After struggling to lose weight for years, one woman managed to drop five dress sizes in five months thanks to ditching foods people usually assume are ‘healthy’
A woman has revealed how cutting out certain ‘healthy’ foods has led her to shedding four dress sizes in just five months.
Michelle Cooper said she ditched three foods people would usually assume were good for you after she said she ‘struggled’ to lose weight. Michelle, from Shrewsbury, said after she’d made the switch, she managed to drop the weight, despite eating more than she was previously.
In a video posted to TikTok, Michelle, who goes by the username @michellecooper1000 detailed how she lost 45 pounds and went from a size 20 to a size 12 in 2023 achieved the weight loss postpartum ‘while working and without dieting’, after she gave birth to her twins.
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She said: “No calorie counting and no starving myself, but before that I was eating “healthy” food often and they were actually keeping me overweight, so let me explain.”
First up, Michelle said she would eat a lot of Special K cereal, and other ‘healthy’ breakfast options such as granola bars and instant porridge that are often sold as “slimming” or “healthy”.
“They told me that it was the healthy choice but here’s what actually happens. I’d eat them at seven in the morning and then by 9.30am I was so hungry,” she recalled.
“My blood sugar would actually be spiking in the morning and then crash back down again, leaving me craving sugar and every crash made me reach for something else, biscuits or coffee or snacks, and it was up and down like a rollercoaster all day long.”
Instead of opting for the cereals, Michelle swapped them for more high-protein meals such as eggs and bacon or Greek yogurt, “or even leftovers from dinner the night before”, which actually helped her manage her cravings better. “Everything changed, I could go for four, five, six hours without even thinking about food.
“Before, I was obsessed, I couldn’t stop eating and that meant fewer cravings, less snacking and finally, steady fat loss,” and further detailed: “Here’s the key, if your breakfast is leaving you hungry an hour later, it’s not working for you.”
Next up, Michelle said smoothies and juices were also stopping her from shedding the pounds. “I used to think that being virtuous by starting the day with a smoothie and getting all your five portions of fruits and vegetables in one go was the best thing ever.
“But most of them are basically just sugar bombs in a bottle. Sure, yes, they’ve got fruit in and you are allowed to eat fruit, fruit is really good, it’s full of antioxidants and all sorts of good stuff.
“But these kind of liquid calories, they don’t fill you up, they go straight through you half an hour later – in fact, straight away, you’re still hungry.
“I ditched smoothies and I started chewing real food. Your hunger will vanish,’ Michelle noted, and told people to eat whole fruit instead. “Eat it with protein beside it. I had an amazing recipe the other night actually, with tuna and apple, I’ll find a way to share that. It’s game-changing.”
Thirdly, she stopped eating “low-fat” food options. While it’s something many people reach for when trying to lose weight, Michelle claimed they don’t help. “Anything low-fat. I lived on low-fat yogurts, low-fat spreads, low-fat cheeses. These are the problem.
“When companies take out fats, they typically add something like sugar or starch in it to make it taste good. Sugar actually drives cravings.
“So I eat a “healthy” low-fat yogurt for lunch, it wouldn’t fill me up at all, they kind of taste pretty rank as well, and you spend the rest of the afternoon fighting the urge to raid the cupboards to get something else that is sugary.”
She instead advised people to switch to full-fat and high-protein foods instead as it makes her feel “full again” and not wanting to snack. “That’s how I lost fat while eating more food. So these are the foods I ditched and some swaps that finally helped me drop four dress sizes.”
People were quick to take to the comments to ask Michelle for nutrition advice as one TikToker asked if eating wholemeal toast and fruit would make for a good breakfast, to which she replied: “You’re much better to have meats, eggs, fish and vegetables for breakfast. I know it doesn’t sound like breakfast food (traditionally in the UK) but in ‘slimmer’ European countries it is.”