up. So did the pain from two serious chronic back injuries that hurt every single day.
He’d tried to turn it around many times before but he could never find something that stuck.
So when he joined Lockeroom over 12 months ago and started working with Results Manager Dom… The goal was to get as lean as possible whilst making it sustainable.
Between March and September 2026, Richard dropped 12.2kg of fat, took his body fat from 26.6% to 12.5%, and added 1.2kg of skeletal muscle.
And the back pain? Gone.
Here’s how he did it.
1. The Training Program
Richard didn’t need to be convinced to train. He needed a program he’d actually stick to, week after week.
The missing links were:
“Once you start your program and work through your nutrition advice, it’s really just about turning up every day and doing what you can.”
a. The weekly routine
Day 1 | Upper body: horizontal press and pull |
Day 2 | Lower body and core |
Day 3 | Shoulders and arms |
Day 4 | Full body |
Richard trained in the late afternoon, then ate his biggest meal straight after.
b. Key lifts
Lift | Best working set |
Incline barbell press (45°) | 50kg × 6 |
Seated row (underhand) | 60kg × 6 |
Flat dumbbell press (1¼ reps) | 25kg dumbbells × 12 |
Leg press | 141kg × 12 |
Seated leg curl | 77.5kg × 8 |
2. The Diet
a. How we structured it
Dom set Richard a daily target of around 1,700 calories. For him, that was just over a 500-calorie deficit each day.
It came with a protein, carb and fat split built to keep him there.
These were coach-set targets for Richard’s body and goals, not a template for anyone else. The rules:
Plan ahead. Every meal for the week prepped on the weekend.
Keep it simple. One protein, two carbs: vegetables plus rice.
Track it. Food tracking apps to build meals that hit the numbers.
Eat regularly. Four eating windows a day, so hunger never had a chance.
His secret weapon? A vacuum sealer. Prep, seal, stack the fridge. No reason to miss a planned meal.
“The simpler the better when you are preparing 21 meals in bulk for the week!”
b. A typical day
Meal | Food | kcal | Protein |
Morning | Eggs, veggies, protein shake | 400 | 30g |
Lunch | Chicken, beef or fish with herbs and spices, vegetables and rice | 600 | 40g |
Pre-workout snack | Water and fruit | 150 | 10g |
Post-workout dinner | Prepped protein, vegetables and rice | 550 | 50g |
Total | ~1,700 | 130g |
Staples: chicken, beef, fish, rice, vegetables, herbs and spices.
3. The Lifestyle Shifts
a. Fixing the weekend
Richard’s biggest change wasn’t a new exercise or a new food. It was refusing to let Saturday and Sunday cancel out Monday to Friday.
The weekend became prep time instead of blowout time.
b. Accountability with Dom
Every week, Richard checked in with Dom. Numbers reviewed, targets adjusted, problems caught early.
That rhythm kept him on track when motivation alone wouldn’t have.
Richard and Dom
c. Getting back on track
It wasn’t a straight line. Long-overdue trips to see family and other hiccups pushed the numbers backwards more than once.
At first, that was disheartening. Then it became part of the process.
“The lesson was not to give up, but to learn from these mistakes and not take them too hard.”
4. The Results
On the scales, Richard went from 79.8kg to 69.3kg. But the scales undersell it: he lost more fat than total weight, because he built muscle at the same time.
Richard before Lockeroom (left & right), after his transformation (centre).
24 March → 16 September 2026
“I recently looked back at my early pre-Lockeroom photos and am astonished at what I’ve achieved.”
The mirror is only half of it.
Before he started, two chronic back injuries caused him pain every day. Now that the weight is off, he says both have disappeared.
More energy. No daily pain. A goal he’d failed to reach many times before, finally hit.
Below is InBody data from 24 March to 16 September 2026. We use this device for all our clients to accurately track body composition over time.
Richard’s InBody scan data
“Just start. Repeat that for six months to a year and you’ll be amazed at what you can achieve.”
Richard’s advice to others
Richard’s results aren’t rare. They’re repeatable.
At Lockeroom, we use data, world-class coaching and personal accountability to help executives and founders take control of their health, without sacrificing their career or lifestyle.
