This '90 Day Fiancé' Star Took Up Bodybuilding and Lost 26 Pounds

From Men's Health

• 90 Day Fiancé star Anfisa Nava has taken up bodybuilding, and her first competition is coming up.
• Nava took up bodybuilding to cope with the absence of her husband Jorge, who is serving 2.5 years in prison.
• Nava told E! that she's lost 26 pounds.

Just in case you missed it, 90 Day Fiancé star Anfisa Nava is a bodybuilder now-and she's gearing up for her first competition.

Nava, who moved from Russia to the U.S. to marry Jorge Nava on the TLC reality show, opened up to E! News about the fitness regimen that's dramatically changed her body. Since getting into bodybuilding, Nava says she's lost 26 pounds.

"First, I lost about 15 pounds in about six months and that's when I started thinking about competing," she told the outlet. "So then I actually gained a little weight to increase my muscle. But then I lost more. It took about a year and a half. I wasn't in a rush.

"In the beginning, I was 146 pounds and now I'm about 120."

Nava says she gained weight when she immigrated to the U.S., blaming it on the American diet and the stress of daily life.

"I've actually been skinny my whole life, but when I moved to the United States I gained about 15 to 20 pounds. The food here is different from the way I used to eat in Russia," she told E!. "In Russia, I would eat home-cooked meals but here I would go out to eat a lot. And I wasn't really controlling it, I was eating everything.

As for how she lost the weight, Nava said: "I just reduced my portion size and started doing cardio too. I was doing the elliptical or the treadmill five or six times a week for 30-40 minutes."

Nava documents her progress on Instagram, where she's amassed more than 400,000 followers. She often shares snaps from the gym locker room and close-up photos of her sculpted physique.

In other Instagram videos, Nava practices her bodybuilding poses. (Maybe she could draw some extra inspiration from Arnold Schwarzenegger and son Joseph Baena?)

"One of the very few videos where I am somewhat happy about my physique 😅," she wrote alongside a May video. "Isn't it the truth that we are our own worst critics 🙈"

In a December Instagram post, Nava explained that bodybuilding helps her cope with the absence of her husband Jorge, who was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison for possession of drugs with intention to sell. The 90 Day Fiancé star was arrested in February 2018 with 293 lbs. of marijuana in his car.

"To fill the void that I felt after Jorge was sentenced and I was left on my own I decided to try to stay busy and do what I enjoy the most and it was working out," Nava wrote in the post. "And ONE DAY I want to take it on a higher level and compete in NPC bikini division."

Next weekend, Nava will compete in the NPC West Coast Classic. (Nava recently shared a photo of what she's been eating in the lead-up to the event.) Though she's also pursuing a college education in California, Nava told E! that bodybuilding could "possibly" become a new career.

"We'll see how this first one goes," she said. "I don't really have any expectations. I just want to get my feet wet and see what its like and go from there."

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