Weight Loss: 'I lost 240 pounds and saved my own life thanks to these lifestyle changes'

Abby Lutz made a change for herself and her daughter.

Abby Lutz hasn't always been a fitness junkie. In fact, as a chubby kid growing up in Newton, North Carolina, she “literally couldn't even walk a full mile.”

But, ten years after tipping the scales at 425 pounds, the mother-of-two is garnering plenty of attention on social media for dropping an astounding 240 pounds through running.

Although the 34-year-old struggled with her weight for decades, it wasn't until she became pregnant with her daughter Clara, now 11, that she became morbidly obese.

“I was really sick and my daughter was sick,” said Lutz. “I gained 180 to 200 pounds and she was born a month early. I weighed 380 pounds when I had her. Then I was depressed and felt terrible so I kept gaining until I was about 425.”

 

Despite her best efforts to lose weight through diet and exercise, Lutz eventually decided to undergo gastric bypass surgery in 2007. “I was working 12-hour shifts at the hospital,” said the registered nurse. “They had me on long-acting insulin and two or three oral medications for diabetes plus medicine for high blood pressure.”

Looking back, Lutz recalls the exact moment when she realized she needed to make a lifestyle change not just for herself but for her newborn daughter. “As a nurse, I would see all of these diabetics come in and they'd get their toes and feet amputated,” she recalled. “I had this fear of getting my toes amputated. I was like, ‘Gosh, I am going to lose my feet by the time I'm 35!’”

So Lutz signed up to join a women's running group at church after plateauing with her weight loss six months post-surgery. Not only did she still have all 10 toes intact, but she was lucky enough that she could use them.

“I joined a group called Run for God,” said Lutz. “It was a good way to start because I'd never been much of an athlete. We would run for one-minute intervals then walk for two minutes. It was nice to have that camaraderie even though I would be like, ‘Oh my gosh, when are these minutes going to be over?’”

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