10 of the most inspiring weight loss stories from this year
- As the New Year approaches, weight loss might be on your list of resolutions.
- It can be tough to stay motivated to stick with losing weight, but inspiration can sometimes help.
- People also have vastly different weight loss journeys, whether it's by following a specific diet program or just by counting calories.
As we finish up 2018 and prepare to start fresh next year, losing weight will likely be on people's minds. Last year, weight loss (tied with being a better person) was the top New Year's Resolution, according to a Marist poll, and the year before, weight loss and exercising more tied for second place.
However, losing weight can be tough, especially without outside inspiration. It can also be hard to remember that everyone loses weight in different ways.
INSIDER has collected 10 of the most inspiring weight loss stories of 2018.
Dara Sarshuri lost 180 pounds in just 10 months this year just by diet and exercise
Dara Sarshuri weighed 390 pounds in February this year and said he was shocked by the number.
"It was way more than I thought," the 35-year-old told TODAY. "I was just mad at myself. It really just hit me and I thought, 'You got to do something. You are almost 400 pounds.'"
At first, he decided on gastric bypass surgery and had to lose some weight ahead of the procedure. In his first two months following an eating plan, he lost 55 pounds. He lost 45 more by June, a total of 100 pounds.
It was at that point he decided not to go forward with the surgery. He had also started exercising, first just by walking. He eventually joined a gym and goes five days a week, still walking on the weekends.
"I am stronger than I ever thought I was. I never had any confidence and now I see how far I have come. I can run. I can do burpees. I can do push-ups. I can do planks. I take these small victories," he told TODAY.
Rachel Saintfort lost 121 pounds by cutting fast food and soda from her life.
"In high school, I hit 200 lbs., but I was blessed to be a confident person," Saintfort told People magazine.
After the birth of her daughter in 2007, however, things changed for Saintfort. Weighing 291 pounds, her highest, she decided to try dieting. But it wasn't until her daughter turned 10 and one of her classmates called Saintfort "fat" that she made lasting changes.
"She looked so sad, and she’s trying to act like it wasn’t a big deal. At that moment it hit me that she’s suffering, and she’s being picked on or laughed at because of my laziness or my unhealthy choices," Saintfort told the magazine.
She cut out fast food and soda and started doing daily three-mile walks around the lake in her town.
Barry Parkes lost 122 pounds in a year and a half with his Fitbit
Barry Parkes never really worked out and didn't eat healthily, but thought he was fine as long as he didn't weight 300 pounds. However, when he got to the point where he did weigh 325 pounds, he knew something had to change.
"That's when it really hit me," he told Men's Health. But he didn't quite know where to start in order to make a lasting impact until one of his coworkers recommended getting a Fitbit.
The device and app helped Parkes create a calorie budget and he also started going on daily walks with his wife.
After about a year and a half, he lost 122 pounds. He said he now has more energy and doesn't snore anymore. Plus, he and his wife have found they're even more in love than before, he told the outlet.
"The key is you got to commit to it first," he said. "You got to be at the point where enough is enough. You got to commit to doing it and then you've got to stick with it and be consistent."
Jen Wagner has lost 88 pounds since February without even going to the gym
Jen Wagner had always been athletic, but when she got married, she stopped working out and gained 100 pounds, reaching her highest weight of 240 pounds in 2017.
"I felt like a stranger in my own body. I didn't recognize my own reflection, and when I would see photos of myself, I was disgusted. I didn't know who that was," she told Popsugar.
Though she had tried for six years to lose weight on fad diets and different programs, she finally buckled down in February this year. She started with her diet, first on keto, then to low-carb. Now she tracks her calories using MyFitnessPal and does intermittent fasting.
She also exercises by playing tennis, swimming, walking with hand weights, jumping on trampolines with her daughter and even doing yard work.
"I never did something that made me miserable and not want to do it again," she told POPSUGAR. "I haven't stepped foot inside of a gym even one time on this journey."
Her ultimate goal is to lose the 100 pounds she gained after getting married and she documents her journey on Instagram.
"The thing I hear the most from people is that I look like a new person," she wrote on Instagram recently. "I agree, since I often don't recognize myself when I pass a mirror or a window, but more important than that, I FEEL like a new person! I feel like the person I had longed to be all those years I was overweight."
Joey Morganelli has lost 150 pounds by going vegan
Both of Joey Morganelli's parents died when he was a teenager, his mother from cancer when he was 13, and his father from a heart attack when he was 16. He began to cope with food but didn't realize he was developing an addiction to food, according to what he told Men's Health. By the time he was 18, he weighed about 312 pounds, and that number eventually rose to 400.
After encouragement from a professor during his freshman year, Morganelli decided to try to lose weight. At first, he lost some weight by counting calories but his weight fluctuated for several months because he sometimes binged.
One day he had a panic attack but thought it was a heart attack. He decided then that it was time to completely change his diet. He decided to go vegan.
"Since starting my weight loss journey, I have seriously learned so much about nutrition and what works for me that it's becoming a passion of mine," he wrote on Instagram. "If there's one thing about Nutrition that EVERYONE knows, it's that there's always a new fad diet or there's always a pill or some shakes to take … Over these past four years, I've learned so much about what my body likes and this is it. I'm focusing on a high-carb-low-fat vegan diet that is based on foods in their purest form."
Since then, he has found both his physical and mental health improved drastically and his weight is down to 250 pounds.
Joanna Wilcox lost 60 pounds on the keto diet
Joanna Wilcox wrote about her weight-loss journey for Prevention stating that she'd always had unhealthy eating habits and after the birth of her two children, they only got worse.
"I was eating fast food just to have a break in my day," Wilcox wrote in Prevention.
This all changed when she decided to see a certified psychotherapist for the emotional eating she was doing "to cope with the stress and isolation of [her] job."
Her psychotherapist suggested she try a low-carb diet and Wilcox decided on the keto diet. She stuck to the diet and slowly incorporated exercise into her routine, including training for a 5k.
She went from weighing 203 pounds to 143 pounds.
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