Mississippi woman shares inspiring fitness journey online

MERIDIAN, Miss. — A Mississippi mom who started her fitness journey at 626 pounds is inspiring others by sharing her progress online.

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After noticing that she was struggling to move at work, Leneathra Reed decided she needed to make a change in her lifestyle. Her main motivation, though, is her nearly 2-year-old daughter, Kenlyn.

"That's my heart, and I just can't see anybody else raising her, so I have to do this for my daughter. And just looking at her smile and watching her light up looking at me, that's enough for me to keep going anyway," Reed told WTOK-TV.

In November, Reed began working out three to four times a week for 20 to 30 minutes at a time. To date, she has lost about 30 pounds and now weighs less than 600 pounds for the first time in two years.

“It’s helping a whole lot. I can get around at my job a lot better, too,” she said. “Even those few pounds that I’ve lost, I can tell the difference in my back. I can actually breathe better.”

Reed's trainer, Frank Harbin, uploaded a video of Reed working out to Facebook that has been viewed more than 50 million times. Many viewers reached out with words of encouragement and shared pictures of their own fitness transformations. Since then, Harbin has posted other videos of Reed's workouts, and Reed started a Facebook page called Phat2Fit documenting her progress.

“No matter when we go live, the whole world – y’all don’t understand – the whole world is motivating this woman,” Harbin said.

Reed said she's proud that her workouts are motivating and inspiring others.

“Why not get up and get off of my behind and show people that just because you’re big, that does not mean that you have to sit there and just take it,” she said. “When you admit that you have a problem, and you admit that it’s something that you need to get up and do something about, you can do it.”

Cox Media Group