Black Weight Loss Success

The Official Blog of the Black Women Losing Weight Community. Tips, articles and weight loss resources for African American Women.

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Ajima Jackson

Natasha lost 37 pounds in 6 months

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Today’s featured weight loss success story: Natasha lost 37 pounds by using a weight release plan from her weight loss doctor and by working out. Here is what she shared with us about her weight loss journey:

Natasha weight loss photos

“I love your stories! I lost 30 pounds in 4 months by eating chicken seafood and certain veggies cheese and yogurt. I was diagnosed with Rheumatoid disease AND Fibromyalgia!! I was 25 at the time.  I was also consistently in pain and could not lose weight no matter how much I worked out or ate organic food and fruits! I went to a weight loss doctor and got on their plan.  In the morning I eat yogurt and turkey sausage.  For lunch I would have one chicken breast baked with salad with lemon.  My dinner was fish or shrimp with mix vegetables everyday and for a snack cheese.

What did I do to workout: I work at a clinic so I constantly walked but on Sundays I did bike riding, hiked Stone Mountain (GA) or ran down Peachtree St. here in Atlanta. My starting weight was 238 pounds! I now weight 201 pounds. It took me 6 months to lose the weight. In September 2013, I didn’t even know that I lost so much weight because I wear scrubs to work! I finally realized that all of my clothes did not fit.  That’s when I knew I finally started the process of my weight loss story!”

Natasha weight loss photos

Tiffani lost more than 50 pounds

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Let’s show some love to Tiffany.  Like many sistas, she doesn’t have photos to share at her highest weight but she is sharing photos of the most recent 50 pounds she dropped.  Here is what she shared with us about losing the pounds:

Tiffani weight loss photos

“Hi, my name is Tiffani and I just wanted to share about how I lost 50 lbs. I was continuously on & off of Weight Watchers. At my biggest, I was 239 pounds (Unfortunately, I don’t have pics of me being that size). I’m 5’7″ and I was about 200 pounds in the picture to the left, the picture on the right is me at 150 pounds.  I loved soda, chips, fast food, any and everything that wasn’t healthy for me. I finally got tired of going to Weight Watchers when I felt like it was a waste of money. So, I started to count my calories. Eating 1250 calories a day is very hard, but its about making smarter choices. I’m so happy with me right now. It’s unbelievable!!! I NEVER would of thought I’d be where I am today. If it weren’t for God, I’d still be lost. Ladies you can do it, you just have to find what works for you!”

Krystina lost 103 pounds

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Update June 2015: Hi, Just wanted to update you all! I’ve lost 15 lbs since you shared my story back in November 2013. I’ve been working on gaining muscle now, so hopefully I’ll have a six pack by continuing my weight training. This was all done with no surgeries. To be honest I did reach a standstill where I didn’t think I could lose anymore weight or gain muscle and I became frustrated. Then I asked myself, “Are you really doing everything that you could possibly do? Are you really pushing yourself to the max?” So, I’ve joined a gym and I treat the gym like my second home. I starting lifting along with cardio workouts. I’m there 5 days a week. When they say that this journey is not just a diet, it it’s a lifestyle change…that true. It’s all mind over matter

krystina weight loss update

Today’s featured weight loss success story: Krystina lost 103 pounds.  This weight loss dynamo chronicles her weight loss journey on Instagram and it is IMPRESSIVE.  Here is what she shared with us:

Krystina weight loss photos

I’ve gone from 265 pounds to 142 pounds without surgery!  I’ve been overweight ever since I can remember. It’s always been a struggle. One time my mother bought me Slim Fast for a birthday gift. On November 30 2012, I looked in the mirror and just cried.  I cried like a little baby because I wasn’t happy with the person that I saw. That’s the moment I decided to finally lose weight. I started eating lean meat, fruits, and veggies. I also started and completed one round of the insanity workout. Believe it or not, I started noticing results the first week. It’s been one hell of a roller coaster experience, but it’s worth every bit of the frustration, tears, and sweat. You can see my weight loss journey on my instagram: @together_wecan

Krystina weight loss story

Sky lost 36 pounds

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Today’s featured weight loss story: Sky lost 36 pounds.  She was suffering from psoriasis and had just been diagnosed with diabetes when she began her journey. Here is what she shared with us:

Sky weight loss photos

“Okay, here is my story: After giving birth to my son three years ago, I could not get my weight below 250 pounds to save my life. I was diagnosed with psoriasis (a deficiency that causes scaly dry skin on my arms and legs). I think the psoriasis came from the Mirena IUD, but that’s another story. At any rate the doctor ran some test and found that I also suffer from Type 2 Diabetes. Most family on my Dad’s side has gone blind, lost limbs, and even died from Diabetes. After that visit I had to get serious about losing this weight.  From 2012 to 2013, I went from 250 to 214 pounds.

How am I doing it? Well, I have a regiment that I follow. I have replaced most of my meals with fresh fruits and vegetables. I drink a warm glass of water with fresh squeezed lemon EVERY MORNING. In the afternoon I eat light and take a couple of shots of Apple Cider Vinegar with the Mother.  I try to stay away from sugary stuff..I make my own juice and eat fruit most of the time. I rotate my workouts between Dancing with the Stars Latina Version (great for the core and cardio) and the ab challenge.

I have to thank my girls in @Southern Girls Lose Weight Too for their support and motivation! Taniqua NeNe Howard, Tanesha Johnson, Rashaunda Jarmon, Kea Bradshaw…love you ladies!”

6 Thanksgiving Desserts for Dieters

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The holidays are a time when you want to indulge and have fun but if you are on a weight loss journey that can be difficult when it comes to eating.  There is so much temptation around, but you don’t have to give in and eat something that will be a step off the healthy eating wagon. Here are 6 dessert ideas that you can make and give yourself a healthy, regret-free treat during the Thanksgiving season.

CorePower Pumpkin Mousse
Photo: CorePower

1. FitFork recently did a guest post for CorePower protein powder and created an awesome recipe for CorePower Pumpkin Mousse.

2. Eating Well’s Indoor Smores are just 98 calories per serving.

3. Missing your aunt’s peach cobbler?  Check out this low fat version of the classic posted by a Spark People member.

4. Check out FitDay for a Frozen Pumpkin Mousse Pie recipe that you can make and take to your holiday gatherings to share the low cal love.  279 calories per serving.

5. Taste of Home’s Mock Strawberry Cheesecake Tart clocks in at 137 calories per serving, but gives you that great cheesecake taste.

6. Yahoo posted an awesome Raw Vegan Apple Pie recipe.  Perfect for all my vegans and vegetarians who want to share a treat that everyone will love.

Looking for more ideas for eating healthy during the holidays? You will find tons of recipes on Pinterest.

What is the Keto Diet?

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low carb fishThe ketogenic diet, better known as the “keto” diet, is a diet that was originally developed to help people with difficult to control epilepsy (specifically, children with epilepsy). It is a high-fat, moderate protein, low carbohydrate diet. Here’s why it has been recommended for epilepsy: Carbohydrates are important for brain function, usually in the form of glucose. If there are very few carbohydrates in the diet, the liver is forced to do something different to make up for it. The liver converts the fat into fatty acids and a substance known as ketone. Ketone bodies replace the glucose, and are used in the brain instead. Apparently, this state of elevated ketone levels (known as ketosis), actually helps to reduce how often seizures occur in epileptics (not a cure all but it has worked for some people).

Before the keto diet, the original diet for children with epilepsy gave children enough protein for body growth, proper development, and any repairs that may have been necessary. The diet also had just enough calories to help maintain appropriate weight for the child’s age. This adaptation threw in the fats at a 4:1 ratio so that the body can be forced into ketosis. This is achieved by excluding high-carbohydrate foods such as starchy fruits and vegetables, bread, pasta, grains and sugar, while increasing the consumption of foods high in fat such as cream and butter. Full-fat dairy is an incredibly important part of the Keto diet.

If you’ve understood everything that I’ve talked about, you can understand how the Keto diet could be adapted for fat-burning. It’s actually become an popular way for bodybuilders and weight loss enthusiasts alike to lose excess fat and tone up. The low carb fashion of the diet is what draws most people to it, especially because it would seem counter-intuitive to eat a high fat diet in order to lose fat (even though the body needs fat too.)

Basically, the understanding that those who are trying to lose weight have about the diet is that your body isn’t really consuming carbohydrates at all, and so the body will “mistake” fat for carbohydrates. So that means that, instead of burning those carbohydrates for energy, you’re now burning the fat for energy instead. As we talked about above, your body will start burning the fat into Ketone bodies, and in the end the fat is assumed to develop into healthy energy.

This also reduces the insulin production in your body. When your insulin production is at almost zero, the amount of Glucagon is increased greatly. At this point in the keto diet, your body’s fat burning ability is kicked in to high gear and fat storage is slowed or halted.

So what can you eat on the Keto diet? Here’s a basic list of ideas.

Vegetables:

  • Broccoli
  • Celery
  • Asparagus
  • Lettuce
  • Spinach
  • Cucumbers

Meats and Dairy:

  • Pork
  • Beef
  • Chicken
  • Fish (especially fatty fish like salmon and swordfish).
  • Ham
  • Cheese
  • Butter
  • Mayo

Other foods:

  • Extra Virgin Olive Oil
  • Nuts
  • Peanut Butter
  • Eggs
  • Whey Protein

As with any diet that goes to extremes, there are some things that you will need to watch out for. First off, your body stores a lot of carbohydrates to start with and if you don’t exercise much, you can get through a day without a lot of carbs. The problem comes in when you’re active and you aren’t eating a lot of carbs. You’re going to burn a lot of those carbs, and you’re going to burn all of your glycogen stores. Here’s the problem: glycogen holds up to four times its weight in water. So yes, not only are you starving, you’re also dehydrated, and you won’t be able to have enough energy to do anything because fat burns more slowly than carbs do. As with any weight loss plan, you should talk to a doctor about all the risk before even considering a plan like this.  There are a lot of low carb plans out there for you to choose from, so consider all the options if you want to go low carb.

The HCG Diet: What Is It and How Does It Work?

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HCG diet planHave you ever heard of HCG or the HCG diet?  It’s been one of the top diet crazes around in the last few years and some people swear by it.  Others think it could cause health issues or that it’s just a fad.  I thought that I’d give you some background info so that you can make your own choice.

What is HCG?  HCG, the abbreviation for human chorionic gonadotropin, is actually found in a woman’s urine during pregnancy. When this was discovered in 1927, it started the journey to the first modern pregnancy tests. To this day, pregnancy tests still use HCG as a determining factor for pregnancy.

But there was something else really interesting about HCG that was discovered as well. Apparently, the substance makes sure that developing fetuses get exactly what they need to grow, no matter what mom has been eating or how much mom eats. The HCG is produced early in the cycle. The fact that women gain weight in areas like the thighs, buttocks, and stomach is impacted by HCG. Once pregnant, these fatty areas make HCG and get it to the baby; that way, if a woman doesn’t get the food she needs during pregnancy, the fat in her body makes sure that the baby is fed properly. HCG levels peak at 14 weeks of pregnancy. It also helps with genital development within the womb as well.

So how in the world does this even relate to a diet and losing weight? About a decade later, a doctor was doing research on the use of HCG in boys who were having issues with hormone imbalance in adolescence. This doctor, A.T.W Simeons, noticed that these boys were losing weight by eating much less and without struggling with hunger. This made him have an interest in using HCG as a diet aid, and in the 1950’s he published a paper talking about its uses; he even developed a regimen to use alongside HCG injections.

Here’s what a typical 26 day cycle of the HCG diet looks like.

  • 23 of the days require daily HCG doses, either with drops or injections.
  • Calories are reduced to 500 calories per day after the third day of HCG doses.
  • Your diet needs to be high in protein, low in starches, carbohydrates, and high fat foods.
  • Diary, sugar, and alcohol are not permitted while on the HCG diet; if you “cheat” on the diet, you need to fast for 24 hours by drinking water and eating six apples, nothing more.

Sometimes, the HCG diet lasts up to 43 days (with 40 daily injections or drop doses), but the treatment will cease after a patient has lost 40 pounds before the agreed on time has passed. The last three days of the cycle are without injections so that the HCG is totally extracted from the body before a normal diet is started again. The diet can last no longer than 40 days, because there seems to be some sort of immunity to the drug that develops after that period of time.  So, basically, your body is able to deal with the super low calories because of the affects of the HCG.  Super low calories for 30-40 days…you lose weight (That’s in most cases.  Not a given or fact because each person is unique).

As you could imagine, there are a number of people who are opposed to the HCG diet for a number of different reasons. First off, the hormone can cause a number of different issues, including headaches, blood clots, constipation, depression, and breast enlargement. Women on the HCG diet have complained about feeling like they are pregnant (which seems like an obvious side effect, since it only occurs naturally during pregnancy). There are a number of issues that can come from that as well.

Another, obviously, dangerous part of the HCG diet is that ridiculously low calorie intake. 500 calories does almost nothing for your body. Even if you are trying to lose weight, it is recommended that you eat somewhere between 1,200 and 1,500 calories a day minimum and 1,500 to 1800 minimum if your are exercising. 500 calories doesn’t even touch that. So obviously, you really don’t have the ability to do anything strenuous in terms of working out because you’ll have no energy to do it with. Another issue is that, after restricting your calories that much, you’re likely to gain weight back more quickly when you resume normal eating. Recently, I’ve seen more Homeopathic HCG plans with 1000 calories as the suggested calories per day, which is much better but still very low if you are exercising.

Ultimately, you have to weigh the pros and cons and make your own decision.

Note: The FDA has banned over the counter Real HCG products marketed as weight loss aids and they are illegal.  You shouldn’t be able to find much on the market with real HCG in it right now, therefore the herbs, ingredients, etc in these products varies.  You have to be very careful because you could be allergic to the ingredients or they could be harmful to you. The bottom-line is that the “HCG” drops or shots could be harmless for you but harmful for someone else and vice versa…like any diet pill or aid.  BE CAREFUL! If you decide to try a plan like this, talk with your doctor first.

Dr. Oz Show – Weight-Loss Controversy: HCG Diet, Pt 1.

Does the HCG diet work — and is it safe?

 

Mary J. Blige Looks Amazing in a Bikini on the Cover of Shape

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Mary J Blige Shape Magazine
Mary J. Blige Cover – All Rights Reserved DON FLOOD/SHAPE MAGAZINE

Oh My Goodness.  I must add the R&B queen Mary J. Blige to my list of Ab Divas after seeing the new Shape Magazine cover featuring her for their December Issue.  WOW!!  Do you see those abs!  Fitspiration!

In the article, she talks about her new holiday album and how she is committed to not over doing it with holiday temptations.  She also says that she has embraced running for cardio and tries to get in 6 to 8 miles per week. She has even learned to swim for exercise.

They also talked with her about how she has been sober for 1 year and 3 months.  I think that is always a blessing when stars like Mary talk about their struggles with substance abuse.  Someone needs to hear that and understand that they are not alone.

ON Eating Habits, she says: “Diet, of course, plays a central role in how she looks and especially how she feels. She cut out sugar for three weeks before her cover shoot and sticks to a gluten-free, dairy-free and low-carb diet most of the time.” – Shape Magazine.  Click here to read the full article.

Now my one slight issue:  Where are her tattoos? The one on her right arm and on her right leg are missing.  You can see them in photos here.

Never-the-less, make sure that you buy this magazine when you see it on the rack.  We have to let the publishing industry know that we want to see more fit and healthy black women featured on their covers.

 

Shawana lost 40 and and kept the weight off

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Today’s featured weight loss story: Shawana lost 40 pounds in 2012 and kept the weight off even after having a baby girl earlier this year.  This proud and busy mom of 7 ate healthy and did not go overboard with pregnancy pounds.  Read her story:

shawana weight loss success

“Greetings!! My name is Shawana Livingston and I have been inspired to share my story. I am a 35 year old wife, mother of seven, student and Minister who has had success in losing weight, although I still have a ways to go. I began my transformation in 2011 after weighing in a 280 (the first picture). In the second picture, taken in March 2012, I lost about 40 pounds due to exercise and healthy eating.  I really worked hard, with nothing but exercise and changing my  eating habits. I stopped eating pork and beef and I now enjoy working out, and feeling great. One month after the 2nd picture, we went on family vacation to the beach and we got pregnant on April 1st 2012, coincidentally April Fool’s day!! (God has a great sense of humor:) Instead of over-eating during my pregnancy, I still maintained a healthy routine and only gained six pounds the entire time. I gave birth on January 8th, 2013 to our last little baby girl. I took the third picture about 3 weeks ago to track my progress.

If I could say anything to your followers it would be to stay motivated, despite anything you may come against. I have a busy schedule but always try and make time to do some kind of workout. I am not where I want to be physically, but I can thank God because I am not where I used to be. There has been progress and it is important to celebrate your success, no matter how small. The weight will come off if you stay persistent but you are the only one that can do something about it. Find your inner strength and go for it!!”

Cheryl lost 40 pounds

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Let’s show some love to Cheryl.  She lost 40 pounds and was able to improve her pre-diabetes diagnosis.  Here is what she shared with us:

Cheryl weight loss story

“My name is Cheryl Miller and I am 42 years old. I started my journey last October (2012) while weighing 262 pounds. I was placed on medication for hypertension and was using a Cpap machine.  I was also diagnosed as being pre-diabetic. I didn’t love myself and felt miserable. I walked in a gym for the first time to change my life. Now, I have a personal trainer,  work out 5 days a week at the gym and do cardio on the weekends. My diet changed from carbs and fried foods to eating mostly chicken, fish and veggies. 40 pounds later, I weigh 224 pounds. I feel wonderful. My blood sugar went from 162 to 112 and my A1C from 6.5 to 5.8 because of my new lifestyle. My goal is to be the healthiest I can be and be medication free in 2014. I want women to see my story and become inspired to improve their lifestyle. Thank you for taking the time to view my story.  I can be found on Facebook and Instagram @sassy_fit_girl”

Cheryl before and after photos