At first, ‘eat more, lose more’ might sound like an oxymoron. After all, isn’t eating less what we’re all trying to do? But one look at Laura Grossi’s instagram page might make you think again. Because we all know that we see on social media often isn’t real, that beneath the photo-shopped glamour shots and edited realities lies a truth that often looks much more like our own daily lives. But it gets a little more intimidating when we realize that everything about Laura Grossi is real– and that, as a certified personal fitness trainer, online coach and fitness model, Laura really is at the top of her game at an age where most of her peers are still busy finishing college degrees.

There’s No Such Thing as ‘Insta-success’

But what makes Laura relatable instead of hatable is that her life isn’t perfect, and she didn’t just meet all her goals overnight. Instead, she built her personal insecurities into a successful business and lifestyle with the aim of inspiring others. Because after having struggled with her weight loss goals for almost 10 years, Laura has now channeled her anxieties into weight training and fitness and has built a significant online presence in so doing. So, what’s her secret?

Well, Laura’s childhood dream was to be an actor. Her fitness goals were a big part of that dream, with years spent on crash dieting and intense workouts. And in addition to the significant pressure that all teens go through regarding their body image, Laura also carried the unyielding anxiety of maintaining the ‘perfect shape’ required for actresses. So, as a solution, she took the route most people take in their efforts to lose weight: under-eating and intense cardio regimens, often nearly starving herself in her desperation to lose the pounds. That’s something we can all relate to, right?

It got even worse as Laura continued to surf the waves of weight-loss ups and downs, losing weight thanks to her intense workout regimes and then gaining it all back again after a period of binge eating. And sadly, the pressure to meet that ‘dream body’ goal only amped up as her success rates fell. It even got worse once she became a personal trainer at the gym.  ‘The pressure mounted because you couldn’t look like that, and be a physical trainer,” Laura later remarked in an interview.

There’s No Quick Fix for Fitness

So, after going through this cycle 9 times in 10 years, Laura began to rethink her approach in February 2018, recalling that her thought process changed with the insight, “Maybe I should try to lose weight slower.” And that’s how she arrived at the decision to cultivate a more sustainable method of reaching her goals. Laura later explained her methods with the statement, “I realized that if I wanted my weight loss to last, it had to be based on something I could keep up for the rest of my life.”

That may not sound like a big deal, but believe it or not, it’s a game-changer. Because as fitness experts worldwide will tell you, the most important type of exercise is the type you’ll actually do. It’s not about the coolest or most instagrammable workout routine, it’s about what fits you. And once you change your mentality to be more inclusive of yourself, your fitness levels, and what you need to create a sustainable routine, the sky is the limit for what you can accomplish. And that’s exactly what happened for Laura! Changing her mental approach to weight loss worked wonders because it allowed her to tap into something that is fundamentally important not just for fitness and weight loss, but for any attempt at self-improvement. That’s the understanding that your attitude– and the belief that weight loss is based on calories alone- can actually program people for failure.

Because according to Kevin. D. Hall and Juen Guo, researchers at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, weight loss is not just a matter of burning more calories than you consume. Their paper ‘Obesity Energetics: Body Weight Regulation and the Effects of Diet Composition’ discusses how the ‘eat less-move more‘ approach is actually severely misplaced when it comes to addressing obesity in adults. That’s because body weight regulation is not just affected by a simple math of energy intake and energy spent, it is in fact heavily dependent on the type and ratio of macro-nutrient intake. While low carbohydrate diets have long been promoted as the one-size-fits-all solution to weight loss, we now know that low fat, high protein diets are actually more effective in improving metabolic rate and overall health.

So, backed by this research and a sustainable approach to her goals  Laura has successfully reached her fitness goals and has not looked back since.

Change Your Mind and Your Body Will Follow!

In describing her attitude toward weight loss and what made the difference for her, Laura writes, “I just wanted to stop bingeing and to feel good about myself. The last time I went on a weight loss plan, I decided to focus on making healthy choices for my body and not even think about fat loss, because fitness is as much about the right mental attitude as it is about the correct physiological choices.” And she’s exactly right, because that choice is what enabled her to create and maintain lasting results. As she tells her clients, “Change your mind and your body will follow!”

Laura is now a passionate advocate for the approach she has herself tried and tested – staying within the recommended calorie range, consuming the right amounts of fiber and protein, and following a regular exercise routine, plus not restricting any foods or food groups completely. The key to staying at the program was her realization that there is no quick fix to fitness and weight loss. A slow and sustained effort involving a lifestyle and attitude change is the only way to have any enduring success with weight loss programs. That’s why, today, Laura is a successful and sought after fitness coach even though she has only begun her journey in the right direction.

And with the surprising fitness mantra of ‘EAT MORE-LOSE MORE’,’ Laura is revolutionizing the fitness world by showing thousands of people, including her clients and her growing online following, how to create a sustainable fitness oriented lifestyle. The testimonials of her clients bear witness to the effectiveness of her wholesome approach. ‘Nothing makes me happier than knowing how much of a difference it has made to someone’s life, because not long ago, I was right there, feeling that same despair and frustration despite my best effort, only because my approach was wrong,” she says emphatically.

The only thing that endures from her decade-long and still continuing journey is her unchanging mental toughness, her commitment to a healthy life for herself and her genuine concern for her clients. Amidst the clutter of fake and cosmetically enhanced Instagram fitness influencers, whose surgically attained figures are adding to the already critical body image issues in society, Laura’s is a genuine story that connects with real people, reminding each and every one of us that we are not alone in our journey to reach lasting fitness goals, no matter how many times we stumble along the way.