200lbs+ to 135lbs - from obese to healthy (with pics)

btwinkles · August 2013

Awesome!! I enjoyed reading your story and thanks for sharing!!!

NewLIFEstyle4ME · August 2013

Weight kinda creeps up on you... or at least it did for me. One day you're 'you'. The next moment you're 'you but plus sized and then some'. That was me.

I hadn't had a set of scales for years but knew from my clothes that I was getting bigger... and more uncomfortable with how I looked. I was ill all the time. Exhausted most of the time. And hated the way I looked to the point where I couldn't even look in a mirror. As 2012 ticked into 2013, I'd just had my 4th chest infection in three months and I'd had enough. Next year I turn 40 - I thought 'if I'm this ill now, it's not going to get any better unless i start to look after myself'... so I did. I created an account on MFP and started to log what I was eating.

O. M. G. How many calories are there in stuff?!?!?!?! And how small are *real* portion sizes meant to be anyway?!?!?!

What a wake up call!

My New Year's resolution was to cut the junk from my diet and to get fitter. With the junk, I know some people can exercise moderation, but I can't. One bar of chocolate turns into two. A multipack turns into a single serving. I'm much better off without it and the cravings have completely gone, replaced by healthy stuff I know I won't binge on.

As part of my getting fitter thing, I decided to start the Couch to 5K program. The first time I tried to run I managed 45 seconds, thought my lungs were on fire and that my eyeballs were going to pop with the exertion. I'd picked a quiet lake to run around so that no-one would see my hauling my backside around painfully slowly and it took months before I felt confident enough to run on the streets. And though I could happily have stopped running, miraculously I increased the time I could run from 45 seconds to a minute... to 3... 5... 8... 20... and when the C25K podcast I was listening to said 'you can now call yourself a runner', I could have cried with pride and happiness! Now I can run for miles. Me? The overweight, pushing 40, mother-of-two-who'd-let-herself-go. Or rather, the formerly overweight me. I'm still pushing 40!

It wasn't just fitness though, even with the junk cut from my diet, I still felt like my throat had been cut with hunger a lot of the time during those first few weeks. So, because I knew that a few friends had tried the 5:2 fasting diet and it had worked for them, I decided to have a go. 500 calories two days a week, and 'normal' for the rest of the week. Sounds doable, right? Those first two 500 calorie days were sooooooo ha-a-a-a-a-a-rd! I ended up in bed by 7pm just so I wouldn't eat the furniture in hunger! But gradually it got easier and the weight started to disappear. My chins became 'chin'. My waist stopped being the wobbly bit between other wobbly bits and I remembered that once upon a time I'd had an hourglass figure as my waistline reappeared.

I don't know how much I weighed on January 1st... I know it was more than when I got a set of weighing scales at the end of January. I also know that I'd estimated that I was 30 lbs less than the 200 lbs which appeared on the scales when I stepped on them first of all. I'd been kidding myself that it was bad but not *that* bad. But 200 lbs for someone who's 5'7" makes you obese. Not overweight but obese. How did I end up at 200 lbs+?!?!?!? How I ended up at 135 lbs, I know about. Consistency. Caring enough about myself to get back in control. And getting myself off the couch!

Now I exercise just about every day. I run several times a week. I swim. Cycle. Skate. Walk. I have fun with my kids and have LOADS of energy. My skin is better. My health is better. And I haven't had a single chest infection all year.

Come on 40... do your worst. I'm ready for ya!! :happy:

January 2013 - 200+ lbs (UK size 18 / US size 14)

200 lbs (and starting Couch to 5K)

March 2013 - 183 lbs

May 2013 (the day when my BMI went into the 'healthy weight' area for the first time in years!) - 158 lbs

July 2013 (the day I reached my goal weight!) - 140 lbs

August 2013 (me today) - 135 lbs (UK size 8 - 10 / US size 4 - 6)

I just started doing the 5:2 program and this is my 2nd week in and I haven't been following it as prescribed (I'm not quite eating the 2122 cals on feast days, but kinda close to it AND I'm counting cals on my feast days, even though the programs says not too--did you follow the program exactly? A couple more questions, if you please--I'd soooo appreciate your input....

Did you NOT count calories on your "feasting"/non-fast days and only count your cals on your fasting days?

Which days did you do your fast days? Did you switch them up after a while?

How did you follow the program? What types of foods/drinks did you eat on your fasting days?

Did you eat back your cals on feasting/non-fast days?

Are you still doing 5:2? Do you plan on making this a lifestyle?

:flowerforyou: Thank you ever so much in advance for your reply. Your post is a God Send to me---soooooo encouraging and inspirational!:drinker:

Papillon22 · August 2013

Great job! You look amazing! :flowerforyou:

sklarbodds · August 2013

Ah-maze-ing! Welcome to your new life!

sarahhorrigan · August 2013

I just started doing the 5:2 program and this is my 2nd week in and I haven't been following it as prescribed (I'm not quite eating the 2122 cals on feast days, but kinda close to it AND I'm counting cals on my feast days, even though the programs says not too--did you follow the program exactly? A couple more questions, if you please--I'd soooo appreciate your input....

Did you NOT count calories on your "feasting"/non-fast days and only count your cals on your fasting days?

I counted calories every day. I really needed help with knowing how much I was eating and counting calories with MFP is easy and so I just did that out of habit.

Which days did you do your fast days? Did you switch them up after a while?

My fast days are Monday and Wednesday. My weird logic is that Monday is rubbish anyway - coz it's Monday! - so fasting then doesn't make the day any worse. And Wednesday because by the time it's done, I'm more than halfway through the week and not too far from the weekend (which makes me happy! I'm all about Saturday and Sunday!!!)

How did you follow the program? What types of foods/drinks did you eat on your fasting days?

I never exceed the 500 calories on my fast days. I find that drinking plenty of water / herbal teas / black tea keeps me going and then I have three small meals. Breakfast might be melon or strawberries. Lunch a green salad with a few olives and lemon / chilli to dress it or a vegetable soup. Dinner is something like a big vegetable stir-fry or a bowl of chilli / curry. If I'm really hungry in the evening, I've enough calories left for a rice cake or something to take the edge off. The tricky is to stick to watery fruits and vegetables, minimize the carbs and have something protein-based along the way. And remember that you only have to last until the next day and it's more than survivable!!

Did you eat back your cals on feasting/non-fast days?

No. I don't trust the calories-burned estimates MFP gives and I'm sure I probably under-estimate what I'm entering foodwise, so between the two of them it evens out-ish! I also exercise on fasting days - though I couldn't at first. But now I can and it's no problem - so today, for example, it's a fast day and I've been for an 8 mile walk... and I'm absolutely fine.

Are you still doing 5:2? Do you plan on making this a lifestyle?

Yes, I am. But I am thinking about going with 6:1 rather than 5:2, i.e. only fasting one day a week and eating normally the other 6. Or alternatively carrying on with 5:2 but eating a bit more on the other five days. Who knows! The fasting is really for the health benefits that come with it rather than for weight loss, so I'm playing it by ear!

Sarah

NavyKnightAh13 · August 2013

Amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

AbbyCar · August 2013

Bump.

love2lift_85 · August 2013

Fabulous work! You look great and you've earned it!!

SimplyDenyse · August 2013

amazing, you look great!! thanks for sharing.

SkinnyMsFitness · August 2013

Great, amazing journey! Thanks for sharing!! Congrats!

Brittanyjoy89 · August 2013

youre amazing and gorgeous!!! so inspiring!

bbgillian · August 2013

This article is exactly what I needed! I started C25K one week ago and I'm proud to say that I have been a faithful '3 times a week' runner so far....(today is week 2, day 2) but I was telling my co-workers TODAY that it seems completely unfathomable to think that I might be A RUNNER in a couple of months! I'm actually very excited and already look forward to my run. That 25 or 30 minutes is all about ME, and it's a great feeling to know that I'm taking steps to make sure my son has his mother around for a loooong time.

Congratulations to you on your transformation and thank you for this message! It's an inspiration. I hope to be posting pics of myself some day

Angila · August 2013

You look amazing!! Way to go!! :happy:

jjgirl76 · August 2013

Fabulous!!

Cjando · August 2013

AMAZING! I am just starting the journey abd the same height as you and about the same SW and same GW. You are an inspiration! I am training for a half marathon to help motivate. Keep it up!