My name is Chelsie Whittier (@chelsgainshealth), and I am 34 years old. I live in Maine and am a commercial insurance agent. After reaching my heaviest weight of 250 pounds and going through a divorce, I made a decision to get healthy by combining the keto diet and intermittent fasting and switching from cardio to strength training for weight loss.
For most of my adult life I yo-yo dieted. I would stick to a very low-calorie diet and end up binging soon after because I felt so restricted and hungry. I would lose a few pounds and put it back on. In high school I lost some weight, but once I got pregnant with my first child I gained 75 pounds during pregnancy, and my weight issues became much worse.
When I was pregnant with my son, my weight was 300 pounds. I lost weight afterward and returned to 215 pounds at age 21, but when I turned 25, my weight climbed again to 250 pounds.
At that point, I didn’t even have any interest in trying to lose weight. Being medically overweight had just become a lifestyle to me. It was all that I knew. I suffered from chronic back problems, and I was a very inactive person.
When I was 29 I went through a divorce and knew I needed to make a healthy change.
I was now a single mom to two young kids, and I knew I needed to start taking better care of myself. They needed me to be healthy, so I started my journey.
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All I really knew at the time was calorie counting. I started using MyFitnessPal to track all of my food and exercise.
I would meal prep my breakfasts and lunches for the week and weigh all of it out and track it. Most of the time I would also meal prep my dinners and eat differently than my kids, but we would still eat dinner together.
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When I was one year into my weight loss journey I decided to try keto and intermittent fasting.
I lived a keto diet lifestyle for three years and lost 100 pounds. Keto was amazing for my weight loss progress. It kept me on track because it was very clear what I could eat. I tracked my calories and carbs and would very rarely eat off plan.
When I hit my goal weight I transitioned from the keto diet to macro counting and incorporated healthy carbs back into my diet.
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Here’s what I ate in a day on keto.
- Breakfast: I don’t eat breakfast when I am doing intermittent fasting.
- Lunch: Protein and a veggie. Usually chicken or ground beef with broccoli or green beans.
- Snacks: Some examples are protein bars, cheese, nuts, meats, or protein shakes.
- Dinner: Meat, veggie, and some form of dairy (for the healthy fat).
- Dessert: Sugar-free JELL-O with whipped cream.
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I didn’t have the means to go to a gym, so I found a few free apps on my phone to do exercises from home
I would use either my body weight, bands, or a few light dumbbells that I purchased. I started seeing weekly progress with my weight consistently going down, and it gave me so much more motivation to stick with it.
I was even able to start taking my kids out to go hiking and snowshoeing. I also started running some days around a loop near my house, and I tried P90x. After purchasing at-home gym equipment, we now have a full gym in our basement that I use five to six days a week.
These days, I mainly focus on weight training with light cardio.
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These three changes helped my weight loss become a success.
In total I lost 105 pounds, and it took me five years.
Once I hit my goal of losing 100 pounds, I had a belt lipectomy done in February 2021 where they removed five pounds of excess skin.
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My advice is to make yourself a priority, and don’t feel guilty for taking time for yourself to make yourself healthy. It takes time and it is not a constant downhill loss. There will be gains and plateaus, but you just need to keep showing up every single day for yourself. Make small and gradual changes so that you don’t restrict yourself to the point of binging or becoming unhappy.
It took me five years of hard work to lose the weight, but I learned so much about myself and my body. To me it wasn’t about being skinny—it was about being happy, healthy, and confident. My kids are my biggest supporters and they have been by my side and have seen how hard I have worked. They are always telling me that they’re proud of me.
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