Breanna Fowler once considered strict restriction a hallmark of weight loss. She’d follow a diet, eating morsels of low-calorie health foods during the workday. And then, at night and during weekends, she’d fall back into familiar patterns of overeating sweets and ultraprocessed foods. “Letting loose” was how she rationalized it.
“I didn’t know what my body needed,” 29-year-old Fowler, of Belleville, Illinois, tells TODAY.com. So, she limited everything, oftentimes cutting out entire food groups. As much as she tried to stick to the uncompromising 800-calorie deficits she set for herself, a bad day or poor mood always set off a binge-eating episode. “Food was my emotional blanket,” she says. And the more she limited her intake, the harder Fowler rebounded.
She felt like she was letting herself down. How was she 275 pounds with back pain, and breathless when climbing stairs, she’d ask herself. “And then that would just emotionally tear me down because I would tear myself down because I’m not happy with who I am,” she says.
That was until February 2023. Fowler woke up one morning and it “clicked,” she says. She knew she needed to approach weight loss differently. “I had to find something that didn’t feel so out of my element, something that I could grow with, and something that worked around my life,” she says.
The Moment It Clicked
Fowler had always approached things with a running start, diving into the deep end for quick results that never came. So, she committed to learning the basics and joined Weight Watchers, one of the best weight loss programs, experts previously told TODAY.COM.
Its point system allowed her to abandon her fixation on calories. Instead, she was allowed a certain number of food points. Just one beloved fast-food item after a long day, she soon realized, would cost her all of the points allotted to her for the day. “It just really opened my mind and made me realize, like, ‘Wow, I didn’t know anything about nutrition,’” Fowler says. “(It gave me) a little bit of understanding of what I was actually putting in my body.”
Breanna Fowler credits her weight loss to going slowly.Courtesy Breanna Fowler
Next came movement. Fowler was never one for physical activity outside of PE classes in high school. As she got older, things remained the same, save an occasional walk.
Resisting the urge to turn herself into an athlete overnight, like she did with her eating habits, Fowler eased her way in.
“I began with small changes,” she says. YouTube, she discovered, is a trove for workouts you can do in your living room. Two accounts, growwithjo, featuring walking workouts and home exercise routines for beginners, and The Fitness Marshall’s dance-forward workouts (some you can even do from a chair) became her favorites.
“They’re both just really easy to follow along with, and they’re fun,” she says. The more she enjoyed the movement, the more she came back to it.
“And then, I did also begin to push myself a little bit more with getting my steps in,” she adds. “You know, making it a little bit more religious to walk my dogs, maybe after work, even if that looked like 10 or 15 minutes. It didn’t have to be an hour or whatever.”
Upping the Ante
By 2024, Fowler stopped Weight Watchers and started tracking macronutrients. She prioritized protein and embraced carbs as an essential energy source, rather than something to fear.
Sundays are now for meal prep. “It’s definitely a lot of work spending a couple hours in the kitchen, but it’s totally worth it to have at least a solid structure for your week because it’s so easy to get off track,” she says. Balance is her new focus.
Her go-to breakfasts typically feature Greek yogurt, fruit and eggs, or she’ll opt for an egg scramble with mostly egg whites. Lunches are lean ground beef, sweet potatoes, cottage cheese and vegetables — broccoli and asparagus are her favorites. To satisfy her sweet tooth, Fowler makes the viral “protein cheesecake” made from vanilla Greek yogurt and sugar-free pudding mixes.
“That being said, I still enjoy ice cream and tiramisu when my macros have room for it,” she adds.
As she got more fit, she realized had the energy to turn her 10-minute walks into a mile, which then became a minimum of 10,000 to 12,000 steps per day.
In 2025, she began strength training to build muscle — and it quickly became clear why her former habit of eating as little as possible kept her stuck. The key, she says, is to “make sure that you’re fueling your body properly to make sure you’re getting your gains.”
Breanna Fowler added strength training to her workout routine in 2025.Courtesy Breanna Fowler
And although she’s relocated most of her workouts from the living room to the gym, Fowler’s relationship with YouTube stands strong. Thanks to the fitness experts on the platform, Fowler learned to develop a workout split:
Monday: Upper bodyTuesday: Lower bodyWednesday: Cardio and coreThursday: Upper bodyFriday: Active restSaturday: Lower bodySunday: Rest
She also implements a push-pull focus in her two upper-body workouts. And prioritizing progressive overload calls on her to increase her reps and/or weights over time in order to maximize muscle growth.
Fowler’s quick to point out that building her wellness know-how took time and a commitment to learning, and she’s proud of it. Even now, on the rare occasion when an unfamiliar machine stumps her at the gym, she’ll pull out her phone, look up its purpose and watch videos on proper form right there on the gym floor.
The gym has become her “sanctuary” and her “happy place,” she says. It’s where she goes for calm after a long day, a bad mood or a hard week. “I just genuinely enjoy it, and it’s because I built it up to where I am now. … I started somewhere small, and I grew with it.”
As she describes moments when other gym-goers have clocked her proficiency and ask her for tips on form, she’s giddy. “It’s just kind of mind-blowing,” she says.
What the Future Holds
Breanna Fowler’s longterm goals continue to expand as her weight-loss journey boosts her confidence and drive.Courtesy Breanna Fowler
Now, at 168 pounds, Fowler’s goals include building more muscle and losing a bit more weight. She’s considering getting her personal training certificate to “share the love of fitness and inspire a couple of people.” She doesn’t intend for it to be a full-time job, just something that will bring her joy.
Maybe she’ll even compete in a bodybuilding competition, but that’s for “later on,” she adds.
Fowler has evolved into someone who’s confident and outgoing; she’s taking full-length photos of herself rather than hiding behind cropped selfies and posting on social media. If you want it, you can open up your life this way too, she says.
“You must experience discomfort in order to grow. And once you start, once you hit that first milestone that you keep telling yourself that you can never accomplish, that’s when you realize nothing is impossible,” she adds.