A woman has lost an incredible six stone, undergoing an incredible transformation, achieving the revenge body she desired.
24-year-old Jenna Romano, from Menifee, California, split up with her boyfriend a year ago setting her on a journey to lose weight to get a ‘revenge body’.
At her heaviest, Jenna weighed 239 pounds, (17 stone) but now, she currently weights 161 pounds, (11.5 stone), losing an amazing six stone, (and a little bit more) in only a year.
Speaking exclusively to UNILAD, Jenna said her goal was to lose 50 pounds in a year, but she crushed this in just 14 weeks.
She explained how regularly attending a gym and calorie counting helped her manage this impressive feat:
50 pounds lost in 14 weeks is insane. I got a gym membership 20 days after starting my journey and at that time I told myself ‘try to go four days of the week’.
But then by August I was at the gym six days a week. I have been at the gym between six to eight times each week since then (and yes that means I am often at the gym twice in one day).
Since the beginning I have tracked my calories in verses calories out, every single day. I weigh and log everything I eat. I track how many calories are burned every day with my Fitbit.
The biggest difference between now and before my journey is how frequently I am at the grocery store. Gone are the days of fast food and convenience store snacks. Now I’m at the grocery store buying healthy protein, fruits, and veggies about twice a week.
Having reached her goal, Jenna decided to continue losing weight but also work on her fitness and building muscle.
However, she admits when it reached Christmas time she hit a wall, and her weight started to plateau. She was unable to figure out why though.
Jenna explained:
I was still in caloric deficit. I was still exercising regularly. I was still giving maximum effort despite the holidays. But the number was not going down.
This was really the first time in the journey that I felt like I was failing. What I didn’t understand was that my muscle growth was developing exponentially.
At about that time is when I started weight lifting. And even though I was still losing fat, my muscles were compensating the scale. This is when I really had to have a a-hah moment. It couldn’t be about hitting a certain number on the scale anymore.
I was forced to understand the difference between “fat loss” verses “weight loss”. Since then, sure the number on the scale has gone down by about 18 pounds but in the grand scheme of things, I know I’ve probably lost about 30ibs of fat since the holidays. So the mathematical difference is all muscle. And that’s pretty awesome.
Having educated herself about muscle, Jenna began setting herself different goals to test her strength, including being able to do a handstand and lifting a certain weight.
Still on her journey, Jenna is currently working towards achieving an unassisted pull-up. I’m sure it won’t be long until she masters this too!
Reflecting back on her journey, Jenna admits two years ago, she’d have laughed at the prospect of her running two miles straight.
Confessing how she’s learnt a lot about her body over the past year, Jenna now knows she’s ‘capable of so much more’ than she ever imagined.
One of the biggest surprises along the way was the return of her ex-boyfriend Tyler, the reason she started this transformation.
Recently getting back together, Jenna adds they still remained friends throughout their split, with Tyler being one of her biggest supporters.
She continued to tell UNILAD:
At the beginning I was just very motivated to show Tyler up, but shortly after, it started to became about showing myself up. I needed to prove to myself I could lose the weight.
Tyler and I were still best friends. He saw my journey firsthand. He knew that I was doing it for a revenge body, and he didn’t care. He still motivated me. He was the first person to tell me when I looked thinner. He was the first person to tell me when my muscles were getting more noticeable.
And when I reached a goal, he was the first person I wanted to tell because I knew he would be genuinely proud of me. All of my transformation pictures were taken by Tyler.
Tyler also showed his support and pride recently by sharing photos of Jenna’s transformation on Reddit writing: ‘she is absolutely incredible’.
He sounds like a keeper Jenna!
When UNILAD asked Jenna what advice she’d give to others who want to lose weight, she emphasised the important thing is, to enjoy it.
She concluded:
I hear the way people talk about getting fit, like it’s some medieval form of torture, and it should never be that way. When first starting out, do what is fun for you!
Just be in a caloric deficit. That’s all it takes to lose weight. Make sure you’re burning more than you’re taking in.
Then, spend some time figuring out what healthy foods you genuinely enjoy. You will stop missing the cookies if the food you’re eating is actually tasty.
If your goal is to get into the gym, stop feeling like your workouts have to be filled up with a bunch of boring planks. Instead, do what is fun.
Learn to have a passion for what you’re doing first. Then when it comes time to do the stuff you don’t want to, you have passion at the foundation and getting off your butt and working is not as difficult.
Inspiring stuff! Congratulations Jenna and keep it up!
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