When I was at my heaviest, and when my eating habits were at their worst, I began to experience several health issues that were linked to my diet content, and the extra weight that I was carrying around.

At the time, I didn’t know that my unhealthy habits/body were the cause of each of these health issues… but when I started eating healthy and got in shape I experienced many unexpected health benefits of losing weight, and realized just how much my weight had been negatively affecting me.

It’s amazing how fast your body can heal when you start living healthy, and how much better you feel after going through a significant weight loss transformation.

Here is how losing weight and improving my diet content improved my health.

No stomach pain

Although my stomach pain wasn’t caused by being heavy, it was another symptom of what caused me to gain the weight, which is of course my diet. It wasn’t just that I was eating unhealthy foods that didn’t agree with my stomach, it was also that those foods weren’t satisfying, and caused me to keep eating and eating without feeling full.

Without the nutrients from healthy food, I was caught in a vicious cycle of starving for junk food and overeating.
Now that my diet is completely healthy, I can’t believe how much pain and discomfort I was enduring on a daily basis from stomach aches and cramps.

Back then I thought that feeling bloated and lethargic were just the normal way you should feel when you had eaten enough, and had no idea that if I had been eating healthy, not only would I have been losing weight… but my whole body (including my stomach) would actually feel good.

It’s very rare that I have stomach pain now… even when I give in to my cravings and have some pizza, it doesn’t hurt or make me gain weight because it’s almost nothing compared to the healthy habits I have in my daily life.

Better sleep/ no snoring

At some point when I was gaining weight, I realized that I had begun to snore because I started waking up from it. It never became a big problem, but it did worry me, and it definitely affected my quality of sleep.

After losing weight I don’t snore anymore, and I can breathe deeply without waking myself up.

Beyond breathing better, I think my bed is also more comfortable since am lighter. I don’t feel the pressure on my joints like I used to, and climbing into bed feels much more “cozy.”

Less knee and foot pain

My knees and my feet used to hurt a lot when I either stood in one place or walked a lot. This made working on my feet difficult, and hard to stand and talk to people for a long period of time.

My right knee will likely never stop giving me problems because of previous injuries… but the difference that I feel after being 80 pounds lighter is incredible.

Not only am I lighter, but I have also built the muscle in my legs, so my feet don’t hurt at all anymore when walking normal distances, and I don’t always have to worry if I’ll be able to keep up with others when we go places.

At my heaviest, my legs felt stiff, and I couldn’t have squatted down and held my own weight. One day when I was doing yard work and heading inside to get trash bags, I stepped onto my porch and my knee popped out of its socket.

Now I am more mobile and sturdy than ever, and don’t stand such a high chance of injuring myself for such a simple task.

Goodbye to heart burn

Yet another issue that used to ruin my nights, another that was caused by my bad eating habits, was heart burn.

Eating lots of unhealthy foods all day and late at night, especially greasy and acidic ones… gave me very bad heart burn for quite a long time. Back then I had no idea that my diet was the source of the problem.

Burning that began in my chest, and intensified up through my throat, became a frequent thing by day, and bothered me almost every night. I always had to have milk or antacids with me.

I would often wake up in pain, and try to fall asleep sitting up which made it hard to get a good night of sleep. I propped my bed up on books to try to let gravity help, but I just didn’t understand that my diet was the root cause.

My heart burn went away as soon as I changed my diet. It’s amazing how a problem that used to affect your daily life can simply just be gone. Now I only get heart burn a few times per year, and it’s almost always when I have a “cheat day.”

No more headaches

In my earlier twenties headaches were something that I frequently suffered from often as well. It seemed like nothing I did would help, from soaking my head in water to taking a nap.

I am not completely certain how my healthy journey caused my headaches to go away, but I am certain that it did. From drinking more water, to getting more good nutrients and less bad ones, to having better blood circulation, there are a number of ways that living a healthier life could have helped my frequent headaches.

These headaches were often linked with heart burn as well, and so when one went away the other did too.

Better breathing

Something that crept up on me quickly due to my weight and lack of exercise, was getting light-headed often.

I started to feel like I was going to pass out every time I bent over to pick something up, and one night I did pass out when I got up to go to the bathroom.

It’s bad enough when you find that it’s hard to breathe when you’re exercising, but when you start getting short of breath in normal day to day activities, then things get serious.

Better working lungs, a stronger heart, and cleaner veins… all add up to a significant and noticeable difference in being able to breathe easily. Whether I am getting out of bed, working out, doing yard work, or simply bending over to pick something up, I no longer have to deal with getting light-headed, even if I am out of breath.

If your weight makes your life hard in one or more ways, everything can change for the better very quickly if you dedicate to eating healthier and exercising more.

If you want to get started on your weight loss transformation, the 8-week weight loss challenge is the perfect place to start! It will help you lose weight and bring healthy foods into your life, step by step. Sign up below to get your free healthy diet and exercise plan sent right to your inbox, or click here to read more about the challenge.

If you want to get excited about even more of the amazing rewards that come from losing weight, beyond health… check out my article, “11 Exciting benefits of losing weight”

Or if you want to learn everything you need to know about losing a significant amount of weight by eating healthy and exercising, read one of the super in-depth articles below:

“The Ultimate Guide to losing 100+ pounds” (Twice as long as the article below, and has more information about staying motivated and in a positive mindset for long-term weight loss)

“Escaping obesity in America with healthy foods” (Has even more research than the article above, and will help you understand/debunk some of the popular methods of losing weight that you commonly hear about)