‘I lost 37kg by tracking everything I ate and not depriving myself’

24-year-old Laura Livy shares her inspirational journey to dropping 37kg without depriving herself of the occasional treat. Her advice? Don’t be so hard on yourself.

Laura Livy describes her life as “miserable” before her weight loss journey.

“I didn’t want to see myself in the reflection of a window,” she says, adding she feared running into someone she knew because they “would notice I had gained weight.”

At her heaviest, 98.6kg, the 24-year-old would fall into a perpetual cycle of low self-esteem, eating “a tub of ice-cream, a bag of lollies and a block of chocolate” to make herself feel better, only to plummet further and “feel 10 times worse” than before.

“After leaving school and having a bit more independence with money and what I could buy and eat, it got out of control and I gained just under 20 kilos within 12 months of finishing school. In under two years I had gained 28 kilos,” she recalls.

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But Laura’s mum noticed “how badly I was eating and how quickly I had gained weight”, so she gave her daughter an intervention, begging her to join WW (formerly Weight Watchers) and even offered to do it with her in solidarity.

“I said ‘yes’ purely to make her happy and had full intentions of quitting after a few weeks and never thought I would actually lose weight,” says Laura.

After her first week, however, she’d lost 1.4kg and that was all the motivation she needed to keep going. She cleaned out her fridge and pantry of all her bad eating habits and started anew with the WWapp and tracking everything she ate.

“Tracking your food intake is great for people trying to lose weight, it really makes you aware of what you’re eating and provides a bit of accountability,” Laura says.

“It was a huge education tool as I was really clueless about what I was eating before.”

37kg lighter, Laura has been in her healthy weight range for two years and says balance is the key to her maintaining it while also not depriving herself of the foods she enjoys. She even works a Magnum into her SmartPoint budget every week for a “sense of normality”.

By running a doggy daycare business, she walks a lot, about 15,000 steps a day, and works in a HIIT workout when she has the time.

Her advice to others seeking their own weight loss journey?

“Be kind to yourself as weight loss isn’t always linear,” she says.

“You might have the exact same week in regards to your eating and exercise two weeks in a row with completely different weight loss results. Focus on the bigger picture and try not to overthink it.”