52 lbs down - 5'3" female (pics + story)

Hi all,

I've been putting this off for a bit, but since my weight has stabilized within the last month, I wanted to own up to my success before I brush it under a rug.

Basic stats:
Height: 5'3"
Age: 23
SW: 195
CW: 143 (im happy and healthy here)
Overacheiver goal weight: 135

Calories for weight loss: 1200-1500
Activity level: high

Body fat stats:
May 2017: 170.3 lbs - 38.7 % BF
Aug 2017: 167.8 lbs - 34.8% BF
October 2017: 150.1 lbs - 26.1% BF
Today: 143 lbs -23% BF (estimated BF%. waiting for in-body in a few weeks)

For all you photo-hungry people, here's a quick before and after:


About me
I've always been on the heavier side, but as an athlete (soccer and martial arts), many people let me get away with it because of my activity levels as a kid. When I turned 18, I had recently started birth control (depo provera) and also injured myself during a soccer game badly enough that I had to stop playing. Combine these two factors with an already poor teenage diet, and the result is a quick 30 lb gain within a year, which really lowered my already low self-esteem. I jumped from 150 to 180 and didn't know what the *kitten* the stretch marks on my stomach were or how I was getting them.

For the next three years, I'd go back and forth on trying to lose weight while battling depression and low self-esteem, but ultimately, I ended up gaining another 15 lbs (thanks college).


Weight loss for reals

Part 1:
I didn't actually commit to weight loss until Nov 22, 2015, right before the holidays. I asked my mom for a year long gym membership for my 22nd birthday, and she gladly took me and signed up herself as well. This was also the first time I took MFP seriously and started calorie counting, aiming for 1200 calories a day and exercising probably 3-5x a week for 60 minutes at a time. I did group classes for cardio kickboxing and yoga each week, and on my off days, I used the treadmill, elliptical, or stationary bike while watching movies in the gym's "cardio theater."

I call this the first time I lost weight, because it took me two tries to get to where I am now. During this first attempt, I was just trying anything I could, without any real extra research or outside influence. Between Nov 22, 2015 and April 16, 2016, I went from 195 lbs to 161 lbs, losing 34 lbs fairly quickly. However, I was also on my last semester of college, working 30 hours a week, and both releasing and album and booking a tour with my band at the time, which took away all my focus from weight loss. I settled on trying to maintain, which lasted only a few months. By Jan 2017, I was 175 lbs again and super annoyed and unhappy with myself.

Part 2:
Life happens to all of us. During my weight loss break, I was adjusting to adult life, working on my career, and moving out of my parents house (had to move twice within 6 months!). Furthermore, I turned to my longtime habit and favored hobby of online gaming to cope with all the stress and unhappiness and wasn't regulating my food intake at all. I worked out on and off, but not with any discipline or consistency, and I found myself spiraling downwards yet again.

June 23, 2017 is the next turning point in my story. Sick of feeling depressed and angry at my lack of discipline and progress, I decided to give up online gaming completely and focus solely on weight loss. I'm the kind of person that intensely focuses and dedicates myself to one or two things at a time--to the point of obsession and perfection usually. I realized there was no way I could play these competitive games to the degree and caliber I wanted while also working on myself--weight loss, self-esteem, and depression control--to the same extent. So, I chose to give up my virtual self for the best possible version I could create of myself.

I started working out 5x a week consistently with a friend who was also losing weight. A month later, I felt much stronger, but the scale had only moved 3 lbs (from 170 to 167 or so). Feeling stuck, I realized my food intake was the problem, so, on Aug 9, 2017--having never been taught proper nutrition--I hired a nutritionist with a trainer background to help me with my diet. She helped me clean up my diet with permanent lifestyle choices; she helped me with my optimizing my workouts; she even helped me with some aspects of my depression and low self-esteem. By October 17, 2017, I had hit 144 lbs, losing a total of 23.7 lbs in a little over 2 months. Since then, I've been maintaining scale wise, but I'm eager to do my next in-body to see my BF% change (estimated at 23% now), since my goal is to get to 20% body fat.


(Obligatory after selfie in workout clothes =P)


What worked for me
This section will likely be controversial to people. Especially the CICO die-hards. Yeah, I get it, CICO works, but I don't particularly like eating stupid small portions just so I can have more rice or something. For me, the following things worked:

• Consistent working out (5+ times a week for 45+ minutes at a time)
• Weightlifting + cardio
• Cutting starches and going low carb (sorry carrots, potatoes, corn, rice, pasta, and bread)
• Not obsessing over calorie counting, but instead obsessing over which foods I ate
• Measuring my food
• Cooking a *kitten* ton more often
• Meal planning, and meal prepping breakfast
• Eating 3 meals and 2 snacks a day
• Eating every 3-4 hours
• Eating a *kitten* ton more vegetables (hello cauliflower, my new best friend)
• Incorporating the "never two days in a row" rule
• Working in a treat once a week (alcohol or dessert usually)
• Telling people I'm losing weight so I don't want x, y, or z
• Cutting restaurant portions in half or asking for substitutions
• Accepting help and asking questions
• Weighing myself daily and recording my weight weekly
• Giving each new change a 1 month trial period. If it didn't work after that, i would change something.

What didn't work

• Calorie obsession still led me to try to work in dessert or calorie-dense foods still because I thought I could have it everyday. I ended up always at maintenance or over goal as a result.
• Cardio only exercise
• Cutting out the fun stuff (alcohol, dessert)
• Not exercising
• Eating back my exercise calories
• Being impatient and not enjoying the process
• Not telling people what my goals and intentions are
• Trying to finish all the food on my plate to be "respectful"
• Reading a million contradictory articles and blogs about nutrition and fitness (just choose a diet or fitness plan and stick with it for a while)
• Travelling without a plan
• Not meal planning
• Not measuring food at each meal

What I do now
Today, I remain on a low-carb diet with hardly any rice, pasta, bread, or other starchy and carb-heavy foods. I don't plan on going back. I feel better this way. I cook 6/7 days a week on average and am looking to transition into a weekday vegetarian for a myriad of reasons. I work out 6 times a week, with 4 lifting days followed by some short cardio, and then 2 cardio days (urbankick). Ultimately, I'd like to get to 20% BF, which is about 5-8 lbs away. Still, I feel confident in who I am now, and I'm not obsessed with the scale or numbers anymore. I'm just happy to keep working hard and grateful to be healthy and strong.

Feel free to send me any questions you might have, and I'll try to answer as best I can.