This 26-year-old woman, who is only going by her first name Amanda, went from 222 pounds to 134 pounds over the course of a year with a high-protein diet, portion-controlled meals and moderate exercise. (Via Jezebel)
The 5-foot-4 success story began taking photos of her progress in 2011 and posted them online. Then on Monday, a total stranger turned her inspirational photo album into a five second gif and posted it to Reddit.
Amanda told ABC's "Good Morning America" before she began losing weight, she had low self-esteem and decided taking pictures was a good way to inspire herself.
“I knew that I had to start somewhere and I figured if I did it at least once a month at the end of however long it took I would have this really cool end product.”
But it's not just her frame that changed. Amanda says she wasn't prepared for the amount of emotional investment that went into her weight loss. (Via The Daily Dot)
And it's worth noting that even though she lost a bunch of weight, it looks like she's gained a lot of confidence. (Via Daily Mail)
It's not a new idea to take progress pics and post them online. The motivational trend has taken over social media and weight loss forums for some time now. (Via Instagram)
There has even been a boom in apps targeted at tracking progress that encourage users to post photos. (Via Appcrawlr)
And the tactics seem to work — a recent study by a Fitness Magazine editor found those who tracked their statistics with an app lost an average of 15 pounds and kept it off for at least a year. (Via YouTube)
So, the moral of the story — “gif” a little bit...lose a lot.
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