Woman Who 'Couldn't Do 4 Minutes of Cardio' Shows Off Shocking Weight Loss

For many people, there will be certain machinery in the gym that they loathe, and the mere thought of using it, even for just a few minutes, seems a daunting task.

For Elle McKenzie-Wills, that piece of equipment was the stair machine. The 24-year-old from Christchurch, New Zealand, who now lives in Oxford, England, told Newsweek that she found it "extremely difficult" to use and within a mere four minutes, she would climb back off because she'd endured enough.

McKenzie-Wills' hatred of cardio didn't faze her much, as she'd simply stick to weight training instead—that way, she wasn't forced to confront it. However, her regular trips to the gym weren't leading to any significant change, and her bad habits continued. It wasn't until making a major lifestyle change and setting a personal exercise goal did she see shocking results.

"I would go to the gym and focus on weightlifting, but I wasn't doing anything for my cardiovascular health," she said. "It was extremely difficult to use the stair machine. I felt like my lungs were collapsing and I would be wheezing by the time I came off it.

"Every step felt like there were lead weights attached to my ankles weighing me down. It was why I hardly ever used the machine because it made me feel truly overweight. Any cardio machine was my enemy. Not because I didn't enjoy it, but because my cardiovascular fitness was so poor that I was struggling on anything."

At the start of 2023, McKenzie-Wills set herself the challenge of improving her cardio ability by running for 100 days in a row. It seemed daring at first, but she wanted to truly push herself.

If she was going to succeed in her aim, she knew she had to make substantial changes, including giving up alcohol. Sobriety has eliminated the possibility of hangovers, which prevented her from sustaining any previous challenge in the past. What she couldn't have predicted was the drastic improvement that it's had on her mental state too, because her hangovers enabled her spiraling habit of binge eating.

Cutting out alcohol and running every day had a "somewhat drastic and unintentional" impact on her weight, too, taking McKenzie-Wills from 185 pounds to 130 pounds—a 55-pound loss.

"For the past two years, I have set myself a mental and physical challenge at the start of each year. Last year the physical challenge was to do 30 minutes of exercise each day for 30 days in a row. I succeeded, and I ended up going to around day 46 and then was too hungover to do day 47," she said.

"So, this year I wanted to push myself with something that was going to be significantly more challenging. So, I chose 100 days of running in a row. I knew I was not going to be able to complete this challenge if I was hungover at any point, so the mental challenge was to not drink for six months."

After shedding 55 pounds, she now has the perspective to see that she was struggling with binge eating disorder (BED), as every hangover led her to gorge on junk food for days after. She couldn't see the problem at the time, but now she's been amazed to recognize the negative cycle she was trapped in.

"I was struggling with binge eating disorder, which due to quitting alcohol, I have been able to identify was due to being hungover and binging on unhealthy fast food. I didn't drink often, perhaps once a month, but when I did it was in excess," McKenzie-Wills said. "Due to the mental challenge of no alcohol for six months, I stopped drinking, and no hangover means no episodes that trigger a week of binging.

"I had no idea how bad my mental health was, and now that I look back to where I was last year, it's phenomenal what running has done for me. I was suffering with suicidal ideologies, panic attacks and depressive bouts. I thought it was normal and that everyone was feeling this way. Now I'm happy, healthy, and confident, with a new lease on life."

What Is Binge Eating Disorder?

Binge eating is the desire, or need, to eat a lot of food in a short amount of time, with very little control over what or how much you eat in that time. When this becomes a regular behavior pattern, the National Institute of Health (NIH) explains that this is when a person is suffering from BED.

Someone with BED will feel a sense of guilt about their binge eating, and they might sometimes try various strategies to undo the perceived damage they feel they've done, such as vomiting, taking laxatives, fasting or excessive exercise.

Figures from the NIH show that BED is the most common eating disorder in the United States, affecting about 1.25 percent of all adult women. While it can affect anyone from their teenage years to much older, the average age at which BED first occurs is 25 years old.

'Binge Eating Can Affect People In Any Body'

Dr. Courtney Crisp, a licensed clinical psychologist who specializes in treating eating disorders, told Newsweek that despite being very common, binge eating is often misunderstood.

"Binge eating can affect people in any kind of body, and there are several key factors that separate binge eating from overeating or emotional eating," Crisp, who did not treat McKenzie-Wills, said. "In order for it to be a binge, it needs to be an objectively large amount of food, it must feel out of control, and one must feel guilty or distressed afterward.

"People's relationships with their bodies, food, and emotions are complicated and take time. Recovery often involves learning how to nourish oneself both physically and emotionally."

When helping individuals come to terms with their binge eating, Crisp adds that they treat it "like any other eating disorder."

"We recommend intuitive eating and a 'health at every size' perspective," she said. "This involves looking at weight and health in a more holistic way, that goes beyond just focusing on the number. Prescribing weight loss or restrictive diets can often make binge eating worse."

'It's Quite Empowering to Use the Stairmaster Now'

After transforming her well-being with this year's challenge, McKenzie-Wills has documented her weight loss on social media (@embrrassingelle). In May, she shared footage of herself from April 2022 when she "couldn't walk on the Stairmaster for more than 4 minutes," before revealing how she now uses the same machine for over 10 minutes as a warmup.

The inspiring clip has been viewed more than 483,000 times already and generated over 18,300 likes from amazed supporters.

"It's quite empowering to use the Stairmaster now, knowing how it used to feel like I was being weighed down, and now I march up it with ease in comparison," she said. "It's a little surreal if I'm being honest. I have struggled with body dysmorphia since I was around 9 or 10 years old, so when I look in the mirror, I don't see a difference.

"That is why the transformation videos are so important to me, not only do they inspire, but they also help to keep me grounded and know how far I've come. I feel no ill will or disdain towards the version of me that's in the before videos because she is the one who started this journey. I carry her with me everywhere I go."

As her daily run has not only helped combat her BED, as well as lose 55 pounds already, McKenzie-Wills has extended the challenge to see if she can do a whole year of running. This time last year, that would have seemed like an impossible dream, but her love for cardio continues to grow with every run ticked off the list.

"Sharing my fitness journey started out as a way of keeping myself accountable. I never expected to have the positive response that I've received," she said.

"I still run every day and I am going to continue until I can say I have run daily for a year. Who knows what I'll do after that? Do it for your mental health, do it for your younger self, do it for yourself when you are 80 years old."

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