By Rebecca Drew
MEET the woman who lost an astonishing three-stone in twelve months after she was dumped by her boyfriend and was fed up of being the âfat friendâ.

Hip-hop dancer and software test analyst, Katie Gallagher (25) from Lenexa, Kansas, USA piled on the pounds whilst at university due to late night boozing and eating. She would make jokes about herself being the âfat friendâ to her mates and at her heaviest, she weighed 12st 12lbs and was a UK size 14.
Katie swapped processed and easy to make foods for high protein meals with plenty of vegetables and also monitored her sugar intake. She works out six to seven days a week and is now a super slender 9st 12lbs and a UK size 8.

âI always acted super confident with myself, but I was definitely insecure about how I looked. Especially in my later years of college, I started buying looser fitting clothes to try and hide it,â said Katie.
âI would even make jokes about me being âthe fat friendâ, and would try to play it off like I was fine with it, but I really wasnât.

âThe guy I had started dating in Arizona broke up with me about six months after I moved there. As a result of that, a lot of my friends I had made stopped talking to me.
âSo, in the middle of me being upset, hurt, alone, and fed up with how I looked, thatâs when I decided to make the change to be better for myself.

âThat was the initial motivation factor to get me going. But once I got going, my reasons changed, and I just truly loved the healthy lifestyle.â
Katie joined the gym with a work colleague and as soon as she started seeing her body changing, she wanted more.

âI had a friend I met at work, Dan, who was also very depressed at the same time as me. He was also thirty-stone and very unhappy with how he looked. So, the two of us started going to the gym together every single day â even on weekends,â she explained.
âI began lifting weights, which is something I had never done before.

âI stopped snacking on junk food and started snacking on fruit, protein bars, Greek yogurt. My breakfasts were typically some variation of egg whites and sweet potato or oatmeal and lunch and dinner was either fish or chicken, plus vegetables.
âI just started putting in work like crazy day in and day out, and once I first noticed my body changing, it kept me wanting more and more.

âI structured my weightlifting so that I never did a âfull bodyâ workout at one time. Each day I would work a different muscle group, or a combination of muscle groups.
âHonestly the biggest transformation I went through wasnât just a physical one. My entire mentality has changed. I know that life is meant to be enjoyed â I donât ever plan to deprive myself of my favourite treats â but the key is just balance, in every aspect.
âI am very excited to stay on this path and see where this new lifestyle could take me.â

Katie said that the hardest thing she has deal with whilst losing weight was her food cravings and having a plateau in progress. Her advice to others is that there is no right time to start being healthier but to just start.
âThe food cravings are certainly not fun to deal with. There are definitely some days that I am just in a terrible mood and all I want to do is go home and eat pizza, drink beer, and then enjoy a tub of ice cream,â added Katie.
âIf I know I have been slacking on the diet recently, I just force myself to forget about pizza and eat the chicken and broccoli like I should be doing.

âSometimes you just donât have the willpower and thatâs ok as long as it doesnât become a habit.
âHitting a plateau with your progress is one of the hardest things to deal with â itâs frustrating when you are still putting in work like crazy and eating clean, but the results seem to come to a halt.
âDonât wait for the âright momentâ to make the effort to get healthy â because there will really never be a clear moment of when itâs time to make the change.

âThere are always going to be things going on in our lives that make it feel like now isnât the time. You have to seek it out yourself and just go for it, and every day is a new chance to improve.
âThe results of this journey come from doing things that you have never done before â whether itâs doing weighted squats for the first time or meal prepping for the first time.

âIt will only come with changing your habits to become healthy ones, and then working hard at them and being consistent.â
For more information see www.instagram.com/kaatiegal