Jodie Marah: Mum who lost 21kg and dropped four dress sizes reveals her five weight loss secrets

A busy mum has revealed how a ‘slow and steady approach’ helped her lose a whopping 21kg and four dress sizes in less than a year.

Perth mum Jodie Marah, 36, took stock of her situation when she tipped the scales at 80kg in August last year, which she said was too heavy for her tiny 162cm frame.

“Overweight and almost obese, I had to make a change,” she posted on her Instagram and TikTok accounts.

“Okay, I’ll do it myself.”

In a video shared to her social accounts in late October, she revealed the five steps she took to achieve her incredible transformation.

She said the most important step was learning to count calories and sticking to a “calorie deficit intake,” meaning she ate fewer calories per day than she needed to maintain her current weight.

She admitted that this process isn’t for everyone, but said it “definitely” helped her lose weight.

“I started tracking my maintenance calories, the calories needed to maintain your current weight,” she wrote in a social media post.

‘Once I knew them, I calculated my calorie deficit, which is how many calories your body needs to stay alive, but also to lose weight.

‘I also started weighing my food and keeping track of it in an app for convenience, and I started eating more proteins and vegetables.’

Another important tip was to ‘go slowly and set small goals’.

She said people often want to lose 10kg ‘instantly’ and can become discouraged, but it’s better to set achievable goals and work towards them consistently, even if just losing weight in 1 to 2kg increments.

“We really need to take it slow and go easy on ourselves, especially if we want this to be a lifestyle change that we can maintain,” she said.

“I definitely felt more encouraged once I lost that one or two pounds. I felt good and I would reassess and now say, ‘I’m going to lose another two pounds.’

Jodie said counting calories and cutting out snacks were two of the main ways she lost weight

She said the biggest hurdle she faced in achieving her goals was eliminating “midnight snacks,” especially chocolate.

By using the small-goal approach, the unhealthy snack could ultimately be avoided altogether.

Another thing she recommended was “finding exercises you really enjoy and changing the way you think about exercise.”

“I never thought I would like the gym, I thought ‘cardio, I hate that’ and I still hate cardio,” she said.

By trying other things she discovered that she enjoyed resistance and mobility training.

Jodie’s final piece of advice was that “you still have to live your life,” which means it’s okay to indulge in excess.

To embrace this approach, she recommended the 80/20 diet, which involves careful calorie consumption 80 percent of the time, while the rest is an opportunity to “let yourself go.”