From size 22 to size 8

It's funny how even my friends who knew me way back when I was huge can't believe I was ever so big. And new people I meet can't fathom I was a big girl so I made some new before and after pics.



The pic on the left was for some publicity shots for my grad school back when I was 243 pounds. The one on the right was taken yesterday. I'm 157 now.

It took me a year and a half to lose the weight at roughly one pound lost a week. (I was aiming for two, but I'm not very disciplined, plus your body is going to do what it wants to do so sometimes you just have to enjoy the ride.)

When I started I only counted calories. No regular exercise unless I wanted to earn more calories to eat more food. I ate whatever I wanted as long as it was within my calorie range and I gave myself one cheat day a week to go over which helped for birthday parties, holidays and other events where food was involved. I lost 30 pounds in six months doing that.

Once I had started paying attention to labels and calorie counts at my fave fast food joints and restaurants, I started swapping out foods for lower calorie or healthier options: a Whopper Jr. with no mayo or cheese instead of a regular Whopper, protein style burgers instead of ones with the bun, Ezekiel bread for my sandwiches, hummus as a veggie dip or in place of mayo on my turkey sandwich. I stopped keeping snack foods in my house and if I craved any, I'd have to walk down to the gas station to buy just a single serving bag.

I also started going to the gym three days a week. At the time I just did cardio so I was on treadmills, ellipticals or bikes, depending on which were available. I also would regularly hike with friends or go cycling around town. That got me another 30 pounds lost in another six months. I also joined a new gym and discovered that if you like your gym, it's so much easier to be motivated to work out.

Then there was a month when I just hit a wall. Started binging a lot and gained ten pounds. I'd completely lost my motivation despite having gone past the halfway mark. I was frustrated I wasn't losing weight faster. I was depressed about my career and my failed dating life. I was just tired of working so hard and seeing such little payoff in all aspects of my life. It just didn't seem worth the trouble anymore.

Not wanting to end up back at 240 again, I finally splurged on a trainer using the rest of my available credit card limit. My trainer was so supportive, gave me lots of advice for more effective cardio workouts (I got off the ellipticals and stationary bikes and started to do Spinning, Stairmaster and walked on the treadmills using steeper inclines - 15-30%), put me on a 1200 calorie, low sodium, no sugar, meal plan with lean protein in every serving and worked out with me three days a week on strength training. He really challenged me and got me remotivated. Istarting going to the gym 5-6 days a week and in four months I'd lost the weight I'd gained plus another 25 pounds to put me at 85 pounds lost.

Back on my own, I dropped a few more pounds which put me at my original goal weight of 155 (my high school weight), yet I found I was actually two sizes smaller than I was in school (a size 8 now versus my old size 12). I then decided to focus more on strength training so I now do a 50/50 mix of weights and cardio. Initially that bumped me up four pounds, but because the weight gain was in muscle which takes up less volume than fat, I still looked smaller and recently was able to buy my first pair of size six jeans. And I recently dropped two of those pounds again. As long as I don't go over 160, I'm happy.

I am at the gym every morning six days a week and workout 60-90 minutes when I'm there. I had my RMR (resting metabolic rate) measured at a health and fitness center and use that for my calorie limit. On my cheat days, I strive not to go over my maintenance limit so that I'm not gaining back weight. In my diet, I still eat what I want, but try to aim for 1g of protein for each pound of weight and to keep my sodium low since I tend to add on water weight easily. During the work week, I basically eat the same thing every day which makes it easy for my food budget and for planning, but on weekends it's a little harder because then I crave variety in my meals.

I've stopped focusing on weight loss and am now more concerned with lowering my body fat % (it used to be 48% and now is 28% with my goal being 25%), maintaining a size eight or dropping to a size six depending on how and where my body decides to drop fat and add muscle, and improving my strength and endurance by doing heavier weights and training to run my first 5K.

I'm not bikini ready yet, but there are some faint outlines of abs starting to show and I'm now making sure I get enough protein to help build more muscle so it can help me burn off that stubborn fat. But even if I don't get any leaner or stronger than I am today, it's still a vast improvement over where I was back in June 2011 when I first started with MFP.