Shelby Sacco, a 25-year-old from Michigan, has gone popular after a TikTok video about her weight loss and the healthy eating journey went viral.
Sacco explains in the video, which has over 2.5 million views, how she lost 25 pounds and has kept it off for over a year by eating a healthy diet 60 percent to 80 percent of the time. Her advice is approachable, and her tone is cheery, yet she was in an entirely different position only two years ago.
“I was extremely sad. … My mental health was terrible, my physical health was terrible,” Sacco revealed for TODAY. She’d finished a year previously with a bachelor’s degree in journalism and criminal justice and was working her first job out of college.
She said that in college, she began misusing prescription amphetamines in order to reduce weight, which led to a practice of not eating during the day. She began binge-eating when she stopped taking the medicine.
Sacco claimed she acquired “a lot of weight” her first year out of college and struggled with diets and bad self-esteem ideas. Sacco realized she needed to make a change one day in July 2020. “I was thinking, I’m going to figure it out for myself and educate my sisters,” Sacco, one of six children, explained. “I began by learning about habits, and it dramatically transformed my world.”
Having a nutritious diet for 60% to 80% of the time
That is how she came up with the 60 percent to 80 percent formula, which ultimately helped her shed 25 kilograms.
“If you’re eating a good diet the majority of the time, above that fifty percent line, you’re eating a healthy diet,” Sacco said of the mentality she developed. She knew she couldn’t give up family meals, pizza evenings, or drinking wine with her housemates. “However, I could eat 60 percent to 80 percent healthy every week while still enjoying all of the things I want, healing my disordered eating, and never restricting myself,” she explained.
Sacco discusses two strategies in her viral TikTok video to ensure that 60 percent to 80 percent of her weekly meals (about 13 to 17 meals) are nutritious.
Strolling and self-love
Sacco stated that she used a similar method to develop habits around the rail. She began walking but quickly learned she enjoyed power coaching, which she had been doing consistently for the last year. However, it required a lot of trial and error to figure out what she enjoys.
“The best way I framed it in my mind was that you are not failing when you do something you do not enjoy. … “You are actually researching what is going on in order for it to be exactly ideal for you,” she added.
Sacco had picked up another habit that had changed her life: enjoying herself.