The Weight Loss Divide: How Two Similar Women Achieved Drastically Different Results & What Makes Weight Loss a Success?

This story took over 2 years to come to fruition. I didn’t expect this article to come to life at all, but in the end, it shocked me…

How just one small detail can so drastically change someone’s life.

I worked at the same office with these two beautiful women. Let’s call them Jill and Sarah. Both journalists celebrated their 50th birthdays the same year. Both had two grown-up children and were in very similar households.

Both are joyous, interesting, and smart. Very friendly and open-minded.

They also both loved food, ate their lunch together, and loved cracking jokes about their round bellies and, as they called ‘‘flappy arms’. 

One of the conversation topics was menopause and the struggles they faced with it. The almost debilitating hot flashes, night sweats, and weight gain, especially around the belly. 

Obviously, they shared menopause symptoms too…

Visually, they looked similar – both wore 3-4 XLs. 

In the first week of January 2022, we were all sitting together, having some snacks, and sharing our New Year resolutions. 

Jill said, “I just want a change in my life. I want to lose weight and work on my health. I found something that I believe will help me do just that.” 

Sarah agreed and said that she was starting a new restrictive diet, would not eat anything white, anything that contains sugar, and avoid deary.

“I’m getting my summer body!” she said. 

We didn’t elaborate, but things took an unexpected turn since that day. 

It seemed like Jill took a magic pill

In the next six months, she started changing. As a matter of fact, just two weeks after our conversation, she was visibly slimmer.

Lighter in the face. Her eyes had sparkle. It was apparent she was feeling the changes. 

She became more self-confident. And I must admit, I admired how she glowed. I’ve never seen her like that.

By May of that year, Jill had lost almost 50 lbs! She said she felt like she was in her 30s again. 

Her menopause symptoms became manageable, and honestly, it was visible.

Soon after, with her newfound energy and self-esteem, she started applying for higher positions and left us to become an advisor in a well-known company. 

When I met her 2 years later, she was almost unrecognizable. She was fit and even looked athletic, her cheeks glowing. She looked fantastic, and I couldn’t believe how much her quality of life had changed since the last time we saw each other. 

I, of course, asked her what happened. How did she do it (I was almost sure it was a gastric sleeve or something of that sort)? 

She told me exactly what she did, and that made so much sense. I will tell you, too, just in a moment. But first…

Let’s talk, Sarah.

Two years back, Sarah was starting her new diet. She was eager at first but quickly became irritable and seemed unhappy. She was struggling with her health and with the restrictions she put on herself. 

Sarah did lose some weight at first and was really happy about it. But in a month or two, she had a cheat meal that set her off. 

She started bingeing, and by the time summer came, she had not lost any weight.

In fact, it looked like she put on a little more than before. She was losing her happiness and self-esteem. She also was diagnosed with prediabetes. 

Two years later, we’re still colleagues at the same company. I see her less often due to my position circumstances, but she’s still dieting and trying to lose the menopausal weight.

She’s taking metformin for her diabetes. She’s struggling to climb the stairs, is always in baggy clothes, and always looks tired. 

Honestly, she seems to resent her former colleague Jill with whom she sometimes grabs a cup of coffee.

These 2 people were leading almost identical lives just a few years ago, and now they are such opposites. Here’s what has made the difference:

What was that one choice that made one happier and healthier even during menopause, and the other left struggling? 

Here’s what Jill told me the last time I saw her:

“On that New Year’s Eve, greeting 2022, I asked myself, is that it? Is that what’s left in my life? 

Becoming an old, sickly grandma and waiting for the day to end? I don’t want to look in the mirror and always feel self-conscious about how I look. I refused. I made a promise to myself to fix my health, lose weight, and be the woman I used to be.”

So, Jill did her research and found intermittent fasting. She loved the idea of it because it didn’t require her to count calories, eliminate any food groups, or deprive herself in any way.

“It’s not about WHAT you eat, but WHEN you eat it.”

She remembers it was especially easy to start because she used a personalized approach and was recommended to start with a 12:12 schedule (12-hour window to eat and 12 to fast) 

Drinking tea, coffee, and water with lemon is allowed and even recommended during the fast.

So she would wake up, grab a cup of coffee and a breakfast sandwich at 8 am, and head to work. 

She would have lunch with us as usual at 12:30 pm. Snack, go home, and have dinner at 6 or 7, so she finished eating by 8 pm.

As time went by, she was able to effortlessly extend her fasts to 14 and then to 15 hours. 

The day I met her, she said her new normal is no more than 16:8 (she eats from 11 am to 7 pm) and has never felt or looked better. 

So here’s the difference between two women who started at the exact same point in their lives:

One chose unsustainable ways to lose weight, thus struggled, and 2 years in, was in an even worse state. 

The other didn’t rush, was using a personalized approach to intermittent fasting (the name of the program below), followed the recommendations, and never struggled with it, nor did she have to sacrifice anything.

The Solution to Start Dropping Clothes for Menopausal Women in a Healthy Way

“I’ve tried many diets before but never did fasting. It turns out it was exactly what I needed all along,” Jill said. 

“In this plan, everything is personalized for you based on your daily schedule, unique eating preferences, age, weight, and so on. I absolutely loved it.”

Jill shared that these two years, she has been following a healthy DoFasting approach.

“The guidance was very easy to follow in the long term, and it quickly became my “second nature.”

Their quiz is FREE, and the app currently offers a 7-day trial.

“Another reason I think it works so well is that it doesn’t make me feel deprived or hungry. 

Starving or strict dieting is definitely not what women in menopause need.