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Tafara lost 51 pounds

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Today’s featured success story: Tafara lost 51 pounds after leaving the diet pills alone.  She went from 207 pounds (94kg) to 156 pounds (71 kg).

“Hi, i lost 23kg. The picture on the left was taken 2010. I tried diet pills and lost 10kg but they were not a long term solution as they made me paranoid, hypervigilant, drink lots of water, have nausea at the sight of fatty foods and i had massive palpitations. I stopped taking them and put on 20kg. I decided to do it the painful way but im still enjoying the benefits of eating healthy and exercising because i also managed to influence not only my family to do the same but my friends as well. Remember to achieve the goal you need to be consistant. Even if your body tells you no, tell yourself you can do it. Im happy now and so is my family.”

tafara before and after

LaKesha lost 45 pounds

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Today’s featured weight loss success story: LaKesha lost 45 pounds by eating clean and exercising.

lakesha lost 45 pounds

Hi,my name Is Kesha. I started my weight loss journey August 2012. My little sister Nicole Jones had lost alot of weight, and just seeing how good she look’d and how healthy she was INSPIRED me. She shared with me the tools i needed to lose weight instead of maintaining the weight I had. I’ve changed my eating habits, to “clean eating” & I exercise. In this collage my weight loss is 45 lbs.My journey is far from over, I have 70 more I would like to lose. However, I am excited about my current loss.This is NOT a diet to me, it’s my new way of LIFE. Thank you for allowing me to share ♥

Update:  LaKesha posted a video about her feature.  🙂

Datasha lost 103 pounds

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Today’s featured weight loss success story: Datasha lost 103 pounds by exercising and changing old eating habits.

Datasha lost 100 pounds

Here is what she had to say:

“Enough was just enough for me. I wanted a lifestyle change rather than a quick fix. For the most part, I’ve always been successful in just about everything I’ve decided to do. However, the weight seemed to have control, literally. I found myself doing extra to compensate for the weight gain. Until I said, Okay something has to give. Get control of yourself, and that’s when I considered Gastric bypass.

After going to the orientation, I was like whoaaaa, that’s pretty evasive surgery. I was under 35 years old and had never had surgery of any kind. However, I had to do something and continued in the process of the six-month weight management requirement, which included visiting a nutritionist once a month for six months. I promised myself and God that I would try to lose the weight without the surgery during the six month time period.

Needless to say I was scared straight! I started to do little by little, I’d never been on any kind of exercise program, and diets – you could forget it. I ate what I wanted to eat and when I wanted to eat it (late night snacking is the worst). But this time was life or death for me…. I meant business—I took back CONTROL over that area of my life. One step at a time…. I started exercising; I began to cut back on how much I ate and lessened my Pepsi intake day by day. Week after week, my old bad eating habits and lack of exercise changed gradually. And yes the results begin to roll in. Every month during my visits with the nutritionist she’d say “you’ve lost more weight?!?!?! And finally she mentioned that if I lost a few more pounds I would no longer be eligible for surgery. Well, I didn’t have Gastric Bypass and have lost over 100 pounds (103 to be exact) and counting….. YOU can too! To God be all the GLORY !”

Learn more about her journey at www.bodybytosha.com

Lisa lost 76 pounds

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Today’s featured weight loss success story: Lisa lost 76 pounds and became a Certified Personal Trainer and Certified Fitness Instructor.  She has provided the FULL details of her weight loss journey (below) and I think her story will resonate with a lot of BWLW Ladies.

Lisa Woods weight loss story
The small photo was at my heaviest weight of 200 lbs when I was about 20-21 years old. On the left is a pic of me in 2007 when I regained back 1/2 the weight I lost. On the right, recent photo.

She wrote us to say:

“Here is my weight loss success story! I am 34 years old, 5’3 and currently weigh 124 lbs. My starting weight was 200lbs. That was my heaviest weight when I was about 20-21 years old. After I graduated college and got a job, I started gaining weight from all the office lunches and morning meeting breakfasts. I wasn’t exercising so I went from a size 9 to a size 18 over a few years. Of course no one said anything to me about my weight but I knew something was wrong. I claimed that I didn’t have money to hire a trainer but I did have the money because how was I buying all the crap food I was eating? If I had the money to buy crap food, I had the money to invest in my health. I ended up hiring a personal trainer who ended up becoming my mentor. I took her aerobic classes and began working part time for her gym as front desk desk. I ended up losing 70 lbs!

Over the next few years I started teaching spinning classes at her gym and became a Certified Personal Trainer and Certified Fitness Instructor in 2005! But just like everyone else, there comes a time when you start to think that you can go back to eating whatever you want…I stopped counting calories and even though I was still working out every day, I started gaining weight again because I wasn’t eating properly. Which brings me to 2007 when of the 70 lbs I lost, I gained back 35 because I wasn’t eating correctly. By my wedding in June 2007, I was back up to 171! When I got back from our honeymoon, I buckled down again and got back on track. My clients stayed with me because I was on the same struggle as them. Personal trainers are human too…we fall and stumble just like everyone else. I got back on track and lost all the weight by counting calories, weighing and measuring my food and of course exercising. I also decided to start training to run half marathons, but I started off by running 5ks, then 10ks, a few 15ks and then the big one. I got my weight back down to 134.

By the end of 2009, I had run many 5ks, 10ks, 1 15k and 5 half marathons. At the end of January 2010, I was pregnant with my 1st child…even though I watched what I ate and worked out every day, I still managed to gain 36 lbs which once again brought my weight back up to 171 when I gave birth! I was so depressed because I didn’t want to have to go through the weight loss yet again but that’s exactly what I had to do. So it did it! I continued to workout at home, canceled my gym membership and got down to business! By 6 months post partum I was back to 134 (my pre pregnancy weight). I kept it going after that by joining myfitnesspal.com to keep track of everything that I ate. I continued to solely workout at home doing programs such as Insanity, Asylum vol and and i just completed Asylum vol 2! My exercise routine right now consists of interval and circuit training. I drink atleast 1/2 a gallon or more of water per day, eat over 100g of protein, I also monitor my carbs, far and sodium intake via myfitnesspal. I also completed 2 half marathons this year and will continue my running and sports specific exercises to bring my fitness to new level. I am currently 124 lbs and have been maintaining at this weight since March of this year. I am where I want to be and will continue to maintain at my current weight.

What I have learned through my journey is that once you get to your goal, the work doesn’t end there. You have to keep going and continue to watch what you eat because if not you will gain back the weight. I’ve also learned that I am capable of doing so much more than what my mind tells me! I tell my clients all the time to believe in themselves because each and every one of us has it in us to succeed! You just have to ask yourself, how bad do you want it? If you want it bad enough, you will stop making excuses why you can’t, and start coming with with reasons why you can! Once you do that, it will all fall into place but you have to do the work!! You have to keep pushing play every day and not let anything or anyone stand in YOUR way of getting to YOUR finish line!! I didn’t!! If I did it, you can do it!! Believe in yourself!! Invest in your health! It will be worth it in the end!!”

How many calories do I have to eat and burn to lose weight?

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A lot of people don’t know that what they eat can sabotage your exercise efforts. You can workout all day, but if you eat more calories then you burn (counting all the calories you burn, not just exercise), you will likely gain weight.  That is why so many people get discouraged after killing themselves daily in the gym.  They are not monitoring their caloric intake properly.  Thus, this is one of the reasons why I’m always suggesting MyFitnessPal to the Black Women Losing Weight community as a free tool that can help you to lose weight.

“A pound of body fat equates to approximately 3500 calories. So if you have a calorie deficit of 500 calories (meaning that you burn 500 calories more than you eat each day) you would lose approximately one pound per week.”  Find out more about this on a great website, Caloriesperhour.com

Gigi lost 50 pounds

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Today’s featured success story: Gigi lost 50 pounds using Myfitnesspal to manage her daily calories and exercising.  She says, “By HIS grace, I am healing.”

gigi weight loss

Here’s what she had to say…
“50 Pounds since June! Using myfitnesspal to track calories. It has been a life changing experience! Would love to share with anyone I can help! We are in this together!

At 306 pounds and 5′ 2 I could only walk for 10 min on the tread mill at 1.5 miles and hour. I was embarrassed but determined. It hurt my back to go any longer. I would add a few minutes to each session to build my stamina. That was in June. Now I’m happy to report that I’ve added strength training to include squats. My knees no longer hurt. I can walk at an incline at 4.5 miles an hour for 30 minutes. I go to the gym three times a week. Limited because of my job but I walk at home for 30 minutes. Don’t know how far. I gauge it by the minutes. Here is a better pic. I have 90 more to go but am confident that I will get there with the help of God and His mercy.”

Cindy lost 49 pounds

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Today’s weight loss success story:  Cindy lost 49 pounds by keeping calorie goals and working out at least 5 days per week.

cindy weight loss

Here is what she had to say about her weight loss journey:

“Hello BWLW!!!! I met someone online recently & saw their story posted on your wall so I wanted to share mine. I was always on the “thin” side growing up. Then around the age of 18 I started putting on weight but never as much as I did in ’08 after the birth of my daughter. I gained over 100 pounds. I decided in 2012 that THIS year would be MY “YEAR OF FITNESS.” Well, I am 49 pounds down and still going.   I am on a 1200 calorie intake per day eating plan and I workout at least 5 days per week…either jogging, walking, or weight lifting. Thank you for ALL the encouraging stories, pictures, and testimonies that you share. It has encouraged me greatly on this journey. YOU ALL ARE THE BEST!!!

Den-Ray lost 157 pounds

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Today’s featured weight loss story: Den-Ray lost 157 pounds by walking and using MyFitnessPal.com.  So many of the BWLW Ladies use MFP, so it’s great to hear about a major success story coming out of it’s use.  Check out what she had to say:

den-ray before and after photo

“I started by walking with my next door neighbor 3 times a week, my only goal was to make it a mile which took me half an hour. I lost about 50 lbs this way, just walking and not eating so much. My only rules were not to eat unless I was hungry and to stop eating when I was full. My neighbor soon reached her goal and stopped walking with me, I kept going because I liked the results. She was always encouraging and introduced me to myfitnesspal.com. The website helped me track calories without having to do heavy math. I started by trying to eat fewer than 2000 calories and soon moved down to 1200 calories a day. I lost about 75lbs this way but hit a plateau. So, on the advice of a doctor, I increased my exercise to 5 days a week, at least an hour, and began consuming 1500 calories a day. This was much easier to follow and I now eat around 1500 calories when I exercise and 1200 calories when I’m not exercising. I have 58 more pounds to lose to hit a healthy weight, but I know I can make it.”  Check out her Facebook Group.

What should Black Women Losing Weight’s December Challenge be?

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Update 11/28: The DECEMBER CHALLENGE goals are now available.  Thank you so much for voting in the poll.  Click here for the details!

Hey Ladies, It’s almost time for us to vote on our challenge for December.  Later this week, I will post the poll for you to weigh-in on and tell us what you think we should be doing for our challenge.  First, I’d like to get some feedback from you this weekend to factor into the choices we vote on.  What are your thoughts?

Thanks, Ladies!!

Nicolle lost 67 pounds

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Update 2016 – We featured Nicolle‘s weight release journey back in 2012 and she is still going strong. She lost 67 pounds, gained a few pounds back and now she’s working those off. Check out her update…

“I regained some weight and right now I’m working to lose the last 20 pounds that I regained. I am focusing on my eating habits, because you can’t outrun your fork. I have had a lot of support from a trainer who happens to be on Facebook. I believe that this time around I am going to take the slow and steady route rather than trying to get the weight off fast. Getting it off forever is much more important.”

nicolle before and after

Nov 2012 – Today’s weight loss success story: Nicolle lost 67 pounds by eating clean and exercising.

Nicolle weight loss

She said,
“I wanted to share my before and so far pictures with you. I started my weight loss journey at 244.4lbs.  In the first picture (with the tanktop) I was around 220lbs (5’9”).  I started my journey with weight watchers and am 8lbs away from my goal weight. 

I needed support and accountability so I purchased a three month pass to Weight Watchers. In the beginning I ate a lot of pre packaged meals and diet foods until I read the Eat Clean diet book by Tosca Reno. My diet now consists mainly of vegetables, fruits, nuts, and beans…and A LOT of water. I eat 4-5 small meals a day and track everything I eat in a food journal. I make sure to drink around 100 ounces of water per day.  As far as exercise is concerned, I started out walking and then joined a gym and did everything from the StairMill to spin classes. Now I mostly do weight training and speed walking. That has been important for me, only doing exercises that I enjoy and eating things that I like…I’m not going to stick with a program that I don’t like no matter how well it worked for someone else.

I am still a member of Weight Watchers and hope to lose the last 8lbs and meet my goal before the end of November (and before all of the holiday parties 🙂 Thank you for this page and all the support it offers!”