Losing a significant amount of weight can be a transformative experience, impacting not only physical health but also mental and emotional well-being. Many individuals have successfully shed 130 pounds or more, achieving remarkable improvements in their lives. Here are a few inspiring stories of individuals who have conquered weight loss challenges and embraced healthier lifestyles.
Overcoming Depression and Finding Motivation
One individual recounted their weight gain struggles following college graduation in 2004. The availability of more disposable income led to less disciplined eating habits, which were then exacerbated by a battle with depression. Using food as a coping mechanism, their weight climbed steadily, leading to discomfort, low energy levels, and diminished self-esteem. By 2012, they weighed 293 pounds.
Seeking help for depression, a doctor's visit served as a wake-up call. To motivate themselves, they purchased a Fitbit and started using the Lose It! app to track calories and activity. They began eating salads and cooking meals at home, replacing fast food. However, frustration with slow progress led to abandoning these new habits and regaining the lost weight.
A year later, tired of feeling unwell, they decided to eliminate alcohol, which led to an initial weight loss and renewed motivation. They resumed using the Lose It! app and started the Couch to 5K program. Despite initially disliking running, the positive feelings after training kept them going. Now, they enjoy activities they previously avoided and have participated in races, including 10Ks, with a half-marathon on the horizon.
Key Strategies for Success
- Track your calories: Logging everything you eat helps keep you honest and aware of your daily intake.
- Don't get discouraged: Initial results may be slow, but consistency is key.
- Don't nix a workout just because you don't like it at first: You may become addicted to the feeling it gives you after a couple of workouts.
The Keto Diet and Intermittent Fasting: Angela's Journey
Angela described herself as "extremely unhealthy," admitting to devouring everything in sight. She experienced physical discomfort, such as lower back pain when walking with coworkers, and required a seatbelt extender on airplanes. Traditional diets had failed her in the past, but the keto diet finally "clicked."
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Within a year, Angela lost a staggering 37% of her starting body weight. She also noticed positive changes, including increased energy and mental clarity. "While being on keto I’ve noticed so many positive changes in my life. Not only am I dropping all this weight, but I also notice how much more energy I have and how clear my mind is. Before I would be exhausted after lunch."
Keto Diet Strategies
- Embrace fats: Overcoming the misconception that fats are bad is crucial. "It was really hard to face the reality of eating fats! Our entire lives we are told to eat low-fat items."
- Eat enough fats: Initially, Angela wasn't consuming enough fats, leading to hunger and slower weight loss.
- Incorporate intermittent fasting: This can complement the keto diet.
- Utilize keto-friendly snacks: Perfect Keto bars can be a "life-saver" due to their clean ingredients and taste.
Small Habits, Big Changes: Schiff's Lifestyle Shift
Schiff had struggled with dieting throughout his adult life, falling into a pattern of setting ambitious goals and then feeling like a failure when he couldn't maintain them. He realized that he was approaching dieting from a place of extremes, with an all-or-nothing mindset. He committed himself to unlearning all the extreme diet culture messaging that he had been taught.
His transformation began as an experiment, focusing on two small, achievable new habits for just one month. "I remember my first habit was going on a walk every morning and the next habit was picking one recipe that I would cook at least once a week." He limited himself to no more than two habits a month, auditing his progress at the end of each month.
Almost immediately, Schiff began to see and feel the results. It was slow but consistent. He now believes the lack of pressure was key to his initial success. For example, he said, “There was no pressure on the distance for that walk. There was no pressure on the pace of the walk. I wasn’t tracking it. I wasn’t putting pressure on myself around it. What happened next surprised him. What began as a slow walk for a couple of blocks eventually turned into an hour-long walk."
Prioritizing Well-being
Regaining connections that were important to him became a crucial part of Schiff’s overall well-being journey. “A huge part of what I think was really beneficial to my health was I was starting to prioritize things like friendships, more socializing, more family, and my own sort of meaning in my life. Self-esteem and emotional health are often ignored when people are focusing on their health because in our culture, a lot of times focusing on your ‘health’ means eating fewer calories and exercising as much as possible."
Read also: Learn how people achieved significant weight loss
Discovering Blue Zones
Well into his new way of life, Schiff discovered Blue Zones and began reading the organization’s books, articles, and interviews, which solidified to him that he was on the right track. Another habit that made a big difference was decreasing his alcohol intake. “At the time, I was drinking a lot of alcohol."
Schiff recalls losing his first 70 pounds before ever setting foot in a gym or doing an intense workout. “It was like ‘I lost a pound again this week’ and that forward momentum helped sort of catapult further momentum."
He explained, “In month one, it didn’t feel like I was doing very much, and in comparison with every diet I’ve ever done in my life, it felt like nothing. But if you look at it over the course of a year, two habits a month become 24 new habits." Even he was stunned by some of the changes he was making; for instance, when he took the stairs instead of the elevator or parked far away from a building so he could walk. “I remember surprising myself with the person I was becoming. I was the same person."
Career Shift and Focus on Well-being
He had owned the company, which he’d started in college, for nine years. “I was representing artists, and we were booking tours and traveling all over the world. It was glamorous. Looking back on it. I did not recognize how much stress was playing into my overall health." When shuttering his company, he said, “Everybody thought I was crazy.” But he had come to the realization that his work, the lifestyle that accompanied it, and the stress it caused weren’t good for his physical or emotional health. “The stress I was putting myself under was simultaneously cutting down on my sense of connection and friendships and kind of community."
“I had a lot of status and money and was doing all these glamorous things, and I was completely unhappy,” he said. Initially, he began coaching friends and family for free. His mother-in-law was his first client. “They would see results, tell their friends, and that would lead to more clients,” he explained. Schiff ran the private practice for four years, but now focuses on impacting people’s lives on a greater scale through Blue Zones Project.
Read also: Before & After Weight Loss Stories
Key Takeaways from Schiff's Journey
- Focus on small, achievable habits: Start with just one or two new habits per month.
- Prioritize connections and meaning: Nurture friendships, family relationships, and your sense of purpose.
- Recognize the impact of stress: Evaluate how stress affects your overall health.
- Embrace gradual changes: Small, consistent changes can lead to significant results over time.
Losing Weight Together: Bill and Elena Rodriguez's Success
Bill and Elena Rodriguez, a married couple, decided to embark on a weight loss journey together. Elena had struggled with her weight for almost 30 years, while Bill's weight gain was attributed to a sedentary lifestyle and poor eating habits.
Inspired by a coworker's weight loss, Bill learned about the Profile by Sanford program. Elena was initially skeptical, having tried numerous diets before. However, they both decided to give it a try in April 2017.
Key Elements of Their Success
- Dietary Changes: They eliminated fatty, fried, and junk foods, replacing them with Profile's shakes, bars, and soups, along with plenty of raw and steamed vegetables and water. "They give you a shopping list of items to go look for to make your meals. It really just teaches you to eat better," Bill says. The couple cooked together and encouraged each other. While Profile supports a range of food choices, Bill and Elena eventually moved to a vegetarian, then vegan, diet. "We looked into different reasons we gain weight, and even foods that are considered to be good foods drive weight gain," Bill says.
- Accountability: They committed to losing weight as a couple. "I think the fact that we did it together was a key factor, and that the things we changed really fit well with us," Bill says. Elena notes that trying to lose weight together with Bill brought out her competitive side.
- Smart Scale: The plan includes a smart scale that measures and records weight, body fat, hydration, muscle and bone.
- Coaching: The plan includes coaching. “I felt pretty high-class having a coach,” Elena says. Profile’s coaches connect with members regularly in person or via Skype or phone to talk about how they’re doing. “If you’re really craving something, or if you were starving or felt a specific way, they’ll say, ‘Well, try eating this or doing this.’ You can make these simple little adjustments to fill that void you’re feeling,” Bill says. Elena worked with a few coaches, and says that while they were all great, she clicked with Ashleigh Ackley. “It felt like she knew me. She knew my story, my struggles, my anxieties. I felt like I could tell her everything and she always had a solution. She would say, ‘Try this and see if this works,’ and if I wasn’t ready to do something that was OK. It was like I had a teammate who wasn’t going to let me fail. She built me up and that’s much of the reason this is still working. She really ingrained in me opportunities and options. She showed me how to rely on things that worked. A lot of the weight situation is really emotional for me, and she kept building me up, pumping into my head that it’s OK and it’s going to work,” she says. Ackley calls coaching the backbone of the program. “Everyone is different, but there are always outside temptations and challenges,” she says. “We guide members. We don’t tell them what to do. We help them have success.” Most coaching sessions start with a review of the previous week - looking back at what went well and what was challenging. They then look forward to the upcoming week to spot challenges. For example, there might be travel planned, or sports events with tempting concessions, or weeknights at home fighting a snacking habit. Ackley recalls helping Elena plan for a work event. They talked about Elena’s goals - did she want to indulge there, or make healthier choices from what was available, or bring her own foods? What foods will they have, and what are their serving sizes? Planning ahead of time helps people enjoy the events in their lives without sabotaging their weight-loss goals.
Health Improvements and Increased Activity
Their weight loss has led to improvements in their health. While they both battled high blood pressure, they have healthy levels now, and Elena no longer needs medication to control hers. She’s also seen improvement in vitiligo, a skin condition that causes loss of pigment. They expect that their healthier diets will reduce their likelihood of developing diabetes. Their weight loss has brought a financial benefit as well. They get a discount on their health insurance if they meet certain criteria for body mass index, blood pressure and other health markers. “Not only are we healthier, now we qualify for that discount,” Bill says. In the past, Elena and Bill walked a local 5K event. This year, they ran it together for the first time. Bill has added strength training to his routine. “Given my age, I have to start working on building more muscle. When you’re building muscle, you tend to burn fat more efficiently,” he says. “With a sedentary lifestyle you get that muscle atrophy." Outside of workouts, their grandchildren keep them active, biking alongside them while they run. Bill has even joined them skateboarding. “That’s something I wouldn’t have considered doing, as heavy as I was,” he says. They also paddleboard most weekends when the weather is good.
Maintaining Success
Elena and Bill met their weight-loss goals and also learned how to cope with temporary setbacks. For example, Elena tends to gain a few pounds when she travels. And when they remodeled their house they couldn’t cook at home. “Ashley taught me that this is OK, and this is what we need to do to get back on track,” Elena says.
Elena says, “I feel better from the ground up. Even our sex life is better. Profile has redefined who I am - my body and my spirit.”
Their Typical Day
- Breakfast: A nectarine and an apple with a protein shake, or oatmeal with Stevia and maybe a banana
- Lunch: Salad with salsa for dressing, pasta, or stir-fried or steamed vegetables, with quinoa, edamame, almonds or beans for protein
- Dinner: Bean soup with avocado or a vegan pizza
- Snacks: Dairy-free yogurt with a piece of fruit, chopped veggies, sometimes homemade popcorn
“70 percent of what we eat is vegetable-driven,” Bill says. “In the morning, we plan out our meals for the day and cut up all kinds of vegetables - cucumbers, carrots, radishes, snap peas-sometimes 10 different vegetables.”
Resetting Habits and Reframing Food: Williams's Transformation
Williams's heaviest weight was 360 pounds at age 20, and he spent most of his college years and 20s between 330 and 340 pounds. He attributed this to partying, eating junk food at all hours, and using tobacco. Eventually, Williams realized he was tired all the time.
He began connecting the dots. As a guy in my late 20s, I wasn't bouncing back as fast as I once did. How would I feel in my 40s, 50s? I was stuck and full of excuses. But I made the decision to have an open mind and begin exploring the ways I could improve my health through diet.
When he finished college and cut back on partying and late-night pizzas, he naturally lost some weight. Then, at age 30, he challenged himself to go a month without eating any added sugar. "My body needed a reset, and I needed to educate myself on what the human body needs to fuel itself. Netflix and Google searches to the rescue! It was news to me that 100 calories of Coke was not equivalent to 100 calories of almonds. I needed to learn that our bodies need fiber, that our immune health begins in the gut, and fiber fuels that system. I started powering down quinoa, almonds replaced chips as a snack, and black coffee would become my energy drink. Rather than judge a food before trying it, I just ate it. I have found-with the exception of some crazy-ass peppers-plant-based foods are generally not scary! I tried old foods in new forms; I’d always hated cooked spinach as a kid. Assuming incorrectly, I thought spinach tasted the same raw as it does cooked. I was wrong-it does not taste the same. Raw spinach is so much better!"
Key Strategies for Williams's Success
- Prioritize Whole Foods: Once he made fruits, vegetables, and whole foods his priority, "the results were incredibly steady," Williams says.
- Challenge Cultural Expectations: "I’d grown up a big guy, figuring I always would be 'robust.' Overweight men are expected -sometimes by society and sometimes by themselves-to eat large quantities of food. Often fried, starchy, and/or meaty foods. I realized I was making a lot of my dietary decisions based on how I was marketed to, or how the culture expected me to eat. "
- Embrace Education: "Education was another hurdle; I needed some basic nutritional information. Documentaries like Sugar Coated on Netflix caught my eye. After that, I continued researching; Michael Pollan’s work has also been very illuminating."
- Consistency is Key: "Find small healthy habits you can build into your daily routine. Remove a few small, unhealthy habits. Nothing too drastic. Once you feel confident in your new routine, start slowly adding new healthy foods and choices [and] removing the bad. You’ll surprise yourself [with] what you’re capable of by making incremental changes."
Mental Clarity and Physical Freedom
"Getting my weight below 250 pounds was truly unbelievable," he says."I truly never, ever thought I’d be any less than 300 pounds for my whole life. I’d accepted that-thought it was fact. So, to be 250 was unreal. I had given myself an amazing gift. As great as it was to see the number on the scale, the mental clarity I gained was even better. By adding whole foods to my diet and removing, or limiting, processed foods, I felt like I’d lifted my brain from a mild fog. I just felt better from head to toe on a cellular level, because I was fueling myself with what a human body needs to feel its best."
The Transformative Power of Bariatric Surgery: Emma Roma Jayne's Story
On a family trip in 2022, Emma Roma Jayne stayed in the car as everyone else went to the beach. "She was like: 'This isn't right. You're 22. You should be enjoying your life and be able to go to the beach whenever you want and feel comfortable.' She suggested that I should get weight loss surgery like she had," Roma Jayne told Business Insider.
So, in 2023, Roma Jayne had bariatric surgery, and her relationship with food and her body has been totally different since."At first, I was very much like: 'That's cheating. You need to put in the hard work to lose weight.' But I looked at weight loss surgery as a way that I could stop the food noise and then change my lifestyle, because I didn't want to spend the next 10 years still struggling with the same issues," she said. She lost about 110 pounds in the year after the surgery. A study published last year found that bariatric surgery was becoming less common but that more people were being prescribed drugs such as Ozempic and Mounjaro to lose weight.
Unexpected Changes After Weight Loss
Roma Jayne said weight loss surgery "is the best decision I have ever made in my entire life.""It has transformed my life completely," she said. Aside from the obvious, Roma Jayne has noticed seven unexpected changes after her weight loss.
- People are more friendly: "There's no beating around the bush, I was definitely treated differently when I was bigger," Roma Jayne said. She said people now hold doors for her, greet her in the street, and strike up conversations with her, whereas before she lost weight she felt "invisible."
- Her feet have gotten smaller: "One of the more random changes that I didn't even know that was a thing is that my feet shrunk," Roma Jayne said. She has four pairs of shoes, all in different sizes, which she bought as her feet got smaller as she lost weight. Her feet are slimmer now, and she went from a US size 9 shoe to a 7.5.
- Her voice has changed: Roma Jayne also said her voice has gotten higher and clearer since her surgery.
- Her skin is clearer: Roma Jayne has previously struggled with acne, but she found that her skin cleared up when she lost weight. She said she eats a low-carb diet and has cut out sugar.
- Her tastes have changed: Roma Jayne used to hate avocados, and now she loves them. She also used to eat a lot of fruit, but she now eats far less fruit and far more vegetables.
- She lost some friendships: Roma Jayne said that when she lost weight, she dealt with "a lot of jealousy and resentment from friends.""I realized that they were my friends when I was bigger because I made them feel better about themselves," she said. "But now that I'm on my own journey and bettering myself and making these healthy changes, suddenly they had a problem with that."
- She's more confident: "When I was bigger, I definitely used my size as a shield to protect myself from other people knowing the real me.
Reclaiming Health and Energy: John's Bariatric Surgery Success
John had a starting weight of 363 pounds when he came to Texas Center for weight loss help, He suffered miserably from Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA). Prior to weight loss surgery, John managed his OSA with a bulky CPAP machine to help him sleep at night.
He came to Texas Center for Bariatrics and Advanced Surgery looking for weight loss solutions and decided on having bariatric surgery with Dr. Cribbins. John chose a VSG (gastric sleeve) for his weight loss procedure. John has lost 130 pounds in 6 months with the help of a VSG! The weight loss transformation has restored his health and he NO longer suffers from sleep apnea and his CPAP machine is in the trash! John is full of energy, restored his health, and is REALLY excited about enjoying his new lease on life.