{"id":120495,"date":"2026-01-16T12:12:17","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T12:12:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/120495\/"},"modified":"2026-01-16T12:12:17","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T12:12:17","slug":"tampa-bay-resident-and-disney-fan-shares-weight-loss-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/120495\/","title":{"rendered":"Tampa Bay resident and Disney fan shares weight-loss story"},"content":{"rendered":"

TAMPA, Fla. — Many people are taking the beginning of the year to restart weight loss goals<\/a> and nutrition programs.<\/p>\n

Health experts however have said that really can happen at any time.<\/p>\n

Bay area resident Erin Philbin trecently shared her weight loss journey and lifestyle changes that she said is inspring her in other ways.<\/p>\n

What You Need To Know<\/p>\n

\u00a0Many people start the new year with weight-loss goals and studies<\/a> show the effectiveness of this
\n
\u00a0Riverview resident Erin Philbin decided in 2022 to change her life and undertake weight-loss surgery
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\u00a0She is now thriving and has lost more than 270 lbs. and wants to lose more weight<\/p>\n

\u201cThere’s definitely a huge mental component that is definitely a driving factor in all of this,” Philbin said.<\/p>\n

With that change in mindset, she was driven by her own survival when she took the first steps.<\/p>\n

Philbin struggled with her weight for years.<\/p>\n

“It started when I was 13, 14 years old for sure. And now I’m 36,\u201d she said. \u201cIt’s something I’m still learning and still attempting to fix.”<\/p>\n

It was walking at one of her favorite places with her son that revealed the problem.<\/p>\n

“When we would go to Disney World where we like to frequent, I wasn’t able to ride the rides with him or really even walk a handful of steps,” she said.<\/p>\n

In 2022, Philbin started to take the right steps.<\/p>\n

“As a mom, I didn’t want to be an example like that for my child and I didn’t want to be that for myself,” she said.<\/p>\n

The first step she took was getting help from medical professionals.<\/p>\n

Alongside Tampa General Hospital’s experts, she opted for a weight loss surgery program. And then the magic happened.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was able to do it,\u201d she said. \u201cI’ve lost 272 pounds total weight from my highest point and I’m so grateful for that.”<\/p>\n

From her highest weight of 532 lbs. in the summer of 2022, Erin is now motivated to lose more weight.<\/p>\n

Dr. Francesca Dimou is a bariatric surgeon at Tampa General.<\/p>\n

“It’s not only about the surgery and the safety of the surgery and everything that comes along with it,” said Dimou.<\/p>\n

That means the journey of maintaining and even losing more weight needs a support system.<\/p>\n

“They were my pillars of strength,\u201d said Erin. \u201cMichael and Bernadette were their names.”<\/p>\n

They are her parents, who passed away in the last year.<\/p>\n

After her mom died of cancer last year, Philbin dedicated a Disney 10K walk in her honor last spring. She then walked 60 miles in three days during a cancer walk last summer.<\/p>\n

Dimou said Philbin is brave to share her story which could in turn motivate someone else.<\/p>\n

“I think it’s understanding that you can make your life better,” said Dimou.<\/p>\n

And better for others.<\/p>\n

“I’ve been inspired by my own journey,” she said. “I’m interested in going back to school to become a registered dietician.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. — Many people are taking the beginning of the year to restart weight loss goals and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":120496,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[3076,25743,28,15464,1548,276,115,772,25744,135,137,136,835],"class_list":{"0":"post-120495","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa","8":"tag-app-good-news","9":"tag-feel-good-friday","10":"tag-florida","11":"tag-florida-inspires","12":"tag-good-news","13":"tag-hillsborough-county","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-on-air-ticker-article","16":"tag-roy-de-jesus","17":"tag-tampa","18":"tag-tampa-headlines","19":"tag-tampa-news","20":"tag-vod"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120495","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120495"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120495\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/120496"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}