Woman’s impressive 46kg transformation

A SUNSHINE COAST woman who shed almost half her body weight and completely turned her life around says she has just one person to thank for her success.

A SUNSHINE COAST woman who shed almost half her body weight and completely turned her life around says she has just one person to thank for her success.

Rhianna Cunningham, 23, started working with Buderim personal trainer, RYPT Fitness owner Ryan Marshall, in late 2015 after she hit her heaviest weight, 110 kilograms.

Today she weighs just 64kg.

Before and after: Rhianna Cunningham lost 46kg, almost half her body weight.

Despite the obvious physical benefits from such a huge weight loss, Ms Cunningham said she was a completely different person.

“I always pretended I didn’t care, that my size didn’t bother me,” she said.

Then: At her heaviest, Rhianna weighed 110kg.

“I used to be scared to go in public, worried that someone would make a fat joke or that one of my friends would ask why I am wearing jeans in 40-degree heat.

“One day I woke up and decided I had to do something ... I tried several fad diets and none of them worked.

“Then I met Ryan and everything changed.”

Now: Rhianna now weighs 64kg and feels confident in her own skin.

She said the biggest change she made was food portion size and she started training three times a week.

“The rest is history,” she said. She said during the two-year journey Ryan reminded her every day that weight loss was never a quick fix.

“It was the lifestyle change that I needed, and today I’m so much happier and healthier,” she said. “I’m confident and I get to do things I never would have done back then.

“I used to spend so much of my time being insecure, now I’m carefree.”

But when she gets complimented on her weight loss journey, Ms Cunningham said it was Mr Marshall who should be praised.

Rihanna lost the weight with the help of personal trainer Ryan Marshall.

“No one really saw behind the scenes and everything he did to help me achieve what I did,” she said.

“I may have been the one who did the physical work but he’s the one who pushed me to my limits and picked me up off the ground every time I was ready to quit, every time I cried because it was hard. He’s the one who reminded me how far I’ve come.”

Mr Marshall said Ms Cunningham was a star pupil and it was rare to see weight loss success such as hers.

“With people who initially have a lot of weight to shift, a lot of the time they give up on themselves because they think it’s too hard or they don’t believe they can do it,” he said.

She says the biggest change she made was food portion size and she started training three times a week.

“But Rhianna always had trust in what I said and in the first two weeks she had lost, like, eight kilos.

“Working with her for so long has been incredible and I see her more as a friend than a client, and it’s great to see people you care about do so well.”

Ms Cunningham posted success results on social media and Ryan said he had been overwhelmed by the amount of people that contacted him.

“My advice to anyone who does have a lot of weight to lose is don’t go in guns blazing,” he said.

“It’s about making small, sustainable changes that you can stick by. I guarantee in 12 months your mindset will completely change.”

This article originally appeared on the Sunshine Coast Daily and has been republished here with permission.