Success! 78lbs Lost - Comparison Pics

Starting Weight - 198lbs / 89.9kg
Current Weight - 120lbs / 54.5kg
Height - 5'4" / 164cm

Time taken to get to goal - almost 3 years!!

Background: I was fat as a child and as a teen, I lost a bit of weight in my final year of highschool, but put it on and then some after I finished breastfeeding my son, born 2005. I thought I had a big frame and nothing I did seemed to make me lose weight.




In June 2010 I went to a dance class with a friend and within a few months I was hooked, dancing 4/5 times a week meant I lost my first 14kg over a year, without really having to try (it wasn't just the exercise, as a spin-off of taking early evening dance classes I was also frequently missing my evening meal and late night social dancing meant I often wasn't snacking on junk all evening long)

Formerly married to a personal trainer I was familiar with the gym, and with working out, it just hadn't worked for me in the past, but after sticking around 76kg for awhile I began seeing a PT in 2011 and lost 6kg over 6 months. I also started taking a little more notice of what I was eating, I had always eaten healthy meals, but my portion sizes and snacking were out of control. Returning to university in February 2012 meant I wasn't able to afford seeing my PT and between February and May 29th 2012 I put on 2kg.

In June I went on new medication and was told to expect to put on 15-20kg. That COULDN'T happen! I had come so far and never wanted to go back. So I downloaded MFP and started counting calories. In October 2012 I started (and completed) 30DS and the results were so amazing I've been exercising ever since, mostly strength training but for good measure I added in half marathon training and some 10K+ runs (injury from a recent car crash has meant I've had to postpone my half marathon which I was due to run in 2 weeks).

Long story short, watching what I eat, knowing what I weigh (I weigh-in a couple of times a month now, before I NEVER weighed myself) and getting more active even when I don't feel like it gave me the results above. I found exercise that worked for me - dancing and You Tube videos (BeFit and Fitness Blender are my favourites) are my staples. Importantly I also ATE ENOUGH because I found that eating less than 1400 calories a day stalled my weightloss for months at a time.

I hope this helps someone! Eat less (but not too little), move more and be accountable.