Woman Loses 70lbs By Making Changes To These Four Things

When Erica Barr tried to diet in the past, she was able to shed a few pounds—but there was no real motivation for lasting change.

However, that all changed in 2022 when she found herself joining WeightWatchers once again—but this time she was fighting to survive.

"When I joined the previous times, I wasn't fighting death. When you're fighting to live and it's either that or death, it's a big driving force," Barr, 35, told Newsweek. She hadn't realized how much her health had deteriorated until suffering a miscarriage in September 2022. Her doctors said her sugar levels were out of control.

"That was one of the worst moments. Not for the fact of losing the baby, but knowing that I could die, that was what got me. The doctor said it was because I was diabetic and it wasn't under control," she continued.

While Barr, from Oregon, had watched her dad struggle to control his diabetes for years, she often dreaded the thought of succumbing to the same fate one day. Then in November 2022, that fear became a reality when she was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes following the miscarriage. She was urged to act quickly to improve her health.

Her weight had continued to escalate to that point, and she weighed 272 pounds, wearing a size 22 in clothing. This excess weight, fueled by a love of candy, left Barr's blood sugar levels dangerously high.

Barr credits her weight loss to making "small changes," which eventually formed into "lasting habits."

She said: "The small changes I made at first was to look at labels. I searched for items with less sugar or no sugar. I changed small things like yogurt and the type of fruit I ate. It was all uphill from there. I now have a personal guide of what I eat and when. Time is everything for a diabetic.

"The huge healthy habit I have incorporated into my life is to sweat before a shower. I make it a point of waking up and riding my stationary bike for as long as I have time for. Sleep is also more important than exercise for me, so I base it off of how much sleep I need each day. Don't get me wrong, tracking and time is a diabetic's dream. If you track and eat at certain times it changes the game with your blood sugar levels."

For the 38 million Americans with diabetes, controlling blood glucose is a necessity. If it's not correctly managed, they are at risk of serious health complications, including heart disease. It's not just their life at risk either, with the National Institute of Health saying that high blood glucose during pregnancy can cause premature birth and increase the risk of miscarriage.

'I Needed To Really Think About What I Was Doing'

After seeing a specialist diabetes doctor, Barr was encouraged to join the WeightWatchers Diabetic Program, which would help her shed weight while also learning how to control her spiraling blood sugars.

She told Newsweek: "I've always considered that I might one day develop diabetes, but the diagnosis made me aware that I needed to stop eating sugar in the afternoon. I needed to really think about what I was doing.

"When I was diagnosed, I switched from the regular WeightWatchers to the diabetic-tailored program, and it really put me in my place. I can't sit here and have a Snickers for five points for example, because for me it's probably 10 points due to the sugar content. It showed me that you can have all these other things that are better for you."

Now, whenever she goes to the grocery store, Barr checks the labels on everything, and she will no longer buy anything that contains more than five grams of sugar. Even when she does enjoy something sweet, she will only eat half and save the rest until later in the day.

Instead of eating candy every day, she now enjoys plain yogurt or cottage cheese with berries. She even monitors her fruit intake—something she would have never considered previously. In the regular WeightWatchers program, fruit is fine to snack on, but for the diabetic version, the sugar content in fruit must be factored in.

"I think that's very helpful because before, I would eat fruit since it was free for the regular program. But with the diabetes one, fruit still counts as points, so I will cut an apple up and only eat some of it at a time."

Everything about Barr's lifestyle has been turned around since joining the program, as she admitted that it's showed her "a different side" to life with diabetes. In just a year since joining, her blood sugar levels have dropped, and she's managed to shed 70 pounds as an added bonus.

Whether a person develops diabetes due to unhealthy lifestyle or genetics, board-certified internal medicine specialist Dr. Spencer Kroll explained weight management is a vital way of stabilizing the effects of diabetes.

Dr. Kroll told Newsweek: "Weight gain is often accompanied by unhealthy lifestyle factors such as a sedentary lifestyle and a diet high in processed foods, sugary beverages, and excessive calories. Some people may have a genetic predisposition that, when combined with weight gain and other risk factors, increases their likelihood of developing diabetes.

"Significant weight loss can effectuate better blood sugar control and can, in turn, reverse certain detrimental effects of diabetes. Weight loss achieved through these means plays a role in stabilizing and, in some cases, reversing diabetes."

Losing so many pounds can not only help maintain healthier blood glucose levels, but Dr. Kroll, author of The Ozempic Diet, added, in some cases it can also reduce the impact that diabetes has on a person's heart and kidneys. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends losing weight steadily, shedding one or two pounds a week, in order to make the losses sustainable.

'If I Can Overcome This Life And Death Situation, I Can Overcome Anything'

As November marks National Diabetes Awareness Month, Barr shared her success story to show others that a health diagnosis doesn't have to feel like the end of the road. She has used it to start a whole new chapter in life instead.

"I wake up earlier now and I want to go on a walk in the morning. I just want to live more and do more things. The weight loss was much faster than I thought it would be, I'm still surprised at the size I'm wearing now," Barr told Newsweek.

"I feel fearless because, if I can overcome this life and death situation, and be healthier and happier, then I can overcome anything."

While Barr has seen a huge transformation in the year since her diagnosis, she isn't done yet. She hopes to continue losing weight and even reach a point where she is no longer reliant on medication to help control her blood sugar levels. She explained that her medication has been halved since her diagnosis, so she's moving in the right direction.

"I want to show people that the end result is not death. You don't have to die from this. I want to encourage and help people, and my goal is to show that there can be a success story.

"I've learnt not to give up on things that I want. After losing all that I've lost, I want to keep fighting and never give up."

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