How obese influencer lost more than 150lbs to become a buff bombshell with muscles and a six pack

A Utah influencer has revealed the secrets behind her incredible fitness transformation that saw her lose over 150lbs.

Through a combination of strength training, calorie and macro counting, and bariatric surgery, Jakelie George went from being a morbidly obese 340lbs to a svelte 180lbs with a six pack and muscles.

The makeup artist, 30, told DailyMail.com that she was driven to lose weight and get in shape after a failed engagement when she was 24.

'I was engaged and my ex-fiancé was a big guy, about 6ft4in, 280lbs, and when I saw my proposal video back I looked bigger than him,' she said.

While she didn't end up walking down the aisle, Jakelie says that 'heartbreak' combined with her desire to change her lifestyle led her to transform her body.

She started with vertical sleeve gastrectomy surgery, which she had done in Tijuana, Mexico, to save money.

Bariatric surgery is used to describe procedures that shrink the stomach and reduce the calories a person needs to eat before they feel full. 

'With any weight loss surgery, people assume that it's an easy fix,' she explained. 

'But my doctor told me that it was important in the first year after my surgery to make lifestyle changes because the stomach is an organ and it can stretch back out,' she continued.

'If you continue your same unhealthy eating habits, it'll stretch out more and more over time and eventually you'll gain the weight back.'

While watching what she ate and calorie counting, Jakelie then started exercising, beginning with daily cardio sessions. 

'I would do 45 minutes on the treadmill. I would walk for two minutes and jog for 30 seconds, and I'd rotate that on and off because that's really all I could handle at the time,' she said.

She eventually increased her time on the treadmill, before moving to HIIT workouts along with a low calorie, low carb diet. 

While the weight continued to fall off, Jakelie realized that she was becoming 'too thin' and didn't want to continue doing 'an insane amount of cardio' for the rest of her life.

'I realized carbs weren't the enemy,' she said, adding that she learned to start counting macronutrients.

Jakelie then switched from intense cardio sessions to weightlifting workouts.

Despite making healthier changes, Jakelie admits that she was still 'hard on myself' and was walking 15,000 steps a day, on top of riding her Peloton bike and lifting weights six times a week.

'I was a little crazy there for a minute,' she confessed.

However, the buff bombshell says that she was able to get on track over the past three years and now solely focuses on weightlifting workouts, which she does between three to five days a week.

She does a back-focused workout on Mondays, followed by quad-focused legs on Tuesdays, shoulders and triceps on Wednesdays, and another leg day on Thursdays, but with more of a focus on glutes and hamstrings.

Jakelie used to do chest day, but says that her pectorals got so big and muscular that they started 'flattening' her breast implants.

When it comes to diet, Jakelie keeps things simple and repetitive, with a focus on 'food as fuel' instead of 'food as comfort.'

'I have this sriracha honey chicken that I like to make, it's one of my favorites, or teriyaki chicken, and I'll have it with jasmine or coconut rice and broccoli or asparagus,' she said.

'Otherwise I like to make taco bowls. I'll do turkey sausage, lettuce, taco toppings, avocado, and Greek yogurt instead of sour cream and just make it really protein packed,' she continued.

'And usually throughout the day I'll try to squeeze in at least one protein shake and a protein bar if I can.'

For breakfast, Jakelie loves protein waffles, or two eggs, sunny side up, with a side of bacon and coffee. 

'I kind of eat the same things every day, just because I've found that when you can detach your emotions from food and just look at food as fuel for the body and eat what makes your body feel good it's a lot easier,' she said. 

Jakelie also indulges in cheat days and stresses the importance of balance so that you can maintain a healthy lifestyle over the long term.

'If you're restricting yourself to the point that you don't get to enjoy anything you love anymore, you're not going to want to do it. You're going to give up at some point,' she said. 

'Instead of making it complicated or miserable for yourself, just think of it as you have a calculator with the amount of calories you're allowed to eat per day, as well as carbs, sugars, whatever,' she explained.

'Put it in the calculator, and if you have a day that you're just dying for something from Taco Bell, go ahead and eat it, because you don't want to restrict yourself too much, but just deduct it out of your calculator,' she continued.

'If you have a day that you just don't track anything and you eat whatever you want, just go to bed, forgive yourself, start over again the next day.'

When it comes to surgery outside of her gastric sleeve procedure, Jakelie says she's had four breast augmentations, in addition to a tummy tuck and an upper body lift to treat the loose and excess skin she was left with after losing weight.

'The healthy choice days need to outweigh the bad choice days and you need to give yourself forgiveness for being human,' she said.

'You just need to focus on the day you're in and making the best choices you can within that day. Focus on winning the day and you'll win more days than you lose.'