How I Lost 25 Pounds in 3 Months Without Starving Myself

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.”

Related: Fitness Expert's $5 a Day Meal Plan for Fat Loss

💪🔥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.

YouTube starJeff Hoogland lost a massive 40 pounds in just five months by switching up some very specific things in his lifestyle. “I got on the scale at a physical in February this year and clocked in over 220 pounds, which is the heaviest I'd ever been,” he says. “So after making some lifestyle choice changes here, about five months later, I am down 40 pounds, hitting the 180-pound goal that I initially set out for. I'm right around six foot, so that's a relatively healthy weight.” So, how exactly did he do it? Here are the three things Hoogland did to shift the weight and take control of his health.

Eating Less, Overall

Hoogland acknowledges that what works for him may not work exactly the same way for everyone—but he did keep weight loss as simple as possible. “There are a lot of great professionals and resources out there that you can reach out to if you're struggling to make changes yourself. That being said, what I did to find success in changing my weight really wasn't that complicated. At the core of it, I just made sure to start eating less. While that sounds really simple, there were three primary changes that I made that enabled this to be possible for me.”

Not Drinking Calories

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Hoogland stopped drinking his calories. “Basically, the only thing I drink these days is good, regular old-fashioned zero-calorie water,” he says. “I enjoy unsweetened tea and then occasionally, I drink a very nominal amount of calories in these Bai waters that I enjoy. They have a little bit of caffeine to help me stay awake and about ten calories per bottle, which is very different than the hundreds of calories that sugar-laden drinks often have.”

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No More Snacking

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Hoogland stopped snacking between his meals. “So, our household where I come from where we're constantly grazing out of habit,” he says. “Anytime I was even a little bit hungry or even, let's be honest, bored, I would throw something that tasted delicious in my mouth, and those calories really add up over the course of the day.”

Portion Size

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Hoogland was careful about portion sizes, especially when eating at a restaurant. “The last thing I did that I think was the most important of the three was I started just eating smaller portions at the meals when I was actually eating,” he says. “If you're someone like my family who goes out to eat quite often in America, restaurant meals and even fast food meals often have 2x or 3x. The amount of calories the average human being should be eating in a healthy sitting when they're consuming food.”

To-Go From Restaurant

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Hoogland immediately puts some of his food in a to-go container when he eats at a restaurant. “I take it and split it in half or a third right away, and I'm eating just a more regular reasonable amount,” he says. “It also saves me some money because the other half of that meal goes into my fridge, and then I get two meals out of everything that I buy, which is kind of nice.”

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Final Thoughts

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Hoogland wanted to be healthier for his kids and family, and he hoped his story would inspire others. “I also think one other thing to call out that I remember feeling when I was starting this at my 220 plus pounds earlier this year was that when I initially started eating less, I felt very bloated at the start, which Google searching said was very common. When you start eating less food, your stomach generates acid, expecting a certain amount of volume going into it. When you change that volume, it can cause that at the start. So I wanted to share that experience as well.” And if you enjoyed this article, don't miss I Hit 60 and These 15 Anti-Aging Foods Keep Me Fit and Feeling 20 Years Younger.