I accidentally lost 40 pounds — 3 things were holding me back

Talk about a happy “accident.”

Spending hours flop-sweating on workout machines, choking down flavorless meals and self-deprecating over her excess poundage kept one woman unpleasantly plump. 

But once the blond stopped doing what she thought would rev up her weight loss, the blubber began melting away.  

“Here are three things that I stopped doing that helped me lose 40 by accident,” wellness influencer Alexandra Materski, from Ontario, Canada, said in a trending TikTok testimonial. 

The virtual skinny on how she unintentionally slimmed down scored 2.2 million views. 

“I had no idea that these things would help me lose weight,” added the Gen Zer, “but they did.”

Materski, a fitness trainer, kicked off her hot tip how-to, saying, “I stopped doing so much cardio,” adding that she was “shocked” by how much modifying her aerobic exercise routine ignited her body transformation. 

“Man, I would go on the stair master and do an hour of cardio and then do an hour of weights,” said Materski. 

“My body was exhausted after that,” she continued, “which caused me to hold onto more fat and not be able to lose weight.”

And when it came to her restrictive food intake, Materski was just as stunned to find that a limiting regimen wasn’t the answer to her weight problem either. 

“I stopped dieting,” she revealed. “I stopped counting calories.”

“I cut out the chicken and broccoli with plain white rice,” explained the slenderized siren. “I added love into my meals.”

The final, and most impactful, change that prompted Materski’s whoopsy weight loss came via eliminating her harsh inner dialogue.

“I stopped the negative self-talk,” she said. “I stopped talking down on myself. I stopped talking ‘s- -t’ about myself.”

She added, “Positive mindset baby.”

And online audiences applauded Materski for improving her frame by altering her attitude. 

“Omg the body positivity is EVERYTHING! I also changed these things and down 10 lbs,” raved an inspired viewer. 

“I genuinely realized that when I like my body and think it looks good I lose more weight than when I frantically tried to do so,” another agreed.  

And they all may be right about the tapering perks of positive thinking.  

In May, Aesha Karunakaran — the Beverly Hills weight loss coach who viral claimed to have created a fat-burning cookie that “works like a natural version of Ozempic” — said that of the more than 10,000 women she’s helped lose weight, those who can accept a compliment maintain lasting results. 

“When you’re able to accept compliments about yourself, you believe good things about yourself — and you don’t self-sabotage,” she explained in a since-deleted TikTok bulletin. 

And in June 2022, health coach Rachel Williams, a married mom of two from the UK, told The Post that she lost over 100 pounds in a year by “thinking thin thoughts.”

“It’s a game changer,” said Williams. “The moment you change your mind, you will see results happen, and you don’t have to be on a diet.”