Success Story: Carla

Carla, Age 38, Height 5ft 10in

Start Weight	12st 12lbs
Current Weight	11st
Goal Weight	11st
Weight Lost	1st 12lbs
Working to Rate of Loss	1lbs per week
Time Taken	9 months

Dieting History

No named diets just calorie counting using a book.

Have you lost weight before and regained the weight?

I have lost and gained weight throughout my adult life.

I have varied in weight between 9st 7lbs and 13st and usually I have been lighter when I have been unhappy or stressed.

How being overweight has affected you…

When I got pregnant with my first child in 2001, I was already slightly overweight and I remember going on holiday with friends to Ibiza and being glad that I was pregnant because I could blame the way I looked in shorts or a swimming costume on the pregnancy.

"I was fooling myself a little as I was only 2 months gone and that doesn’t really show at all."

After I had my first child in 2002, I lost the baby weight naturally but I was still overweight and then I started to comfort eat due to stress and loneliness when on maternity leave as well as being undiagnosed anaemic in the first few months of my son’s life.

"I was very unhappy with how fat I looked and hated looking at pictures of myself during this period." 

I remember going to one of my best friend’s weddings when my son was 6 months old and feeling very upset that I couldn’t wear a pretty party dress like lots of the other women there.

I was wearing drawstring trousers. I probably weighed over 13st at that time but I hadn’t stood on the scales for ages.

Motivation to Diet

I started with WLR after my son was born (July 2004).

I thought I might get pregnant again and I wanted to start from a good weight so that it would be easier to lose it after the second pregnancy.

After my second child was born in 2005 I started WLR again and I had the goal of getting down to the middle BMI of the healthy range for my height.

"I wanted to be really happy with my figure and be able to wear pretty much any clothes that I liked." 

I didn’t want to feel depressed and blame the pregnancy for the weight again as it wasn’t really due to that at all.

Discovering Weight Loss Resources

I Googled ‘calories’ or something and found the free trial offer. I haven’t stopped since really, other than when I was pregnant.

How Weight Loss Resources Helps

The first time I used it (July – Oct 2004) I went from 12st 12lbs to 11st 8lbs in 3 months. Then I got pregnant.

The second time I used it (I started 1 month after giving birth a second time) I went from 12st 12lbs to 11st exactly in 9 months (July 2005 to April 2006).

Since then I have gone up and down a bit but I used WLR to maintain my weight loss e.g. after going on holiday or Christmas when I have gone up to 11st 5lbs or something.

I am back down to my target weight after Christmas now.

"The site and the method of keeping a food diary and working towards daily-calorie targets suits me and my personality down to the ground."

It gives me something to aim for everyday and every week and I loved checking my daily and weekly totals and then also checking my weight loss every Monday morning.

I have learnt about ‘good’ and ‘bad’ foods and soon had things memorised as to what I could and couldn’t have safely.

I loved the idea of having a weekly total so you can roll-over calories not eaten (or calories earnt in exercise) from the beginning of the week into the weekend allowance.

"This really helped me to stay sane and have a few glasses of white wine and maybe go out for a nice meal at the weekends."

I found that I would have a good breakfast (porridge, wholemeal toast etc), a light lunch (ryvitas and low fat cheese and lots of salad) and a healthy dinner (fish, veggies) say Monday – Thursday.

Also I would exercise as much as possible – not easy whilst working and with two children but I went for lots of walks and managed to swim quite a lot.

Living in Brighton I can walk up hills quite a lot which is fantastic for banking those extra calories. Then Friday and Saturday I would have say 3 – 400 extra calories each day to play with – lovely!!

"I think having a target of 1lb a week weight-loss made it very easy to stick to and it didn’t impact on my life or ability to have fun too much." 

I can’t really stick to a much lower calorie diet as I need something to look forward to.

"One technique I have is to buy magazines and other non-food treats when out and about if I am tempted to buy chocolate."

I loved the goals and results bit of the website and all the detail it gives you about your diet and the graphs about how you have done so far etc. It really got me hooked in each week.

I have also read some really interesting articles on the site about particular diets.

"It made me realise that a balanced, low fat/calorie diet, combined with exercise, is really the only safe way to lose weight."

The Best of Weight Loss Resources

As mentioned I used the food and exercise diaries, the graphs and reports for goals and results and also some of the diet-related articles.

I didn’t get into the message board but I certainly talked to plenty of my actual friends about what I was doing and they were all very interested.

Carla's Calorie Counting Tips

Just set realistic targets and be realistic about what will keep you motivated.

I knew that setting targets and meeting them would motivate me. I love the little message you get at the end of each week if you have lost weight!