Woman Loses 100lbs After Keeping Daily Promise to Herself

Many people may be familiar with a voice inside their head telling them they can't do something, especially when it comes to fitness or certain types of exercise.

Such was the case for Jennifer Brown, who once weighed 342lbs before she decided to attempt something she was convinced she could "never do"—run.

One day, Brown made a promise to herself that she would start to run one mile a day "no matter what."

The 42-year-old, based in Iowa, recalls not being able to pass a physical fitness test as a child, which required her to run a mile in less than 15 minutes.

She told Newsweek: "I could never do it. I was always just lagging behind all of the other kids, and I hated that. For some reason this always stuck with me and I always just said 'I can't.'"

She has now overcome that self-doubt, with her dedication contributing to her losing nearly 100lbs within around three years time.

Brown, known as @thisiowamom on TikTok and Instagram, shared her weight loss journey in a viral video earlier this month, which charts her physical transformation while running a mile a day. It has received over 13.8 millions views and 900,000 likes.

Brown decided she "needed to make life changes" after receiving some "bad news" in July 2019, when her doctor told her she has Type 2 diabetes.

She said: "I spent a lot of years not treating this properly, and I owe it to myself to take care of my metabolic health, as it is the key to so many of our body's functions."

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warns that those who are overweight or obese have an "increased risk for many serious diseases and health conditions," compared to those with a healthy weight. These conditions can range from all-causes of death and coronary heart disease to high blood pressure and Type 2 diabetes.

A February 2023 study in Population Studies found that overweight people have a 22 percent higher mortality risk than those who have a healthy weight. Obese populations were found to have as much as double the risk.

After her diabetes diagnosis in 2019, Brown began her weight loss journey that year at the "very basic level of just changing what I was eating and walks outdoors."

She was walking three to six miles a day outdoors. But "winters are cold" in Iowa, so she purchased a treadmill in 2020 to walk indoors instead.

Walking did wonders for Brown and saw her lose around 70lbs. It was in January 2022 that she decided to start using the treadmill for running.

Brown said: "Randomly, I decided to progress and decided that the best place to start [running] would be with one mile a day, no matter how long it took. That was in 2022 and I've been running ever since."

She noted: "I've tried my whole life to lose weight but never like this, where I just used the mindset of 'just do something every day...no matter what.'"

She started progressively increasing her running distance and she currently runs anywhere from one to four miles a day, along with strength training two to three times a week as well as "anything that just sounds fun."

She noted: "Sometimes I walk my dog and then take walks, bike rides, hikes and whatever my family is up for..."

Her weight was at 244lbs in September 2022, marking a total weight loss of 98lbs from 2019 to 2022 purely through exercise and diet.

The Biggest Challenge and 'What Keeps Me Going'

Brown said when she began running, the most challenging part was the physical components, running through the "lung burn" and the heavy breathing.

"It was so hard. I was shuffling at first, at what I consider a slow walk pace now. But I stuck to it because it gave me something to try, a goal to shoot for, kind of like a game where I said 'just do this for a month and see if you can,'" she explained.

Habit also plays a huge part, Brown said, noting that she never wakes up in the morning saying "I can't wait to run."

But it's something "I know makes me feel so much better and just being able to tell myself every day that I can do this thing I thought was impossible is such a power move to me. It drives me to keep striving towards the next level," she added.

Her family has always been a big motivation, including wanting to be able to do various activities with her 9-year-old son.

"I want to do everything I can with the people I love. That is what keeps me going. I knew the path I was on in 2019 was not where I wanted to be, so I decided it was time to change it," she said.

Diet and 'Learning How To Feel Satisfied'

Brown eats in a calorie deficit, which entails eating fewer calories than you burn, within a range determined by a resting metabolic rate (RMR) test done by her doctor.

Su-Nui Escobar, a doctor in clinical nutrition (DCN) and a registered dietitian/nutritionist, told Newsweek that a calorie deficit "refers to the difference between the number of calories you eat or drink and the number of calories you burn. When you consume fewer calories than your body needs, you will lose weight."

"While the quality of calories is also important, the number of calories is the main factor in weight loss. The most effective way to create a calorie deficit is through a combination of diet and exercise," Escobar added.

Before she started seeing her current doctor, Brown had to learn about what proper food portions look like. "Most of us think that we should be eating much larger portions that we should, and that we should have more calories than we should," she said.

She hired a dietitian to learn about what to eat to lose weight. "I had to teach myself to eat, not to the point of being uncomfortable, but to eat to the point of being satisfied, which was a feeling I never knew," Brown said.

She prioritizes protein but doesn't cut out any foods. "If I want a piece of candy, I have it."

She noted: "Learning how to feel satisfied is a new thing to me. I have finally learned that food is not a way to deal with emotions, it is to fuel your body, so you can have energy to burn."

Hitting a Weight Loss 'Stall'

In September 2022, Brown said she went to see her doctor because "I was in a stall and was struggling to still get to a healthy weight" and "hanging at that set weight of 244 lbs," despite all the exercise and dietary changes she'd made.

After some lab tests and looking at her medical history, she and her doctor decided that she should try Mounjaro, a prescription drug available as injections that "improves blood sugar control in adults with Type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) when used in addition to diet and exercise," explains the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Dr. Kathleen Jordan, the chief medical officer for Midi Health, told Newsweek: "Mounjoro, the brand name for tirzepatide, is an incredibly safe and effective medication."

While initially marketed for those with diabetes, the FDA-approved drug "has since proven impressive efficacy in helping people lose significant amounts of weight," she said.

"The clinical evidence best demonstrate it's efficacy in obese patients and overweight patients with other cardiovascular risks," she added.

The FDA warns that Mounjaro "may cause serious side effects" including inflammation of the pancreas, low blood sugar, allergic reactions, kidney failure, severe stomach problems and complications of diabetes-related eye disease."

For Brown, the combination of all three factors—her daily exercise routine, calorie deficit diet and Mounjaro injections—saw her lose approximately an additional 84lbs in less than a year.

Brown says she will "most likely" be on Mounjaro for the rest of her life due to her Type 2 diabetes condition and blood sugar issues.

As of November 17, Brown's weight is at 158lbs which she is happy with.

Having "lived in a bigger body for my whole life," Brown noted, "everything is so new to me now," from shopping and clothes sizes to being so active.

"This is the first time in my life I've been in a normal-sized body and I need to learn how to live in it," she said.

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