I Lost 30 Pounds and Here’s Everything I Learned Along My Journey

Sarah Dunn (@sarahdunnfit) is a college student and weight loss warrior who lost 30 pounds in her Freshman year of college by making a few simple changes to her diet and fitness routine. In one of her viral videos, she reveals exactly how she transformed her body. “How I lost 30 pounds my freshman year of college,” she says at the start of the clip.

She Lost Her “Coach” and “Routine” When She Went to College

Sarah explains that while in high school she played lacrosse. “I've always had that structure of having a coach, having a routine, and just having to show up I guess.” However, when she went to Penn State for college, she “did not have that anymore” but was still eating the same way, she “kind of gained some unwanted weight” and ended up “skinny fat” but not fat.

She Started Lifting Weights

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“I started going to the gym, not really for the purpose of losing weight because I have been down that road so many times,” Sarah continued, explaining that she didn’t believe she could experience a “crazy transformation” like many girls on social media. “I have never lifted before I started going, that was a completely new thing for me. Had no idea what I was doing. Absolutely zero clue. Kind of just started to fall in love with it. It was fun. It was my escape of the day, especially my freshman year of college was the peak of Covid,” she continued.

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Early Morning Workouts

Because it was the pandemic, Sarah had to sign up for the gym ahead of time and “you were fighting for the time,” she said. “The only time slot that was ever open was 5:00 AM every single day. So that kind of forced me to build that habit of going at 5:00 AM every single day. It was literally the best part of the day. My alarm would go off at four-something in the morning. I would jump out of bed so happy because I'm like, ‘Oh my gosh, I get to go to the gym.’”

One Celsius Every Day

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She also started each day with an energy drink. “I would drink a Celsius every single day. This is not sponsored, ‘I lost 30 pounds drinking a Celsius every single day.’ No, I do not think it contributed to it. And no, they're not the best thing for you. But it didn't stop me from losing fat,” she explained.

A “Mindset Flip”

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“I think one of the biggest things that contributed to me reaching my goal was my mindset flip,” Sarah continued. “I always was working out for the sole reason to achieve the goal. I wanted to achieve, obviously, look better physically, but the time I actually did it and it was actually sustainable was when I just fell in love with the actual process.”

Maintaining a Caloric Deficit

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She also explained that it’s hard to figure out what to eat with dining hall food, even though the macros are listed, which “is super helpful for tracking,” she said. However, she notes that the portion sizes given to you are “a lot more than one serving size” so she would “just try to portion everything,” tracking her calories “very loosely because I had no idea what the exact amount of anything I was eating was” trying to stay within a caloric deficit.

She Took Weekends Off

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Sarah “tried to stay in the deficit five out of seven days of the week” but allowed herself a little wiggle room on the weekends so she could go out.

“I did not cut out my social life to achieve this goal. And I feel like that's one of the big things is you have to just make it a lifestyle balance. And if you cut out friends, you cut out social gatherings and all of the things, then that's not realistic. And the mindset I learned with food. If you are not planning on cutting out the food that you're thinking about cutting out for the rest of your life, do not cut it out while you're going through a journey. It's not worth it because as soon as you eat that food again, whatever it may be, pizza, ice cream, whatever, you're just going to gain weight back. You're cutting it out, you're going to shock your body when it has it again. It definitely took me a while to grasp that concept, but once I did changed everything.”

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Consistency

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Consistency “is the biggest thing,” Sarah concluded. “If you feel like you messed up on the weekend, you did not ruin your progress, just keep going, get right back at it Monday. It's not over. You did not ruin your progress or your journey. A journey's not always highs. A journey isn't a journey without its lows. Don't give up on yourself, especially if you know this goal will be in your mind until you get there. So just do it. Just take the time, do it, and be your most confident self.”

An RDN Weighs In On Her Workout

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The Body Network reached out to The Diet Diva, Tara Collingwood, MS, RDN, CSSD, LD/N, ACSM-CPT, a Board Certified Sports Dietitian to weigh in on her tips. “I love this approach and mindset,” says Collingwood. She went in just wanting to be healthy and toned so lifting weights was a natural to go towards. It’s funny how normally a college kid wouldn’t exercise at 5 AM, but if that is your only option, it makes it easier to get up and go because you know it’s your only chance for the day.”

Related: I’m a Dietitian and I Lost 100 Pounds With These Delicious Foods

An RDN Weighs In On Her Diet

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“The balance of aiming for calorie deficit most days of the week is good and mixing that with having some fun with friends and not being as strict one or two days is good,” she continues. “Depriving doesn’t work, but limiting portions and frequency of higher calorie foods can work. I also love the advice of the highs and lows. There is no such thing as perfect. You aim to do well but if you have some moments that you indulge, it’s OK. You just get right back to it and keep going.”

💪🔥Body Booster: If you are struggling to lose weight, take a moment to ponder on your mindset. Try and shift ideals or goals that aren’t working.

Kiki (@kikivirk) is a weight loss influencer who has amassed a social media following for sharing all the tips and tricks that enabled her to lose a whopping 60 pounds and keep it off. In one of her viral videos – viewed over 8 million times, Kiki reveals the biggest weight loss mistake she made on her journey – and also what ultimately led to her weight loss success.

She Says Doing High Intensity Workouts Were a “Huge Mistake”

“I was so motivated to lose weight and I wanted to see results fast, but I didn't do my research and I jumped straight in, literally into a high intensity, 90 day workout plan. Huge mistake,” Kiki says in the video.

After 45 Days She Hadn’t Lost Weight

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After a month-and-a-half, she didn't feel like she'd lost any weight. “I was overdoing it. The long, painful HIIT workouts were actually doing my body no good. They were causing it too much stress and loads of other problems,” she says.

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She Had “Weight Plateaus” and “Felt So Hungry and Fatigued”

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In another video, she specified that she was doing “high intensity cardio” five times a week in hopes it “would burn fat fast and give me my dream body,” she explained. “But instead, I had weight plateaus and felt so hungry and fatigued.

Her Fat Began to “Melt Off” When She Started Strength Training

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“Literally, as soon as I started strength training and less cardio, the fat began to melt off, and the lean muscle mass I gained gave me the tone look I'd always wanted,” she continued.

Her Program: LISS, Walking, Strength and Resistance Training, and a Short HIIT Workout

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Her program starts with doing 45 to 60 minutes of LISS cardio four times a week. She also walks 7 to 12,000 steps every day, does strength and resistance training three times a week, and a 15-minute HIIT workout once a week.

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An Expert Weighs In

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“What she says is definitely spot on,” says Kendra Gamble, HIT Fitness Training, Huntingdon Valley, PA, NPTI Certified Personal Trainer and Nutritional Consultant. “Intense cardio and intense HIIT more than twice a week will do the body more harm than good and is not the way to lose fat and get that toned look.” Instead, she agrees that “increasing your everyday steps is more of the most important and beginner things you can do to start losing fat along with getting your diet right.” Unfortunately, “fat loss is not an immediate thing and will take time and dedication but she explains it all perfectly.”

💪🔥Body Booster: If you are a beginner trying to lose weight, starting by increasing your steps and modifying your diet instead of going overboard with higher intensity workouts.

If you have a lot of weight to lose, it can seem hopeless and impossible. However, Samantha Costa, a 23-year-old influencer, lost a whopping 60 pounds in 3 months. In a viral YouTube video, she explains exactly how she did it, and a lot of it had to do with shifting her perspective and overall approach to weight loss.

Losing 60 Pounds in 6 Months with PCOS

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She starts with her backstory: In 2018 she was diagnosed with PCOS (polycystic ovary syndrome), which resulted in weight gain. “I fluctuate weight a lot and it also affects my periods. With that being said, because I was diagnosed with PCOS, I put on a lot of weight very fast, and it wasn't a type of weight that was healthy,” she said. Costa, who is five-foot-one, topped the scale at around 200 pounds. “Being in a place where I knew I wasn't healthy was really scaring me.” At the time she was able to drop 50 to 60 pounds in “five to six months” by going to Orangetherory and eating right. “I think I weighed around 196 pounds and I got down to around 135,” she specified.

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The Power of Whole Grains

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Her main dietary change at the time involved swapping out white carbs with whole grain and whole wheat. “I literally had grilled chicken, pasta, grated cheese, and tomato sauce every single day because that's what made me happy,” she said. After graduating from college in May 2022, “and I honestly was a very steady weight of around probably 129 pounds to 140 throughout all of my senior year of college,” she felt like she was at a healthy weight for herself around 135 pounds. She spent the summer lifeguarding. “I was having a really fun time, and honestly everything was going very well,” she continued.

A Stressful Job Ruined Her Health and Happiness

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However, in August she started her “big job at a big four company” and it was “the downfall of everything,” she claims. “I'm not going to talk too much about it, but the stress of that job, which I am no longer working in, was very, very hard for me.” She stopped working out and spent most of her free time isolating. Over a period of about 7 months she probably gained 60 to 70 pounds, and was “very, very sad,” she says. “I wasn't happy with how I looked and I was having a hard time with it, but it was more that I knew I wasn't healthy and I knew I needed to get healthy because of this. I would always tell myself, ‘You know what? You did it once. You can definitely do it again.’”

From 10,000 Steps to 500

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She couldn’t motivate herself to go to fitness studio again, “something that I used to love going to do,” she says. While she used to walk 10,000 steps a day, she “was lucky if I hit probably 500 steps a day because I was always at my computer, always doing something for work, and there was really just no time for me to do it.”

She Lost 10 Pounds in a Week and Kept Going

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Every day she looked in the mirror and told herself “in three months from now, you will look so much better. You'll feel so much better, which is the most important, and you will want to do things because you started.” Eventually she started seeing progress, claiming that she lost 10 pounds in one week, which she knew was water weight. Within a few weeks she noticed a “little bit of a difference” and once she started to see that difference, “it was a lot easier to believe in myself and notice that there was real progress happening and that there was change happening, which allowed me to keep going within my journey.”

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The Secrets to Her Success

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She revealed that she did keto, which is “very hard to sustain,” she admits. “It was very hard for me to eat a certain amount of carbs every single day, and it was very hard for me to cut out sugar. I'm someone who loves sugar, but I knew that in order to be in a healthy place again, and in order to get to my goal in the most efficient way, especially with summer coming up, I needed to do something that would really change and really allow my body to adapt.” She also emphasizes the importance of protein. “Eating carbs is something that obviously we all need. I am not saying don't eat carbs. Please eat your macros. Please eat carbs. Please allow yourself to have the energy that you need. I'm just saying what I did was I lowered the amount of carbs that I ate, but I was still eating enough to feel energized to be able to go to the gym and to give my body what it needs.”

She Increased Intake of Proteins and Exercised

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Amping up your protein intake may help you lose weight. According to clinical trials, consuming more protein than the recommended dietary allowance not only reduces body weight (BW), but also enhances body composition by decreasing fat mass while preserving fat-free mass (FFM) in both low-calorie and standard-calorie diets. She also went back to fitness studio four to five times a week, starting with gentle workouts and working her way up to more intense ones. She also recommends taking rest days.

Stay Motivated and Positive on Your Journey

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“In the beginning, you're probably going to feel like you can't do it and it's probably going to feel impossible, and if you are someone who doesn't feel like that, I give you so much credit because I've been there so many times and I felt like it was impossible every single time,” she adds. “The number one thing I want to tell you is to prove yourself wrong. Prove every single person that may have doubted you wrong. The only thing that matters is that you believe in yourself. The only thing that matters is that you have the mindset that will allow you to feel better, and every single time you question yourself, make one of those videos, take progress pictures, tell yourself that you are so much better than you were even one day ago, and if you are really having trouble starting, just try for one day.”

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💪🔥Body Booster: Increasing your protein intake and decreasing your carbohydrates is a scientifically backed tactic for weight loss. However, you still need a sufficient amount of carbs to stay energized.