By Liana Jacob
MEET THE COUPLE who went from being OBESE together to working out together SIX DAYS a week and after collectively losing NINETEEN-STONE claim that their SEX DRIVE and STAMINA has ramped up.
Bartender and university student, Samantha Gilmore (22) from Missouri, USA, was always overweight growing up and as a child she was told by her paediatrician that she would be over 14st by the time she was 16.
Due to having a tough childhood, she was uneducated about nutrition and after doing no exercise and eating junk food, she reached 15st 1Ib and a UK size 16.
Samantha moved in with her boyfriend, photographer and machine operator, Rick Stahl Jr (26) when she was just 17, and Rick also struggled with his weight growing up, despite playing football in high school.
When he moved out of his mumâs house, he began overindulging in food and reached his peak weight of 30st and shirt size 5XL.
It wasnât until they came across a picture of themselves that they realised how big they had become, and in 2017, Rick decided to make a change. He discovered the keto diet, a high-fat, adequate-protein, low-carbohydrate diet. He has since been working out six days a week at the gym doing cardio, ab workouts and weight training. He slimmed down to a healthy 15st 5Ibs and shirt size medium.
Seeing the impressive change her boyfriend had made and after he proposed to her in October 2018, Samantha decided to follow in his footsteps and they now workout together and encourage each other. Within six months, Samantha has shrunk to 10st and a UK size eight.
The two of them now feel more energised, even in the bedroom, as their sex life has been re-born due to their dramatic weight loss.
âMy family life wasnât the best. With drug addicted parents that had me very young and never stayed together, I really had to raise myself,â Samantha said.
âMy fiancĂ© is a different story. He grew up with separated parents, but they are amazing. They have always been supportive and kind, and just phenomenal parents to him.
âHe has great relationships with his mother, father that raised him, his step father, and his biological father today.
âWe met at the grocery store down the street from our houses. He worked there, and I would come in a lot. One day my friend just told me to message him on Facebook and it went from there.
âWe have both always been overweight. Rick was in football in high school, so he did gain a lot of fitness knowledge and was fit for a short period of time, but neither of us have never weighed this low before.
âI remember my paediatrician telling me as a child I would be over 14st by the age of sixteen, but I wasnât until I was twenty-two.
âFor me it was really a lack of direction; I didnât really have anyone to keep me accountable before. I ate whatever I wanted and wasnât active much at all.
âFor Rick it was about the same. When he moved out of his mumâs house he began eating anything he wanted.
âI always told myself I needed to lose weight, but never would, and I would be even harder on myself. Iâve always felt like itâs the first thing people think about me, itâs still hard to get out of that mindset.
âRick felt like the healthy lifestyle just wasnât for everyone. He tried to get comfortable being the âfat guyâ.
âWe both saw photos of important moments of our lives and were just disgusted with who we let ourselves become, so we decided to make a change. It took me a little longer, but I did it.â
They now follow the keto diet and work out six days a week and while they both have excess skin, they are both very proud of what theyâve achieved.
They can now wear what they like, and Samantha says that she wears less makeup now as she finally feels more confident in herself.
âWe have been eating keto; keeping our net carbs under twenty to thirty grams-a-day and we workout six days-a-week,â she said.
âWe do twenty to forty-five minutes of cardio, fifteen minutes of ab workouts, and thirty to forty-five minutes of weight training.
âWe love being able to wear whatever we want now. We no longer have the trouble of not being able to find clothes, in fact we canât decide between all the options that we now have. Itâs liberating to have more energy and just to feel good about yourself more often.
âWe both have more sex drive since losing the weight, as well as more stamina. I even wear less make up now.
âItâs definitely hard to keep the positive mindset all the time. A lot of the times I still feel like the first thing people think when they see me is that Iâm fat. But yet I wear a size small now, itâs just hard to wrap my head around all the time.
âWe both have some loose skin so itâs not always easy to feel accomplished when you look in the mirror. But weâre so proud of our progress and we know weâve come a long way.
âWe have cut down our carb and sugar intake massively. Weâve also made working out a daily part of our lives.
âStart fresh; if that means getting rid of whatâs in your pantry, or getting some new workout shoes, it helps to start motivation.
âRemember that you can do anything you want to do, and if you want it bad enough, whatâs hard now becomes easier as you get stronger.
âFind someone to keep you accountable as well, someone you canât or wonât hide any slip ups from. It helps to have someone in your corner.â
